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diff --git a/2666-0.txt b/2666-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c52dd3d --- /dev/null +++ b/2666-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10895 @@ + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poet at the Breakfast Table +by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. + +(The Physician and Poet, not the Jurist O. W. Holmes, Jr.) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Poet at the Breakfast Table + +Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. + + +Release Date: August 15, 2006 [EBook #2666] +Last Updated: February 18, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POET AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE POET AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE + +by Oliver Wendell Holmes + + + +PREFACE. + +In this, the third series of Breakfast-Table conversations, a slight +dramatic background shows off a few talkers and writers, aided by +certain silent supernumeraries. The machinery is much like that of +the two preceding series. Some of the characters must seem like old +acquaintances to those who have read the former papers. As I read these +over for the first time for a number of years, I notice one character; +presenting a class of beings who have greatly multiplied during +the interval which separates the earlier and later Breakfast-Table +papers,--I mean the scientific specialists. The entomologist, who +confines himself rigidly to the study of the coleoptera, is intended +to typify this class. The subdivision of labor, which, as we used to +be told, required fourteen different workmen to make a single pin, +has reached all branches of knowledge. We find new terms in all the +Professions, implying that special provinces have been marked off, each +having its own school of students. In theology we have many curious +subdivisions; among the rest eschatology, that is to say, the geography, +geology, etc., of the “undiscovered country;” in medicine, if the +surgeon who deals with dislocations of the right shoulder declines to +meddle with a displacement on the other side, we are not surprised, but +ring the bell of the practitioner who devotes himself to injuries of the +left shoulder. + +On the other hand, we have had or have the encyclopaedic intelligences +like Cuvier, Buckle, and more emphatically Herbert Spencer, who take all +knowledge, or large fields of it, to be their province. The author of +“Thoughts on the Universe” has something in common with these, but he +appears also to have a good deal about him of what we call the humorist; +that is, an individual with a somewhat heterogeneous personality, in +which various distinctly human elements are mixed together, so as to +form a kind of coherent and sometimes pleasing whole, which is to a +symmetrical character as a breccia is to a mosaic. + +As for the Young Astronomer, his rhythmical discourse may be taken +as expressing the reaction of what some would call “the natural man” + against the unnatural beliefs which he found in that lower world to +which he descended by day from his midnight home in the firmament. + +I have endeavored to give fair play to the protest of gentle and +reverential conservatism in the letter of the Lady, which was not +copied from, but suggested by, one which I received long ago from a lady +bearing an honored name, and which I read thoughtfully and with profound +respect. + +December, 1882. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. + +It is now nearly twenty years since this book was published. Being the +third of the Breakfast-Table series, it could hardly be expected to +attract so much attention as the earlier volumes. Still, I had no +reason to be disappointed with its reception. It took its place with +the others, and was in some points a clearer exposition of my views and +feelings than either of the other books, its predecessors. The poems +“Homesick in Heaven” and the longer group of passages coming from the +midnight reveries of the Young Astronomer have thoughts in them not so +fully expressed elsewhere in my writings. + +The first of these two poems is at war with our common modes of thought. +In looking forward to rejoining in a future state those whom we have +loved on earth,--as most of us hope and many of us believe we shall,--we +are apt to forget that the same individuality is remembered by one +relative as a babe, by another as an adult in the strength of maturity, +and by a third as a wreck with little left except its infirmities and +its affections. The main thought of this poem is a painful one to some +persons. They have so closely associated life with its accidents that +they expect to see their departed friends in the costume of the time +in which they best remember them, and feel as if they should meet the +spirit of their grandfather with his wig and cane, as they habitually +recall him to memory. + +The process of scientific specialization referred to and illustrated in +this record has been going on more actively than ever during these last +twenty years. We have only to look over the lists of the Faculties and +teachers of our Universities to see the subdivision of labor carried +out as never before. The movement is irresistible; it brings with +it exactness, exhaustive knowledge, a narrow but complete +self-satisfaction, with such accompanying faults as pedantry, +triviality, and the kind of partial blindness which belong to +intellectual myopia. The specialist is idealized almost into sublimity +in Browning's “Burial of the Grammarian.” We never need fear that he +will undervalue himself. To be the supreme authority on anything is +a satisfaction to self-love next door to the precious delusions of +dementia. I have never pictured a character more contented with himself +than the “Scarabee” of this story. + +BEVERLY FARMS, MASS., August 1, 1891. O. W. H. + + + + +THE POET AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. + + + + +I + +The idea of a man's “interviewing” himself is rather odd, to be sure. +But then that is what we are all of us doing every day. I talk half +the time to find out my own thoughts, as a school-boy turns his pockets +inside out to see what is in them. One brings to light all sorts of +personal property he had forgotten in his inventory. + +--You don't know what your thoughts are going to be beforehand? said the +“Member of the Haouse,” as he calls himself. + +--Why, of course I don't. Bless your honest legislative soul, I suppose +I have as many bound volumes of notions of one kind and another in my +head as you have in your Representatives' library up there at the State +House. I have to tumble them over and over, and open them in a hundred +places, and sometimes cut the leaves here and there, to find what I +think about this and that. And a good many people who flatter themselves +they are talking wisdom to me, are only helping me to get at the shelf +and the book and the page where I shall find my own opinion about the +matter in question. + +--The Member's eyes began to look heavy. + +--It 's a very queer place, that receptacle a man fetches his talk out +of. The library comparison does n't exactly hit it. You stow away some +idea and don't want it, say for ten years. When it turns up at last it +has got so jammed and crushed out of shape by the other ideas packed +with it, that it is no more like what it was than a raisin is like a +grape on the vine, or a fig from a drum like one hanging on the tree. +Then, again, some kinds of thoughts breed in the dark of one's mind like +the blind fishes in the Mammoth Cave. We can't see them and they can't +see us; but sooner or later the daylight gets in and we find that some +cold, fishy little negative has been spawning all over our beliefs, and +the brood of blind questions it has given birth to are burrowing round +and under and butting their blunt noses against the pillars of faith we +thought the whole world might lean on. And then, again, some of our old +beliefs are dying out every year, and others feed on them and grow fat, +or get poisoned as the case may be. And so, you see, you can't tell what +the thoughts are that you have got salted down, as one may say, till +you run a streak of talk through them, as the market people run a +butterscoop through a firkin. + +Don't talk, thinking you are going to find out your neighbor, for you +won't do it, but talk to find out yourself. There is more of you--and +less of you, in spots, very likely--than you know. + +--The Member gave a slight but unequivocal start just here. It does seem +as if perpetual somnolence was the price of listening to other people's +wisdom. This was one of those transient nightmares that one may have in +a doze of twenty seconds. He thought a certain imaginary Committee of +Safety of a certain imaginary Legislature was proceeding to burn down +his haystack, in accordance with an Act, entitled an Act to make the +Poor Richer by making the Rich Poorer. And the chairman of the committee +was instituting a forcible exchange of hats with him, to his manifest +disadvantage, for he had just bought him a new beaver. He told this +dream afterwards to one of the boarders. + +There was nothing very surprising, therefore, in his asking a question +not very closely related to what had gone before. + +--Do you think they mean business? + +--I beg your pardon, but it would be of material assistance to me in +answering your question if I knew who “they” might happen to be. + +--Why, those chaps that are setting folks on to burn us all up in our +beds. Political firebugs we call 'em up our way. Want to substitoot the +match-box for the ballot-box. Scare all our old women half to death. + +--Oh--ah--yes--to be sure. I don't believe they say what the papers put +in their mouths any more than that a friend of mine wrote the letter +about Worcester's and Webster's Dictionaries, that he had to disown the +other day. These newspaper fellows are half asleep when they make up +their reports at two or three o'clock in the morning, and fill out the +speeches to suit themselves. I do remember some things that sounded +pretty bad,--about as bad as nitro-glycerine, for that matter. But I +don't believe they ever said 'em, when they spoke their pieces, or if +they said 'em I know they did n't mean 'em. Something like this, wasn't +it? If the majority didn't do something the minority wanted 'em to, then +the people were to burn up our cities, and knock us down and jump on our +stomachs. That was about the kind of talk, as the papers had it; I don't +wonder it scared the old women. + +--The Member was wide awake by this time. + +--I don't seem to remember of them partickler phrases, he said. + +--Dear me, no; only levelling everything smack, and trampling us under +foot, as the reporters made it out. That means FIRE, I take it, and +knocking you down and stamping on you, whichever side of your person +happens to be uppermost. Sounded like a threat; meant, of course, for +a warning. But I don't believe it was in the piece as they spoke +it,--could n't have been. Then, again, Paris wasn't to blame,--as much +as to say--so the old women thought--that New York or Boston would n't +be to blame if it did the same thing. I've heard of political gatherings +where they barbecued an ox, but I can't think there 's a party in this +country that wants to barbecue a city. But it is n't quite fair to +frighten the old women. I don't doubt there are a great many people +wiser than I am that would n't be hurt by a hint I am going to give +them. It's no matter what you say when you talk to yourself, but when +you talk to other people, your business is to use words with reference +to the way in which those other people are like to understand them. +These pretended inflammatory speeches, so reported as to seem full +of combustibles, even if they were as threatening as they have been +represented, would do no harm if read or declaimed in a man's study +to his books, or by the sea-shore to the waves. But they are not so +wholesome moral entertainment for the dangerous classes. Boys must not +touch off their squibs and crackers too near the powder-magazine. This +kind of speech does n't help on the millennium much. + +--It ain't jest the thing to grease your ex with ile o' vitrul, said the +Member. + +--No, the wheel of progress will soon stick fast if you do. You can't +keep a dead level long, if you burn everything down flat to make it. +Why, bless your soul, if all the cities of the world were reduced ashes, +you'd have a new set of millionnaires in a couple of years or so, out +of the trade in potash. In the mean time, what is the use of setting the +man with the silver watch against the man with the gold watch, and the +man without any watch against them both? + +--You can't go agin human natur', said the Member + +--You speak truly. Here we are travelling through desert together like +the children of Israel. Some pick up more manna and catch more quails +than others and ought to help their hungry neighbors more than they do; +that will always be so until we come back to primitive Christianity, the +road to which does not seem to be via Paris, just now; but we don't want +the incendiary's pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night +to lead us in the march to civilization, and we don't want a Moses who +will smite rock, not to bring out water for our thirst, but petroleum to +burn us all up with. + +--It is n't quite fair to run an opposition to the other funny speaker, +Rev. Petroleum V. What 's-his-name,--spoke up an anonymous boarder. + +--You may have been thinking, perhaps, that it was I,--I, the Poet, who +was the chief talker in the one-sided dialogue to which you have +been listening. If so, you were mistaken. It was the old man in the +spectacles with large round glasses and the iron-gray hair. He does a +good deal of the talking at our table, and, to tell the truth, I rather +like to hear him. He stirs me up, and finds me occupation in various +ways, and especially, because he has good solid prejudices, that one +can rub against, and so get up and let off a superficial intellectual +irritation, just as the cattle rub their backs against a rail (you +remember Sydney Smith's contrivance in his pasture) or their sides +against an apple-tree (I don't know why they take to these so +particularly, but you will often find the trunk of an apple-tree as +brown and smooth as an old saddle at the height of a cow's ribs). I +think they begin rubbing in cold blood, and then, you know, l'appetit +vient en mangeant, the more they rub the more they want to. That is the +way to use your friend's prejudices. This is a sturdy-looking personage +of a good deal more than middle age, his face marked with strong manly +furrows, records of hard thinking and square stand-up fights with life +and all its devils. There is a slight touch of satire in his discourse +now and then, and an odd way of answering one that makes it hard to +guess how much more or less he means than he seems to say. But he is +honest, and always has a twinkle in his eye to put you on your guard +when he does not mean to be taken quite literally. I think old Ben +Franklin had just that look. I know his great-grandson (in pace!) had +it, and I don't doubt he took it in the straight line of descent, as he +did his grand intellect. + +The Member of the Haouse evidently comes from one of the lesser inland +centres of civilization, where the flora is rich in checkerberries +and similar bounties of nature, and the fauna lively with squirrels, +wood-chucks, and the like; where the leading sportsmen snare patridges, +as they are called, and “hunt” foxes with guns; where rabbits are +entrapped in “figgery fours,” and trout captured with the unpretentious +earth-worm, instead of the gorgeous fly; where they bet prizes for +butter and cheese, and rag-carpets executed by ladies more than seventy +years of age; where whey wear dress-coats before dinner, and cock their +hats on one side when they feel conspicuous and distinshed; where they +say--Sir to you in their common talk and have other Arcadian and bucolic +ways which are highly unobjectionable, but are not so much admired in +cities, where the people are said to be not half so virtuous. + +There is with us a boy of modest dimensions, not otherwise especially +entitled to the epithet, who ought be six or seven years old, to judge +by the gap left by his front milk teeth, these having resigned in favor +of their successors, who have not yet presented their credentials. He +is rather old for an enfant terrible, and quite too young to have grown +into the bashfulness of adolescence; but he has some of the qualities +of both these engaging periods of development, The member of the Haouse +calls him “Bub,” invariably, such term I take to be an abbreviation +of “Beelzeb,” as “bus” is the short form of “omnibus.” Many eminently +genteel persons, whose manners make them at home anywhere, being +evidently unaware of true derivation of this word, are in the habit +of addressing all unknown children by one of the two terms, “bub” and +“sis,” which they consider endears them greatly to the young people, and +recommends them to the acquaintance of their honored parents, if +these happen to accompany them. The other boarders commonly call our +diminutive companion That Boy. He is a sort of expletive at the table, +serving to stop gaps, taking the same place a washer does that makes a +loose screw fit, and contriving to get driven in like a wedge between +any two chairs where there is a crevice. I shall not call that boy by +the monosyllable referred to, because, though he has many impish traits +at present, he may become civilized and humanized by being in good +company. Besides, it is a term which I understand is considered vulgar +by the nobility and gentry of the Mother Country, and it is not to be +found in Mr. Worcester's Dictionary, on which, as is well known, the +literary men of this metropolis are by special statute allowed to be +sworn in place of the Bible. I know one, certainly, who never takes his +oath on any other dictionary, any advertising fiction to the contrary, +notwithstanding. + +I wanted to write out my account of some of the other boarders, but a +domestic occurrence--a somewhat prolonged visit from the landlady, who +is rather too anxious that I should be comfortable broke in upon the +continuity of my thoughts, and occasioned--in short, I gave up writing +for that day. + +--“I wonder if anything like this ever happened. Author writing, jacks?” + + “To be, or not to be: that is the question + Whether 't is nobl--” + +--“William, shall we have pudding to-day, or flapjacks?” + +--“Flapjacks, an' it please thee, Anne, or a pudding, for that matter; +or what thou wilt, good woman, so thou come not betwixt me and my +thought.” + +--Exit Mistress Anne, with strongly accented closing of the door and +murmurs to the effect: “Ay, marry, 't is well for thee to talk as if +thou hadst no stomach to fill. We poor wives must swink for our masters, +while they sit in their arm-chairs growing as great in the girth through +laziness as that ill-mannered fat man William hath writ of in his books +of players' stuff. One had as well meddle with a porkpen, which hath +thorns all over him, as try to deal with William when his eyes be +rolling in that mad way.” + +William--writing once more--after an exclamation in strong English of +the older pattern,-- + + “Whether 't is nobler--nobler--nobler--” + +To do what? O these women! these women! to have puddings or flapjacks! +Oh!-- + + “Whether 't is nobler--in the mind--to suffer + The slings--and arrows--of--” + +Oh! Oh! these women! I will e'en step over to the parson's and have a +cup of sack with His Reverence for methinks Master Hamlet hath forgot +that which was just now on his lips to speak. + +So I shall have to put off making my friends acquainted with the other +boarders, some of whom seem to me worth studying and describing. I have +something else of a graver character for my readers. I am talking, you +know, as a poet; I do not say I deserve the name, but I have taken +it, and if you consider me at all it must be in that aspect. You will, +therefore, be willing to run your eyes over a few pages read, of course +by request, to a select party of the boarders. + + THE GAMBREL-ROOFED HOUSE AND ITS OUTLOOK. + + A PANORAMA, WITH SIDE-SHOWS. + +My birthplace, the home of my childhood and earlier and later boyhood, +has within a few months passed out of the ownership of my family into +the hands of that venerable Alma Mater who seems to have renewed her +youth, and has certainly repainted her dormitories. In truth, when I +last revisited that familiar scene and looked upon the flammantia mania +of the old halls, “Massachusetts” with the dummy clock-dial, “Harvard” + with the garrulous belfry, little “Holden” with the sculptured +unpunishable cherub over its portal, and the rest of my early +brick-and-mortar acquaintances, I could not help saying to myself that +I had lived to see the peaceable establishment of the Red Republic of +Letters. + +Many of the things I shall put down I have no doubt told before in a +fragmentary way, how many I cannot be quite sure, as I do not very often +read my own prose works. But when a man dies a great deal is said of him +which has often been said in other forms, and now this dear old house +is dead to me in one sense, and I want to gather up my recollections and +wind a string of narrative round them, tying them up like a nosegay +for the last tribute: the same blossoms in it I have often laid on its +threshold while it was still living for me. + +We Americans are all cuckoos,--we make our homes in the nests of other +birds. I have read somewhere that the lineal descendants of the man +who carted off the body of William Rufus, with Walter Tyrrel's arrow +sticking in it, have driven a cart (not absolutely the same one, +I suppose) in the New Forest, from that day to this. I don't quite +understand Mr. Ruskin's saying (if he said it) that he couldn't get +along in a country where there were no castles, but I do think we lose +a great deal in living where there are so few permanent homes. You will +see how much I parted with which was not reckoned in the price paid for +the old homestead. + +I shall say many things which an uncharitable reader might find fault +with as personal. I should not dare to call myself a poet if I did not; +for if there is anything that gives one a title to that name, it is that +his inner nature is naked and is not ashamed. But there are many such +things I shall put in words, not because they are personal, but because +they are human, and are born of just such experiences as those who hear +or read what I say are like to have had in greater or less measure. +I find myself so much like other people that I often wonder at the +coincidence. It was only the other day that I sent out a copy of verses +about my great-grandmother's picture, and I was surprised to find how +many other people had portraits of their great-grandmothers or other +progenitors, about which they felt as I did about mine, and for whom +I had spoken, thinking I was speaking for myself only. And so I am not +afraid to talk very freely with you, my precious reader or listener. You +too, Beloved, were born somewhere and remember your birthplace or your +early home; for you some house is haunted by recollections; to some roof +you have bid farewell. Your hand is upon mine, then, as I guide my pen. +Your heart frames the responses to the litany of my remembrance. For +myself it is a tribute of affection I am rendering, and I should put it +on record for my own satisfaction, were there none to read or to listen. + +I hope you will not say that I have built a pillared portico of +introduction to a humble structure of narrative. For when you look at +the old gambrel-roofed house, you will see an unpretending mansion, such +as very possibly you were born in yourself, or at any rate such a place +of residence as your minister or some of your well-to-do country cousins +find good enough, but not at all too grand for them. We have stately +old Colonial palaces in our ancient village, now a city, and a thriving +one,--square-fronted edifices that stand back from the vulgar highway, +with folded arms, as it were; social fortresses of the time when +the twilight lustre of the throne reached as far as our half-cleared +settlement, with a glacis before them in the shape of a long broad +gravel-walk, so that in King George's time they looked as formidably to +any but the silk-stocking gentry as Gibraltar or Ehrenbreitstein to a +visitor without the password. We forget all this in the kindly welcome +they give us to-day; for some of them are still standing and doubly +famous, as we all know. But the gambrel-roofed house, though stately +enough for college dignitaries and scholarly clergymen, was not one of +those old Tory, Episcopal-church-goer's strongholds. One of its doors +opens directly upon the green, always called the Common; the other, +facing the south, a few steps from it, over a paved foot-walk, on the +other side of which is the miniature front yard, bordered with lilacs +and syringas. The honest mansion makes no pretensions. Accessible, +companionable, holding its hand out to all, comfortable, respectable, +and even in its way dignified, but not imposing, not a house for his +Majesty's Counsellor, or the Right Reverend successor of Him who had not +where to lay his head, for something like a hundred and fifty years it +has stood in its lot, and seen the generations of men come and go like +the leaves of the forest. I passed some pleasant hours, a few years +since, in the Registry of Deeds and the Town Records, looking up +the history of the old house. How those dear friends of mine, the +antiquarians, for whose grave councils I compose my features on the +too rare Thursdays when I am at liberty to meet them, in whose human +herbarium the leaves and blossoms of past generations are so carefully +spread out and pressed and laid away, would listen to an expansion of +the following brief details into an Historical Memoir! + +The estate was the third lot of the eighth “Squadron” (whatever that +might be), and in the year 1707 was allotted in the distribution of +undivided lands to “Mr. ffox,” the Reverend Jabez Fox of Woburn, it may +be supposed, as it passed from his heirs to the first Jonathan Hastings; +from him to his son, the long remembered College Steward; from him in +the year 1792 to the Reverend Eliphalet Pearson, Professor of Hebrew +and other Oriental languages in Harvard College, whose large personality +swam into my ken when I was looking forward to my teens; from him the +progenitors of my unborn self. + +I wonder if there are any such beings nowadays as the great Eliphalet, +with his large features and conversational basso profundo, seemed to me. +His very name had something elephantine about it, and it seemed to me +that the house shook from cellar to garret at his footfall. Some have +pretended that he had Olympian aspirations, and wanted to sit in the +seat of Jove and bear the academic thunderbolt and the aegis inscribed +Christo et Ecclesiae. It is a common weakness enough to wish to find +one's self in an empty saddle; Cotton Mather was miserable all his days, +I am afraid, after that entry in his Diary: “This Day Dr. Sewall was +chosen President, for his Piety.” + +There is no doubt that the men of the older generation look bigger and +more formidable to the boys whose eyes are turned up at their venerable +countenances than the race which succeeds them, to the same boys grown +older. Everything is twice as large, measured on a three-year-olds +three-foot scale as on a thirty-year-olds six-foot scale; but age +magnifies and aggravates persons out of due proportion. Old people are +a kind of monsters to little folks; mild manifestations of the terrible, +it may be, but still, with their white locks and ridged and grooved +features, which those horrid little eyes exhaust of their details, +like so many microscopes not exactly what human beings ought to be. The +middle-aged and young men have left comparatively faint impressions +in my memory, but how grandly the procession of the old clergymen who +filled our pulpit from time to time, and passed the day under our roof, +marches before my closed eyes! At their head the most venerable David +Osgood, the majestic minister of Medford, with massive front and shaggy +over-shadowing eyebrows; following in the train, mild-eyed John Foster +of Brighton, with the lambent aurora of a smile about his pleasant +mouth, which not even the “Sabbath” could subdue to the true Levitical +aspect; and bulky Charles Steams of Lincoln, author of “The Ladies' +Philosophy of Love. A Poem. 1797” (how I stared at him! he was the first +living person ever pointed out to me as a poet); and Thaddeus Mason +Harris of Dorchester (the same who, a poor youth, trudging along, staff +in hand, being then in a stress of sore need, found all at once that +somewhat was adhering to the end of his stick, which somewhat proved to +be a gold ring of price, bearing the words, “God speed thee, Friend!”), +already in decadence as I remember him, with head slanting forward and +downward as if looking for a place to rest in after his learned labors; +and that other Thaddeus, the old man of West Cambridge, who outwatched +the rest so long after they had gone to sleep in their own churchyards, +that it almost seemed as if he meant to sit up until the morning of the +resurrection; and bringing up the rear, attenuated but vivacious little +Jonathan Homer of Newton, who was, to look upon, a kind of expurgated, +reduced and Americanized copy of Voltaire, but very unlike him in +wickedness or wit. The good-humored junior member of our family +always loved to make him happy by setting him chirruping about Miles +Coverdale's Version, and the Bishop's Bible, and how he wrote to his +friend Sir Isaac (Coffin) about something or other, and how Sir Isaac +wrote back that he was very much pleased with the contents of his +letter, and so on about Sir Isaac, ad libitum,--for the admiral was his +old friend, and he was proud of him. The kindly little old gentleman +was a collector of Bibles, and made himself believe he thought he should +publish a learned Commentary some day or other; but his friends looked +for it only in the Greek Calends,--say on the 31st of April, when that +should come round, if you would modernize the phrase. I recall also one +or two exceptional and infrequent visitors with perfect distinctness: +cheerful Elijah Kellogg, a lively missionary from the region of the +Quoddy Indians, with much hopeful talk about Sock Bason and his tribe; +also poor old Poor-house-Parson Isaac Smith, his head going like a +China mandarin, as he discussed the possibilities of the escape of +that distinguished captive whom he spoke of under the name, if I +can reproduce phonetically its vibrating nasalities of “General +Mmbongaparty,”--a name suggestive to my young imagination of a +dangerous, loose-jointed skeleton, threatening us all like the armed +figure of Death in my little New England Primer. + +I have mentioned only the names of those whose images come up pleasantly +before me, and I do not mean to say anything which any descendant might +not read smilingly. But there were some of the black-coated gentry whose +aspect was not so agreeable to me. It is very curious to me to look back +on my early likes and dislikes, and see how as a child I was attracted +or repelled by such and such ministers, a good deal, as I found out +long afterwards, according to their theological beliefs. On the whole, +I think the old-fashioned New England divine softening down into +Arminianism was about as agreeable as any of them. And here I may +remark, that a mellowing rigorist is always a much pleasanter object to +contemplate than a tightening liberal, as a cold day warming up to 32 +Fahrenheit is much more agreeable than a warm one chilling down to +the same temperature. The least pleasing change is that kind of mental +hemiplegia which now and then attacks the rational side of a man at +about the same period of life when one side of the body is liable to +be palsied, and in fact is, very probably, the same thing as palsy, in +another form. The worst of it is that the subjects of it never seem to +suspect that they are intellectual invalids, stammerers and cripples +at best, but are all the time hitting out at their old friends with the +well arm, and calling them hard names out of their twisted mouths. + +It was a real delight to have one of those good, hearty, happy, +benignant old clergymen pass the Sunday, with us, and I can remember +some whose advent made the day feel almost like “Thanksgiving.” But +now and then would come along a clerical visitor with a sad face and a +wailing voice, which sounded exactly as if somebody must be lying dead +up stairs, who took no interest in us children, except a painful one, as +being in a bad way with our cheery looks, and did more to unchristianize +us with his woebegone ways than all his sermons were like to accomplish +in the other direction. I remember one in particular, who twitted me so +with my blessings as a Christian child, and whined so to me about the +naked black children who, like the “Little Vulgar Boy,” “had n't got no +supper and hadn't got no ma,” and hadn't got no Catechism, (how I wished +for the moment I was a little black boy!) that he did more in that one +day to make me a heathen than he had ever done in a month to make a +Christian out of an infant Hottentot. What a debt we owe to our friends +of the left centre, the Brooklyn and the Park Street and the +Summer street ministers; good, wholesome, sound-bodied, one-minded, +cheerful-spirited men, who have taken the place of those wailing +poitrinaires with the bandanna handkerchiefs round their meagre throats +and a funeral service in their forlorn physiognomies! I might have been +a minister myself, for aught I know, if this clergyman had not looked +and talked so like an undertaker. + +All this belongs to one of the side-shows, to which I promised those who +would take tickets to the main exhibition should have entrance gratis. +If I were writing a poem you would expect, as a matter of course, that +there would be a digression now and then. + +To come back to the old house and its former tenant, the Professor of +Hebrew and other Oriental languages. Fifteen years he lived with his +family under its roof. I never found the slightest trace of him until a +few years ago, when I cleaned and brightened with pious hands the brass +lock of “the study,” which had for many years been covered with a thick +coat of paint. On that I found scratched; as with a nail or fork, the +following inscription: + + E PE + +Only that and nothing more, but the story told itself. Master Edward +Pearson, then about as high as the lock, was disposed to immortalize +himself in monumental brass, and had got so far towards it, when a +sudden interruption, probably a smart box on the ear, cheated him of his +fame, except so far as this poor record may rescue it. Dead long ago. I +remember him well, a grown man, as a visitor at a later period; and, +for some reason, I recall him in the attitude of the Colossus of Rhodes, +standing full before a generous wood-fire, not facing it, but quite the +contrary, a perfect picture of the content afforded by a blazing hearth +contemplated from that point of view, and, as the heat stole through +his person and kindled his emphatic features, seeming to me a pattern of +manly beauty. What a statue gallery of posturing friends we all have in +our memory! The old Professor himself sometimes visited the house after +it had changed hands. Of course, my recollections are not to be wholly +trusted, but I always think I see his likeness in a profile face to be +found among the illustrations of Rees's Cyclopaedia. (See Plates, Vol. +IV., Plate 2, Painting, Diversities of the Human Face, Fig. 4.) + +And now let us return to our chief picture. In the days of my earliest +remembrance, a row of tall Lombardy poplars mounted guard on the western +side of the old mansion. Whether, like the cypress, these trees suggest +the idea of the funeral torch or the monumental spire, whether their +tremulous leaves make wits afraid by sympathy with their nervous +thrills, whether the faint balsamic smell of their foliage and their +closely swathed limbs have in them vague hints of dead Pharaohs +stiffened in their cerements, I will guess; but they always seemed to +me to give an of sepulchral sadness to the house before which stood +sentries. Not so with the row of elms which you may see leading up +towards the western entrance. I think the patriarch of them all went +over in the great gale of 1815; I know I used to shake the youngest of +them with my hands, stout as it is now, with a trunk that would defy the +bully of Crotona, or the strong man whose liaison with the Lady Delilah +proved so disastrous. + +The College plain would be nothing without its elms. As the long hair of +a woman is a glory to her, are these green tresses that bank themselves +against sky in thick clustered masses the ornament and the pride of the +classic green. You know the “Washington elm,” or if you do not, you had +better rekindle our patriotism by reading the inscription, which tells +you that under its shadow the great leader first drew his sword at the +head of an American army. In a line with that you may see two others: +the coral fan, as I always called it from its resemblance in form to +that beautiful marine growth, and a third a little farther along. I have +heard it said that all three were planted at the same time, and that +the difference of their growth is due to the slope of the ground,--the +Washington elm being lower than either of the others. There is a row of +elms just in front of the old house on the south. When I was a child +the one at the southwest corner was struck by lightning, and one of +its limbs and a long ribbon of bark torn away. The tree never fully +recovered its symmetry and vigor, and forty years and more afterwards a +second thunderbolt crashed upon it and set its heart on fire, like those +of the lost souls in the Hall of Eblis. Heaven had twice blasted it, and +the axe finished what the lightning had begun. + +The soil of the University town is divided into patches of sandy and +of clayey ground. The Common and the College green, near which the old +house stands, are on one of the sandy patches. Four curses are the local +inheritance: droughts, dust, mud, and canker-worms. I cannot but think +that all the characters of a region help to modify the children born in +it. I am fond of making apologies for human nature, and I think I +could find an excuse for myself if I, too, were dry and barren and +muddy-witted and “cantankerous,”--disposed to get my back up, like those +other natives of the soil. + +I know this, that the way Mother Earth treats a boy shapes out a kind +of natural theology for him. I fell into Manichean ways of thinking from +the teaching of my garden experiences. Like other boys in the country, +I had my patch of ground, to which, in the spring-time, I entrusted the +seeds furnished me, with a confident trust in their resurrection and +glorification in the better world of summer. But I soon found that my +lines had fallen in a place where a vegetable growth had to run the +gauntlet of as many foes and dials as a Christian pilgrim. Flowers would +not Blow; daffodils perished like criminals in their cone demned caps, +without their petals ever seeing daylight; roses were disfigured with +monstrous protrusions through their very centres,--something that looked +like a second bud pushing through the middle of the corolla; lettuces +and cabbages would not head; radishes knotted themselves until they +looked like centenerians' fingers; and on every stem, on every leaf, +and both sides of it, and at the root of everything that dew, was a +professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, or +other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part, +and help order the whole attempt at vegetation. Such experiences must +influence a child born to them. A sandy soil, where nothing flourishes +but weeds and evil beasts of small dimensions, must breed different +qualities in its human offspring from one of those fat and fertile spots +which the wit whom I have once before noted described so happily that, +if I quoted the passage, its brilliancy would spoil one of my pages, as +a diamond breastpin sometimes kills the social effect of the wearer, who +might have passed for a gentleman without it. Your arid patch of earth +should seem to the natural birthplace of the leaner virtues and the +abler vices,--of temperance and the domestic proprieties on the one +hand, with a tendency to light weights in groceries and provisions, and +to clandestine abstraction from the person on the other, as opposed to +the free hospitality, the broadly planned burglaries, and the largely +conceived homicides of our rich Western alluvial regions. Yet Nature is +never wholly unkind. Economical as she was in my unparadised Eden, hard +as it was to make some of my floral houris unveil, still the damask +roses sweetened the June breezes, the bladed and plumed flower-de-luces +unfolded their close-wrapped cones, and larkspurs and lupins, lady's +delights,--plebeian manifestations of the pansy,--self-sowing marigolds, +hollyhocks, the forest flowers of two seasons, and the perennial lilacs +and syringas,--all whispered to' the winds blowing over them that some +caressing presence was around me. + +Beyond the garden was “the field,” a vast domain of four acres or +thereabout, by the measurement of after years, bordered to the north by +a fathomless chasm,--the ditch the base-ball players of the present era +jump over; on the east by unexplored territory; on the south by a barren +enclosure, where the red sorrel proclaimed liberty and equality under +its drapeau rouge, and succeeded in establishing a vegetable commune +where all were alike, poor, mean, sour, and uninteresting; and on the +west by the Common, not then disgraced by jealous enclosures, which +make it look like a cattle-market. Beyond, as I looked round, were +the Colleges, the meeting-house, the little square market-house, long +vanished; the burial-ground where the dead Presidents stretched their +weary bones under epitaphs stretched out at as full length as their +subjects; the pretty church where the gouty Tories used to kneel on +their hassocks; the district schoolhouse, and hard by it Ma'am Hancock's +cottage, never so called in those days, but rather “tenfooter”; then +houses scattered near and far, open spaces, the shadowy elms, round +hilltops in the distance, and over all the great bowl of the sky. Mind +you, this was the WORLD, as I first knew it; terra veteribus cognita, as +Mr. Arrowsmith would have called it, if he had mapped the universe of my +infancy: + +But I am forgetting the old house again in the landscape. The worst of +a modern stylish mansion is, that it has no place for ghosts. I watched +one building not long since. It had no proper garret, to begin with, +only a sealed interval between the roof and attics, where a spirit could +not be accommodated, unless it were flattened out like Ravel, Brother, +after the millstone had fallen on him. There was not a nook or a corner +in the whole horse fit to lodge any respectable ghost, for every part +was as open to observation as a literary man's character and condition, +his figure and estate, his coat and his countenance, are to his (or her) +Bohemian Majesty on a tour of inspection through his (or her) subjects' +keyholes. + +Now the old house had wainscots, behind which the mice were always +scampering and squeaking and rattling down the plaster, and enacting +family scenes and parlor theatricals. It had a cellar where the cold +slug clung to the walls, and the misanthropic spider withdrew from the +garish day; where the green mould loved to grow, and the long white +potato-shoots went feeling along the floor, if haply they might find +the daylight; it had great brick pillars, always in a cold sweat with +holding up the burden they had been aching under day and night far a +century and more; it had sepulchral arches closed by rough doors that +hung on hinges rotten with rust, behind which doors, if there was not +a heap of bones connected with a mysterious disappearance of long ago, +there well might have been, for it was just the place to look for them. +It had a garret; very nearly such a one as it seems to me one of us +has described in one of his books; but let us look at this one as I +can reproduce it from memory. It has a flooring of laths with ridges +of mortar squeezed up between them, which if you tread on you will go +to--the Lord have mercy on you! where will you go to?--the same being +crossed by narrow bridges of boards, on which you may put your feet, but +with fear and trembling. Above you and around you are beams and joists, +on some of which you may see, when the light is let in, the marks of the +conchoidal clippings of the broadaxe, showing the rude way in which the +timber was shaped as it came, full of sap, from the neighboring forest. +It is a realm of darkness and thick dust, and shroud-like cobwebs +and dead things they wrap in their gray folds. For a garret is like a +seashore, where wrecks are thrown up and slowly go to pieces. There is +the cradle which the old man you just remember was rocked in; there is +the ruin of the bedstead he died on; that ugly slanting contrivance used +to be put under his pillow in the days when his breath came hard; there +is his old chair with both arms gone, symbol of the desolate time when +he had nothing earthly left to lean on; there is the large wooden reel +which the blear-eyed old deacon sent the minister's lady, who thanked +him graciously, and twirled it smilingly, and in fitting season bowed it +out decently to the limbo of troublesome conveniences. And there are old +leather portmanteaus, like stranded porpoises, their mouths gaping in +gaunt hunger for the food with which they used to be gorged to bulging +repletion; and old brass andirons, waiting until time shall revenge them +on their paltry substitutes, and they shall have their own again, and +bring with them the fore-stick and the back-log of ancient days; and +the empty churn, with its idle dasher, which the Nancys and Phoebes, who +have left their comfortable places to the Bridgets and Norahs, used to +handle to good purpose; and the brown, shaky old spinning-wheel, which +was running, it may be, in the days when they were hinging the Salem +witches. + +Under the dark and haunted garret were attic chambers which themselves +had histories. On a pane in the northeastern chamber may be read these +names: + +“John Tracy,” “Robert Roberts,” “Thomas Prince;” “Stultus” another hand +had added. When I found these names a few years ago (wrong side up, for +the window had been reversed), I looked at once in the Triennial to find +them, for the epithet showed that they were probably students. I found +them all under the years 1771 and 1773. Does it please their thin ghosts +thus to be dragged to the light of day? Has “Stultus” forgiven the +indignity of being thus characterized? + +The southeast chamber was the Library Hospital. Every scholar should +have a book infirmary attached his library. There should find a +peaceable refuge the many books, invalids from their birth, which +are sent “with the best regards of the Author”; the respected, but +unpresentable cripples which have lost cover; the odd volumes of honored +sets which go mourning all their days for their lost brother; the +school-books which have been so often the subjects of assault and +battery, that they look as if the police must know them by heart; these +and still more the pictured story-books, beginning with Mother Goose +(which a dear old friend of mine has just been amusing his philosophic +leisure with turning most ingeniously and happily into the tongues of +Virgil and Homer), will be precious mementos by and by, when children +and grandchildren come along. What would I not give for that dear little +paper-bound quarto, in large and most legible type, on certain pages of +which the tender hand that was the shield of my infancy had crossed out +with deep black marks something awful, probably about BEARS, such as +once tare two-and-forty of us little folks for making faces, and the +very name of which made us hide our heads under the bedclothes. + +I made strange acquaintances in that book infirmary up in the southeast +attic. The “Negro Plot” at New York helped to implant a feeling in me +which it took Mr. Garrison a good many years to root out. “Thinks I to +Myself,” an old novel, which has been attributed to a famous statesman, +introduced me to a world of fiction which was not represented on the +shelves of the library proper, unless perhaps by Coelebs in Search of a +Wife, or allegories of the bitter tonic class, as the young doctor that +sits on the other side of the table would probably call them. I always, +from an early age, had a keen eye for a story with a moral sticking out +of it, and gave it a wide berth, though in my later years I have +myself written a couple of “medicated novels,” as one of my dearest and +pleasantest old friends wickedly called them, when somebody asked her if +she had read the last of my printed performances. I forgave the satire +for the charming esprit of the epithet. Besides the works I have +mentioned, there was an old, old Latin alchemy book, with the manuscript +annotations of some ancient Rosicrucian, in the pages of which I had +a vague notion that I might find the mighty secret of the Lapis +Philosophorum, otherwise called Chaos, the Dragon, the Green Lion, the +Quinta Essentia, the Soap of Sages, the Vinegar of Philosophers, the Dew +of Heavenly Grace, the Egg, the Old Man, the Sun, the Moon, and by all +manner of odd aliases, as I am assured by the plethoric little book +before me, in parchment covers browned like a meerschaum with the smoke +of furnaces and the thumbing of dead gold seekers, and the fingering of +bony-handed book-misers, and the long intervals of dusty slumber on the +shelves of the bouquiniste; for next year it will be three centuries +old, and it had already seen nine generations of men when I caught its +eye (Alchemiae Doctrina) and recognized it at pistol-shot distance as a +prize, among the breviaries and Heures and trumpery volumes of the +old open-air dealer who exposed his treasures under the shadow of St. +Sulpice. I have never lost my taste for alchemy since I first got hold +of the Palladium Spagyricum of Peter John Faber, and sought--in vain, +it is true--through its pages for a clear, intelligible, and practical +statement of how I could turn my lead sinkers and the weights of +tall kitchen clock into good yellow gold, specific gravity 19.2, and +exchangeable for whatever I then wanted, and for many more things than +I was then aware of. One of the greatest pleasures of childhood found +in the mysteries which it hides from the skepticism of the elders, and +works up into small mythologies of its own. I have seen all this +played over again in adult life,--the same delightful bewilderment +semi-emotional belief in listening to the gaseous praises of this or +that fantastic system, that I found in the pleasing mirages conjured +up for me by the ragged old volume I used to pore over in the southeast +attic-chamber. + +The rooms of the second story, the chambers of birth and death, are +sacred to silent memories. + +Let us go down to the ground-floor. I should have begun with this, but +that the historical reminiscences of the old house have been recently +told in a most interesting memoir by a distinguished student of our +local history. I retain my doubts about those “dents” on the floor of +the right-hand room, “the study” of successive occupants, said to have +been made by the butts of the Continental militia's firelocks, but this +was the cause to which the story told me in childhood laid them. That +military consultations were held in that room when the house was General +Ward's headquarters, that the Provincial generals and colonels and other +men of war there planned the movement which ended in the fortifying +of Bunker's Hill, that Warren slept in the house the night before the +battle, that President Langdon went forth from the western door and +prayed for God's blessing on the men just setting forth on their bloody +expedition,--all these things have been told, and perhaps none of them +need be doubted. + +But now for fifty years and more that room has been a meeting-ground for +the platoons and companies which range themselves at the scholar's word +of command. Pleasant it is to think that the retreating host of books is +to give place to a still larger army of volumes, which have seen service +under the eye of a great commander. For here the noble collection of him +so freshly remembered as our silver-tongued orator, our erudite scholar, +our honored College President, our accomplished statesman, our courtly +ambassador, are to be reverently gathered by the heir of his name, +himself not unworthy to be surrounded by that august assembly of the +wise of all ages and of various lands and languages. + +Could such a many-chambered edifice have stood a century and a half and +not have had its passages of romance to bequeath their lingering +legends to the after-time? There are other names on some of the small +window-panes, which must have had young flesh-and-blood owners, and +there is one of early date which elderly persons have whispered was +borne by a fair woman, whose graces made the house beautiful in the eyes +of the youth of that time. One especially--you will find the name of +Fortescue Vernon, of the class of 1780, in the Triennial Catalogue--was +a favored visitor to the old mansion; but he went over seas, I think +they told me, and died still young, and the name of the maiden which is +scratched on the windowpane was never changed. I am telling the story +honestly, as I remember it, but I may have colored it unconsciously, and +the legendary pane may be broken before this for aught I know. At least, +I have named no names except the beautiful one of the supposed hero of +the romantic story. + +It was a great happiness to have been born in an old house haunted by +such recollections, with harmless ghosts walking its corridors, with +fields of waving grass and trees and singing birds, and that vast +territory of four or five acres around it to give a child the sense that +he was born to a noble principality. It has been a great pleasure +to retain a certain hold upon it for so many years; and since in the +natural course of things it must at length pass into other hands, it +is a gratification to see the old place making itself tidy for a new +tenant, like some venerable dame who is getting ready to entertain a +neighbor of condition. Not long since a new cap of shingles adorned this +ancient mother among the village--now city--mansions. She has dressed +herself in brighter colors than she has hitherto worn, so they tell +me, within the last few days. She has modernized her aspects in several +ways; she has rubbed bright the glasses through which she looks at the +Common and the Colleges; and as the sunsets shine upon her through +the flickering leaves or the wiry spray of the elms I remember from my +childhood, they will glorify her into the aspect she wore when President +Holyoke, father of our long since dead centenarian, looked upon her in +her youthful comeliness. + +The quiet corner formed by this and the neighboring residences has +changed less than any place I can remember. Our kindly, polite, shrewd, +and humorous old neighbor, who in former days has served the town +as constable and auctioneer, and who bids fair to become the oldest +inhabitant of the city, was there when I was born, and is living there +to-day. By and by the stony foot of the great University will plant +itself on this whole territory, and the private recollections which +clung so tenaciously and fondly to the place and its habitations will +have died with those who cherished them. + +Shall they ever live again in the memory of those who loved them here +below? What is this life without the poor accidents which made it our +own, and by which we identify ourselves? Ah me! I might like to be a +winged chorister, but still it seems to me I should hardly be quite +happy if I could not recall at will the Old House with the Long Entry, +and the White Chamber (where I wrote the first verses that made me +known, with a pencil, stans pede in uno, pretty, nearly), and the Little +Parlor, and the Study, and the old books in uniforms as varied as those +of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company used to be, if my memory +serves me right, and the front yard with the Star-of-Bethlehems growing, +flowerless, among the grass, and the dear faces to be seen no more there +or anywhere on this earthly place of farewells. + +I have told my story. I do not know what special gifts have been granted +or denied me; but this I know, that I am like so many others of my +fellow-creatures, that when I smile, I feel as if they must; when I cry, +I think their eyes fill; and it always seems to me that when I am most +truly myself I come nearest to them and am surest of being listened to +by the brothers and sisters of the larger family into which I was born +so long ago. I have often feared they might be tired of me and what I +tell them. But then, perhaps, would come a letter from some quiet body +in some out-of-the-way place, which showed me that I had said something +which another had often felt but never said, or told the secret of +another's heart in unburdening my own. Such evidences that one is in +the highway of human experience and feeling lighten the footsteps +wonderfully. So it is that one is encouraged to go on writing as long as +the world has anything that interests him, for he never knows how many +of his fellow-beings he may please or profit, and in how many places his +name will be spoken as that of a friend. + +In the mood suggested by my story I have ventured on the poem that +follows. Most people love this world more than they are willing to +confess, and it is hard to conceive ourselves weaned from it so as to +feel no emotion at the thought of its most sacred recollections, even +after a sojourn of years, as we should count the lapse of earthly +time,--in the realm where, sooner or later, all tears shall be wiped +away. I hope, therefore, the title of my lines will not frighten those +who are little accustomed to think of men and women as human beings in +any state but the present. + + HOMESICK IN HEAVEN. + + THE DIVINE VOICE. + + Go seek thine earth-born sisters,--thus the Voice + That all obey,--the sad and silent three; + These only, while the hosts of heaven rejoice, + Smile never: ask them what their sorrows be: + + And when the secret of their griefs they tell, + Look on them with thy mild, half-human eyes; + Say what thou wast on earth; thou knowest well; + So shall they cease from unavailing sighs. + + THE ANGEL. + + --Why thus, apart,--the swift-winged herald spake, + --Sit ye with silent lips and unstrung lyres + While the trisagion's blending chords awake + In shouts of joy from all the heavenly choirs? + + THE FIRST SPIRIT. + + --Chide not thy sisters,--thus the answer came; + --Children of earth, our half-weaned nature clings + To earth's fond memories, and her whispered name + Untunes our quivering lips, our saddened strings; + + For there we loved, and where we love is home, + Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts, + Though o'er us shine the jasper-lighted dome:-- + + The chain may lengthen, but it never parts! + + Sometimes a sunlit sphere comes rolling by, + And then we softly whisper,--can it be? + And leaning toward the silvery orb, we try + To hear the music of its murmuring sea; + + To catch, perchance, some flashing glimpse of green, + Or breathe some wild-wood fragrance, wafted through + The opening gates of pearl, that fold between + The blinding splendors and the changeless blue. + + THE ANGEL. + + --Nay, sister, nay! a single healing leaf + Plucked from the bough of yon twelve-fruited tree, + Would soothe such anguish,--deeper stabbing grief + Has pierced thy throbbing heart-- + + THE FIRST SPIRIT. + + --Ah, woe is me! + I from my clinging babe was rudely torn; + His tender lips a loveless bosom pressed + Can I forget him in my life new born? + O that my darling lay upon my breast! + + THE ANGEL. + + --And thou? + + THE SECOND SPIRIT. + + I was a fair and youthful bride, + + The kiss of love still burns upon my cheek, + He whom I worshipped, ever at my side, + --Him through the spirit realm in vain I seek. + + Sweet faces turn their beaming eyes on mine; + Ah! not in these the wished-for look I read; + Still for that one dear human smile I pine; + Thou and none other!--is the lover's creed. + + THE ANGEL. + + --And whence thy sadness in a world of bliss + Where never parting comes, nor mourner's tear? + Art thou, too, dreaming of a mortal's kiss + Amid the seraphs of the heavenly sphere? + + THE THIRD SPIRIT. + + --Nay, tax not me with passion's wasting fire; + When the swift message set my spirit free, + Blind, helpless, lone, I left my gray-haired sire; + My friends were many, he had none save me. + + I left him, orphaned, in the starless night; + Alas, for him no cheerful morning's dawn! + I wear the ransomed spirit's robe of white, + Yet still I hear him moaning, She is gone! + + THE ANGEL. + + --Ye know me not, sweet sisters?--All in vain + Ye seek your lost ones in the shapes they wore; + The flower once opened may not bud again, + The fruit once fallen finds the stem no more. + + Child, lover, sire,--yea, all things loved below, + Fair pictures damasked on a vapor's fold, + Fade like the roseate flush, the golden glow, + When the bright curtain of the day is rolled. + + I was the babe that slumbered on thy breast. + --And, sister, mine the lips that called thee bride. + --Mine were the silvered locks thy hand caressed, + That faithful hand, my faltering footstep's guide! + + Each changing form, frail vesture of decay, + The soul unclad forgets it once hath worn, + Stained with the travel of the weary day, + And shamed with rents from every wayside thorn. + + To lie, an infant, in thy fond embrace, + To come with love's warm kisses back to thee, + To show thine eyes thy gray-haired father's face, + Not Heaven itself could grant; this may not be! + + Then spread your folded wings, and leave to earth + The dust once breathing ye have mourned so long, + Till Love, new risen, owns his heavenly birth, + And sorrow's discords sweeten into song! + + + + +II + +I am going to take it for granted now and henceforth, in my report of +what was said and what was to be seen at our table, that I have secured +one good, faithful, loving reader, who never finds fault, who never gets +sleepy over my pages, whom no critic can bully out of a liking for me, +and to whom I am always safe in addressing myself. My one elect may be +man or woman, old or young, gentle or simple, living in the next block +or on a slope of Nevada, my fellow-countryman or an alien; but one such +reader I shall assume to exist and have always in my thought when I am +writing. + +A writer is so like a lover! And a talk with the right listener is so +like an arm-in-arm walk in the moonlight with the soft heartbeat just +felt through the folds of muslin and broadcloth! But it takes very +little to spoil everything for writer, talker, lover. There are a great +many cruel things besides poverty that freeze the genial current of the +soul, as the poet of the Elegy calls it. Fire can stand any wind, but is +easily blown out, and then come smouldering and smoke, and profitless, +slow combustion without the cheerful blaze which sheds light all +round it. The one Reader's hand may shelter the flame; the one blessed +ministering spirit with the vessel of oil may keep it bright in spite of +the stream of cold water on the other side doing its best to put it out. + +I suppose, if any writer, of any distinguishable individuality, could +look into the hearts of all his readers, he might very probably find one +in his parish of a thousand or a million who honestly preferred him +to any other of his kind. I have no doubt we have each one of us, +somewhere, our exact facsimile, so like us in all things except the +accidents of condition, that we should love each other like a pair +of twins, if our natures could once fairly meet. I know I have my +counterpart in some State of this Union. I feel sure that there is an +Englishman somewhere precisely like myself. (I hope he does not drop his +h's, for it does not seem to me possible that the Royal Dane could have +remained faithful to his love for Ophelia, if she had addressed him as +'Amlet.) There is also a certain Monsieur, to me at this moment unknown, +and likewise a Herr Von Something, each of whom is essentially my +double. An Arab is at this moment eating dates, a mandarin is +just sipping his tea, and a South-Sea-Islander (with undeveloped +possibilities) drinking the milk of a cocoa-nut, each one of whom, if +he had been born in the gambrel-roofed house, and cultivated my little +sand-patch, and grown up in “the study” from the height of Walton's +Polyglot Bible to that of the shelf which held the Elzevir Tacitus and +Casaubon's Polybius, with all the complex influences about him that +surrounded me, would have been so nearly what I am that I should have +loved him like a brother,--always provided that I did not hate him for +his resemblance to me, on the same principle as that which makes bodies +in the same electric condition repel each other. + +For, perhaps after all, my One Reader is quite as likely to be not +the person most resembling myself, but the one to whom my nature is +complementary. Just as a particular soil wants some one element +to fertilize it, just as the body in some conditions has a kind of +famine--for one special food, so the mind has its wants, which do not +always call for what is best, but which know themselves and are as +peremptory as the salt-sick sailor's call for a lemon or a raw potato, +or, if you will, as those capricious “longings,” which have a certain +meaning, we may suppose, and which at any rate we think it reasonable to +satisfy if we can. + +I was going to say something about our boarders the other day when I got +run away with by my local reminiscences. I wish you to understand that +we have a rather select company at the table of our boarding-house. + +Our Landlady is a most respectable person, who has seen better days, of +course,--all landladies have,--but has also, I feel sure, seen a good +deal worse ones. For she wears a very handsome silk dress on state +occasions, with a breastpin set, as I honestly believe, with genuine +pearls, and appears habitually with a very smart cap, from under which +her gray curls come out with an unmistakable expression, conveyed in the +hieratic language of the feminine priesthood, to the effect that while +there is life there is hope. And when I come to reflect on the many +circumstances which go to the making of matrimonial happiness, I cannot +help thinking that a personage of her present able exterior, thoroughly +experienced in all the domestic arts which render life comfortable, +might make the later years of some hitherto companionless bachelor very +endurable, not to say pleasant. + +The condition of the Landlady's family is, from what I learn, such as to +make the connection I have alluded to, I hope with delicacy, desirable +for incidental as well as direct reasons, provided a fitting match could +be found. I was startled at hearing her address by the familiar name +of Benjamin the young physician I have referred to, until I found on +inquiry, what I might have guessed by the size of his slices of pie and +other little marks of favoritism, that he was her son. He has recently +come back from Europe, where he has topped off his home training with +a first-class foreign finish. As the Landlady could never have educated +him in this way out of the profits of keeping boarders, I was not +surprised when I was told that she had received a pretty little property +in the form of a bequest from a former boarder, a very kind-hearted, +worthy old gentleman who had been long with her and seen how hard she +worked for food and clothes for herself and this son of hers, Benjamin +Franklin by his baptismal name. Her daughter had also married well, to +a member of what we may call the post-medical profession, that, namely, +which deals with the mortal frame after the practitioners of the healing +art have done with it and taken their leave. So thriving had this +son-in-law of hers been in his business, that his wife drove about in +her own carriage, drawn by a pair of jet-black horses of most dignified +demeanor, whose only fault was a tendency to relapse at once into a walk +after every application of a stimulus that quickened their pace to a +trot; which application always caused them to look round upon the driver +with a surprised and offended air, as if he had been guilty of a grave +indecorum. + +The Landlady's daughter had been blessed with a number of children, +of great sobriety of outward aspect, but remarkably cheerful in their +inward habit of mind, more especially on the occasion of the death of +a doll, which was an almost daily occurrence, and gave them immense +delight in getting up a funeral, for which they had a complete miniature +outfit. How happy they were under their solemn aspect! For the head +mourner, a child of remarkable gifts, could actually make the tears +run down her cheeks,--as real ones as if she had been a grown person +following a rich relative, who had not forgotten his connections, to his +last unfurnished lodgings. + +So this was a most desirable family connection for the right man to step +into,--a thriving, thrifty mother-in-law, who knew what was good for the +sustenance of the body, and had no doubt taught it to her daughter; a +medical artist at hand in case the luxuries of the table should happen +to disturb the physiological harmonies; and in the worst event, a +sweet consciousness that the last sad offices would be attended to with +affectionate zeal, and probably a large discount from the usual charges. + +It seems as if I could hardly be at this table for a year, if I should +stay so long, without seeing some romance or other work itself out +under my eyes; and I cannot help thinking that the Landlady is to be +the heroine of the love-history like to unfold itself. I think I see the +little cloud in the horizon, with a silvery lining to it, which may end +in a rain of cards tied round with white ribbons. Extremes meet, and who +so like to be the other party as the elderly gentleman at the other end +of the table, as far from her now as the length of the board permits? I +may be mistaken, but I think this is to be the romantic episode of the +year before me. Only it seems so natural it is improbable, for you never +find your dropped money just where you look for it, and so it is with +these a priori matches. + +This gentleman is a tight, tidy, wiry little man, with a small, brisk +head, close-cropped white hair, a good wholesome complexion, a quiet, +rather kindly face, quick in his movements, neat in his dress, but fond +of wearing a short jacket over his coat, which gives him the look of +a pickled or preserved schoolboy. He has retired, they say, from a +thriving business, with a snug property, suspected by some to be rather +more than snug, and entitling him to be called a capitalist, except that +this word seems to be equivalent to highway robber in the new gospel of +Saint Petroleum. That he is economical in his habits cannot be denied, +for he saws and splits his own wood, for exercise, he says,--and makes +his own fires, brushes his own shoes, and, it is whispered, darns a hole +in a stocking now and then,--all for exercise, I suppose. Every summer +he goes out of town for a few weeks. On a given day of the month a wagon +stops at the door and takes up, not his trunks, for he does not indulge +in any such extravagance, but the stout brown linen bags in which he +packs the few conveniences he carries with him. + +I do not think this worthy and economical personage will have much to do +or to say, unless he marries the Landlady. If he does that, he will play +a part of some importance,--but I don't feel sure at all. His talk is +little in amount, and generally ends in some compact formula condensing +much wisdom in few words, as that a man, should not put all his eggs in +one basket; that there are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of +it; and one in particular, which he surprised me by saying in pretty +good French one day, to the effect that the inheritance of the world +belongs to the phlegmatic people, which seems to me to have a good deal +of truth in it. + +The other elderly personage, the old man with iron-gray hair and large +round spectacles, sits at my right at table. He is a retired college +officer, a man of books and observation, and himself an author. Magister +Artium is one of his titles on the College Catalogue, and I like best +to speak of him as the Master, because he has a certain air of authority +which none of us feel inclined to dispute. He has given me a copy of a +work of his which seems to me not wanting in suggestiveness, and which I +hope I shall be able to make some use of in my records by and by. I said +the other day that he had good solid prejudices, which is true, and I +like him none the worse for it; but he has also opinions more or +less original, valuable, probable, fanciful; fantastic, or whimsical, +perhaps, now and then; which he promulgates at table somewhat in the +tone of imperial edicts. Another thing I like about him is, that he +takes a certain intelligent interest in pretty much everything that +interests other people. I asked him the other day what he thought most +about in his wide range of studies. + +--Sir,--said he,--I take stock in everything that concerns anybody. +Humani nihil,--you know the rest. But if you ask me what is my +specialty, I should say, I applied myself more particularly to the +contemplation of the Order of Things. + +--A pretty wide subject,--I ventured to suggest. + +--Not wide enough, sir,--not wide enough to satisfy the desire of a mind +which wants to get at absolute truth, without reference to the empirical +arrangements of our particular planet and its environments. I want to +subject the formal conditions of space and time to a new analysis, and +project a possible universe outside of the Order of Things. But I have +narrowed myself by studying the actual facts of being. By and by--by and +by--perhaps--perhaps. I hope to do some sound thinking in heaven--if +I ever get there,--he said seriously, and it seemed to me not +irreverently. + +--I rather like that,--I said. I think your telescopic people are, on +the whole, more satisfactory than your microscopic ones. + +--My left-hand neighbor fidgeted about a little in his chair as I said +this. But the young man sitting not far from the Landlady, to whom my +attention had been attracted by the expression of his eyes, which seemed +as if they saw nothing before him, but looked beyond everything, smiled +a sort of faint starlight smile, that touched me strangely; for until +that moment he had appeared as if his thoughts were far away, and I +had been questioning whether he had lost friends lately, or perhaps had +never had them, he seemed so remote from our boarding-house life. I +will inquire about him, for he interests me, and I thought he seemed +interested as I went on talking. + +--No,--I continued,--I don't want to have the territory of a man's mind +fenced in. I don't want to shut out the mystery of the stars and +the awful hollow that holds them. We have done with those hypaethral +temples, that were open above to the heavens, but we can have attics and +skylights to them. Minds with skylights,--yes,--stop, let us see if we +can't get something out of that. + +One-story intellects, two--story intellects, three story intellects with +skylights. All fact--collectors, who have no aim beyond their facts, +are one-story men. Two-story men compare, reason, generalize, using +the labors of the fact-collectors as well as their own. Three-story men +idealize, imagine, predict; their best illumination comes from above, +through the skylight. There are minds with large ground floors, that can +store an infinite amount of knowledge; some librarians, for instance, +who know enough of books to help other people, without being able to +make much other use of their knowledge, have intellects of this class. +Your great working lawyer has two spacious stories; his mind is clear, +because his mental floors are large, and he has room to arrange his +thoughts so that he can get at them,--facts below, principles above, and +all in ordered series; poets are often narrow below, incapable of clear +statement, and with small power of consecutive reasoning, but full of +light, if sometimes rather bare of furniture, in the attics. + +--The old Master smiled. I think he suspects himself of a three-story +intellect, and I don't feel sure that he is n't right. + +--Is it dark meat or white meat you will be helped to?--said the +Landlady, addressing the Master. + +--Dark meat for me, always,--he answered. Then turning to me, he began +one of those monologues of his, such as that which put the Member of the +Haouse asleep the other day. + +--It 's pretty much the same in men and women and in books and +everything, that it is in turkeys and chickens. Why, take your poets, +now, say Browning and Tennyson. Don't you think you can say which is +the dark-meat and which is the white-meat poet? And so of the people +you know; can't you pick out the full-flavored, coarse-fibred characters +from the delicate, fine-fibred ones? And in the same person, don't you +know the same two shades in different parts of the character that you +find in the wing and thigh of a partridge? I suppose you poets may +like white meat best, very probably; you had rather have a wing than a +drumstick, I dare say. + +--Why, yes,--said I,--I suppose some of us do. Perhaps it is because a +bird flies with his white-fleshed limbs and walks with the dark-fleshed +ones. Besides, the wing-muscles are nearer the heart than the +leg-muscles. + +I thought that sounded mighty pretty, and paused a moment to pat myself +on the back, as is my wont when I say something that I think of superior +quality. So I lost my innings; for the Master is apt to strike in at the +end of a bar, instead of waiting for a rest, if I may borrow a musical +phrase. No matter, just at this moment, what he said; but he talked the +Member of the Haouse asleep again. + +They have a new term nowadays (I am speaking to you, the Reader) +for people that do a good deal of talking; they call them +“conversationists,” or “conversationalists “; talkists, I suppose, would +do just as well. It is rather dangerous to get the name of being one +of these phenomenal manifestations, as one is expected to say something +remarkable every time one opens one's mouth in company. It seems hard +not to be able to ask for a piece of bread or a tumbler of water, +without a sensation running round the table, as if one were an electric +eel or a torpedo, and couldn't be touched without giving a shock. A +fellow is n't all battery, is he? The idea that a Gymnotus can't swallow +his worm without a coruscation of animal lightning is hard on that +brilliant but sensational being. Good talk is not a matter of will at +all; it depends--you know we are all half-materialists nowadays--on a +certain amount of active congestion of the brain, and that comes when it +is ready, and not before. I saw a man get up the other day in a pleasant +company, and talk away for about five minutes, evidently by a pure +effort of will. His person was good, his voice was pleasant, but anybody +could see that it was all mechanical labor; he was sparring for wind, as +the Hon. John Morrissey, M. C., would express himself. Presently,-- + +Do you,--Beloved, I am afraid you are not old enough,--but do you +remember the days of the tin tinder-box, the flint, and steel? Click! +click! click!--Al-h-h! knuckles that time! click! click! CLICK! a spark +has taken, and is eating into the black tinder, as a six-year-old eats +into a sheet of gingerbread. + +Presently, after hammering away for his five minutes with mere words, +the spark of a happy expression took somewhere among the mental +combustibles, and then for ten minutes we had a pretty, wandering, +scintillating play of eloquent thought, that enlivened, if it did not +kindle, all around it. If you want the real philosophy of it, I will +give it to you. The chance thought or expression struck the nervous +centre of consciousness, as the rowel of a spur stings the flank of a +racer. Away through all the telegraphic radiations of the nervous cords +flashed the intelligence that the brain was kindling, and must be fed +with something or other, or it would burn itself to ashes. + +And all the great hydraulic engines poured in their scarlet blood, and +the fire kindled, and the flame rose; for the blood is a stream that, +like burning rock-oil, at once kindles, and is itself the fuel. You +can't order these organic processes, any more than a milliner can make +a rose. She can make something that looks like a rose, more or less, +but it takes all the forces of the universe to finish and sweeten that +blossom in your button-hole; and you may be sure that when the orator's +brain is in a flame, when the poet's heart is in a tumult, it is +something mightier than he and his will that is dealing with him! As +I have looked from one of the northern windows of the street which +commands our noble estuary,--the view through which is a picture on an +illimitable canvas and a poem in innumerable cantos,--I have sometimes +seen a pleasure-boat drifting along, her sail flapping, and she seeming +as if she had neither will nor aim. At her stern a man was laboring to +bring her head round with an oar, to little purpose, as it seemed to +those who watched him pulling and tugging. But all at once the wind of +heaven, which had wandered all the way from Florida or from Labrador, +it may be, struck full upon the sail, and it swelled and rounded itself, +like a white bosom that had burst its bodice, and-- + +--You are right; it is too true! but how I love these pretty phrases! I +am afraid I am becoming an epicure in words, which is a bad thing to be, +unless it is dominated by something infinitely better than itself. +But there is a fascination in the mere sound of articulated breath; of +consonants that resist with the firmness of a maid of honor, or half or +wholly yield to the wooing lips; of vowels that flow and murmur, each +after its kind; the peremptory b and p, the brittle k, the vibrating r, +the insinuating s, the feathery f, the velvety v, the bell-voiced m, the +tranquil broad a, the penetrating e, the cooing u, the emotional o, and +the beautiful combinations of alternate rock and stream, as it were, +that they give to the rippling flow of speech,--there is a fascination +in the skilful handling of these, which the great poets and even +prose-writers have not disdained to acknowledge and use to recommend +their thought. What do you say to this line of Homer as a piece of +poetical full-band music? I know you read the Greek characters with +perfect ease, but permit me, just for my own satisfaction, to put it +into English letters:-- + + Aigle pamphanoosa di' aitheros ouranon ike! + +as if he should have spoken in our poorer phrase of + + Splendor far shining through ether to heaven ascending. + +That Greek line, which I do not remember having heard mention of +as remarkable, has nearly every consonantal and vowel sound in the +language. Try it by the Greek and by the English alphabet; it is a +curiosity. Tell me that old Homer did not roll his sightless eyeballs +about with delight, as he thundered out these ringing syllables! It +seems hard to think of his going round like a hand-organ man, with such +music and such thought as his to earn his bread with. One can't help +wishing that Mr. Pugh could have got at him for a single lecture, at +least, of the “Star Course,” or that he could have appeared in the Music +Hall, “for this night only.” + +--I know I have rambled, but I hope you see that this is a delicate way +of letting you into the nature of the individual who is, officially, +the principal personage at our table. It would hardly do to describe +him directly, you know. But you must not think, because the lightning +zigzags, it does not know where to strike. + +I shall try to go through the rest of my description of our boarders +with as little of digression as is consistent with my nature. I think +we have a somewhat exceptional company. Since our Landlady has got up in +the world, her board has been decidedly a favorite with persons a little +above the average in point of intelligence and education. In fact, +ever since a boarder of hers, not wholly unknown to the reading public, +brought her establishment into notice, it has attracted a considerable +number of literary and scientific people, and now and then a politician, +like the Member of the House of Representatives, otherwise called the +Great and General Court of the State of Massachusetts. The consequence +is, that there is more individuality of character than in a good many +similar boardinghouses, where all are business-men, engrossed in the +same pursuit of money-making, or all are engaged in politics, and so +deeply occupied with the welfare of the community that they can think +and talk of little else. + +At my left hand sits as singular-looking a human being as I remember +seeing outside of a regular museum or tent-show. His black coat shines +as if it had been polished; and it has been polished on the wearer's +back, no doubt, for the arms and other points of maximum attrition are +particularly smooth and bright. Round shoulders,--stooping over +some minute labor, I suppose. Very slender limbs, with bends like +a grasshopper's; sits a great deal, I presume; looks as if he might +straighten them out all of a sudden, and jump instead of walking. Wears +goggles very commonly; says it rests his eyes, which he strains in +looking at very small objects. Voice has a dry creak, as if made by +some small piece of mechanism that wanted oiling. I don't think he is +a botanist, for he does not smell of dried herbs, but carries a +camphorated atmosphere about with him, as if to keep the moths from +attacking him. I must find out what is his particular interest. One +ought to know something about his immediate neighbors at the table. +This is what I said to myself, before opening a conversation with him. +Everybody in our ward of the city was in a great stir about a certain +election, and I thought I might as well begin with that as anything. + +--How do you think the vote is likely to go tomorrow?--I said. + +--It isn't to-morrow,--he answered,--it 's next month. + +--Next month!--said I.--Why, what election do you mean? + +--I mean the election to the Presidency of the Entomological Society, +sir,--he creaked, with an air of surprise, as if nobody could by any +possibility have been thinking of any other. Great competition, sir, +between the dipterists and the lepidopterists as to which shall get +in their candidate. Several close ballotings already; adjourned for a +fortnight. Poor concerns, both of 'em. Wait till our turn comes. + +--I suppose you are an entomologist?--I said with a note of +interrogation. + +-Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes +on the individual entitled to that name! A society may call itself an +Entomological Society, but the man who arrogates such a broad title as +that to himself, in the present state of science, is a pretender, sir, +a dilettante, an impostor! No man can be truly called an entomologist, +sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp. + +--May I venture to ask,--I said, a little awed by his statement and +manner,--what is your special province of study? + +I am often spoken of as a Coleopterist,--he said,--but I have no right +to so comprehensive a name. The genus Scarabaeus is what I have chiefly +confined myself to, and ought to have studied exclusively. The beetles +proper are quite enough for the labor of one man's life. Call me a +Scarabaeist if you will; if I can prove myself worthy of that name, my +highest ambition will be more than satisfied. + +I think, by way of compromise and convenience, I shall call him the +Scarabee. He has come to look wonderfully like those creatures,--the +beetles, I mean,--by being so much among them. His room is hung round +with cases of them, each impaled on a pin driven through him, something +as they used to bury suicides. These cases take the place for him +of pictures and all other ornaments. That Boy steals into his room +sometimes, and stares at them with great admiration, and has himself +undertaken to form a rival cabinet, chiefly consisting of flies, so far, +arranged in ranks superintended by an occasional spider. + +The old Master, who is a bachelor, has a kindly feeling for this little +monkey, and those of his kind. + +--I like children,--he said to me one day at table,--I like 'em, and I +respect 'em. Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the +world is done by them. Do you know they play the part in the household +which the king's jester, who very often had a mighty long head under his +cap and bells, used to play for a monarch? There 's no radical club +like a nest of little folks in a nursery. Did you ever watch a baby's +fingers? I have, often enough, though I never knew what it was to own +one.--The Master paused half a minute or so,--sighed,--perhaps at +thinking what he had missed in life,--looked up at me a little vacantly. +I saw what was the matter; he had lost the thread of his talk. + +--Baby's fingers,--I intercalated. + +-Yes, yes; did you ever see how they will poke those wonderful little +fingers of theirs into every fold and crack and crevice they can get at? +That is their first education, feeling their way into the solid facts +of the material world. When they begin to talk it is the same thing over +again in another shape. If there is a crack or a flaw in your answer +to their confounded shoulder-hitting questions, they will poke and poke +until they have got it gaping just as the baby's fingers have made a +rent out of that atom of a hole in his pinafore that your old eyes never +took notice of. Then they make such fools of us by copying on a small +scale what we do in the grand manner. I wonder if it ever occurs to our +dried-up neighbor there to ask himself whether That Boy's collection +of flies is n't about as significant in the Order of Things as his own +Museum of Beetles? + +--I couldn't help thinking that perhaps That Boy's questions about the +simpler mysteries of life might have a good deal of the same kind of +significance as the Master's inquiries into the Order of Things. + +--On my left, beyond my next neighbor the Scarabee, at the end of the +table, sits a person of whom we know little, except that he carries +about him more palpable reminiscences of tobacco and the allied sources +of comfort than a very sensitive organization might find acceptable. +The Master does not seem to like him much, for some reason or +other,--perhaps he has a special aversion to the odor of tobacco. As +his forefinger shows a little too distinctly that he uses a pen, I shall +compliment him by calling him the Man of Letters, until I find out more +about him. + +--The Young Girl who sits on my right, next beyond the Master, can +hardly be more than nineteen or twenty years old. I wish I could paint +her so as to interest others as much as she does me. But she has not a +profusion of sunny tresses wreathing a neck of alabaster, and a cheek +where the rose and the lily are trying to settle their old quarrel with +alternating victory. Her hair is brown, her cheek is delicately pallid, +her forehead is too ample for a ball-room beauty's. A single faint line +between the eyebrows is the record of long--continued anxious efforts to +please in the task she has chosen, or rather which has been forced upon +her. It is the same line of anxious and conscientious effort which I saw +not long since on the forehead of one of the sweetest and truest singers +who has visited us; the same which is so striking on the masks of +singing women painted upon the facade of our Great Organ,--that +Himalayan home of harmony which you are to see and then die, if you +don't live where you can see and hear it often. Many deaths have +happened in a neighboring large city from that well-known complaint, +Icterus Invidiosorum, after returning from a visit to the Music Hall. +The invariable symptom of a fatal attack is the Risus Sardonicus.--But +the Young Girl. She gets her living by writing stories for a newspaper. +Every week she furnishes a new story. If her head aches or her heart +is heavy, so that she does not come to time with her story, she falls +behindhand and has to live on credit. It sounds well enough to say +that “she supports herself by her pen,” but her lot is a trying one; it +repeats the doom of the Danaides. The “Weekly Bucket” has no bottom, and +it is her business to help fill it. Imagine for one moment what it is +to tell a tale that must flow on, flow ever, without pausing; the lover +miserable and happy this week, to begin miserable again next week and +end as before; the villain scowling, plotting, punished; to scowl, +plot, and get punished again in our next; an endless series of woes and +busses, into each paragraph of which the forlorn artist has to throw all +the liveliness, all the emotion, all the graces of style she is mistress +of, for the wages of a maid of all work, and no more recognition or +thanks from anybody than the apprentice who sets the types for the paper +that prints her ever-ending and ever-beginning stories. And yet she has +a pretty talent, sensibility, a natural way of writing, an ear for +the music of verse, in which she sometimes indulges to vary the dead +monotony of everlasting narrative, and a sufficient amount of invention +to make her stories readable. I have found my eyes dimmed over them +oftener than once, more with thinking about her, perhaps, than about +her heroes and heroines. Poor little body! Poor little mind! Poor +little soul! She is one of that great company of delicate, intelligent, +emotional young creatures, who are waiting, like that sail I spoke of, +for some breath of heaven to fill their white bosoms,--love, the +right of every woman; religious emotion, sister of love, with the same +passionate eyes, but cold, thin, bloodless hands,--some enthusiasm of +humanity or divinity; and find that life offers them, instead, a seat +on a wooden bench, a chain to fasten them to it, and a heavy oar to pull +day and night. We read the Arabian tales and pity the doomed lady who +must amuse her lord and master from day to day or have her head cut off; +how much better is a mouth without bread to fill it than no mouth at all +to fill, because no head? We have all round us a weary-eyed company of +Scheherezades! This is one of them, and I may call her by that name when +it pleases me to do so. + +The next boarder I have to mention is the one who sits between the Young +Girl and the Landlady. In a little chamber into which a small thread of +sunshine finds its way for half an hour or so every day during a month +or six weeks of the spring or autumn, at all other times obliged to +content itself with ungilded daylight, lives this boarder, whom, without +wronging any others of our company, I may call, as she is very generally +called in the household, The Lady. In giving her this name it is not +meant that there are no other ladies at our table, or that the handmaids +who serve us are not ladies, or to deny the general proposition that +everybody who wears the unbifurcated garment is entitled to that +appellation. Only this lady has a look and manner which there is no +mistaking as belonging to a person always accustomed to refined and +elegant society. Her style is perhaps a little more courtly and gracious +than some would like. The language and manner which betray the habitual +desire of pleasing, and which add a charm to intercourse in the higher +social circles, are liable to be construed by sensitive beings unused to +such amenities as an odious condescension when addressed to persons of +less consideration than the accused, and as a still more odious--you +know the word--when directed to those who are esteemed by the world as +considerable person ages. But of all this the accused are fortunately +wholly unconscious, for there is nothing so entirely natural and +unaffected as the highest breeding. + +From an aspect of dignified but undisguised economy which showed itself +in her dress as well as in her limited quarters, I suspected a story +of shipwrecked fortune, and determined to question our Landlady. That +worthy woman was delighted to tell the history of her most distinguished +boarder. She was, as I had supposed, a gentlewoman whom a change of +circumstances had brought down from her high estate. + +--Did I know the Goldenrod family?--Of course I did.--Well, the Lady, +was first cousin to Mrs. Midas Goldenrod. She had been here in her +carriage to call upon her,--not very often.--Were her rich relations +kind and helpful to her?--Well, yes; at least they made her presents +now and then. Three or four years ago they sent her a silver waiter, and +every Christmas they sent her a boquet,--it must cost as much as five +dollars, the Landlady thought. + +--And how did the Lady receive these valuable and useful gifts? + +--Every Christmas she got out the silver waiter and borrowed a glass +tumbler and filled it with water, and put the boquet in it and set it +on the waiter. It smelt sweet enough and looked pretty for a day or +two, but the Landlady thought it wouldn't have hurt 'em if they'd sent a +piece of goods for a dress, or at least a pocket-handkercher or two, +or something or other that she could 'a' made some kind of use of; +but beggars must n't be choosers; not that she was a beggar, for she'd +sooner die than do that if she was in want of a meal of victuals. There +was a lady I remember, and she had a little boy and she was a widow, +and after she'd buried her husband she was dreadful poor, and she was +ashamed to let her little boy go out in his old shoes, and copper-toed +shoes they was too, because his poor little ten--toes--was a coming out +of 'em; and what do you think my husband's rich uncle,--well, there +now, it was me and my little Benjamin, as he was then, there's no use +in hiding of it,--and what do you think my husband's uncle sent me but a +plaster of Paris image of a young woman, that was,--well, her appearance +wasn't respectable, and I had to take and wrap her up in a towel and +poke her right into my closet, and there she stayed till she got her +head broke and served her right, for she was n't fit to show folks. +You need n't say anything about what I told you, but the fact is I was +desperate poor before I began to support myself taking boarders, and a +lone woman without her--her-- + +The sentence plunged into the gulf of her great remembered sorrow, and +was lost to the records of humanity. + +--Presently she continued in answer to my questions: The Lady was not +very sociable; kept mostly to herself. The Young Girl (our Scheherezade) +used to visit her sometimes, and they seemed to like each other, but the +Young Girl had not many spare hours for visiting. The Lady never found +fault, but she was very nice in her tastes, and kept everything about +her looking as neat and pleasant as she could. + +--What did she do?--Why, she read, and she drew pictures, and she did +needlework patterns, and played on an old harp she had; the gilt was +mostly off, but it sounded very sweet, and she sung to it sometimes, +those old songs that used to be in fashion twenty or thirty years ago, +with words to 'em that folks could understand. + +Did she do anything to help support herself?--The Landlady couldn't say +she did, but she thought there was rich people enough that ought to buy +the flowers and things she worked and painted. + +All this points to the fact that she was bred to be an ornamental rather +than what is called a useful member of society. This is all very well +so long as fortune favors those who are chosen to be the ornamental +personages; but if the golden tide recedes and leaves them stranded, +they are more to be pitied than almost any other class. “I cannot dig, +to beg I am ashamed.” + +I think it is unpopular in this country to talk much about gentlemen and +gentlewomen. People are touchy about social distinctions, which no doubt +are often invidious and quite arbitrary and accidental, but which it +is impossible to avoid recognizing as facts of natural history. Society +stratifies itself everywhere, and the stratum which is generally +recognized as the uppermost will be apt to have the advantage in easy +grace of manner and in unassuming confidence, and consequently be +more agreeable in the superficial relations of life. To compare these +advantages with the virtues and utilities would be foolish. Much of the +noblest work in life is done by ill-dressed, awkward, ungainly persons; +but that is no more reason for undervaluing good manners and what we +call high-breeding, than the fact that the best part of the sturdy labor +of the world is done by men with exceptionable hands is to be urged +against the use of Brown Windsor as a preliminary to appearance in +cultivated society. + +I mean to stand up for this poor lady, whose usefulness in the world +is apparently problematical. She seems to me like a picture which has +fallen from its gilded frame and lies, face downward, on the dusty +floor. The picture never was as needful as a window or a door, but it +was pleasant to see it in its place, and it would be pleasant to see +it there again, and I, for one, should be thankful to have the Lady +restored by some turn of fortune to the position from which she has been +so cruelly cast down. + +--I have asked the Landlady about the young man sitting near her, the +same who attracted my attention the other day while I was talking, as +I mentioned. He passes most of his time in a private observatory, it +appears; a watcher of the stars. That I suppose gives the peculiar look +to his lustrous eyes. The Master knows him and was pleased to tell me +something about him. + +You call yourself a Poet,--he said,--and we call you so, too, and so +you are; I read your verses and like 'em. But that young man lives in a +world beyond the imagination of poets, let me tell you. The daily +home of his thought is in illimitable space, hovering between the two +eternities. In his contemplations the divisions of time run together, +as in the thought of his Maker. With him also,--I say it not +profanely,--one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one +day. + +This account of his occupation increased the interest his look had +excited in me, and I have observed him more particularly and found out +more about him. Sometimes, after a long night's watching, he looks so +pale and worn, that one would think the cold moonlight had stricken him +with some malign effluence such as it is fabled to send upon those who +sleep in it. At such times he seems more like one who has come from a +planet farther away from the sun than our earth, than like one of +us terrestrial creatures. His home is truly in the heavens, and he +practises an asceticism in the cause of science almost comparable to +that of Saint Simeon Stylites. Yet they tell me he might live in luxury +if he spent on himself what he spends on science. His knowledge is +of that strange, remote character, that it seems sometimes almost +superhuman. He knows the ridges and chasms of the moon as a surveyor +knows a garden-plot he has measured. He watches the snows that gather +around the poles of Mars; he is on the lookout for the expected comet at +the moment when its faint stain of diffused light first shows itself; he +analyzes the ray that comes from the sun's photosphere; he measures the +rings of Saturn; he counts his asteroids to see that none are missing, +as the shepherd counts the sheep in his flock. A strange unearthly +being; lonely, dwelling far apart from the thoughts and cares of +the planet on which he lives,--an enthusiast who gives his life to +knowledge; a student of antiquity, to whom the records of the geologist +are modern pages in the great volume of being, and the pyramids a +memorandum of yesterday, as the eclipse or occultation that is to take +place thousands of years hence is an event of to-morrow in the diary +without beginning and without end where he enters the aspect of the +passing moment as it is read on the celestial dial. + +In very marked contrast with this young man is the something more than +middle-aged Register of Deeds, a rusty, sallow, smoke-dried looking +personage, who belongs to this earth as exclusively as the other +belongs to the firmament. His movements are as mechanical as those of +a pendulum,--to the office, where he changes his coat and plunges into +messuages and building-lots; then, after changing his coat again, back +to our table, and so, day by day, the dust of years gradually gathering +around him as it does on the old folios that fill the shelves all round +the great cemetery of past transactions of which he is the sexton. + +Of the Salesman who sits next him, nothing need be said except that he +is good-looking, rosy, well-dressed, and of very polite manners, only a +little more brisk than the approved style of carriage permits, as one +in the habit of springing with a certain alacrity at the call of a +customer. + +You would like to see, I don't doubt, how we sit at the table, and I +will help you by means of a diagram which shows the present arrangement +of our seats. + + 4 3 2 1 14 13 + --------------------------------- + | O O O O O O | + | | + 5 | O Breakfast-Table O |12 + | | + | O O O O O O | + --------------------------------- + 6 7 8 9 10 11 + + 1. The Poet. + 2. The Master Of Arts. + 3. The Young Girl (Scheherezade). + 4. The Lady. + 5. The Landlady. + 6. Dr. B. Franklin. + 7. That Boy. + 8. The Astronomer. + 9. The Member of the Haouse. + 10. The Register of Deeds. + 11. The Salesman. + 12. The Capitalist. + 13. The Man of Letters(?). + 14. The Scarabee. + +Our young Scheherezade varies her prose stories now and then, as I told +you, with compositions in verse, one or two of which she has let me look +over. Here is one of them, which she allowed me to copy. It is from a +story of hers, “The Sun-Worshipper's Daughter,” which you may find in +the periodical before mentioned, to which she is a contributor, if your +can lay your hand upon a file of it. I think our Scheherezade has never +had a lover in human shape, or she would not play so lightly with the +firebrands of the great passion. + + FANTASIA. + + Kiss mine eyelids, beauteous Morn, + Blushing into life new-born! + Lend me violets for my hair, + And thy russet robe to wear, + And thy ring of rosiest hue + Set in drops of diamond dew! + + Kiss my cheek, thou noontide ray, + From my Love so far away! + Let thy splendor streaming down + Turn its pallid lilies brown, + Till its darkening shades reveal + Where his passion pressed its seal! + + Kiss my lips, thou Lord of light, + Kiss my lips a soft good night! + Westward sinks thy golden car; + Leave me but the evening star, + And my solace that shall be, + Borrowing all its light from thee! + + + + +III + +The old Master was talking about a concert he had been to hear.--I don't +like your chopped music anyway. That woman--she had more sense in her +little finger than forty medical societies--Florence Nightingale--says +that the music you pour out is good for sick folks, and the music you +pound out isn't. Not that exactly, but something like it. I have been +to hear some music-pounding. It was a young woman, with as many white +muslin flounces round her as the planet Saturn has rings, that did it. +She--gave the music-stool a twirl or two and fluffed down on to it like +a whirl of soap-suds in a hand-basin. Then she pushed up her cuffs as +if she was going to fight for the champion's belt. Then she worked +her wrists and her hands, to limber 'em, I suppose, and spread out her +fingers till they looked as though they would pretty much cover the +key-board, from the growling end to the little squeaky one. Then those +two hands of hers made a jump at the keys as if they were a couple of +tigers coming down on a flock of black and white sheep, and the piano +gave a great howl as if its tail had been trod on. Dead stop,--so still +you could hear your hair growing. Then another jump, and another howl, +as if the piano had two tails and you had trod on both of 'em at once, +and, then a grand clatter and scramble and string of jumps, up and down, +back and forward, one hand over the other, like a stampede of rats and +mice more than like anything I call music. I like to hear a woman sing, +and I like to hear a fiddle sing, but these noises they hammer out of +their wood and ivory anvils--don't talk to me, I know the difference +between a bullfrog and a woodthrush and-- + +Pop! went a small piece of artillery such as is made of a stick of elder +and carries a pellet of very moderate consistency. That Boy was in his +seat and looking demure enough, but there could be no question that he +was the artillery-man who had discharged the missile. The aim was not a +bad one, for it took the Master full in the forehead, and had the effect +of checking the flow of his eloquence. How the little monkey had learned +to time his interruptions I do not know, but I have observed more than +once before this, that the popgun would go off just at the moment when +some one of the company was getting too energetic or prolix. The Boy +isn't old enough to judge for himself when to intervene to change the +order of conversation; no, of course he isn't. Somebody must give him +a hint. Somebody.--Who is it? I suspect Dr. B. Franklin. He looks too +knowing. There is certainly a trick somewhere. Why, a day or two ago I +was myself discoursing, with considerable effect, as I thought, on some +of the new aspects of humanity, when I was struck full on the cheek by +one of these little pellets, and there was such a confounded laugh that +I had to wind up and leave off with a preposition instead of a good +mouthful of polysyllables. I have watched our young Doctor, however, and +have been entirely unable to detect any signs of communication between +him and this audacious child, who is like to become a power among us, +for that popgun is fatal to any talker who is hit by its pellet. I have +suspected a foot under the table as the prompter, but I have been unable +to detect the slightest movement or look as if he were making one, +on the part of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. I cannot help thinking of the +flappers in Swift's Laputa, only they gave one a hint when to speak and +another a hint to listen, whereas the popgun says unmistakably, “Shut +up!” + +--I should be sorry to lose my confidence in Dr. B. Franklin, who seems +very much devoted to his business, and whom I mean to consult about +some small symptoms I have had lately. Perhaps it is coming to a new +boarding-house. The young people who come into Paris from the provinces +are very apt--so I have been told by one that knows--to have an attack +of typhoid fever a few weeks or months after their arrival. I have not +been long enough at this table to get well acclimated; perhaps that is +it. Boarding-House Fever. Something like horse-ail, very likely,--horses +get it, you know, when they are brought to city stables. A little “off +my feed,” as Hiram Woodruff would say. A queer discoloration about my +forehead. Query, a bump? Cannot remember any. Might have got it against +bedpost or something while asleep. Very unpleasant to look so. I wonder +how my portrait would look, if anybody should take it now! I hope not +quite so badly as one I saw the other day, which I took for the end man +of the Ethiopian Serenaders, or some traveller who had been exploring +the sources of the Niger, until I read the name at the bottom and found +it was a face I knew as well as my own. + +I must consult somebody, and it is nothing more than fair to give our +young Doctor a chance. Here goes for Dr. Benjamin Franklin. + +The young Doctor has a very small office and a very large sign, with a +transparency at night big enough for an oyster-shop. These young +doctors are particularly strong, as I understand, on what they call +diagnosis,--an excellent branch of the healing art, full of satisfaction +to the curious practitioner, who likes to give the right Latin name to +one's complaint; not quite so satisfactory to the patient, as it is not +so very much pleasanter to be bitten by a dog with a collar round his +neck telling you that he is called Snap or Teaser, than by a dog without +a collar. Sometimes, in fact, one would a little rather not know the +exact name of his complaint, as if he does he is pretty sure to look it +out in a medical dictionary, and then if he reads, This terrible disease +is attended with vast suffering and is inevitably mortal, or any such +statement, it is apt to affect him unpleasantly. + +I confess to a little shakiness when I knocked at Dr. Benjamin's office +door. “Come in!” exclaimed Dr. B. F. in tones that sounded ominous and +sepulchral. And I went in. + +I don't believe the chambers of the Inquisition ever presented a more +alarming array of implements for extracting a confession, than our young +Doctor's office did of instruments to make nature tell what was the +matter with a poor body. + +There were Ophthalmoscopes and Rhinoscopes and Otoscopes and +Laryngoscopes and Stethoscopes; and Thermometers and Spirometers and +Dynamometers and Sphygmometers and Pleximeters; and Probes and Probangs +and all sorts of frightful inquisitive exploring contrivances; +and scales to weigh you in, and tests and balances and pumps and +electro-magnets and magneto-electric machines; in short, apparatus for +doing everything but turn you inside out. + +Dr. Benjamin set me down before his one window and began looking at me +with such a superhuman air of sagacity, that I felt like one of those +open-breasted clocks which make no secret of their inside arrangements, +and almost thought he could see through me as one sees through a shrimp +or a jelly-fish. First he looked at the place inculpated, which had a +sort of greenish-brown color, with his naked eyes, with much corrugation +of forehead and fearful concentration of attention; then through +a pocket-glass which he carried. Then he drew back a space, for a +perspective view. Then he made me put out my tongue and laid a slip of +blue paper on it, which turned red and scared me a little. Next he took +my wrist; but instead of counting my pulse in the old-fashioned way, +he fastened a machine to it that marked all the beats on a sheet of +paper,--for all the world like a scale of the heights of mountains, say +from Mount Tom up to Chimborazo and then down again, and up again, and +so on. In the mean time he asked me all sorts of questions about myself +and all my relatives, whether we had been subject to this and that +malady, until I felt as if we must some of us have had more or less of +them, and could not feel quite sure whether Elephantiasis and Beriberi +and Progressive Locomotor Ataxy did not run in the family. + +After all this overhauling of myself and my history, he paused and +looked puzzled. Something was suggested about what he called an +“exploratory puncture.” This I at once declined, with thanks. Suddenly a +thought struck him. He looked still more closely at the discoloration I +have spoken of. + +--Looks like--I declare it reminds me of--very rare! very curious! It +would be strange if my first case--of this kind--should be one of our +boarders! + +What kind of a case do you call it?--I said, with a sort of feeling that +he could inflict a severe or a light malady on me, as if he were a judge +passing sentence. + +--The color reminds me,--said Dr. B. Franklin,--of what I have seen in a +case of Addison's Disease, Morbus Addisonii. + +--But my habits are quite regular,--I said; for I remembered that the +distinguished essayist was too fond of his brandy and water, and +I confess that the thought was not pleasant to me of following Dr. +Johnson's advice, with the slight variation of giving my days and my +nights to trying on the favorite maladies of Addison. + +--Temperance people are subject to it!--exclaimed Dr. Benjamin, almost +exultingly, I thought. + +--But I had the impression that the author of the Spectator was +afflicted with a dropsy, or some such inflated malady, to which persons +of sedentary and bibacious habits are liable. [A literary swell,--I +thought to myself, but I did not say it. I felt too serious.] + +--The author of the Spectator!--cried out Dr. Benjamin,--I mean the +celebrated Dr. Addison, inventor, I would say discoverer, of the +wonderful new disease called after him. + +--And what may this valuable invention or discovery consist in?--I +asked, for I was curious to know the nature of the gift which this +benefactor of the race had bestowed upon us. + +--A most interesting affection, and rare, too. Allow me to look closely +at that discoloration once more for a moment. Cutis cenea, bronze skin, +they call it sometimes--extraordinary pigmentation--a little more to +the light, if you please--ah! now I get the bronze coloring admirably, +beautifully! Would you have any objection to showing your case to the +Societies of Medical Improvement and Medical Observation? + +[--My case! O dear!] May I ask if any vital organ is commonly involved +in this interesting complaint?--I said, faintly. + +--Well, sir,--the young Doctor replied,--there is an organ which is +--sometimes--a little touched, I may say; a very curious and ingenious +little organ or pair of organs. Did you ever hear of the Capsulae, +Suprarenales? + +--No,--said I,--is it a mortal complaint?--I ought to have known better +than to ask such a question, but I was getting nervous and thinking +about all sorts of horrid maladies people are liable to, with horrid +names to match. + +--It is n't a complaint,--I mean they are not a complaint,--they are two +small organs, as I said, inside of you, and nobody knows what is the use +of them. The most curious thing is that when anything is the matter with +them you turn of the color of bronze. After all, I didn't mean to say I +believed it was Morbus Addisonii; I only thought of that when I saw the +discoloration. + +So he gave me a recipe, which I took care to put where it could do no +hurt to anybody, and I paid him his fee (which he took with the air of a +man in the receipt of a great income) and said Good-morning. + +--What in the name of a thousand diablos is the reason these confounded +doctors will mention their guesses about “a case,” as they call it, and +all its conceivable possibilities, out loud before their patients? I +don't suppose there is anything in all this nonsense about “Addison's +Disease,” but I wish he hadn't spoken of that very interesting ailment, +and I should feel a little easier if that discoloration would leave my +forehead. I will ask the Landlady about it,--these old women often +know more than the young doctors just come home with long names for +everything they don't know how to cure. But the name of this complaint +sets me thinking. Bronzed skin! What an odd idea! Wonder if it spreads +all over one. That would be picturesque and pleasant, now, wouldn't it? +To be made a living statue of,--nothing to do but strike an attitude. +Arm up--so--like the one in the Garden. John of Bologna's Mercury--thus +on one foot. Needy knife-grinder in the Tribune at Florence. No, not +“needy,” come to think of it. Marcus Aurelius on horseback. Query. Are +horses subject to the Morbus Addisonii? Advertise for a bronzed living +horse--Lyceum invitations and engagements--bronze versus brass.--What +'s the use in being frightened? Bet it was a bump. Pretty certain I +bumped my forehead against something. Never heard of a bronzed man +before. Have seen white men, black men, red men, yellow men, two or +three blue men, stained with doctor's stuff; some green ones, from the +country; but never a bronzed man. Poh, poh! Sure it was a bump. Ask +Landlady to look at it. + +--Landlady did look at it. Said it was a bump, and no mistake. +Recommended a piece of brown paper dipped in vinegar. Made the house +smell as if it were in quarantine for the plague from Smyrna, but +discoloration soon disappeared,--so I did not become a bronzed man after +all,--hope I never shall while I am alive. Should n't mind being done +in bronze after I was dead. On second thoughts not so clear about it, +remembering how some of them look that we have got stuck up in public; +think I had rather go down to posterity in an Ethiopian Minstrel +portrait, like our friend's the other day. + +--You were kind enough to say, I remarked to the Master, that you read +my poems and liked them. Perhaps you would be good enough to tell me +what it is you like about them? + +The Master harpooned a breakfast-roll and held it up before me.--Will +you tell me,--he said,--why you like that breakfast-roll?--I suppose he +thought that would stop my mouth in two senses. But he was mistaken. + +--To be sure I will,--said I.--First, I like its mechanical +consistency; brittle externally,--that is for the teeth, which want +resistance to be overcome; soft, spongy, well tempered and flavored +internally, that is for the organ of taste; wholesome, nutritious,--that +is for the internal surfaces and the system generally. + +--Good,--said the Master, and laughed a hearty terrestrial laugh. + +I hope he will carry that faculty of an honest laugh with him wherever +he goes,--why shouldn't he? The “order of things,” as he calls it, from +which hilarity was excluded, would be crippled and one-sided enough. I +don't believe the human gamut will be cheated of a single note after +men have done breathing this fatal atmospheric mixture and die into the +ether of immortality! + +I did n't say all that; if I had said it, it would have brought a pellet +from the popgun, I feel quite certain. + +The Master went on after he had had out his laugh.--There is one thing +I am His Imperial Majesty about, and that is my likes and dislikes. +What if I do like your verses,--you can't help yourself. I don't doubt +somebody or other hates 'em and hates you and everything you do, or ever +did, or ever can do. He is all right; there is nothing you or I like +that somebody does n't hate. Was there ever anything wholesome that was +not poison to somebody? If you hate honey or cheese, or the products +of the dairy,--I know a family a good many of whose members can't touch +milk, butter, cheese, and the like, why, say so, but don't find fault +with the bees and the cows. Some are afraid of roses, and I have known +those who thought a pond-lily a disagreeable neighbor. That Boy will +give you the metaphysics of likes and dislikes. Look here,--you young +philosopher over there,--do you like candy? + +That Boy.--You bet! Give me a stick and see if I don't. + +And can you tell me why you like candy? + +That Boy.--Because I do. + +--There, now, that is the whole matter in a nutshell. Why do your teeth +like crackling crust, and your organs of taste like spongy crumb, +and your digestive contrivances take kindly to bread rather than +toadstools-- + +That Boy (thinking he was still being catechised).--Because they do. + +Whereupon the Landlady said, Sh! and the Young Girl laughed, and the +Lady smiled; and Dr. Ben Franklin kicked him, moderately, under the +table, and the Astronomer looked up at the ceiling to see what had +happened, and the Member of the Haouse cried, Order! Order! and the +Salesman said, Shut up, cash-boy! and the rest of the boarders kept on +feeding; except the Master, who looked very hard but half approvingly +at the small intruder, who had come about as nearly right as most +professors would have done. + +--You poets,--the Master said after this excitement had calmed down, +--you poets have one thing about you that is odd. You talk about +everything as if you knew more about it than the people whose business +it is to know all about it. I suppose you do a little of what we +teachers used to call “cramming” now and then? + +--If you like your breakfast you must n't ask the cook too many +questions,--I answered. + +--Oh, come now, don't be afraid of letting out your secrets. I have +a notion I can tell a poet that gets himself up just as I can tell a +make-believe old man on the stage by the line where the gray skullcap +joins the smooth forehead of the young fellow of seventy. You'll confess +to a rhyming dictionary anyhow, won't you? + +--I would as lief use that as any other dictionary, but I don't want it. +When a word comes up fit to end a line with I can feel all the rhymes +in the language that are fit to go with it without naming them. I have +tried them all so many times, I know all the polygamous words and all +the monogamous ones, and all the unmarrying ones,--the whole lot that +have no mates,--as soon as I hear their names called. Sometimes I run +over a string of rhymes, but generally speaking it is strange what +a short list it is of those that are good for anything. That is the +pitiful side of all rhymed verse. Take two such words as home and world. +What can you do with chrome or loam or gnome or tome? You have dome, +foam, and roam, and not much more to use in your pome, as some of our +fellow-countrymen call it. As for world, you know that in all human +probability somebody or something will be hurled into it or out of it; +its clouds may be furled or its grass impearled; possibly something may +be whirled, or curled, or have swirled, one of Leigh Hunt's words, which +with lush, one of Keats's, is an important part of the stock in trade of +some dealers in rhyme. + +--And how much do you versifiers know of all those arts and sciences you +refer to as if you were as familiar with them as a cobbler is with his +wax and lapstone? + +--Enough not to make too many mistakes. The best way is to ask some +expert before one risks himself very far in illustrations from a branch +he does not know much about. Suppose, for instance, I wanted to use the +double star to illustrate anything, say the relation of two human souls +to each other, what would I--do? Why, I would ask our young friend +there to let me look at one of those loving celestial pairs through his +telescope, and I don't doubt he'd let me do so, and tell me their names +and all I wanted to know about them. + +--I should be most happy to show any of the double stars or whatever +else there might be to see in the heavens to any of our friends at this +table,--the young man said, so cordially and kindly that it was a real +invitation. + +--Show us the man in the moon,--said That Boy.--I should so like to +see a double star!--said Scheherezade, with a very pretty air of smiling +modesty. + +--Will you go, if we make up a party?--I asked the Master. + +--A cold in the head lasts me from three to five days,--answered +the Master.--I am not so very fond of being out in the dew like +Nebuchadnezzar: that will do for you young folks. + +--I suppose I must be one of the young folks, not so young as our +Scheherezade, nor so old as the Capitalist,--young enough at any rate to +want to be of the party. So we agreed that on some fair night when the +Astronomer should tell us that there was to be a fine show in the skies, +we would make up a party and go to the Observatory. I asked the Scarabee +whether he would not like to make one of us. + +--Out of the question, sir, out of the question. I am altogether too +much occupied with an important scientific investigation to devote any +considerable part of an evening to star-gazing. + +--Oh, indeed,--said I,--and may I venture to ask on what particular +point you are engaged just at present? + +-Certainly, sir, you may. It is, I suppose, as difficult and important +a matter to be investigated as often comes before a student of natural +history. I wish to settle the point once for all whether the Pediculus +Mellitae is or is not the larva of Meloe. + +[--Now is n't this the drollest world to live in that one could imagine, +short of being in a fit of delirium tremens? Here is a fellow-creature +of mine and yours who is asked to see all the glories of the firmament +brought close to him, and he is too busy with a little unmentionable +parasite that infests the bristly surface of a bee to spare an hour or +two of a single evening for the splendors of the universe! I must get a +peep through that microscope of his and see the pediculus which occupies +a larger space in his mental vision than the midnight march of the solar +systems.--The creature, the human one, I mean, interests me.] + +--I am very curious,--I said,--about that pediculus melittae,--(just as +if I knew a good deal about the little wretch and wanted to know more, +whereas I had never heard him spoken of before, to my knowledge,)--could +you let me have a sight of him in your microscope? + +--You ought to have seen the way in which the poor dried-up little +Scarabee turned towards me. His eyes took on a really human look, and +I almost thought those antennae-like arms of his would have stretched +themselves out and embraced me. I don't believe any of the boarders +had ever shown any interest in--him, except the little monkey of a Boy, +since he had been in the house. It is not strange; he had not seemed to +me much like a human being, until all at once I touched the one point +where his vitality had concentrated itself, and he stood revealed a man +and a brother. + +--Come in,--said he,--come in, right after breakfast, and you shall see +the animal that has convulsed the entomological world with questions as +to his nature and origin. + +--So I went into the Scarabee's parlor, lodging-room, study, laboratory, +and museum,--a--single apartment applied to these various uses, you +understand. + +--I wish I had time to have you show me all your treasures,--I said, +--but I am afraid I shall hardly be able to do more than look at the +bee-parasite. But what a superb butterfly you have in that case! + +--Oh, yes, yes, well enough,--came from South America with the beetle +there; look at him! These Lepidoptera are for children to play with, +pretty to look at, so some think. Give me the Coleoptera, and the kings +of the Coleoptera are the beetles! Lepidoptera and Neuroptera for little +folks; Coleopteras for men, sir! + +--The particular beetle he showed me in the case with the magnificent +butterfly was an odious black wretch that one would say, Ugh! at, and +kick out of his path, if he did not serve him worse than that. But he +looked at it as a coin-collector would look at a Pescennius Niger, if +the coins of that Emperor are as scarce as they used to be when I was +collecting half-penny tokens and pine-tree shillings and battered bits +of Roman brass with the head of Gallienus or some such old fellow on +them. + +--A beauty!--he exclaimed,--and the only specimen of the kind in +this country, to the best of my belief. A unique, sir, and there is a +pleasure in exclusive possession. Not another beetle like that short of +South America, sir. + +--I was glad to hear that there were no more like it in this +neighborhood, the present supply of cockroaches answering every purpose, +so far as I am concerned, that such an animal as this would be likely to +serve. + +--Here are my bee-parasites,--said the Scarabee, showing me a box full +of glass slides, each with a specimen ready mounted for the microscope. +I was most struck with one little beast flattened out like a turtle, +semi-transparent, six-legged, as I remember him, and every leg +terminated by a single claw hooked like a lion's and as formidable for +the size of the creature as that of the royal beast. + +--Lives on a bumblebee, does he?--I said. That's the way I call it. +Bumblebee or bumblybee and huckleberry. Humblebee and whortleberry for +people that say Woos-ses-ter and Nor-wich. + +--The Scarabee did not smile; he took no interest in trivial matters +like this. + +--Lives on a bumblebee. When you come to think of it, he must lead a +pleasant kind of life. Sails through the air without the trouble +of flying. Free pass everywhere that the bee goes. No fear of being +dislodged; look at those six grappling-hooks. Helps himself to such +juices of the bee as he likes best; the bee feeds on the choicest +vegetable nectars, and he feeds on the bee. Lives either in the air or +in the perfumed pavilion of the fairest and sweetest flowers. Think what +tents the hollyhocks and the great lilies spread for him! And wherever +he travels a band of music goes with him, for this hum which wanders by +us is doubtless to him a vast and inspiring strain of melody.--I +thought all this, while the Scarabee supposed I was studying the minute +characters of the enigmatical specimen. + +--I know what I consider your pediculus melittae, I said at length. + +Do you think it really the larva of meloe? + +--Oh, I don't know much about that, but I think he is the best cared +for, on the whole, of any animal that I know of; and if I wasn't a man +I believe I had rather be that little sybarite than anything that feasts +at the board of nature. + +--The question is, whether he is the larva of meloe,--the Scarabee said, +as if he had not heard a word of what I had just been saying.---If I +live a few years longer it shall be settled, sir; and if my epitaph +can say honestly that I settled it, I shall be willing to trust my +posthumous fame to that achievement. + +I said good morning to the specialist, and went off feeling not only +kindly, but respectfully towards him. He is an enthusiast, at any rate, +as “earnest” a man as any philanthropic reformer who, having passed his +life in worrying people out of their misdoings into good behavior, comes +at last to a state in which he is never contented except when he is +making somebody uncomfortable. He does certainly know one thing well, +very likely better than anybody in the world. + +I find myself somewhat singularly placed at our table between a minute +philosopher who has concentrated all his faculties on a single subject, +and my friend who finds the present universe too restricted for his +intelligence. I would not give much to hear what the Scarabee says about +the old Master, for he does not pretend to form a judgment of anything +but beetles, but I should like to hear what the Master has to say about +the Scarabee. I waited after breakfast until he had gone, and then asked +the Master what he could make of our dried-up friend. + +--Well,--he said,--I am hospitable enough in my feelings to him and all +his tribe. These specialists are the coral-insects that build up a reef. +By and by it will be an island, and for aught we know may grow into a +continent. But I don't want to be a coral-insect myself. I had rather be +a voyager that visits all the reefs and islands the creatures build, +and sails over the seas where they have as yet built up nothing. I am +a little afraid that science is breeding us down too fast into +coral-insects. A man like Newton or Leibnitz or Haller used to paint a +picture of outward or inward nature with a free hand, and stand back and +look at it as a whole and feel like an archangel; but nowadays you have +a Society, and they come together and make a great mosaic, each man +bringing his little bit and sticking it in its place, but so taken up +with his petty fragment that he never thinks of looking at the picture +the little bits make when they are put together. You can't get any talk +out of these specialists away from their own subjects, any more than you +can get help from a policeman outside of his own beat. + +--Yes,--said I,--but why should n't we always set a man talking about +the thing he knows best? + +--No doubt, no doubt, if you meet him once; but what are you going to do +with him if you meet him every day? I travel with a man and we want +to make change very often in paying bills. But every time I ask him to +change a pistareen, or give me two fo'pencehappennies for a ninepence, +or help me to make out two and thrippence (mark the old Master's +archaisms about the currency), what does the fellow do but put his hand +in his pocket and pull out an old Roman coin; I have no change, says he, +but this assarion of Diocletian. Mighty deal of good that'll do me! + +--It isn't quite so handy as a few specimens of the modern currency +would be, but you can pump him on numismatics. + +--To be sure, to be sure. I've pumped a thousand men of all they could +teach me, or at least all I could learn from 'em; and if it comes to +that, I never saw the man that couldn't teach me something. I can get +along with everybody in his place, though I think the place of some of +my friends is over there among the feeble-minded pupils, and I don't +believe there's one of them, I couldn't go to school to for half an hour +and be the wiser for it. But people you talk with every day have got +to have feeders for their minds, as much as the stream that turns +a millwheel has. It isn't one little rill that's going to keep the +float-boards turning round. Take a dozen of the brightest men you can +find in the brightest city, wherever that may be,--perhaps you and I +think we know,--and let 'em come together once a month, and you'll find +out in the course of a year or two the ones that have feeders from all +the hillsides. Your common talkers, that exchange the gossip of the day, +have no wheel in particular to turn, and the wash of the rain as it runs +down the street is enough for them. + +--Do you mean you can always see the sources from which a man fills his +mind,--his feeders, as you call them? + +-I don't go quite so far as that,--the Master said.--I've seen men +whose minds were always overflowing, and yet they did n't read much nor +go much into the world. Sometimes you'll find a bit of a pond-hole in a +pasture, and you'll plunge your walking-stick into it and think you +are going to touch bottom. But you find you are mistaken. Some of these +little stagnant pond-holes are a good deal deeper than you think; you +may tie a stone to a bed-cord and not get soundings in some of 'em. The +country boys will tell you they have no bottom, but that only means that +they are mighty deep; and so a good many stagnant, stupid-seeming +people are a great deal deeper than the length of your intellectual +walking-stick, I can tell you. There are hidden springs that keep the +little pond-holes full when the mountain brooks are all dried up. You +poets ought to know that. + +--I can't help thinking you are more tolerant towards the specialists +than I thought at first, by the way you seemed to look at our dried-up +neighbor and his small pursuits. + +--I don't like the word tolerant,--the Master said.--As long as +the Lord can tolerate me I think I can stand my fellow-creatures. +Philosophically, I love 'em all; empirically, I don't think I am very +fond of all of 'em. It depends on how you look at a man or a woman. Come +here, Youngster, will you? he said to That Boy. + +The Boy was trying to catch a blue-bottle to add to his collection, +and was indisposed to give up the chase; but he presently saw that the +Master had taken out a small coin and laid it on the table, and felt +himself drawn in that direction. + +Read that,--said the Master. + +U-n-i-ni United States of America 5 cents. + +The Master turned the coin over. Now read that. + +In God is our t-r-u-s-t--trust. 1869. + +--Is that the same piece of money as the other one? + +--There ain't any other one,--said the Boy, there ain't but one, but +it's got two sides to it with different reading. + +--That 's it, that 's it,--said the Master,--two sides to everybody, as +there are to that piece of money. I've seen an old woman that wouldn't +fetch five cents if you should put her up for sale at public auction; +and yet come to read the other side of her, she had a trust in God +Almighty that was like the bow anchor of a three-decker. It's faith in +something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth looking +at. I don't think your ant-eating specialist, with his sharp nose and +pin-head eyes, is the best every-day companion; but any man who knows +one thing well is worth listening to for once; and if you are of the +large-brained variety of the race, and want to fill out your programme +of the Order of Things in a systematic and exhaustive way, and get all +the half-notes and flats and sharps of humanity into your scale, you'd a +great deal better shut your front door and open your two side ones +when you come across a fellow that has made a real business of doing +anything. + +--That Boy stood all this time looking hard at the five-cent piece. + +--Take it,--said the Master, with a good-natured smile. + +--The Boy made a snatch at it and was off for the purpose of investing +it. + +--A child naturally snaps at a thing as a dog does at his meat,--said +the Master.--If you think of it, we've all been quadrupeds. A child +that can only crawl has all the instincts of a four-footed beast. It +carries things in its mouth just as cats and dogs do. I've seen the +little brutes do it over and over again. I suppose a good many children +would stay quadrupeds all their lives, if they didn't learn the trick of +walking on their hind legs from seeing all the grown people walking in +that way. + +--Do you accept Mr. Darwin's notions about the origin of the race?--said +I. + +The Master looked at me with that twinkle in his eye which means that he +is going to parry a question. + +--Better stick to Blair's Chronology; that settles it. Adam and Eve, +created Friday, October 28th, B. C. 4004. You've been in a ship for a +good while, and here comes Mr. Darwin on deck with an armful of sticks +and says, “Let's build a raft, and trust ourselves to that.” + +If your ship springs a leak, what would you do? + +He looked me straight in the eyes for about half a minute.--If I heard +the pumps going, I'd look and see whether they were gaining on the leak +or not. If they were gaining I'd stay where I was.--Go and find out +what's the matter with that young woman. + +I had noticed that the Young Girl--the storywriter, our Scheherezade, as +I called her--looked as if she had been crying or lying awake half the +night. I found on asking her,--for she is an honest little body and is +disposed to be confidential with me for some reason or other,--that she +had been doing both. + +--And what was the matter now, I questioned her in a semi-paternal kind +of way, as soon as I got a chance for a few quiet words with her. + +She was engaged to write a serial story, it seems, and had only got as +far as the second number, and some critic had been jumping upon it, she +said, and grinding his heel into it, till she couldn't bear to look at +it. He said she did not write half so well as half a dozen other young +women. She did n't write half so well as she used to write herself. She +hadn't any characters and she had n't any incidents. Then he went +to work to show how her story was coming out, trying to anticipate +everything she could make of it, so that her readers should have nothing +to look forward to, and he should have credit for his sagacity in +guessing, which was nothing so very wonderful, she seemed to think. +Things she had merely hinted and left the reader to infer, he told right +out in the bluntest and coarsest way. It had taken all the life out of +her, she said. It was just as if at a dinner-party one of the guests +should take a spoonful of soup and get up and say to the company, “Poor +stuff, poor stuff; you won't get anything better; let's go somewhere +else where things are fit to eat.” + +What do you read such things for, my dear? said I. + +The film glistened in her eyes at the strange sound of those two soft +words; she had not heard such very often, I am afraid. + +--I know I am a foolish creature to read them, she answered,--but I +can't help it; somebody always sends me everything that will make me +wretched to read, and so I sit down and read it, and ache all over for +my pains, and lie awake all night. + +--She smiled faintly as she said this, for she saw the sub-ridiculous +side of it, but the film glittered still in her eyes. There are a good +many real miseries in life that we cannot help smiling at, but they are +the smiles that make wrinkles and not dimples. “Somebody always sends +her everything that will make her wretched.” Who can those creatures be +who cut out the offensive paragraph and send it anonymously to us, who +mail the newspaper which has the article we had much better not have +seen, who take care that we shall know everything which can, by any +possibility, help to make us discontented with ourselves and a little +less light-hearted than we were before we had been fools enough to +open their incendiary packages? I don't like to say it to myself, but I +cannot help suspecting, in this instance, the doubtful-looking personage +who sits on my left, beyond the Scarabee. I have some reason to think +that he has made advances to the Young Girl which were not favorably +received, to state the case in moderate terms, and it may be that he is +taking his revenge in cutting up the poor girl's story. I know this very +well, that some personal pique or favoritism is at the bottom of half +the praise and dispraise which pretend to be so very ingenuous and +discriminating. (Of course I have been thinking all this time and +telling you what I thought.) + +--What you want is encouragement, my dear, said I,--I know that as well, +as you. I don't think the fellows that write such criticisms as you +tell me of want to correct your faults. I don't mean to say that you can +learn nothing from them, because they are not all fools by any means, +and they will often pick out your weak points with a malignant sagacity, +as a pettifogging lawyer will frequently find a real flaw in trying to +get at everything he can quibble about. But is there nobody who will +praise you generously when you do well,--nobody that will lend you a +hand now while you want it,--or must they all wait until you have made +yourself a name among strangers, and then all at once find out that you +have something in you? Oh,--said the girl, and the bright film gathered +too fast for her young eyes to hold much longer,--I ought not to be +ungrateful! I have found the kindest friend in the world. Have you ever +heard the Lady--the one that I sit next to at the table--say anything +about me? + +I have not really made her acquaintance, I said. She seems to me a +little distant in her manners and I have respected her pretty evident +liking for keeping mostly to herself. + +--Oh, but when you once do know her! I don't believe I could write +stories all the time as I do, if she didn't ask me up to her chamber, +and let me read them to her. Do you know, I can make her laugh and cry, +reading my poor stories? And sometimes, when I feel as if I had written +out all there is in me, and want to lie down and go to sleep and never +wake up except in a world where there are no weekly papers,--when +everything goes wrong, like a car off the track,--she takes hold and +sets me on the rails again all right. + +--How does she go to work to help you? + +--Why, she listens to my stories, to begin with, as if she really liked +to hear them. And then you know I am dreadfully troubled now and then +with some of my characters, and can't think how to get rid of them. And +she'll say, perhaps, Don't shoot your villain this time, you've shot +three or four already in the last six weeks; let his mare stumble and +throw him and break his neck. Or she'll give me a hint about some new +way for my lover to make a declaration. She must have had a good many +offers, it's my belief, for she has told me a dozen different ways for +me to use in my stories. And whenever I read a story to her, she always +laughs and cries in the right places; and that's such a comfort, for +there are some people that think everything pitiable is so funny, +and will burst out laughing when poor Rip Van Winkle--you've seen Mr. +Jefferson, haven't you?--is breaking your heart for you if you have +one. Sometimes she takes a poem I have written and reads it to me so +beautifully, that I fall in love with it, and sometimes she sets my +verses to music and sings them to me. + +--You have a laugh together sometimes, do you? + +--Indeed we do. I write for what they call the “Comic Department” of +the paper now and then. If I did not get so tired of story-telling, I +suppose I should be gayer than I am; but as it is, we two get a little +fun out of my comic pieces. I begin them half-crying sometimes, but +after they are done they amuse me. I don't suppose my comic pieces are +very laughable; at any rate the man who makes a business of writing me +down says the last one I wrote is very melancholy reading, and that if +it was only a little better perhaps some bereaved person might pick out +a line or two that would do to put on a gravestone. + +--Well, that is hard, I must confess. Do let me see those lines which +excite such sad emotions. + +--Will you read them very good-naturedly? If you will, I will get the +paper that has “Aunt Tabitha.” That is the one the fault-finder said +produced such deep depression of feeling. It was written for the “Comic +Department.” Perhaps it will make you cry, but it was n't meant to. + +--I will finish my report this time with our Scheherezade's poem, hoping +that--any critic who deals with it will treat it with the courtesy due +to all a young lady's literary efforts. + + AUNT TABITHA. + + Whatever I do, and whatever I say, + Aunt Tabitha tells me that isn't the way; + When she was a girl (forty summers ago) + Aunt Tabitha tells me they never did so. + + Dear aunt! If I only would take her advice! + But I like my own way, and I find it so nice! + And besides, I forget half the things I am told; + But they all will come back to me--when I am old. + + If a youth passes by, it may happen, no doubt, + He may chance to look in as I chance to look out; + She would never endure an impertinent stare, + It is horrid, she says, and I mustn't sit there. + + A walk in the moonlight has pleasures, I own, + But it is n't quite safe to be walking alone; + So I take a lad's arm,--just for safety, you know, + But Aunt Tabitha tells me they didn't do so. + + How wicked we are, and how good they were then! + They kept at arm's length those detestable men; + What an era of virtue she lived in!--But stay + Were the men all such rogues in Aunt Tabitha's day? + + If the men were so wicked, I'll ask my papa + How he dared to propose to my darling mamma; + Was he like the rest of them? Goodness! Who knows + And what shall I say if a wretch should propose? + + I am thinking if aunt knew so little of sin, + What a wonder Aunt Tabitha's aunt must have been! + And her grand-aunt--it scares me--how shockingly sad. + That we girls of to-day are so frightfully bad! + + A martyr will save us, and nothing else can; + Let me perish--to rescue some wretched young man! + Though when to the altar a victim I go, + Aunt Tabitha'll tell me she never did so! + + + + +IV + +The old Master has developed one quality of late for which I am afraid I +hardly gave him credit. He has turned out to be an excellent listener. + +--I love to talk,--he said,--as a goose loves to swim. Sometimes I think +it is because I am a goose. For I never talked much at any one time in +my life without saying something or other I was sorry for. + +--You too!--said I--Now that is very odd, for it is an experience I +have habitually. I thought you were rather too much of a philosopher +to trouble yourself about such small matters as to whether you had said +just what you meant to or not; especially as you know that the person +you talk to does not remember a word of what you said the next morning, +but is thinking, it is much more likely, of what she said, or how her +new dress looked, or some other body's new dress which made--hers look +as if it had been patched together from the leaves of last November. +That's what she's probably thinking about. + +--She!--said the Master, with a look which it would take at least half a +page to explain to the entire satisfaction of thoughtful readers of both +sexes. + +--I paid the respect due to that most significant monosyllable, which, +as the old Rabbi spoke it, with its targum of tone and expression, was +not to be answered flippantly, but soberly, advisedly, and after a pause +long enough for it to unfold its meaning in the listener's mind. For +there are short single words (all the world remembers Rachel's Helas!) +which are like those Japanese toys that look like nothing of any +significance as you throw them on the water, but which after a little +time open out into various strange and unexpected figures, and then you +find that each little shred had a complicated story to tell of itself. + +-Yes,--said I, at the close of this silent interval, during which the +monosyllable had been opening out its meanings,--She. When I think of +talking, it is of course with a woman. For talking at its best being an +inspiration, it wants a corresponding divine quality of receptiveness; +and where will you find this but in woman? + +The Master laughed a pleasant little laugh,--not a harsh, sarcastic one, +but playful, and tempered by so kind a look that it seemed as if every +wrinkled line about his old eyes repeated, “God bless you,” as the +tracings on the walls of the Alhambra repeat a sentence of the Koran. + +I said nothing, but looked the question, What are you laughing at? + +--Why, I laughed because I couldn't help saying to myself that a woman +whose mind was taken up with thinking how she looked, and how her pretty +neighbor looked, wouldn't have a great deal of thought to spare for all +your fine discourse. + +--Come, now,--said I,--a man who contradicts himself in the course of +two minutes must have a screw loose in his mental machinery. I never +feel afraid that such a thing can happen to me, though it happens often +enough when I turn a thought over suddenly, as you did that five-cent +piece the other day, that it reads differently on its two sides. What I +meant to say is something like this. A woman, notwithstanding she is the +best of listeners, knows her business, and it is a woman's business to +please. I don't say that it is not her business to vote, but I do say +that a woman who does not please is a false note in the harmonies of +nature. She may not have youth, or beauty, or even manner; but she must +have something in her voice or expression, or both, which it makes you +feel better disposed towards your race to look at or listen to. She +knows that as well as we do; and her first question after you have been +talking your soul into her consciousness is, Did I please? A woman never +forgets her sex. She would rather talk with a man than an angel, any +day. + +--This frightful speech of mine reached the ear of our Scheherezade, who +said that it was perfectly shocking and that I deserved to be shown up +as the outlaw in one of her bandit stories. + +Hush, my dear,--said the Lady,--you will have to bring John Milton +into your story with our friend there, if you punish everybody who +says naughty things like that. Send the little boy up to my chamber for +Paradise Lost, if you please. He will find it lying on my table. The +little old volume,--he can't mistake it. + +So the girl called That Boy round and gave him the message; I don't know +why she should give it, but she did, and the Lady helped her out with a +word or two. + +The little volume--its cover protected with soft white leather from a +long kid glove, evidently suggesting the brilliant assemblies of the +days when friends and fortune smiled-came presently and the Lady opened +it.--You may read that, if you like, she said,--it may show you that +our friend is to be pilloried in good company. + +The Young Girl ran her eye along the passage the Lady pointed out, +blushed, laughed, and slapped the book down as though she would have +liked to box the ears of Mr. John Milton, if he had been a contemporary +and fellow-contributor to the “Weekly Bucket.”--I won't touch the +thing,--she said.--He was a horrid man to talk so: and he had as many +wives as Blue-Beard. + +--Fair play,--said the Master.--Bring me the book, my little fractional +superfluity,--I mean you, my nursling,--my boy, if that suits your small +Highness better. + +The Boy brought the book. + +The old Master, not unfamiliar with the great epic opened pretty nearly +to the place, and very soon found the passage: He read, aloud with grand +scholastic intonation and in a deep voice that silenced the table as if +a prophet had just uttered Thus saith the Lord:-- + + “So spake our sire, and by his countenance seemed + Entering on studious thoughts abstruse; which Eve + Perceiving--” + +went to water her geraniums, to make a short story of it, and left +the two “conversationists,” to wit, the angel Raphael and the +gentleman,--there was but one gentleman in society then, you know,--to +talk it out. + + “Yet went she not, as not with such discourse + Delighted, or not capable her ear + Of what was high; such pleasure she reserved, + Adam relating, she sole auditress; + Her husband the relater she preferred + Before the angel, and of him to ask + Chose rather; he she knew would intermix + Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute + With conjugal caresses: from his lips + Not words alone pleased her.” + +Everybody laughed, except the Capitalist, who was a little hard of +hearing, and the Scarabee, whose life was too earnest for demonstrations +of that kind. He had his eyes fixed on the volume, however, with eager +interest. + +--The p'int 's carried,--said the Member of the Haouse. + +Will you let me look at that book a single minute?--said the Scarabee. +I passed it to him, wondering what in the world he wanted of Paradise +Lost. + +Dermestes lardarius,--he said, pointing to a place where the edge of one +side of the outer cover had been slightly tasted by some insect.--Very +fond of leather while they 're in the larva state. + +--Damage the goods as bad as mice,--said the Salesman. + +--Eat half the binding off Folio 67,--said the Register of Deeds. +Something did, anyhow, and it was n't mice. Found the shelf covered with +little hairy cases belonging to something or other that had no business +there. + +Skins of the Dermestes lardaraus,--said the Scarabee,--you can always +tell them by those brown hairy coats. That 's the name to give them. + +--What good does it do to give 'em a name after they 've eat the binding +off my folios?--asked the Register of Deeds. + +The Scarabee had too much respect for science to answer such a question +as that; and the book, having served its purposes, was passed back to +the Lady. + +I return to the previous question,--said I,--if our friend the Member of +the House of Representatives will allow me to borrow the phrase. Womanly +women are very kindly critics, except to themselves and now and then to +their own sex. The less there is of sex about a woman, the more she is +to be dreaded. But take a real woman at her best moment,--well dressed +enough to be pleased with herself, not so resplendent as to be a +show and a sensation, with those varied outside influences which set +vibrating the harmonic notes of her nature stirring in the air about +her, and what has social life to compare with one of those vital +interchanges of thought and feeling with her that make an hour +memorable? What can equal her tact, her delicacy, her subtlety of +apprehension, her quickness to feel the changes of temperature as the +warm and cool currents of talk blow by turns? At one moment she is +microscopically intellectual, critical, scrupulous in judgment as an +analyst's balance, and the next as sympathetic as the open rose that +sweetens the wind from whatever quarter it finds its way to her bosom. +It is in the hospitable soul of a woman that a man forgets he is a +stranger, and so becomes natural and truthful, at the same time that he +is mesmerized by all those divine differences which make her a mystery +and a bewilderment to-- + +If you fire your popgun at me, you little chimpanzee, I will stick a pin +right through the middle of you and put you into one of this gentleman's +beetle-cases! + +I caught the imp that time, but what started him was more than I could +guess. It is rather hard that this spoiled child should spoil such a +sentence as that was going to be; but the wind shifted all at once, and +the talk had to come round on another tack, or at least fall off a point +or two from its course. + +--I'll tell you who I think are the best talkers in all probability, +--said I to the Master, who, as I mentioned, was developing interesting +talent as a listener,--poets who never write verses. And there are a +good many more of these than it would seem at first sight. I think you +may say every young lover is a poet, to begin with. I don't mean either +that all young lovers are good talkers,--they have an eloquence all +their own when they are with the beloved object, no doubt, emphasized +after the fashion the solemn bard of Paradise refers to with such +delicious humor in the passage we just heard,--but a little talk goes a +good way in most of these cooing matches, and it wouldn't do to report +them too literally. What I mean is, that a man with the gift of musical +and impassioned phrase (and love often deeds that to a young person for +a while), who “wreaks” it, to borrow Byron's word, on conversation as +the natural outlet of his sensibilities and spiritual activities, is +likely to talk better than the poet, who plays on the instrument of +verse. A great pianist or violinist is rarely a great singer. To write +a poem is to expend the vital force which would have made one brilliant +for an hour or two, and to expend it on an instrument with more pipes, +reeds, keys, stops, and pedals than the Great Organ that shakes New +England every time it is played in full blast. + +Do you mean that it is hard work to write a poem?--said the old +Master.--I had an idea that a poem wrote itself, as it were, very +often; that it came by influx, without voluntary effort; indeed, you +have spoken of it as an inspiration rather than a result of volition. + +--Did you ever see a great ballet-dancer?--I asked him. + +--I have seen Taglioni,--he answered.--She used to take her steps +rather prettily. I have seen the woman that danced the capstone on to +Bunker Hill Monument, as Orpheus moved the rocks by music, the Elssler +woman,--Fanny Elssler. She would dance you a rigadoon or cut a pigeon's +wing for you very respectably. + +(Confound this old college book-worm,---he has seen everything!) + +Well, did these two ladies dance as if it was hard work to them? + +--Why no, I should say they danced as if they liked it and couldn't help +dancing; they looked as if they felt so “corky” it was hard to keep them +down. + +--And yet they had been through such work to get their limbs strong and +flexible and obedient, that a cart-horse lives an easy life compared to +theirs while they were in training. + +--The Master cut in just here--I had sprung the trap of a reminiscence. + +--When I was a boy,--he said,--some of the mothers in our small town, +who meant that their children should know what was what as well as other +people's children, laid their heads together and got a dancing-master to +come out from the city and give instruction at a few dollars a quarter +to the young folks of condition in the village. Some of their husbands +were ministers and some were deacons, but the mothers knew what they +were about, and they did n't see any reason why ministers' and deacons' +wives' children shouldn't have as easy manners as the sons and daughters +of Belial. So, as I tell you, they got a dancing-master to come out to +our place,--a man of good repute, a most respectable man,--madam (to +the Landlady), you must remember the worthy old citizen, in his +advanced age, going about the streets, a most gentlemanly bundle of +infirmities,--only he always cocked his hat a little too much on +one side, as they do here and there along the Connecticut River, and +sometimes on our city sidewalks, when they've got a new beaver; they got +him, I say, to give us boys and girls lessons in dancing and deportment. +He was as gray and as lively as a squirrel, as I remember him, and used +to spring up in the air and “cross his feet,” as we called it, three +times before he came down. Well, at the end of each term there was what +they called an “exhibition ball,” in which the scholars danced cotillons +and country-dances; also something called a “gavotte,” and I think one +or more walked a minuet. But all this is not what--I wanted to say. At +this exhibition ball he used to bring out a number of hoops wreathed +with roses, of the perennial kind, by the aid of which a number of +amazingly complicated and startling evolutions were exhibited; and also +his two daughters, who figured largely in these evolutions, and whose +wonderful performances to us, who had not seen Miss Taglioni or Miss +Elssler, were something quite bewildering, in fact, surpassing the +natural possibilities of human beings. Their extraordinary powers were, +however, accounted for by the following explanation, which was accepted +in the school as entirely satisfactory. A certain little bone in the +ankles of each of these young girls had been broken intentionally, +secundum artem, at a very early age, and thus they had been fitted to +accomplish these surprising feats which threw the achievements of +the children who were left in the condition of the natural man into +ignominious shadow. + +--Thank you,--said I,--you have helped out my illustration so as to make +it better than I expected. Let me begin again. Every poem that is worthy +of the name, no matter how easily it seems to be written, represents +a great amount of vital force expended at some time or other. When you +find a beach strewed with the shells and other spoils that belonged once +to the deep sea, you know the tide has been there, and that the winds +and waves have wrestled over its naked sands. And so, if I find a poem +stranded in my soul and have nothing to do but seize it as a wrecker +carries off the treasure he finds cast ashore, I know I have paid at +some time for that poem with some inward commotion, were it only an +excess of enjoyment, which has used up just so much of my vital capital. +But besides all the impressions that furnished the stuff of the poem, +there has been hard work to get the management of that wonderful +instrument I spoke of,--the great organ, language. An artist who works +in marble or colors has them all to himself and his tribe, but the man +who moulds his thought in verse has to employ the materials vulgarized +by everybody's use, and glorify them by his handling. I don't know that +you must break any bones in a poet's mechanism before his thought +can dance in rhythm, but read your Milton and see what training, what +patient labor, it took before he could shape our common speech into his +majestic harmonies. + +It is rather singular, but the same kind of thing has happened to me not +very rarely before, as I suppose it has to most persons, that just when +I happened to be thinking about poets and their conditions, this very +morning, I saw a paragraph or two from a foreign paper which is apt to +be sharp, if not cynical, relating to the same matter. I can't help +it; I want to have my talk about it, and if I say the same things that +writer did, somebody else can have the satisfaction of saying I stole +them all. + +[I thought the person whom I have called hypothetically the Man +of Letters changed color a little and betrayed a certain awkward +consciousness that some of us were looking at him or thinking of him; +but I am a little suspicious about him and may do him wrong.] + +That poets are treated as privileged persons by their admirers and the +educated public can hardly be disputed. That they consider themselves so +there is no doubt whatever. On the whole, I do not know so easy a way of +shirking all the civic and social and domestic duties, as to settle it +in one's mind that one is a poet. I have, therefore, taken great pains +to advise other persons laboring under the impression that they were +gifted beings, destined to soar in the atmosphere of song above the +vulgar realities of earth, not to neglect any homely duty under the +influence of that impression. The number of these persons is so great +that if they were suffered to indulge their prejudice against every-day +duties and labors, it would be a serious loss to the productive +industry of the country. My skirts are clear (so far as other people are +concerned) of countenancing that form of intellectual opium-eating in +which rhyme takes the place of the narcotic. But what are you going to +do when you find John Keats an apprentice to a surgeon or apothecary? Is +n't it rather better to get another boy to sweep out the shop and shake +out the powders and stir up the mixtures, and leave him undisturbed to +write his Ode on a Grecian Urn or to a Nightingale? Oh yes, the critic +I have referred to would say, if he is John Keats; but not if he is of +a much lower grade, even though he be genuine, what there is of him. But +the trouble is, the sensitive persons who belong to the lower grades +of the poetical hierarchy do not--know their own poetical limitations, +while they do feel a natural unfitness and disinclination for many +pursuits which young persons of the average balance of faculties take to +pleasantly enough. What is forgotten is this, that every real poet, +even of the humblest grade, is an artist. Now I venture to say that any +painter or sculptor of real genius, though he may do nothing more than +paint flowers and fruit, or carve cameos, is considered a privileged +person. It is recognized perfectly that to get his best work he must +be insured the freedom from disturbances which the creative power +absolutely demands, more absolutely perhaps in these slighter artists +than in the great masters. His nerves must be steady for him to finish a +rose-leaf or the fold of a nymph's drapery in his best manner; and +they will be unsteadied if he has to perform the honest drudgery which +another can do for him quite as well. And it is just so with the poet, +though he were only finishing an epigram; you must no more meddle +roughly with him than you would shake a bottle of Chambertin and expect +the “sunset glow” to redden your glass unclouded. On the other hand, +it may be said that poetry is not an article of prime necessity, and +potatoes are. There is a disposition in many persons just now to deny +the poet his benefit of clergy, and to hold him no better than other +people. Perhaps he is not, perhaps he is not so good, half the time; but +he is a luxury, and if you want him you must pay for him, by not trying +to make a drudge of him while he is all his lifetime struggling with the +chills and heats of his artistic intermittent fever. + +There may have been some lesser interruptions during the talk I have +reported as if it was a set speech, but this was the drift of what I +said and should have said if the other man, in the Review I referred to, +had not seen fit to meddle with the subject, as some fellow always does, +just about the time when I am going to say something about it. The old +Master listened beautifully, except for cutting in once, as I told +you he did. But now he had held in as long as it was in his nature to +contain himself, and must have his say or go off in an apoplexy, +or explode in some way.--I think you're right about the poets,--he +said.--They are to common folks what repeaters are to ordinary watches. +They carry music in their inside arrangements, but they want to be +handled carefully or you put them out of order. And perhaps you must +n't expect them to be quite as good timekeepers as the professional +chronometer watches that make a specialty of being exact within a few +seconds a month. They think too much of themselves. So does everybody +that considers himself as having a right to fall back on what he calls +his idiosyncrasy. Yet a man has such a right, and it is no easy thing to +adjust the private claim to the fair public demand on him. Suppose you +are subject to tic douloureux, for instance. Every now and then a tiger +that nobody can see catches one side of your face between his jaws and +holds on till he is tired and lets go. Some concession must be made to +you on that score, as everybody can see. It is fair to give you a seat +that is not in the draught, and your friends ought not to find +fault with you if you do not care to join a party that is going on a +sleigh-ride. Now take a poet like Cowper. He had a mental neuralgia, a +great deal worse in many respects than tic douloureux confined to the +face. It was well that he was sheltered and relieved, by the cares of +kind friends, especially those good women, from as many of the burdens +of life as they could lift off from him. I am fair to the poets,--don't +you agree that I am? + +Why, yes,--I said,--you have stated the case fairly enough, a good deal +as I should have put it myself. + +Now, then,--the Master continued,--I 'll tell you what is necessary to +all these artistic idiosyncrasies to bring them into good square human +relations outside of the special province where their ways differ +from those of other people. I am going to illustrate what I mean by a +comparison. I don't know, by the way, but you would be disposed to think +and perhaps call me a wine-bibber on the strength of the freedom with +which I deal with that fluid for the purposes of illustration. But I +make mighty little use of it, except as it furnishes me an image now and +then, as it did, for that matter, to the Disciples and their Master. +In my younger days they used to bring up the famous old wines, the +White-top, the Juno, the Eclipse, the Essex Junior, and the rest, in +their old cobwebbed, dusty bottles. The resurrection of one of these old +sepulchred dignitaries had something of solemnity about it; it was like +the disinterment of a king; the bringing to light of the Royal Martyr +King Charles I., for instance, that Sir Henry Halford gave such an +interesting account of. And the bottle seemed to inspire a personal +respect; it was wrapped in a napkin and borne tenderly and reverently +round to the guests, and sometimes a dead silence went before the first +gush of its amber flood, and + + “The boldest held his breath + For a time.” + +But nowadays the precious juice of a long-dead vintage is transferred +carefully into a cut-glass decanter, and stands side by side with the +sherry from a corner grocery, which looks just as bright and apparently +thinks just as well of itself. The old historic Madeiras, which have +warmed the periods of our famous rhetoricians of the past and burned +in the impassioned eloquence of our earlier political demigods, have +nothing to mark them externally but a bit of thread, it may be, round +the neck of the decanter, or a slip of ribbon, pink on one of them and +blue on another. + +Go to a London club,--perhaps I might find something nearer home that +would serve my turn,--but go to a London club, and there you will see +the celebrities all looking alike modern, all decanted off from +their historic antecedents and their costume of circumstance into the +every-day aspect of the gentleman of common cultivated society. That is +Sir Coeur de Lion Plantagenet in the mutton-chop whiskers and the plain +gray suit; there is the Laureate in a frockcoat like your own, and the +leader of the House of Commons in a necktie you do not envy. That is the +kind of thing you want to take the nonsense out of you. If you are not +decanted off from yourself every few days or weeks, you will think it +sacrilege to brush a cobweb from your cork by and by. O little +fool, that has published a little book full of little poems or other +sputtering tokens of an uneasy condition, how I love you for the one +soft nerve of special sensibility that runs through your exiguous +organism, and the one phosphorescent particle in your unilluminated +intelligence! But if you don't leave your spun-sugar confectionery +business once in a while, and come out among lusty men,--the bristly, +pachydermatous fellows that hew out the highways for the material +progress of society, and the broad-shouldered, out-of-door men that +fight for the great prizes of life,--you will come to think that the +spun-sugar business is the chief end of man, and begin to feel and +look as if you believed yourself as much above common people as that +personage of whom Tourgueneff says that “he had the air of his own +statue erected by national subscription.” + +--The Master paused and fell into a deep thinking fit, as he does +sometimes. He had had his own say, it is true, but he had established +his character as a listener to my own perfect satisfaction, for I, too, +was conscious of having preached with a certain prolixity. + +--I am always troubled when I think of my very limited mathematical +capacities. It seems as if every well-organized mind should be able to +handle numbers and quantities through their symbols to an indefinite +extent; and yet, I am puzzled by what seems to a clever boy with a turn +for calculation as plain as counting his fingers. I don't think any +man feels well grounded in knowledge unless he has a good basis of +mathematical certainties, and knows how to deal with them and apply them +to every branch of knowledge where they can come in to advantage. + +Our Young Astronomer is known for his mathematical ability, and I asked +him what he thought was the difficulty in the minds that are weak in +that particular direction, while they may be of remarkable force in +other provinces of thought, as is notoriously the case with some men of +great distinction in science. + +The young man smiled and wrote a few letters and symbols on a piece of +paper.--Can you see through that at once?--he said. + +I puzzled over it for some minutes and gave it up. + +--He said, as I returned it to him, You have heard military men say that +such a person had an eye for country, have n't you? One man will note +all the landmarks, keep the points of compass in his head, observe how +the streams run, in short, carry a map in his brain of any region that +he has marched or galloped through. Another man takes no note of any of +these things; always follows somebody else's lead when he can, and gets +lost if he is left to himself; a mere owl in daylight. Just so some men +have an eye for an equation, and would read at sight the one that +you puzzled over. It is told of Sir Isaac Newton that he required no +demonstration of the propositions in Euclid's Geometry, but as soon as +he had read the enunciation the solution or answer was plain at once. +The power may be cultivated, but I think it is to a great degree a +natural gift, as is the eye for color, as is the ear for music. + +--I think I could read equations readily enough,--I said,--if I could +only keep my attention fixed on them; and I think I could keep my +attention on them if I were imprisoned in a thinking-cell, such as the +Creative Intelligence shapes for its studio when at its divinest work. + +The young man's lustrous eyes opened very widely as he asked me to +explain what I meant. + +--What is the Creator's divinest work?--I asked. + +--Is there anything more divine than the sun; than a sun with its +planets revolving about it, warming them, lighting them, and giving +conscious life to the beings that move on them? + +--You agree, then, that conscious life is the grand aim and end of +all this vast mechanism. Without life that could feel and enjoy, +the splendors and creative energy would all be thrown away. You know +Harvey's saying, omnia animalia ex ovo,--all animals come from an +egg. You ought to know it, for the great controversy going on about +spontaneous generation has brought it into special prominence lately. +Well, then, the ovum, the egg, is, to speak in human phrase, the +Creator's more private and sacred studio, for his magnum opus. Now, look +at a hen's egg, which is a convenient one to study, because it is large +enough and built solidly enough to look at and handle easily. That would +be the form I would choose for my thinking-cell. Build me an oval with +smooth, translucent walls, and put me in the centre of it with Newton's +“Principia” or Kant's “Kritik,” and I think I shall develop “an eye for +an equation,” as you call it, and a capacity for an abstraction. + +But do tell me,--said the Astronomer, a little incredulously,--what +there is in that particular form which is going to help you to be a +mathematician or a metaphysician? + +--It is n't help I want, it is removing hindrances. I don't want to see +anything to draw off my attention. I don't want a cornice, or an angle, +or anything but a containing curve. I want diffused light and no single +luminous centre to fix my eye, and so distract my mind from its one +object of contemplation. The metaphysics of attention have hardly been +sounded to their depths. The mere fixing the look on any single object +for a long time may produce very strange effects. Gibbon's well-known +story of the monks of Mount Athos and their contemplative practice is +often laughed over, but it has a meaning. They were to shut the door of +the cell, recline the beard and chin on the breast, and contemplate the +abdominal centre. + +“At first all will be dark and comfortless; but if you persevere day +and night, you will feel an ineffable joy; and no sooner has the soul +discovered the place of the heart, than it is involved in a mystic and +ethereal light.” And Mr. Braid produces absolute anaesthesia, so that +surgical operations can be performed without suffering to the patient, +only by making him fix his eyes and his mind on a single object; and +Newton is said to have said, as you remember, “I keep the subject +constantly before me, and wait till the first dawnings open slowly by +little and little into a full and clear light.” These are different, but +certainly very wonderful, instances of what can be done by attention. +But now suppose that your mind is in its nature discursive, erratic, +subject to electric attractions and repulsions, volage; it may be +impossible for you to compel your attention except by taking away +all external disturbances. I think the poets have an advantage and a +disadvantage as compared with the steadier-going people. Life is +so vivid to the poet, that he is too eager to seize and exhaust its +multitudinous impressions. Like Sindbad in the valley of precious +stones, he wants to fill his pockets with diamonds, but, lo! there is +a great ruby like a setting sun in its glory, and a sapphire that, like +Bryant's blue gentian, seems to have dropped from the cerulean walls +of heaven, and a nest of pearls that look as if they might be unhatched +angel's eggs, and so he hardly knows what to seize, and tries for too +many, and comes out of the enchanted valley with more gems than he can +carry, and those that he lets fall by the wayside we call his poems. You +may change the image a thousand ways to show you how hard it is to make +a mathematician or a logician out of a poet. He carries the tropics with +him wherever he goes; he is in the true sense felius naturae, and Nature +tempts him, as she tempts a child walking through a garden where all the +finest fruits are hanging over him and dropping round him, where + + The luscious clusters of the vine + Upon (his) mouth do crush their wine, + The nectarine and curious peach, + Into (his) hands themselves do reach; + +and he takes a bite out of the sunny side of this and the other, and, +ever stimulated and never satisfied, is hurried through the garden, and, +before he knows it, finds himself at an iron gate which opens outward, +and leaves the place he knows and loves-- + +--For one he will perhaps soon learn to love and know better,--said the +Master.--But I can help you out with another comparison, not quite so +poetical as yours. Why did not you think of a railway-station, where the +cars stop five minutes for refreshments? Is n't that a picture of the +poet's hungry and hurried feast at the banquet of life? The traveller +flings himself on the bewildering miscellany of delicacies spread before +him, the various tempting forms of ambrosia and seducing draughts of +nectar, with the same eager hurry and restless ardor that you describe +in the poet. Dear me! If it wasn't for All aboard! that summons of the +deaf conductor which tears one away from his half-finished sponge-cake +and coffee, how I, who do not call myself a poet, but only a questioner, +should have enjoyed a good long stop--say a couple of thousand years--at +this way-station on the great railroad leading to the unknown terminus! + +--You say you are not a poet,--I said, after a little pause, in which I +suppose both of us were thinking where the great railroad would land us +after carrying us into the dark tunnel, the farther end of which no man +has seen and taken a return train to bring us news about it,--you say +you are not a poet, and yet it seems to me you have some of the elements +which go to make one. + +--I don't think you mean to flatter me,--the Master answered,--and, what +is more, for I am not afraid to be honest with you, I don't think you do +flatter me. I have taken the inventory of my faculties as calmly as if I +were an appraiser. I have some of the qualities, perhaps I may say many +of the qualities, that make a man a poet, and yet I am not one. And in +the course of a pretty wide experience of men--and women--(the Master +sighed, I thought, but perhaps I was mistaken)--I have met a good many +poets who were not rhymesters and a good many rhymesters who were not +poets. So I am only one of the Voiceless, that I remember one of you +singers had some verses about. I think there is a little music in me, +but it has not found a voice, and it never will. If I should confess the +truth, there is no mere earthly immortality that I envy so much as the +poet's. If your name is to live at all, it is so much more to have it +live in people's hearts than only in their brains! I don't know that +one's eyes fill with tears when he thinks of the famous inventor of +logarithms, but song of Burns's or a hymn of Charles Wesley's goes +straight to your heart, and you can't help loving both of them, the +sinner as well as the saint. The works of other men live, but their +personality dies out of their labors; the poet, who reproduces himself +in his creation, as no other artist does or can, goes down to posterity +with all his personality blended with whatever is imperishable in his +song. We see nothing of the bees that built the honeycomb and stored it +with its sweets, but we can trace the veining in the wings of insects +that flitted through the forests which are now coal-beds, kept +unchanging in the amber that holds them; and so the passion of Sappho, +the tenderness of Simonides, the purity of holy George Herbert, the +lofty contemplativeness of James Shirley, are before us to-day as if +they were living, in a few tears of amber verse. It seems, when one +reads, + + “Sweet day! so cool, so calm, so bright,” + +or, + + “The glories of our birth and state,” + +as if it were not a very difficult matter to gain immortality,--such an +immortality at least as a perishable language can give. A single lyric +is enough, if one can only find in his soul and finish in his intellect +one of those jewels fit to sparkle “on the stretched forefinger of +all time.” A coin, a ring, a string of verses. These last, and hardly +anything else does. Every century is an overloaded ship that must sink +at last with most of its cargo. The small portion of its crew that get +on board the new vessel which takes them off don't pretend to save a +great many of the bulky articles. But they must not and will not leave +behind the hereditary jewels of the race; and if you have found and cut +a diamond, were it only a spark with a single polished facet, it will +stand a better chance of being saved from the wreck than anything, no +matter what, that wants much room for stowage. + +The pyramids last, it is true, but most of them have forgotten their +builders' names. But the ring of Thothmes III., who reigned some +fourteen hundred years before our era, before Homer sang, before the +Argonauts sailed, before Troy was built, is in the possession of Lord +Ashburnham, and proclaims the name of the monarch who wore it more than +three thousand years ago. The gold coins with the head of Alexander the +Great are some of them so fresh one might think they were newer than +much of the silver currency we were lately handling. As we have been +quoting from the poets this morning, I will follow the precedent, and +give some lines from an epistle of Pope to Addison after the latter had +written, but not yet published, his Dialogue on Medals. Some of these +lines have been lingering in my memory for a great many years, but I +looked at the original the other day and was so pleased with them that I +got them by heart. I think you will say they are singularly pointed and +elegant. + + “Ambition sighed; she found it vain to trust + The faithless column and the crumbling bust; + Huge moles, whose shadows stretched from shore to shore, + Their ruins perished, and their place no more! + Convinced, she now contracts her vast design, + And all her triumphs shrink into a coin. + A narrow orb each crowded conquest keeps, + Beneath her palm here sad Judaea weeps; + Now scantier limits the proud arch confine, + And scarce are seen the prostrate Nile or Rhine; + A small Euphrates through the piece is rolled, + And little eagles wave their wings in gold.” + +It is the same thing in literature. Write half a dozen folios full of +other people's ideas (as all folios are pretty sure to be), and you +serve as ballast to the lower shelves of a library, about as like to be +disturbed as the kentledge in the hold of a ship. Write a story, or a +dozen stories, and your book will be in demand like an oyster while +it is freshly opened, and after tha--. The highways of literature are +spread over with the shells of dead novels, each of which has been +swallowed at a mouthful by the public, and is done with. But write a +volume of poems. No matter if they are all bad but one, if that one is +very good. It will carry your name down to posterity like the ring of +Thothmes, like the coin of Alexander. I don't suppose one would care a +great deal about it a hundred or a thousand years after he is dead, +but I don't feel quite sure. It seems as if, even in heaven, King +David might remember “The Lord is my Shepherd” with a certain twinge of +earthly pleasure. But we don't know, we don't know. + +--What in the world can have become of That Boy and his popgun while all +this somewhat extended sermonizing was going on? I don't wonder you +ask, beloved Reader, and I suppose I must tell you how we got on so +long without interruption. Well, the plain truth is, the youngster was +contemplating his gastric centre, like the monks of Mount Athos, but in +a less happy state of mind than those tranquil recluses, in consequence +of indulgence in the heterogeneous assortment of luxuries procured with +the five-cent piece given him by the kind-hearted old Master. But you +need not think I am going to tell you every time his popgun goes +off, making a Selah of him whenever I want to change the subject. +Occasionally he was ill-timed in his artillery practice and +ignominiously rebuked, sometimes he was harmlessly playful and nobody +minded him, but every now and then he came in so apropos that I am +morally certain he gets a hint from somebody who watches the course of +the conversation, and means through him to have a hand in it and stop +any of us when we are getting prosy. But in consequence of That Boy's +indiscretion, we were without a check upon our expansiveness, and ran on +in the way you have observed and may be disposed to find fault with. + +One other thing the Master said before we left the table, after our long +talk of that day. + +--I have been tempted sometimes,--said he, to envy the immediate +triumphs of the singer. He enjoys all that praise can do for him and at +the very moment of exerting his talent. And the singing women! Once in +a while, in the course of my life, I have found myself in the midst of +a tulip-bed of full-dressed, handsome women in all their glory, and when +some one among them has shaken her gauzy wings, and sat down before +the piano, and then, only giving the keys a soft touch now and then to +support her voice, has warbled some sweet, sad melody intertwined with +the longings or regrets of some tender-hearted poet, it has seemed to me +that so to hush the rustling of the silks and silence the babble of the +buds, as they call the chicks of a new season, and light up the flame of +romance in cold hearts, in desolate ones, in old burnt-out ones,--like +mine, I was going to say, but I won't, for it isn't so, and you may +laugh to hear me say it isn't so, if you like,--was perhaps better than +to be remembered a few hundred years by a few perfect stanzas, when +your gravestone is standing aslant, and your name is covered over with a +lichen as big as a militia colonel's cockade, and nobody knows or cares +enough about you to scrape it off and set the tipsy old slate-stone +upright again. + +--I said nothing in reply to this, for I was thinking of a sweet singer +to whose voice I had listened in its first freshness, and which is now +only an echo in my memory. If any reader of the periodical in which +these conversations are recorded can remember so far back as the first +year of its publication, he will find among the papers contributed by +a friend not yet wholly forgotten a few verses, lively enough in their +way, headed “The Boys.” The sweet singer was one of this company of +college classmates, the constancy of whose friendship deserves a better +tribute than the annual offerings, kindly meant, as they are, which for +many years have not been wanting at their social gatherings. The small +company counts many noted personages on its list, as is well known to +those who are interested in such local matters, but it is not known +that every fifth man of the whole number now living is more or less of +a poet,--using that word with a generous breadth of significance. But +it should seem that the divine gift it implies is more freely dispensed +than some others, for while there are (or were, for one has taken his +Last Degree) eight musical quills, there was but one pair of lips which +could claim any special consecration to vocal melody. Not that one that +should undervalue the half-recitative of doubtful barytones, or +the brilliant escapades of slightly unmanageable falsettos, or the +concentrated efforts of the proprietors of two or three effective notes, +who may be observed lying in wait for them, and coming down on them +with all their might, and the look on their countenances of “I too am +a singer.” But the voice that led all, and that all loved to listen to, +the voice that was at once full, rich, sweet, penetrating, expressive, +whose ample overflow drowned all the imperfections and made up for all +the shortcomings of the others, is silent henceforth forevermore for all +earthly listeners. + +And these were the lines that one of “The Boys,” as they have always +called themselves for ever so many years, read at the first meeting +after the voice which had never failed them was hushed in the stillness +of death. + + J. A. + + 1871. + + One memory trembles on our lips + It throbs in every breast; + In tear-dimmed eyes, in mirth's eclipse, + The shadow stands confessed. + + O silent voice, that cheered so long + Our manhood's marching day, + Without thy breath of heavenly song, + How weary seems the way! + + Vain every pictured phrase to tell + Our sorrowing hearts' desire; + The shattered harp, the broken shell, + The silent unstrung lyre; + + For youth was round us while he sang; + It glowed in every tone; + With bridal chimes the echoes rang, + And made the past our own. + + O blissful dream! Our nursery joys + We know must have an end, + But love and friendships broken toys + May God's good angels mend! + + The cheering smile, the voice of mirth + And laughter's gay surprise + That please the children born of earth, + Why deem that Heaven denies? + + Methinks in that refulgent sphere + That knows not sun or moon, + An earth-born saint might long to hear + One verse of “Bonny Doon”; + + Or walking through the streets of gold + In Heaven's unclouded light, + His lips recall the song of old + And hum “The sky is bright.” + + And can we smile when thou art dead? + Ah, brothers, even so! + The rose of summer will be red, + In spite of winter's snow. + + Thou wouldst not leave us all in gloom + Because thy song is still, + Nor blight the banquet-garland's bloom + With grief's untimely chill. + + The sighing wintry winds complain, + The singing bird has flown, + --Hark! heard I not that ringing strain, + That clear celestial tone? + + How poor these pallid phrases seem, + How weak this tinkling line, + As warbles through my waking dream + That angel voice of thine! + + Thy requiem asks a sweeter lay; + It falters on my tongue; + For all we vainly strive to say, + Thou shouldst thyself have sung! + + + + +V + +I fear that I have done injustice in my conversation and my report of it +to a most worthy and promising young man whom I should be very sorry to +injure in any way. Dr. Benjamin Franklin got hold of my account of my +visit to him, and complained that I had made too much of the expression +he used. He did not mean to say that he thought I was suffering from the +rare disease he mentioned, but only that the color reminded him of it. +It was true that he had shown me various instruments, among them one +for exploring the state of a part by means of a puncture, but he did not +propose to make use of it upon my person. In short, I had colored the +story so as to make him look ridiculous. + +--I am afraid I did,--I said,--but was n't I colored myself so as to +look ridiculous? I've heard it said that people with the jaundice see +everything yellow; perhaps I saw things looking a little queerly, with +that black and blue spot I could n't account for threatening to make +a colored man and brother of me. But I am sorry if I have done you any +wrong. I hope you won't lose any patients by my making a little fun of +your meters and scopes and contrivances. They seem so odd to us outside +people. Then the idea of being bronzed all over was such an alarming +suggestion. But I did not mean to damage your business, which I trust is +now considerable, and I shall certainly come to you again if I have +need of the services of a physician. Only don't mention the names of any +diseases in English or Latin before me next time. I dreamed about cutis +oenea half the night after I came to see you. + +Dr. Benjamin took my apology very pleasantly. He did not want to be +touchy about it, he said, but he had his way to make in the world, and +found it a little hard at first, as most young men did. People were +afraid to trust them, no matter how much they knew. One of the old +doctors asked him to come in and examine a patient's heart for him the +other day. He went with him accordingly, and when they stood by the +bedside, he offered his stethoscope to the old doctor. The old doctor +took it and put the wrong end to his ear and the other to the patient's +chest, and kept it there about two minutes, looking all the time as wise +as an old owl. Then he, Dr. Benjamin, took it and applied it properly, +and made out where the trouble was in no time at all. But what was the +use of a young man's pretending to know anything in the presence of an +old owl? I saw by their looks, he said, that they all thought I used the +stethoscope wrong end up, and was nothing but a 'prentice hand to the +old doctor. + +--I am much pleased to say that since Dr. Benjamin has had charge of a +dispensary district, and been visiting forty or fifty patients a day, I +have reason to think he has grown a great deal more practical than when +I made my visit to his office. I think I was probably one of his first +patients, and that he naturally made the most of me. But my second trial +was much more satisfactory. I got an ugly cut from the carving-knife in +an affair with a goose of iron constitution in which I came off second +best. I at once adjourned with Dr. Benjamin to his small office, and put +myself in his hands. It was astonishing to see what a little experience +of miscellaneous practice had done for him. He did not ask me anymore +questions about my hereditary predispositions on the paternal and +maternal sides. He did not examine me with the stethoscope or the +laryngoscope. He only strapped up my cut, and informed me that it would +speedily get well by the “first intention,”--an odd phrase enough, but +sounding much less formidable than cutis oenea. + +I am afraid I have had something of the French prejudice which embodies +itself in the maxim “young surgeon, old physician.” But a young +physician who has been taught by great masters of the profession, in +ample hospitals, starts in his profession knowing more than some old +doctors have learned in a lifetime. Give him a little time to get the +use of his wits in emergencies, and to know the little arts that do so +much for a patient's comfort,--just as you give a young sailor time to +get his sea-legs on and teach his stomach to behave itself,--and he will +do well enough. + +The old Master knows ten times more about this matter and about all the +professions, as he does about everything else, than I do. My opinion is +that he has studied two, if not three, of these professions in a regular +course. I don't know that he has ever preached, except as Charles Lamb +said Coleridge always did, for when he gets the bit in his teeth he runs +away with the conversation, and if he only took a text his talk would be +a sermon; but if he has not preached, he has made a study of theology, +as many laymen do. I know he has some shelves of medical books in his +library, and has ideas on the subject of the healing art. He confesses +to having attended law lectures and having had much intercourse with +lawyers. So he has something to say on almost any subject that happens +to come up. I told him my story about my visit to the young doctor, and +asked him what he thought of youthful practitioners in general and of +Dr. Benjamin in particular. + +I 'll tell you what,--the Master said,--I know something about these +young fellows that come home with their heads full of “science,” as they +call it, and stick up their signs to tell people they know how to cure +their headaches and stomach-aches. Science is a first-rate piece of +furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the +ground-floor. But if a man has n't got plenty of good common sense, the +more science he has the worse for his patient. + +--I don't know that I see exactly how it is worse for the patient,--I +said. + +--Well, I'll tell you, and you'll find it's a mighty simple matter. When +a person is sick, there is always something to be done for him, and done +at once. If it is only to open or shut a window, if it is only to tell +him to keep on doing just what he is doing already, it wants a man +to bring his mind right down to the fact of the present case and its +immediate needs. Now the present case, as the doctor sees it, is just +exactly such a collection of paltry individual facts as never was +before,--a snarl and tangle of special conditions which it is his +business to wind as much thread out of as he can. It is a good deal as +when a painter goes to take the portrait of any sitter who happens to +send for him. He has seen just such noses and just such eyes and just +such mouths, but he never saw exactly such a face before, and his +business is with that and no other person's,--with the features of the +worthy father of a family before him, and not with the portraits he has +seen in galleries or books, or Mr. Copley's grand pictures of the fine +old Tories, or the Apollos and Jupiters of Greek sculpture. It is the +same thing with the patient. His disease has features of its own; there +never was and never will be another case in all respects exactly like +it. If a doctor has science without common sense, he treats a fever, but +not this man's fever. If he has common sense without science, he treats +this man's fever without knowing the general laws that govern all fevers +and all vital movements. I 'll tell you what saves these last fellows. +They go for weakness whenever they see it, with stimulants and +strengtheners, and they go for overaction, heat, and high pulse, and +the rest, with cooling and reducing remedies. That is three quarters of +medical practice. The other quarter wants science and common sense too. +But the men that have science only, begin too far back, and, before +they get as far as the case in hand, the patient has very likely gone +to visit his deceased relatives. You remember Thomas Prince's +“Chronological History of New England,” I suppose? He begins, you +recollect, with Adam, and has to work down five thousand six hundred +and twenty-four years before he gets to the Pilgrim fathers and the +Mayflower. It was all very well, only it did n't belong there, but got +in the way of something else. So it is with “science” out of place. By +far the larger part of the facts of structure and function you find in +the books of anatomy and physiology have no immediate application to the +daily duties of the practitioner. You must learn systematically, for +all that; it is the easiest way and the only way that takes hold of +the memory, except mere empirical repetition, like that of the +handicraftsman. Did you ever see one of those Japanese figures with the +points for acupuncture marked upon it? + +--I had to own that my schooling had left out that piece of information. + +Well, I 'll tell you about it. You see they have a way of pushing +long, slender needles into you for the cure of rheumatism and other +complaints, and it seems there is a choice of spots for the operation, +though it is very strange how little mischief it does in a good many +places one would think unsafe to meddle with. So they had a doll made, +and marked the spots where they had put in needles without doing any +harm. They must have had accidents from sticking the needles into the +wrong places now and then, but I suppose they did n't say a great deal +about those. After a time, say a few centuries of experience, they +had their doll all spotted over with safe places for sticking in the +needles. That is their way of registering practical knowledge: We, +on the other hand, study the structure of the body as a whole, +systematically, and have no difficulty at all in remembering the track +of the great vessels and nerves, and knowing just what tracks will be +safe and what unsafe. It is just the same thing with the geologists. +Here is a man close by us boring for water through one of our ledges, +because somebody else got water somewhere else in that way; and a person +who knows geology or ought to know it, because he has given his life to +it, tells me he might as well bore there for lager-beer as for water. + +--I thought we had had enough of this particular matter, and that +I should like to hear what the Master had to say about the three +professions he knew something about, each compared with the others. + +What is your general estimate of doctors, lawyers, and ministers?--said +I. + +--Wait a minute, till I have got through with your first question,--said +the Master.--One thing at a time. You asked me about the young doctors, +and about our young doctor. They come home tres biens chausses, as a +Frenchman would say, mighty well shod with professional knowledge. But +when they begin walking round among their poor patients, they don't +commonly start with millionnaires,--they find that their new shoes of +scientific acquirements have got to be broken in just like a pair of +boots or brogans. I don't know that I have put it quite strong enough. +Let me try again. You've seen those fellows at the circus that get up on +horseback so big that you wonder how they could climb into the saddle. +But pretty soon they throw off their outside coat, and the next minute +another one, and then the one under that, and so they keep peeling off +one garment after another till people begin to look queer and think they +are going too far for strict propriety. Well, that is the way a +fellow with a real practical turn serves a good many of his scientific +wrappers, flings 'em off for other people to pick up, and goes right +at the work of curing stomach-aches and all the other little mean +unscientific complaints that make up the larger part of every doctor's +business. I think our Dr. Benjamin is a worthy young man, and if you are +in need of a doctor at any time I hope you will go to him; and if you +come off without harm, I will recommend some other friend to try him. + +--I thought he was going to say he would try him in his own person, but +the Master is not fond of committing himself. + +Now, I will answer your other question, he said. The lawyers are the +cleverest men, the ministers are the most learned, and the doctors are +the most sensible. + +The lawyers are a picked lot, “first scholars” and the like, but +their business is as unsympathetic as Jack Ketch's. There is nothing +humanizing in their relations with their fellow-creatures. They go for +the side that retains them. They defend the man they know to be a rogue, +and not very rarely throw suspicion on the man they know to be innocent. +Mind you, I am not finding fault with them; every side of a case has a +right to the best statement it admits of; but I say it does not tend +to make them sympathetic. Suppose in a case of Fever vs. Patient, the +doctor should side with either party according to whether the old miser +or his expectant heir was his employer. Suppose the minister should side +with the Lord or the Devil, according to the salary offered and other +incidental advantages, where the soul of a sinner was in question. You +can see what a piece of work it would make of their sympathies. But the +lawyers are quicker witted than either of the other professions, and +abler men generally. They are good-natured, or, if they quarrel, their +quarrels are above-board. I don't think they are as accomplished as the +ministers, but they have a way of cramming with special knowledge for +a case which leaves a certain shallow sediment of intelligence in their +memories about a good many things. They are apt to talk law in mixed +company, and they have a way of looking round when they make a point, +as if they were addressing a jury, that is mighty aggravating, as I once +had occasion to see when one of 'em, and a pretty famous one, put me on +the witness-stand at a dinner-party once. + +The ministers come next in point of talent. They are far more curious +and widely interested outside of their own calling than either of the +other professions. I like to talk with 'em. They are interesting men, +full of good feelings, hard workers, always foremost in good deeds, and +on the whole the most efficient civilizing class, working downwards from +knowledge to ignorance, that is,--not so much upwards, perhaps,--that +we have. The trouble is, that so many of 'em work in harness, and it +is pretty sure to chafe somewhere. They feed us on canned meats mostly. +They cripple our instincts and reason, and give us a crutch of doctrine. +I have talked with a great many of 'em of all sorts of belief, and I +don't think they are quite so easy in their minds, the greater number of +them; nor so clear in their convictions, as one would think to hear 'em +lay down the law in the pulpit. They used to lead the intelligence of +their parishes; now they do pretty well if they keep up with it, and +they are very apt to lag behind it. Then they must have a colleague. The +old minister thinks he can hold to his old course, sailing right into +the wind's eye of human nature, as straight as that famous old skipper +John Bunyan; the young minister falls off three or four points and +catches the breeze that left the old man's sails all shivering. By +and by the congregation will get ahead of him, and then it must, have +another new skipper. The priest holds his own pretty well; the minister +is coming down every generation nearer and nearer to the common level +of the useful citizen,--no oracle at all, but a man of more than average +moral instincts, who, if he knows anything, knows how little he knows. +The ministers are good talkers, only the struggle between nature and +grace makes some of 'em a little awkward occasionally. The women do +their best to spoil 'em, as they do the poets; you find it very pleasant +to be spoiled, no doubt; so do they. Now and then one of 'em goes over +the dam; no wonder, they're always in the rapids. + +By this time our three ladies had their faces all turned toward the +speaker, like the weathercocks in a northeaster, and I thought it best +to switch off the talk on to another rail. + +How about the doctors?--I said. + +--Theirs is the least learned of the professions, in this country at +least. They have not half the general culture of the lawyers, nor a +quarter of that of the ministers. I rather think, though, they are more +agreeable to the common run of people than the men with black coats or +the men with green bags. People can swear before 'em if they want to, +and they can't very well before ministers. I don't care whether they +want to swear or not, they don't want to be on their good behavior. +Besides, the minister has a little smack of the sexton about him; he +comes when people are in extremis, but they don't send for him every +time they make a slight moral slip, tell a lie for instance, or smuggle +a silk dress through the customhouse; but they call in the doctor when +a child is cutting a tooth or gets a splinter in its finger. So it does +n't mean much to send for him, only a pleasant chat about the news of +the day; for putting the baby to rights does n't take long. Besides, +everybody does n't like to talk about the next world; people are modest +in their desires, and find this world as good as they deserve; but +everybody loves to talk physic. Everybody loves to hear of strange +cases; people are eager to tell the doctor of the wonderful cures they +have heard of; they want to know what is the matter with somebody or +other who is said to be suffering from “a complication of diseases,” and +above all to get a hard name, Greek or Latin, for some complaint which +sounds altogether too commonplace in plain English. If you will only +call a headache a Cephalgia, it acquires dignity at once, and a patient +becomes rather proud of it. So I think doctors are generally welcome in +most companies. + +In old times, when people were more afraid of the Devil and of witches +than they are now, they liked to have a priest or a minister somewhere +near to scare 'em off; but nowadays, if you could find an old woman +that would ride round the room on a broomstick, Barnum would build an +amphitheatre to exhibit her in; and if he could come across a young imp, +with hoofs, tail, and budding horns, a lineal descendant of one of those +“daemons” which the good people of Gloucester fired at, and were fired +at by “for the best part of a month together” in the year 1692, the +great showman would have him at any cost for his museum or menagerie. +Men are cowards, sir, and are driven by fear as the sovereign motive. +Men are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or +throw themselves down before; they always did, they always will; and if +you don't make it of wood, you must make it of words, which are just +as much used for idols as promissory notes are used for values. The +ministers have a hard time of it without bell and book and holy water; +they are dismounted men in armor since Luther cut their saddle-girths, +and you can see they are quietly taking off one piece of iron after +another until some of the best of 'em are fighting the devil (not the +zoological Devil with the big D) with the sword of the Spirit, and +precious little else in the way of weapons of offence or defence. But +we couldn't get on without the spiritual brotherhood, whatever became of +our special creeds. There is a genius for religion, just as there is for +painting or sculpture. It is half-sister to the genius for music, and +has some of the features which remind us of earthly love. But it lifts +us all by its mere presence. To see a good man and hear his voice once +a week would be reason enough for building churches and pulpits. The +Master stopped all at once, and after about half a minute laughed his +pleasant laugh. + +What is it?--I asked him. + +I was thinking of the great coach and team that is carrying us fast +enough, I don't know but too fast, somewhere or other. The D. D.'s used +to be the leaders, but now they are the wheel-horses. It's pretty hard +to tell how much they pull, but we know they can hold back like the--- + +--When we're going down hill,--I said, as neatly as if I had been a +High-Church curate trained to snap at the last word of the response, so +that you couldn't wedge in the tail of a comma between the end of the +congregation's closing syllable and the beginning of the next petition. +They do it well, but it always spoils my devotion. To save my life, I +can't help watching them, as I watch to see a duck dive at the flash of +a gun, and that is not what I go to church for. It is a juggler's trick, +and there is no more religion in it than in catching a ball on the fly. + +I was looking at our Scheherezade the other day, and thinking what a +pity it was that she had never had fair play in the world. I wish I knew +more of her history. There is one way of learning it,--making love to +her. I wonder whether she would let me and like it. It is an absurd +thing, and I ought not to confess, but I tell you and you only, Beloved, +my heart gave a perceptible jump when it heard the whisper of that +possibility overhead! Every day has its ebb and flow, but such a thought +as that is like one of those tidal waves they talk about, that rolls in +like a great wall and overtops and drowns out all your landmarks, and +you, too, if you don't mind what you are about and stand ready to run +or climb or swim. Not quite so bad as that, though, this time. I take +an interest in our Scheherezade. I am glad she did n't smile on the pipe +and the Bohemian-looking fellow that finds the best part of his life in +sucking at it. A fine thing, isn't it; for a young woman to marry a man +who will hold her + + “Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse,” + +but not quite so good as his meerschaum? It is n't for me to throw +stones, though, who have been a Nicotian a good deal more than half my +days. Cigar-stump out now, and consequently have become very bitter on +more persevering sinners. I say I take an interest in our Scheherezade, +but I rather think it is more paternal than anything else, though +my heart did give that jump. It has jumped a good many times without +anything very remarkable coming of it. + +This visit to the Observatory is going to bring us all, or most of us, +together in a new way, and it wouldn't be very odd if some of us should +become better acquainted than we ever have been. There is a chance +for the elective affinities. What tremendous forces they are, if two +subjects of them come within range! There lies a bit of iron. All the +dynamic agencies of the universe are pledged to hold it just in that +position, and there it will lie until it becomes a heap of red-brown +rust. But see, I hold a magnet to it,--it looks to you like just such a +bit of iron as the other,--and lo! it leaves them all,--the tugging of +the mighty earth; of the ghostly moon that walks in white, trailing the +snaky waves of the ocean after her; of the awful sun, twice as large +as a sphere that the whole orbit of the moon would but just girdle,--it +leaves the wrestling of all their forces, which are at a dead lock with +each other, all fighting for it, and springs straight to the magnet. +What a lucky thing it is for well-conducted persons that the maddening +elective affinities don't come into play in full force very often! + +I suppose I am making a good deal more of our prospective visit than +it deserves. It must be because I have got it into my head that we are +bound to have some kind of sentimental outbreak amongst us, and that +this will give a chance for advances on the part of anybody disposed +in that direction. A little change of circumstance often hastens on a +movement that has been long in preparation. A chemist will show you a +flask containing a clear liquid; he will give it a shake or two, and the +whole contents of the flask will become solid in an instant. Or you +may lay a little heap of iron-filings on a sheet of paper with a magnet +beneath it, and they will be quiet enough as they are, but give the +paper a slight jar and the specks of metal will suddenly find their way +to the north or the south pole of the magnet and take a definite shape +not unpleasing to contemplate, and curiously illustrating the laws of +attraction, antagonism, and average, by which the worlds, conscious +and unconscious, are alike governed. So with our little party, with +any little party of persons who have got used to each other; leave them +undisturbed and they might remain in a state of equilibrium forever; +but let anything give them a shake or a jar, and the long-striving but +hindered affinities come all at once into play and finish the work of a +year in five minutes. + +We were all a good deal excited by the anticipation of this visit. The +Capitalist, who for the most part keeps entirely to himself, seemed +to take an interest in it and joined the group in the parlor who were +making arrangements as to the details of the eventful expedition, which +was very soon to take place. The Young Girl was full of enthusiasm; +she is one of those young persons, I think, who are impressible, and +of necessity depressible when their nervous systems are overtasked, but +elastic, recovering easily from mental worries and fatigues, and only +wanting a little change of their conditions to get back their bloom +and cheerfulness. I could not help being pleased to see how much of the +child was left in her, after all the drudgery she had been through. What +is there that youth will not endure and triumph over? Here she was; +her story for the week was done in good season; she had got rid of her +villain by a new and original catastrophe; she had received a sum of +money for an extra string of verses,--painfully small, it is true, but +it would buy her a certain ribbon she wanted for the great excursion; +and now her eyes sparkled so that I forgot how tired and hollow they +sometimes looked when she had been sitting up half the night over her +endless manuscript. + +The morning of the day we had looked forward to--promised as good an +evening as we could wish. The Capitalist, whose courteous and bland +demeanor would never have suggested the thought that he was a robber and +an enemy of his race, who was to be trampled underfoot by the beneficent +regenerators of the social order as preliminary to the universal +reign of peace on earth and good-will to men, astonished us all with +a proposal to escort the three ladies and procure a carriage for their +conveyance. The Lady thanked him in a very cordial way, but said she +thought nothing of the walk. The Landlady looked disappointed at this +answer. For her part she was on her legs all day and should be glad +enough to ride, if so be he was going to have a carriage at any rate. It +would be a sight pleasanter than to trudge afoot, but she would n't have +him go to the expense on her account. Don't mention it, madam,--r--said +the Capitalist, in a generous glow of enthusiasm. As for the Young Girl, +she did not often get a chance for a drive, and liked the idea of it for +its own sake, as children do, and she insisted that the Lady should go +in the carriage with her. So it was settled that the Capitalist should +take the three ladies in a carriage, and the rest of us go on foot. + +The evening behaved as it was bound to do on so momentous an occasion. +The Capitalist was dressed with almost suspicious nicety. We pedestrians +could not help waiting to see them off, and I thought he handed the +ladies into the carriage with the air of a French marquis. + +I walked with Dr. Benjamin and That Boy, and we had to keep the little +imp on the trot a good deal of the way in order not to be too long +behind the carriage party. The Member of the Haouse walked with our +two dummies,--I beg their pardon, I mean the Register of Deeds and the +Salesman. + +The Man of Letters, hypothetically so called, walked by himself, smoking +a short pipe which was very far from suggesting the spicy breezes that +blow soft from Ceylon's isle. + +I suppose everybody who reads this paper has visited one or more +observatories, and of course knows all about them. But as it may +hereafter be translated into some foreign tongue and circulated among +barbarous, but rapidly improving people, people who have as yet no +astronomers among them, it may be well to give a little notion of what +kind of place an observatory is. + +To begin then: a deep and solid stone foundation is laid in the earth, +and a massive pier of masonry is built up on it. A heavy block of +granite forms the summit of this pier, and on this block rests the +equatorial telescope. Around this structure a circular tower is built, +with two or more floors which come close up to the pier, but do not +touch it at any point. It is crowned with a hemispherical dome, which, I +may remark, half realizes the idea of my egg-shell studio. This dome +is cleft from its base to its summit by a narrow, ribbon-like opening, +through which is seen the naked sky. It revolves on cannon-balls, so +easily that a single hand can move it, and thus the opening may be +turned towards any point of the compass. As the telescope can be raised +or depressed so as to be directed to any elevation from the horizon to +the zenith, and turned around the entire circle with the dome, it can be +pointed to any part of the heavens. But as the star or other celestial +object is always apparently moving, in consequence of the real rotatory +movement of the earth, the telescope is made to follow it automatically +by an ingenious clock-work arrangement. No place, short of the temple of +the living God, can be more solemn. The jars of the restless life +around it do not disturb the serene intelligence of the half-reasoning +apparatus. Nothing can stir the massive pier but the shocks that shake +the solid earth itself. When an earthquake thrills the planet, the +massive turret shudders with the shuddering rocks on which it rests, +but it pays no heed to the wildest tempest, and while the heavens are +convulsed and shut from the eye of the far-seeing instrument it waits +without a tremor for the blue sky to come back. It is the type of the +true and steadfast man of the Roman poet, whose soul remains unmoved +while the firmament cracks and tumbles about him. It is the material +image of the Christian; his heart resting on the Rock of Ages, his eye +fixed on the brighter world above. + +I did not say all this while we were looking round among these wonders, +quite new to many of us. People don't talk in straight-off sentences +like that. They stumble and stop, or get interrupted, change a word, +begin again, miss connections of verbs and nouns, and so on, till they +blunder out their meaning. But I did let fall a word or two, showing the +impression the celestial laboratory produced upon me. I rather think +I must own to the “Rock of Ages” comparison. Thereupon the “Man of +Letters,” so called, took his pipe from his mouth, and said that he did +n't go in “for sentiment and that sort of thing. Gush was played out.” + +The Member of the Haouse, who, as I think, is not wanting in that homely +good sense which one often finds in plain people from the huckleberry +districts, but who evidently supposes the last speaker to be what he +calls “a tahlented mahn,” looked a little puzzled. My remark seemed +natural and harmless enough to him, I suppose, but I had been distinctly +snubbed, and the Member of the Haouse thought I must defend myself, +as is customary in the deliberative body to which he belongs, when one +gentleman accuses another gentleman of mental weakness or obliquity. I +could not make up my mind to oblige him at that moment by showing fight. +I suppose that would have pleased my assailant, as I don't think he has +a great deal to lose, and might have made a little capital out of me if +he could have got a laugh out of the Member or either of the dummies,--I +beg their pardon again, I mean the two undemonstrative boarders. But I +will tell you, Beloved, just what I think about this matter. + +We poets, you know, are much given to indulging in sentiment, which is a +mode of consciousness at a discount just now with the new generation of +analysts who are throwing everything into their crucibles. Now we must +not claim too much for sentiment. It does not go a great way in deciding +questions of arithmetic, or algebra, or geometry. Two and two +will undoubtedly make four, irrespective of the emotions or other +idiosyncrasies of the calculator; and the three angles of a triangle +insist on being equal to two right angles, in the face of the most +impassioned rhetoric or the most inspired verse. But inasmuch as +religion and law and the whole social order of civilized society, to +say nothing of literature and art, are so founded on and pervaded by +sentiment that they would all go to pieces without it, it is a word not +to be used too lightly in passing judgment, as if it were an element +to be thrown out or treated with small consideration. Reason may be the +lever, but sentiment gives you the fulcrum and the place to stand on if +you want to move the world. Even “sentimentality,” which is sentiment +overdone, is better than that affectation of superiority to human +weakness which is only tolerable as one of the stage properties of +full-blown dandyism, and is, at best, but half-blown cynicism; which +participle and noun you can translate, if you happen to remember the +derivation of the last of them, by a single familiar word. There is a +great deal of false sentiment in the world, as there is of bad logic +and erroneous doctrine; but--it is very much less disagreeable to hear a +young poet overdo his emotions, or even deceive himself about them, +than to hear a caustic-epithet flinger repeating such words as +“sentimentality” and “entusymusy,”--one of the least admirable of Lord +Byron's bequests to our language,--for the purpose of ridiculing him +into silence. An overdressed woman is not so pleasing as she might be, +but at any rate she is better than the oil of vitriol squirter, whose +profession it is to teach young ladies to avoid vanity by spoiling their +showy silks and satins. + +The Lady was the first of our party who was invited to look through the +equatorial. Perhaps this world had proved so hard to her that she was +pained to think that other worlds existed, to be homes of suffering and +sorrow. Perhaps she was thinking it would be a happy change when she +should leave this dark planet for one of those brighter spheres. She +sighed, at any rate, but thanked the Young Astronomer for the beautiful +sights he had shown her, and gave way to the next comer, who was That +Boy, now in a state of irrepressible enthusiasm to see the Man in the +Moon. He was greatly disappointed at not making out a colossal human +figure moving round among the shining summits and shadowy ravines of the +“spotty globe.” + +The Landlady came next and wished to see the moon also, in preference to +any other object. She was astonished at the revelations of the powerful +telescope. Was there any live creatures to be seen on the moon? she +asked. The Young Astronomer shook his head, smiling a little at the +question.--Was there any meet'n'-houses? There was no evidence, he said, +that the moon was inhabited. As there did not seem to be either air or +water on its surface, the inhabitants would have a rather hard time of +it, and if they went to meeting the sermons would be apt to be rather +dry. If there were a building on it as big as York minster, as big as +the Boston Coliseum, the great telescopes like Lord Rosse's would make +it out. But it seemed to be a forlorn place; those who had studied it +most agreed in considering it a “cold, crude, silent, and desolate” ruin +of nature, without the possibility, if life were on it, of articulate +speech, of music, even of sound. Sometimes a greenish tint was seen +upon its surface, which might have been taken for vegetation, but it was +thought not improbably to be a reflection from the vast forests of South +America. The ancients had a fancy, some of them, that the face of the +moon was a mirror in which the seas and shores of the earth were imaged. +Now we know the geography of the side toward us about as well as that of +Asia, better than that of Africa. The Astronomer showed them one of +the common small photographs of the moon. He assured them that he had +received letters inquiring in all seriousness if these alleged lunar +photographs were not really taken from a peeled orange. People had got +angry with him for laughing at them for asking such a question. Then +he gave them an account of the famous moon-hoax which came out, he +believed, in 1835. It was full of the most bare-faced absurdities, +yet people swallowed it all, and even Arago is said to have treated it +seriously as a thing that could not well be true, for Mr. Herschel would +have certainly notified him of these marvellous discoveries. The writer +of it had not troubled himself to invent probabilities, but had borrowed +his scenery from the Arabian Nights and his lunar inhabitants from Peter +Wilkins. + +After this lecture the Capitalist stepped forward and applied his eye to +the lens. I suspect it to have been shut most of the time, for I observe +a good many elderly people adjust the organ of vision to any optical +instrument in that way. I suppose it is from the instinct of protection +to the eye, the same instinct as that which makes the raw militia-man +close it when he pulls the trigger of his musket the first time. He +expressed himself highly gratified, however, with what he saw, and +retired from the instrument to make room for the Young Girl. + +She threw her hair back and took her position at the instrument. +Saint Simeon Stylites the Younger explained the wonders of the moon to +her,--Tycho and the grooves radiating from it, Kepler and Copernicus +with their craters and ridges, and all the most brilliant shows of +this wonderful little world. I thought he was more diffuse and more +enthusiastic in his descriptions than he had been with the older members +of the party. I don't doubt the old gentleman who lived so long on the +top of his pillar would have kept a pretty sinner (if he could have had +an elevator to hoist her up to him) longer than he would have kept her +grandmother. These young people are so ignorant, you know. As for our +Scheherezade, her delight was unbounded, and her curiosity insatiable. +If there were any living creatures there, what odd things they must be. +They could n't have any lungs, nor any hearts. What a pity! Did they +ever die? How could they expire if they didn't breathe? Burn up? No air +to burn in. Tumble into some of those horrid pits, perhaps, and break +all to bits. She wondered how the young people there liked it, or +whether there were any young people there; perhaps nobody was young and +nobody was old, but they were like mummies all of them--what an idea +--two mummies making love to each other! So she went on in a rattling, +giddy kind of way, for she was excited by the strange scene in which +she found herself, and quite astonished the Young Astronomer with her +vivacity. All at once she turned to him. + +Will you show me the double star you said I should see? + +With the greatest pleasure,--he said, and proceeded to wheel the +ponderous dome, and then to adjust the instrument, I think to the one in +Andromeda, or that in Cygnus, but I should not know one of them from the +other. + +How beautiful!--she said as she looked at the wonderful object.--One is +orange red and one is emerald green. + +The young man made an explanation in which he said something about +complementary colors. + +Goodness!--exclaimed the Landlady.--What! complimentary to our party? + +Her wits must have been a good deal confused by the strange sights of +the evening. She had seen tickets marked complimentary, she remembered, +but she could not for the life of her understand why our party should be +particularly favored at a celestial exhibition like this. On the whole, +she questioned inwardly whether it might not be some subtle pleasantry, +and smiled, experimentally, with a note of interrogation in the smile, +but, finding no encouragement, allowed her features to subside gradually +as if nothing had happened. I saw all this as plainly as if it had all +been printed in great-primer type, instead of working itself out in her +features. I like to see other people muddled now and then, because +my own occasional dulness is relieved by a good solid background of +stupidity in my neighbors. + +--And the two revolve round each other?--said the Young Girl. + +--Yes,--he answered,--two suns, a greater and a less, each shining, but +with a different light, for the other. + +--How charming! It must be so much pleasanter than to be alone in such a +great empty space! I should think one would hardly care to shine if its +light wasted itself in the monstrous solitude of the sky. Does not a +single star seem very lonely to you up there? + +--Not more lonely than I am myself,--answered the Young Astronomer. + +--I don't know what there was in those few words, but I noticed that +for a minute or two after they, were uttered I heard the ticking of the +clock-work that moved the telescope as clearly as if we had all been +holding our breath, and listening for the music of the spheres. + +The Young Girl kept her eye closely applied to the eye-piece of +the telescope a very long time, it seemed to me. Those double stars +interested her a good deal, no doubt. When she looked off from the glass +I thought both her eyes appeared very much as if they had been a little +strained, for they were suffused and glistening. It may be that she +pitied the lonely young man. + +I know nothing in the world tenderer than the pity that a kind-hearted +young girl has for a young man who feels lonely. It is true that these +dear creatures are all compassion for every form of human woe, +and anxious to alleviate all human misfortunes. They will go to +Sunday-schools through storms their brothers are afraid of, to teach the +most unpleasant and intractable classes of little children the age of +Methuselah and the dimensions of Og the King of Bashan's bedstead. They +will stand behind a table at a fair all day until they are ready to +drop, dressed in their prettiest clothes and their sweetest smiles, and +lay hands upon you, like--so many Lady Potiphars,--perfectly correct +ones, of course,--to make you buy what you do not want, at prices which +you cannot afford; all this as cheerfully as if it were not martyrdom +to them as well as to you. Such is their love for all good objects, such +their eagerness to sympathize with all their suffering fellow-creatures! +But there is nothing they pity as they pity a lonely young man. + +I am sure, I sympathize with her in this instance. To see a pale student +burning away, like his own midnight lamp, with only dead men's hands to +hold, stretched out to him from the sepulchres of books, and dead men's +souls imploring him from their tablets to warm them over again just for +a little while in a human consciousness, when all this time there are +soft, warm, living hands that would ask nothing better than to bring the +blood back into those cold thin fingers, and gently caressing natures +that would wind all their tendrils about the unawakened heart which +knows so little of itself, is pitiable enough and would be sadder still +if we did not have the feeling that sooner or later the pale student +will be pretty sure to feel the breath of a young girl against his cheek +as she looks over his shoulder; and that he will come all at once to an +illuminated page in his book that never writer traced in characters, +and never printer set up in type, and never binder enclosed within his +covers! But our young man seems farther away from life than any student +whose head is bent downwards over his books. His eyes are turned away +from all human things. How cold the moonlight is that falls upon his +forehead, and how white he looks in it! Will not the rays strike +through to his brain at last, and send him to a narrower cell than this +egg-shell dome which is his workshop and his prison? + +I cannot say that the Young Astronomer seemed particularly impressed +with a sense of his miserable condition. He said he was lonely, it is +true, but he said it in a manly tone, and not as if he were repining +at the inevitable condition of his devoting himself to that particular +branch of science. Of course, he is lonely, the most lonely being that +lives in the midst of our breathing world. If he would only stay a +little longer with us when we get talking; but he is busy almost always +either in observation or with his calculations and studies, and when the +nights are fair loses so much sleep that he must make it up by day. He +wants contact with human beings. I wish he would change his seat and +come round and sit by our Scheherezade! + +The rest of the visit went off well enough, except that the “Man of +Letters,” so called, rather snubbed some of the heavenly bodies as +not quite up to his standard of brilliancy. I thought myself that the +double-star episode was the best part of it. + +I have an unexpected revelation to make to the reader. Not long after +our visit to the Observatory, the Young Astronomer put a package into my +hands, a manuscript, evidently, which he said he would like to have me +glance over. I found something in it which interested me, and told him +the next day that I should like to read it with some care. He seemed +rather pleased at this, and said that he wished I would criticise it as +roughly as I liked, and if I saw anything in it which might be dressed +to better advantage to treat it freely, just as if it were my own +production. It had often happened to him, he went on to say, to be +interrupted in his observations by clouds covering the objects he was +examining for a longer or shorter time. In these idle moments he had put +down many thoughts, unskilfully he feared, but just as they came into +his mind. His blank verse he suspected was often faulty. His thoughts he +knew must be crude, many of them. It would please him to have me amuse +myself by putting them into shape. He was kind enough to say that I was +an artist in words, but he held himself as an unskilled apprentice. + +I confess I was appalled when I cast my eye upon the title of the +manuscript, “Cirri and Nebulae.” + +--Oh! oh!--I said,--that will never do. People don't know what +Cirri are, at least not one out of fifty readers. “Wind-Clouds and +Star-Drifts” will do better than that. + +--Anything you like,--he answered,--what difference does it make how you +christen a foundling? These are not my legitimate scientific offspring, +and you may consider them left on your doorstep. + +--I will not attempt to say just how much of the diction of these lines +belongs to him, and how much to me. He said he would never claim them, +after I read them to him in my version. I, on my part, do not wish to be +held responsible for some of his more daring thoughts, if I should see +fit to reproduce them hereafter. At this time I shall give only the +first part of the series of poetical outbreaks for which the young +devotee of science must claim his share of the responsibility. I may put +some more passages into shape by and by. + + WIND-CLOUDS AND STAR-DRIFTS. + + I + + Another clouded night; the stars are hid, + The orb that waits my search is hid with them. + Patience! Why grudge an hour, a month, a year, + To plant my ladder and to gain the round + That leads my footsteps to the heaven of fame, + Where waits the wreath my sleepless midnights won? + Not the stained laurel such as heroes wear + That withers when some stronger conqueror's heel + Treads down their shrivelling trophies in the dust; + But the fair garland whose undying green + Not time can change, nor wrath of gods or men! + + With quickened heart-beats I shall hear the tongues + That speak my praise; but better far the sense + That in the unshaped ages, buried deep + In the dark mines of unaccomplished time + Yet to be stamped with morning's royal die + And coined in golden days,--in those dim years + I shall be reckoned with the undying dead, + My name emblazoned on the fiery arch, + Unfading till the stars themselves shall fade. + Then, as they call the roll of shining worlds, + Sages of race unborn in accents new + Shall count me with the Olympian ones of old, + Whose glories kindle through the midnight sky + Here glows the God of Battles; this recalls + The Lord of Ocean, and yon far-off sphere + The Sire of Him who gave his ancient name + To the dim planet with the wondrous rings; + Here flames the Queen of Beauty's silver lamp, + And there the moon-girt orb of mighty Jove; + But this, unseen through all earth's aeons past, + A youth who watched beneath the western star + Sought in the darkness, found, and showed to men; + Linked with his name thenceforth and evermore! + So shall that name be syllabled anew + In all the tongues of all the tribes of men: + I that have been through immemorial years + Dust in the dust of my forgotten time + Shall live in accents shaped of blood-warm breath, + Yea, rise in mortal semblance, newly born + In shining stone, in undecaying bronze, + And stand on high, and look serenely down + On the new race that calls the earth its own. + + Is this a cloud, that, blown athwart my soul, + Wears a false seeming of the pearly stain + Where worlds beyond the world their mingling rays + Blend in soft white,--a cloud that, born of earth, + Would cheat the soul that looks for light from heaven? + Must every coral-insect leave his sign + On each poor grain he lent to build the reef, + As Babel's builders stamped their sunburnt clay, + Or deem his patient service all in vain? + What if another sit beneath the shade + Of the broad elm I planted by the way, + --What if another heed the beacon light + I set upon the rock that wrecked my keel, + Have I not done my task and served my kind? + Nay, rather act thy part, unnamed, unknown, + And let Fame blow her trumpet through the world + With noisy wind to swell a fool's renown, + Joined with some truth be stumbled blindly o'er, + Or coupled with some single shining deed + That in the great account of all his days + Will stand alone upon the bankrupt sheet + His pitying angel shows the clerk of Heaven. + The noblest service comes from nameless hands, + And the best servant does his work unseen. + Who found the seeds of fire and made them shoot, + Fed by his breath, in buds and flowers of flame? + Who forged in roaring flames the ponderous stone, + And shaped the moulded metal to his need? + Who gave the dragging car its rolling wheel, + And tamed the steed that whirls its circling round? + All these have left their work and not their names, + Why should I murmur at a fate like theirs? + This is the heavenly light; the pearly stain + Was but a wind-cloud drifting oer the stars! + + + + +VI + +I find I have so many things in common with the old Master of Arts, that +I do not always know whether a thought was originally his or mine. That +is what always happens where two persons of a similar cast of mind talk +much together. And both of them often gain by the interchange. Many +ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one +where they sprang up. That which was a weed in one intelligence becomes +a flower in the other. A flower, on the other hand, may dwindle down to +a mere weed by the same change. Healthy growths may become poisonous by +falling upon the wrong mental soil, and what seemed a night-shade in one +mind unfold as a morning-glory in the other. + +--I thank God,--the Master said,--that a great many people believe a +great deal more than I do. I think, when it comes to serious matters, +I like those who believe more than I do better than those who believe +less. + +--Why,--said I,--you have got hold of one of my own working axioms. I +should like to hear you develop it. + +The Member of the Haouse said he should be glad to listen to the debate. +The gentleman had the floor. The Scarabee rose from his chair and +departed;--I thought his joints creaked as he straightened himself. + +The Young Girl made a slight movement; it was a purely accidental +coincidence, no doubt, but I saw That Boy put his hand in his pocket +and pull out his popgun, and begin loading it. It cannot be that our +Scheherezade, who looks so quiet and proper at the table, can make use +of That Boy and his catapult to control the course of conversation and +change it to suit herself! She certainly looks innocent enough; but what +does a blush prove, and what does its absence prove, on one of these +innocent faces? There is nothing in all this world that can lie and +cheat like the face and the tongue of a young girl. Just give her a +little touch of hysteria,--I don't mean enough of it to make her friends +call the doctor in, but a slight hint of it in the nervous system,--and +“Machiavel the waiting-maid” might take lessons of her. But I cannot +think our Scheherezade is one of that kind, and I am ashamed of +myself for noting such a trifling coincidence as that which excited my +suspicion. + +--I say,--the Master continued,--that I had rather be in the company of +those who believe more than I do, in spiritual matters at least, than of +those who doubt what I accept as a part of my belief. + +--To tell the truth,--said I,--I find that difficulty sometimes in +talking with you. You have not quite so many hesitations as I have in +following out your logical conclusions. I suppose you would bring some +things out into daylight questioning that I had rather leave in +that twilight of half-belief peopled with shadows--if they are only +shadows--more sacred to me than many realities. + +There is nothing I do not question,--said the Master;--I not only begin +with the precept of Descartes, but I hold all my opinions involving any +chain of reasoning always open to revision. + +--I confess that I smiled internally to hear him say that. The old +Master thinks he is open to conviction on all subjects; but if you +meddle with some of his notions and don't get tossed on his horns as if +a bull had hold of you, I should call you lucky. + +--You don't mean you doubt everything?--I said. + +--What do you think I question everything for, the Master replied,--if I +never get any answers? You've seen a blind man with a stick, feeling +his way along? Well, I am a blind man with a stick, and I find the world +pretty full of men just as blind as I am, but without any stick. I try +the ground to find out whether it is firm or not before I rest my weight +on it; but after it has borne my weight, that question at least is +answered. It very certainly was strong enough once; the presumption is +that it is strong enough now. Still the soil may have been undermined, +or I may have grown heavier. Make as much of that as you will. I say +I question everything; but if I find Bunker Hill Monument standing as +straight as when I leaned against it a year or ten years ago, I am not +very much afraid that Bunker Hill will cave in if I trust myself again +on the soil of it. + +I glanced off, as one often does in talk. + +The Monument is an awful place to visit,--I said.--The waves of time +are like the waves of the ocean; the only thing they beat against +without destroying it is a rock; and they destroy that at last. But it +takes a good while. There is a stone now standing in very good order +that was as old as a monument of Louis XIV. and Queen Anne's day is +now when Joseph went down into Egypt. Think of the shaft on Bunker Hill +standing in the sunshine on the morning of January 1st in the year 5872! + +It won't be standing,--the Master said.--We are poor bunglers compared +to those old Egyptians. There are no joints in one of their obelisks. +They are our masters in more ways than we know of, and in more ways than +some of us are willing to know. That old Lawgiver wasn't learned in all +the wisdom of the Egyptians for nothing. It scared people well a couple +of hundred years ago when Sir John Marsham and Dr. John Spencer ventured +to tell their stories about the sacred ceremonies of the Egyptian +priesthood. People are beginning to find out now that you can't study +any religion by itself to any good purpose. You must have comparative +theology as you have comparative anatomy. What would you make of a cat's +foolish little good-for-nothing collar-bone, if you did not know how +the same bone means a good deal in other creatures,--in yourself, for +instance, as you 'll find out if you break it? You can't know too much +of your race and its beliefs, if you want to know anything about your +Maker. I never found but one sect large enough to hold the whole of me. + +--And may I ask what that was?--I said. + +--The Human sect,--the Master answered. That has about room enough for +me,--at present, I mean to say. + +--Including cannibals and all?--said I. + +-Oh, as to that, the eating of one's kind is a matter of taste, but the +roasting of them has been rather more a specialty of our own particular +belief than of any other I am acquainted with. If you broil a saint, I +don't see why, if you have a mind, you shouldn't serve him up at your-- + +Pop! went the little piece of artillery. Don't tell me it was accident. +I know better. You can't suppose for one minute that a boy like that +one would time his interruptions so cleverly. Now it so happened that +at that particular moment Dr. B. Franklin was not at the table. You may +draw your own conclusions. I say nothing, but I think a good deal. + +--I came back to the Bunker Hill Monument.--I often think--I said--of +the dynasty which is to reign in its shadow for some thousands of years, +it may be. + +The “Man of Letters,” so called, asked me, in a tone I did not exactly +like, whether I expected to live long enough to see a monarchy take the +place of a republic in this country. + +--No,--said I,--I was thinking of something very different. I was +indulging a fancy of mine about the Man who is to sit at the foot of the +monument for one, or it may be two or three thousand years. As long as +the monument stands and there is a city near it, there will always be +a man to take the names of visitors and extract some small tribute from +their pockets, I suppose. I sometimes get thinking of the long, +unbroken succession of these men, until they come to look like one Man; +continuous in being, unchanging as the stone he watches, looking upon +the successive generations of human beings as they come and go, and +outliving all the dynasties of the world in all probability. It has come +to such a pass that I never speak to the Man of the Monument without +wanting to take my hat off and feeling as if I were looking down a vista +of twenty or thirty centuries. + +The “Man of Letters,” so called, said, in a rather contemptuous way, +I thought, that he had n't got so far as that. He was n't quite up to +moral reflections on toll-men and ticket-takers. Sentiment was n't his +tap. + +He looked round triumphantly for a response: but the Capitalist was a +little hard of hearing just then; the Register of Deeds was browsing +on his food in the calm bovine abstraction of a quadruped, and paid no +attention; the Salesman had bolted his breakfast, and whisked himself +away with that peculiar alacrity which belongs to the retail dealer's +assistant; and the Member of the Haouse, who had sometimes seemed to be +impressed with his “tahlented mahn's” air of superiority to the rest of +us, looked as if he thought the speaker was not exactly parliamentary. +So he failed to make his point, and reddened a little, and was not in +the best humor, I thought, when he left the table. I hope he will not +let off any of his irritation on our poor little Scheherezade; but the +truth is, the first person a man of this sort (if he is what I think +him) meets, when he is out of humor, has to be made a victim of, and I +only hope our Young Girl will not have to play Jephthah's daughter. + +And that leads me to say, I cannot help thinking that the kind of +criticism to which this Young Girl has been subjected from some person +or other, who is willing to be smart at her expense, is hurtful and not +wholesome. The question is a delicate one. So many foolish persons are +rushing into print, that it requires a kind of literary police to hold +them back and keep them in order. Where there are mice there must be +cats, and where there are rats we may think it worth our while to keep +a terrier, who will give them a shake and let them drop, with all the +mischief taken out of them. But the process is a rude and cruel one at +best, and it too often breeds a love of destructiveness for its own sake +in those who get their living by it. A poor poem or essay does not do +much harm after all; nobody reads it who is like to be seriously hurt +by it. But a sharp criticism with a drop of witty venom in it stings a +young author almost to death, and makes an old one uncomfortable to no +purpose. If it were my business to sit in judgment on my neighbors, +I would try to be courteous, at least, to those who had done any good +service, but, above all, I would handle tenderly those young authors +who are coming before the public in the flutter of their first or early +appearance, and are in the trembling delirium of stage-fright already. +Before you write that brilliant notice of some alliterative Angelina's +book of verses, I wish you would try this experiment. + +Take half a sheet of paper and copy upon it any of Angelina's +stanzas,--the ones you were going to make fun of, if you will. Now go +to your window, if it is a still day, open it, and let the half-sheet +of paper drop on the outside. How gently it falls through the soft +air, always tending downwards, but sliding softly, from side to side, +wavering, hesitating, balancing, until it settles as noiselessly as a +snow-flake upon the all-receiving bosom of the earth! Just such would +have been the fate of poor Angelina's fluttering effort, if you had left +it to itself. It would have slanted downward into oblivion so sweetly +and softly that she would have never known when it reached that harmless +consummation. + +Our epizoic literature is becoming so extensive that nobody is safe from +its ad infinitum progeny. A man writes a book of criticisms. A Quarterly +Review criticises the critic. A Monthly Magazine takes up the critic's +critic. A Weekly Journal criticises the critic of the critic's +critic, and a daily paper favors us with some critical remarks on the +performance of the writer in the Weekly, who has criticised the critical +notice in the Monthly of the critical essay in the Quarterly on the +critical work we started with. And thus we see that as each flea “has +smaller fleas that on him prey,” even the critic himself cannot escape +the common lot of being bitten. Whether all this is a blessing or a +curse, like that one which made Pharaoh and all his household run to +their toilet-tables, is a question about which opinions might differ. +The physiologists of the time of Moses--if there were vivisectors other +than priests in those days--would probably have considered that other +plague, of the frogs, as a fortunate opportunity for science, as this +poor little beast has been the souffre-douleur of experimenters and +schoolboys from time immemorial. + +But there is a form of criticism to which none will object. It is +impossible to come before a public so alive with sensibilities as this +we live in, with the smallest evidence of a sympathetic disposition, +without making friends in a very unexpected way. Everywhere there are +minds tossing on the unquiet waves of doubt. If you confess to the same +perplexities and uncertainties that torture them, they are grateful for +your companionship. If you have groped your way out of the wilderness +in which you were once wandering with them, they will follow your +footsteps, it may be, and bless you as their deliverer. So, all at once, +a writer finds he has a parish of devout listeners, scattered, it is +true, beyond the reach of any summons but that of a trumpet like the +archangel's, to whom his slight discourse may be of more value than the +exhortations they hear from the pulpit, if these last do not happen to +suit their special needs. Young men with more ambition and intelligence +than force of character, who have missed their first steps in life and +are stumbling irresolute amidst vague aims and changing purposes, hold +out their hands, imploring to be led into, or at least pointed towards, +some path where they can find a firm foothold. Young women born into a +chilling atmosphere of circumstance which keeps all the buds of their +nature unopened and always striving to get to a ray of sunshine, if +one finds its way to their neighborhood, tell their stories, sometimes +simply and touchingly, sometimes in a more or less affected and +rhetorical way, but still stories of defeated and disappointed instincts +which ought to make any moderately impressible person feel very tenderly +toward them. + +In speaking privately to these young persons, many of whom have literary +aspirations, one should be very considerate of their human feelings. But +addressing them collectively a few plain truths will not give any one +of them much pain. Indeed, almost every individual among them will feel +sure that he or she is an exception to those generalities which apply so +well to the rest. + +If I were a literary Pope sending out an Encyclical, I would tell these +inexperienced persons that nothing is so frequent as to mistake an +ordinary human gift for a special and extraordinary endowment. The +mechanism of breathing and that of swallowing are very wonderful, and +if one had seen and studied them in his own person only, he might +well think himself a prodigy. Everybody knows these and other +bodily faculties are common gifts; but nobody except editors and +school-teachers and here and there a literary than knows how common +is the capacity of rhyming and prattling in readable prose, especially +among young women of a certain degree of education. In my character of +Pontiff, I should tell these young persons that most of them labored +under a delusion. It is very hard to believe it; one feels so full +of intelligence and so decidedly superior to one's dull relations and +schoolmates; one writes so easily and the lines sound so prettily to +one's self; there are such felicities of expression, just like those we +hear quoted from the great poets; and besides one has been told by +so many friends that all one had to do was to print and be famous! +Delusion, my poor dear, delusion at least nineteen times out of twenty, +yes, ninety-nine times in a hundred. + +But as private father confessor, I always allow as much as I can for the +one chance in the hundred. I try not to take away all hope, unless the +case is clearly desperate, and then to direct the activities into some +other channel. + +Using kind language, I can talk pretty freely. I have counselled more +than one aspirant after literary fame to go back to his tailor's board +or his lapstone. I have advised the dilettanti, whose foolish friends +praised their verses or their stories, to give up all their deceptive +dreams of making a name by their genius, and go to work in the study of +a profession which asked only for the diligent use of average; +ordinary talents. It is a very grave responsibility which these unknown +correspondents throw upon their chosen counsellors. One whom you have +never seen, who lives in a community of which you know nothing, sends +you specimens more or less painfully voluminous of his writings, which +he asks you to read over, think over, and pray over, and send back an +answer informing him whether fame and fortune are awaiting him as the +possessor of the wonderful gifts his writings manifest, and whether +you advise him to leave all,--the shop he sweeps out every morning, the +ledger he posts, the mortar in which he pounds, the bench at which he +urges the reluctant plane,--and follow his genius whithersoever it may +lead him. The next correspondent wants you to mark out a whole course +of life for him, and the means of judgment he gives you are about as +adequate as the brick which the simpleton of old carried round as an +advertisement of the house he had to sell. My advice to all the young +men that write to me depends somewhat on the handwriting and spelling. +If these are of a certain character, and they have reached a mature age, +I recommend some honest manual calling, such as they have very probably +been bred to, and which will, at least, give them a chance of becoming +President of the United States by and by, if that is any object to them. +What would you have done with the young person who called on me a good +many years ago, so many that he has probably forgotten his literary +effort,--and read as specimens of his literary workmanship lines like +those which I will favor you with presently? He was an able-bodied, +grown-up young person, whose ingenuousness interested me; and I am sure +if I thought he would ever be pained to see his maiden effort in print, +I would deny myself the pleasure of submitting it to the reader. The +following is an exact transcript of the lines he showed me, and which I +took down on the spot: + + “Are you in the vein for cider? + Are you in the tune for pork? + Hist! for Betty's cleared the larder + And turned the pork to soap.” + +Do not judge too hastily this sincere effort of a maiden muse. Here was +a sense of rhythm, and an effort in the direction of rhyme; here was an +honest transcript of an occurrence of daily life, told with a certain +idealizing expression, recognizing the existence of impulses, mysterious +instincts, impelling us even in the selection of our bodily sustenance. +But I had to tell him that it wanted dignity of incident and grace of +narrative, that there was no atmosphere to it, nothing of the light that +never was and so forth. I did not say this in these very words, but I +gave him to understand, without being too hard upon him, that he had +better not desert his honest toil in pursuit of the poet's bays. This, +it must be confessed, was a rather discouraging case. A young person +like this may pierce, as the Frenchmen say, by and by, but the chances +are all the other way. + +I advise aimless young men to choose some profession without needless +delay, and so get into a good strong current of human affairs, and +find themselves bound up in interests with a compact body of their +fellow-men. + +I advise young women who write to me for counsel,--perhaps I do not +advise them at all, only sympathize a little with them, and listen to +what they have to say (eight closely written pages on the average, which +I always read from beginning to end, thinking of the widow's cruse and +myself in the character of Elijah) and--and--come now, I don't believe +Methuselah would tell you what he said in his letters to young ladies, +written when he was in his nine hundred and sixty-ninth year. + +But, dear me! how much work all this private criticism involves! An +editor has only to say “respectfully declined,” and there is the end of +it. But the confidential adviser is expected to give the reasons of his +likes and dislikes in detail, and sometimes to enter into an argument +for their support. That is more than any martyr can stand, but what +trials he must go through, as it is! Great bundles of manuscripts, verse +or prose, which the recipient is expected to read, perhaps to recommend +to a publisher, at any rate to express a well-digested and agreeably +flavored opinion about; which opinion, nine times out of ten, disguise +it as we may, has to be a bitter draught; every form of egotism, +conceit, false sentiment, hunger for notoriety, and eagerness for +display of anserine plumage before the admiring public;--all these come +in by mail or express, covered with postage-stamps of so much more cost +than the value of the waste words they overlie, that one comes at last +to groan and change color at the very sight of a package, and to dread +the postman's knock as if it were that of the other visitor whose naked +knuckles rap at every door. + +Still there are experiences which go far towards repaying all these +inflictions. My last young man's case looked desperate enough; some of +his sails had blown from the rigging, some were backing in the wind, and +some were flapping and shivering, but I told him which way to head, and +to my surprise he promised to do just as I directed, and I do not doubt +is under full sail at this moment. + +What if I should tell my last, my very recent experience with the other +sex? I received a paper containing the inner history of a young woman's +life, the evolution of her consciousness from its earliest record of +itself, written so thoughtfully, so sincerely, with so much firmness and +yet so much delicacy, with such truth of detail and such grace in the +manner of telling, that I finished the long manuscript almost at a +sitting, with a pleasure rarely, almost never experienced in voluminous +communications which one has to spell out of handwriting. This was from +a correspondent who made my acquaintance by letter when she was little +more than a child, some years ago. How easy at that early period to have +silenced her by indifference, to have wounded her by a careless epithet, +perhaps even to have crushed her as one puts his heel on a weed! A very +little encouragement kept her from despondency, and brought back one of +those overflows of gratitude which make one more ashamed of himself +for being so overpaid than he would be for having committed any of the +lesser sins. But what pleased me most in the paper lately received was +to see how far the writer had outgrown the need of any encouragement of +mine; that she had strengthened out of her tremulous questionings into a +self-reliance and self-poise which I had hardly dared to anticipate for +her. Some of my readers who are also writers have very probably had +more numerous experiences of this kind than I can lay claim to; +self-revelations from unknown and sometimes nameless friends, who write +from strange corners where the winds have wafted some stray words of +theirs which have lighted in the minds and reached the hearts of those +to whom they were as the angel that stirred the pool of Bethesda. +Perhaps this is the best reward authorship brings; it may not imply much +talent or literary excellence, but it means that your way of thinking +and feeling is just what some one of your fellow-creatures needed. + +--I have been putting into shape, according to his request, some further +passages from the Young Astronomer's manuscript, some of which the +reader will have a chance to read if he is so disposed. The conflict in +the young man's mind between the desire for fame and the sense of its +emptiness as compared with nobler aims has set me thinking about the +subject from a somewhat humbler point of view. As I am in the habit of +telling you, Beloved, many of my thoughts, as well as of repeating what +was said at our table, you may read what follows as if it were addressed +to you in the course of an ordinary conversation, where I claimed rather +more than my share, as I am afraid I am a little in the habit of doing. + +I suppose we all, those of us who write in verse or prose, have the +habitual feeling that we should like to be remembered. It is to be awake +when all of those who were round us have been long wrapped in slumber. +It is a pleasant thought enough that the name by which we have been +called shall be familiar on the lips of those who come after us, and the +thoughts that wrought themselves out in our intelligence, the emotions +that trembled through our frames, shall live themselves over again in +the minds and hearts of others. + +But is there not something of rest, of calm, in the thought of gently +and gradually fading away out of human remembrance? What line have we +written that was on a level with our conceptions? What page of ours that +does not betray some weakness we would fain have left unrecorded? To +become a classic and share the life of a language is to be ever open to +criticisms, to comparisons, to the caprices of successive generations, +to be called into court and stand a trial before a new jury, once or +more than once in every century. To be forgotten is to sleep in peace +with the undisturbed myriads, no longer subject to the chills and heats, +the blasts, the sleet, the dust, which assail in endless succession that +shadow of a man which we call his reputation. The line which dying we +could wish to blot has been blotted out for us by a hand so tender, so +patient, so used to its kindly task, that the page looks as fair as if +it had never borne the record of our infirmity or our transgression. +And then so few would be wholly content with their legacy of fame. You +remember poor Monsieur Jacques's complaint of the favoritism shown +to Monsieur Berthier,--it is in that exquisite “Week in a French +Country-House.” “Have you seen his room? Have you seen how large it is? +Twice as large as mine! He has two jugs, a large one and a little one. +I have only one small one. And a tea-service and a gilt Cupid on the +top of his looking-glass.” The famous survivor of himself has had his +features preserved in a medallion, and the slice of his countenance +seems clouded with the thought that it does not belong to a bust; the +bust ought to look happy in its niche, but the statue opposite makes +it feel as if it had been cheated out of half its personality, and the +statue looks uneasy because another stands on a loftier pedestal. +But “Ignotus” and “Miserrimus” are of the great majority in that vast +assembly, that House of Commons whose members are all peers, where to be +forgotten is the standing rule. The dignity of a silent memory is not +to be undervalued. Fame is after all a kind of rude handling, and a +name that is often on vulgar lips seems to borrow something not to be +desired, as the paper money that passes from hand to hand gains somewhat +which is a loss thereby. O sweet, tranquil refuge of oblivion, so far +as earth is concerned, for us poor blundering, stammering, misbehaving +creatures who cannot turn over a leaf of our life's diary without +feeling thankful that its failure can no longer stare us in the face! +Not unwelcome shall be the baptism of dust which hides forever the name +that was given in the baptism of water! We shall have good company whose +names are left unspoken by posterity. “Who knows whether the best of men +be known, or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot than +any that stand remembered in the known account of time? The greater part +must be content to be as though they had not been; to be found in the +register of God, not in the record of man. Twenty-seven names make up +the first story before the flood, and the recorded names ever since +contain not one living century.” + +I have my moods about such things as the Young Astronomer has, as we all +have. There are times when the thought of becoming utterly nothing to +the world we knew so well and loved so much is painful and oppressive; +we gasp as if in a vacuum, missing the atmosphere of life we have so +long been in the habit of breathing. Not the less are there moments +when the aching need of repose comes over us and the requiescat in pace, +heathen benediction as it is, sounds more sweetly in our ears than all +the promises that Fame can hold out to us. + +I wonder whether it ever occurred to you to reflect upon another horror +there must be in leaving a name behind you. Think what a horrid piece of +work the biographers make of a man's private history! Just imagine the +subject of one of those extraordinary fictions called biographies coming +back and reading the life of himself, written very probably by somebody +or other who thought he could turn a penny by doing it, and having the +pleasure of seeing + + “His little bark attendant sail, + Pursue the triumph and partake the gale.” + +The ghost of the person condemned to walk the earth in a biography +glides into a public library, and goes to the shelf where his mummied +life lies in its paper cerements. I can see the pale shadow glancing +through the pages and hear the comments that shape themselves in the +bodiless intelligence as if they were made vocal by living lips. + +“Born in July, 1776!” And my honored father killed at the battle of +Bunker Hill! Atrocious libeller! to slander one's family at the start +after such a fashion! + +“The death of his parents left him in charge of his Aunt Nancy, whose +tender care took the place of those parental attentions which should +have guided and protected his infant years, and consoled him for the +severity of another relative.” + +--Aunt Nancy! It was Aunt Betsey, you fool! Aunt Nancy used to--she has +been dead these eighty years, so there is no use in mincing matters--she +used to keep a bottle and a stick, and when she had been tasting a drop +out of the bottle the stick used to come off the shelf and I had to +taste that. And here she is made a saint of, and poor Aunt Betsey, that +did everything for me, is slandered by implication as a horrid tyrant. + +“The subject of this commemorative history was remarkable for a +precocious development of intelligence. An old nurse who saw him at the +very earliest period of his existence is said to have spoken of him as +one of the most promising infants she had seen in her long experience. +At school he was equally remarkable, and at a tender age he received a +paper adorned with a cut, inscribed REWARD OF MERIT.” + +--I don't doubt the nurse said that,--there were several promising +children born about that time. As for cuts, I got more from the +schoolmaster's rattan than in any other shape. Didn't one of my teachers +split a Gunter's scale into three pieces over the palm of my hand? +And didn't I grin when I saw the pieces fly? No humbug, now, about my +boyhood! + +“His personal appearance was not singularly prepossessing. Inconspicuous +in stature and unattractive in features.” + +--You misbegotten son of an ourang and grandson of an ascidian (ghosts +keep up with science, you observe), what business have you to be holding +up my person to the contempt of my posterity? Haven't I been sleeping +for this many a year in quiet, and don't the dandelions and buttercups +look as yellow over me as over the best-looking neighbor I have in the +dormitory? Why do you want to people the minds of everybody that reads +your good-for-nothing libel which you call a “biography” with your +impudent caricatures of a man who was a better-looking fellow than +yourself, I 'll bet you ten to one, a man whom his Latin tutor called +fommosus puer when he was only a freshman? If that's what it means to +make a reputation,--to leave your character and your person, and the +good name of your sainted relatives, and all you were, and all you had +and thought and felt, so far as can be gathered by digging you out +of your most private records, to be manipulated and bandied about and +cheapened in the literary market as a chicken or a turkey or a goose is +handled and bargained over at a provision stall, is n't it better to be +content with the honest blue slate-stone and its inscription informing +posterity that you were a worthy citizen and a respected father of a +family? + +--I should like to see any man's biography with corrections and +emendations by his ghost. We don't know each other's secrets quite so +well as we flatter ourselves we do. We don't always know our own secrets +as well as we might. You have seen a tree with different grafts upon it, +an apple or a pear tree we will say. In the late summer months the fruit +on one bough will ripen; I remember just such a tree, and the early +ripening fruit was the Jargonelle. By and by the fruit of another +bough will begin to come into condition; the lovely Saint Michael, as +I remember, grew on the same stock as the Jargonelle in the tree I am +thinking of; and then, when these have all fallen or been gathered, +another, we will say the Winter Nelis, has its turn, and so out of the +same juices have come in succession fruits of the most varied aspects +and flavors. It is the same thing with ourselves, but it takes us a +long while to find it out. The various inherited instincts ripen in +succession. You may be nine tenths paternal at one period of your life, +and nine tenths maternal at another. All at once the traits of some +immediate ancestor may come to maturity unexpectedly on one of the +branches of your character, just as your features at different periods +of your life betray different resemblances to your nearer or more remote +relatives. + +But I want you to let me go back to the Bunker Hill Monument and the +dynasty of twenty or thirty centuries whose successive representatives +are to sit in the gate, like the Jewish monarchs, while the people shall +come by hundreds and by thousands to visit the memorial shaft until the +story of Bunker's Hill is as old as that of Marathon. + +Would not one like to attend twenty consecutive soirees, at each one of +which the lion of the party should be the Man of the Monument, at the +beginning of each century, all the way, we will say, from Anno Domini +2000 to Ann. Dom. 4000,--or, if you think the style of dating will be +changed, say to Ann. Darwinii (we can keep A. D. you see) 1872? Will the +Man be of the Indian type, as President Samuel Stanhope Smith and others +have supposed the transplanted European will become by and by? Will he +have shortened down to four feet and a little more, like the Esquimaux, +or will he have been bred up to seven feet by the use of new chemical +diets, ozonized and otherwise improved atmospheres, and animal +fertilizers? Let us summon him in imagination and ask him a few +questions. + +Is n't it like splitting a toad out of a rock to think of this man +of nineteen or twenty centuries hence coming out from his stony +dwelling-place and speaking with us? What are the questions we should +ask him? He has but a few minutes to stay. Make out your own list; I +will set down a few that come up to me as I write. + +--What is the prevalent religious creed of civilization? + +--Has the planet met with any accident of importance? + +--How general is the republican form of government? + +--Do men fly yet? + +--Has the universal language come into use? + +--Is there a new fuel since the English coal-mines have given out? + +--Is the euthanasia a recognized branch of medical science? + +--Is the oldest inhabitant still living? + +--Is the Daily Advertiser still published? + +--And the Evening Transcript? + +--Is there much inquiry for the works of a writer of the nineteenth +century (Old Style) by--the name of--of-- + +My tongue cleaves to the roof of my mouth. I cannot imagine the putting +of that question without feeling the tremors which shake a wooer as +he falters out the words the answer to which will make him happy or +wretched. + +Whose works was I going to question him about, do you ask me? Oh, the +writings of a friend of mine, much esteemed by his relatives and others. +But it's of no consequence, after all; I think he says he does not care +much for posthumous reputation. + +I find something of the same interest in thinking about one of the +boarders at our table that I find in my waking dreams concerning the +Man of the Monument. This personage is the Register of Deeds. He is an +unemotional character, living in his business almost as exclusively as +the Scarabee, but without any of that eagerness and enthusiasm which +belong to our scientific specialist. His work is largely, principally, +I may say, mechanical. He has developed, however, a certain amount of +taste for the antiquities of his department, and once in a while brings +out some curious result of his investigations into ancient documents. +He too belongs to a dynasty which will last as long as there is such a +thing as property in land and dwellings. When that is done away with, +and we return to the state of villanage, holding our tenement-houses, +all to be of the same pattern, of the State, that is to say, of the +Tammany Ring which is to take the place of the feudal lord,--the office +of Register of Deeds will, I presume, become useless, and the dynasty +will be deposed. + +As we grow older we think more and more of old persons and of old things +and places. As to old persons, it seems as if we never know how much +they have to tell until we are old ourselves and they have been gone +twenty or thirty years. Once in a while we come upon some survivor of +his or her generation that we have overlooked, and feel as if we +had recovered one of the lost books of Livy or fished up the golden +candlestick from the ooze of the Tiber. So it was the other day after +my reminiscences of the old gambrel-roofed house and its visitors. They +found an echo in the recollections of one of the brightest and liveliest +of my suburban friends, whose memory is exact about everything except +her own age, which, there can be no doubt, she makes out a score or two +of years more than it really is. Still she was old enough to touch some +lights--and a shadow or two--into the portraits I had drawn, which +made me wish that she and not I had been the artist who sketched the +pictures. Among the lesser regrets that mingle with graver sorrows for +the friends of an earlier generation we have lost, are our omissions to +ask them so many questions they could have answered easily enough, and +would have been pleased to be asked. There! I say to myself sometimes, +in an absent mood, I must ask her about that. But she of whom I am now +thinking has long been beyond the reach of any earthly questioning, and +I sigh to think how easily I could have learned some fact which I should +have been happy to have transmitted with pious care to those who are +to come after me. How many times I have heard her quote the line about +blessings brightening as they take their flight, and how true it proves +in many little ways that one never thinks of until it is too late. + +The Register of Deeds is not himself advanced in years. But he borrows +an air of antiquity from the ancient records which are stored in his +sepulchral archives. I love to go to his ossuary of dead transactions, +as I would visit the catacombs of Rome or Paris. It is like wandering +up the Nile to stray among the shelves of his monumental folios. Here +stands a series of volumes, extending over a considerable number of +years, all of which volumes are in his handwriting. But as you go +backward there is a break, and you come upon the writing of another +person, who was getting old apparently, for it is beginning to be a +little shaky, and then you know that you have gone back as far as the +last days of his predecessor. Thirty or forty years more carry you to +the time when this incumbent began the duties of his office; his hand +was steady then; and the next volume beyond it in date betrays the work +of a still different writer. All this interests me, but I do not see how +it is going to interest my reader. I do not feel very happy about the +Register of Deeds. What can I do with him? Of what use is he going to be +in my record of what I have seen and heard at the breakfast-table? The +fact of his being one of the boarders was not so important that I was +obliged to speak of him, and I might just as well have drawn on my +imagination and not allowed this dummy to take up the room which another +guest might have profitably filled at our breakfast-table. + +I suppose he will prove a superfluity, but I have got him on my hands, +and I mean that he shall be as little in the way as possible. One always +comes across people in actual life who have no particular business to +be where we find them, and whose right to be at all is somewhat +questionable. + +I am not going to get rid of the Register of Deeds by putting him out of +the way; but I confess I do not see of what service he is going to be to +me in my record. I have often found, however, that the Disposer of men +and things understands much better than we do how to place his pawns +and other pieces on the chess-board of life. A fish more or less in the +ocean does not seem to amount to much. It is not extravagant to say that +any one fish may be considered a supernumerary. But when Captain +Coram's ship sprung a leak and the carpenter could not stop it, and the +passengers had made up their minds that it was all over with them, all +at once, without any apparent reason, the pumps began gaining on the +leak, and the sinking ship to lift herself out of the abyss which was +swallowing her up. And what do you think it was that saved the ship, and +Captain Coram, and so in due time gave to London that Foundling Hospital +which he endowed, and under the floor of which he lies buried? Why, it +was that very supernumerary fish, which we held of so little account, +but which had wedged itself into the rent of the yawning planks, and +served to keep out the water until the leak was finally stopped. + +I am very sure it was Captain Coram, but I almost hope it was somebody +else, in order to give some poor fellow who is lying in wait for the +periodicals a chance to correct me. That will make him happy for a +month, and besides, he will not want to pick a quarrel about anything +else if he has that splendid triumph. You remember Alcibiades and his +dog's tail. + +Here you have the extracts I spoke of from the manuscript placed in my +hands for revision and emendation. I can understand these alternations +of feeling in a young person who has been long absorbed in a single +pursuit, and in whom the human instincts which have been long silent +are now beginning to find expression. I know well what he wants; a great +deal better, I think, than he knows himself. + + WIND-CLOUDS AND STAR-DRIFTS. + + II + + Brief glimpses of the bright celestial spheres, + False lights, false shadows, vague, uncertain gleams, + Pale vaporous mists, wan streaks of lurid flame, + The climbing of the upward-sailing cloud, + The sinking of the downward-falling star, + All these are pictures of the changing moods + Borne through the midnight stillness of my soul. + + Here am I, bound upon this pillared rock, + Prey to the vulture of a vast desire + That feeds upon my life. I burst my bands + And steal a moment's freedom from the beak, + The clinging talons and the shadowing plumes; + Then comes the false enchantress, with her song; + “Thou wouldst not lay thy forehead in the dust + Like the base herd that feeds and breeds and dies! + Lo, the fair garlands that I weave for thee, + Unchanging as the belt Orion wears, + Bright as the jewels of the seven-starred Crown, + The spangled stream of Berenice's hair!” + And so she twines the fetters with the flowers + Around my yielding limbs, and the fierce bird + Stoops to his quarry,--then to feed his rage + Of ravening hunger I must drain my blood + And let the dew-drenched, poison-breeding night + Steal all the freshness from my fading cheek, + And leave its shadows round my caverned eyes. + All for a line in some unheeded scroll; + All for a stone that tells to gaping clowns, + “Here lies a restless wretch beneath a clod + Where squats the jealous nightmare men call Fame!” + + I marvel not at him who scorns his kind + And thinks not sadly of the time foretold + When the old hulk we tread shall be a wreck, + A slag, a cinder drifting through the sky + Without its crew of fools! We live too long + And even so are not content to die, + But load the mould that covers up our bones + With stones that stand like beggars by the road + And show death's grievous wound and ask for tears; + Write our great books to teach men who we are, + Sing our fine songs that tell in artful phrase + The secrets of our lives, and plead and pray + For alms of memory with the after time, + Those few swift seasons while the earth shall wear + Its leafy summers, ere its core grows cold + And the moist life of all that breathes shall die; + Or as the new-born seer, perchance more wise, + Would have us deem, before its growing mass, + Pelted with stardust, atoned with meteor-balls, + Heats like a hammered anvil, till at last Man + and his works and all that stirred itself + Of its own motion, in the fiery glow + Turns to a flaming vapor, and our orb + Shines a new sun for earths that shall be born. + + I am as old as Egypt to myself, + Brother to them that squared the pyramids + By the same stars I watch. I read the page + Where every letter is a glittering world, + With them who looked from Shinar's clay-built towers, + Ere yet the wanderer of the Midland sea + Had missed the fallen sister of the seven. + I dwell in spaces vague, remote, unknown, + Save to the silent few, who, leaving earth, + Quit all communion with their living time. + I lose myself in that ethereal void, + Till I have tired my wings and long to fill + My breast with denser air, to stand, to walk + With eyes not raised above my fellow-men. + Sick of my unwalled, solitary realm, + I ask to change the myriad lifeless worlds + I visit as mine own for one poor patch + Of this dull spheroid and a little breath + To shape in word or deed to serve my kind. + + Was ever giant's dungeon dug so deep, + Was ever tyrant's fetter forged so strong, + Was e'er such deadly poison in the draught + The false wife mingles for the trusting fool, + As he whose willing victim is himself, + Digs, forges, mingles, for his captive soul? + + + + +VII + +I was very sure that the old Master was hard at work about +something,--he is always very busy with something,--but I mean something +particular. + +Whether it was a question of history or of cosmogony, or whether he was +handling a test-tube or a blow-pipe; what he was about I did not feel +sure; but I took it for granted that it was some crucial question or +other he was at work on, some point bearing on the thought of the time. +For the Master, I have observed, is pretty sagacious in striking for the +points where his work will be like to tell. We all know that class of +scientific laborers to whom all facts are alike nourishing mental food, +and who seem to exercise no choice whatever, provided only they can get +hold of these same indiscriminate facts in quantity sufficient. They +browse on them, as the animal to which they would not like to be +compared browses on his thistles. But the Master knows the movement of +the age he belongs to; and if he seems to be busy with what looks like +a small piece of trivial experimenting, one may feel pretty sure that he +knows what he is about, and that his minute operations are looking to a +result that will help him towards attaining his great end in life,--an +insight, so far as his faculties and opportunities will allow, into that +order of things which he believes he can study with some prospect of +taking in its significance. + +I became so anxious to know what particular matter he was busy with, +that I had to call upon him to satisfy my curiosity. It was with a +little trepidation that I knocked at his door. I felt a good deal as +one might have felt on disturbing an alchemist at his work, at the very +moment, it might be, when he was about to make projection. + +--Come in!--said the Master in his grave, massive tones. + +I passed through the library with him into a little room evidently +devoted to his experiments. + +--You have come just at the right moment,--he said.--Your eyes are +better than mine. I have been looking at this flask, and I should like +to have you look at it. + +It was a small matrass, as one of the elder chemists would have called +it, containing a fluid, and hermetically sealed. He held it up at the +window; perhaps you remember the physician holding a flask to the light +in Gerard Douw's “Femme hydropique”; I thought of that fine figure as I +looked at him. Look!--said he,--is it clear or cloudy? + +--You need not ask me that,--I answered. It is very plainly turbid. I +should think that some sediment had been shaken up in it. What is it, +Elixir Vitae or Aurum potabile? + +--Something that means more than alchemy ever did! Boiled just three +hours, and as clear as a bell until within the last few days; since then +has been clouding up. + +--I began to form a pretty shrewd guess at the meaning of all this, +and to think I knew very nearly what was coming next. I was right in +my conjecture. The Master broke off the sealed end of his little flask, +took out a small portion of the fluid on a glass rod, and placed it on a +slip of glass in the usual way for a microscopic examination. + +--One thousand diameters,--he said, as he placed it on the stage of the +microscope.--We shall find signs of life, of course.--He bent over the +instrument and looked but an instant. + +--There they are!--he exclaimed,--look in. + +I looked in and saw some objects: + +The straight linear bodies were darting backward and forward in every +direction. The wavy ones were wriggling about like eels or water-snakes. +The round ones were spinning on their axes and rolling in every +direction. All of them were in a state of incessant activity, as if +perpetually seeking something and never finding it. + +They are tough, the germs of these little bodies, said the Master. +--Three hours' boiling has n't killed 'em. Now, then, let us see what +has been the effect of six hours' boiling. + +He took up another flask just like the first, containing fluid and +hermetically sealed in the same way. + +--Boiled just three hours longer than the other, he said,--six hours in +all. This is the experimentum crucis. Do you see any cloudiness in it? + +--Not a sign of it; it is as clear as crystal, except that there may be +a little sediment at the bottom. + +--That is nothing. The liquid is clear. We shall find no signs of +life.--He put a minute drop of the liquid under the microscope as +before. Nothing stirred. Nothing to be seen but a clear circle of light. +We looked at it again and again, but with the same result. + +--Six hours kill 'em all, according to this experiment,--said the +Master.--Good as far as it goes. One more negative result. Do you know +what would have happened if that liquid had been clouded, and we had +found life in the sealed flask? Sir, if that liquid had held life in it +the Vatican would have trembled to hear it, and there would have been +anxious questionings and ominous whisperings in the halls of Lambeth +palace! The accepted cosmogonies on trial, sir! + +Traditions, sanctities, creeds, ecclesiastical establishments, all +shaking to know whether my little sixpenny flask of fluid looks muddy +or not! I don't know whether to laugh or shudder. The thought of an +oecumenical council having its leading feature dislocated by my trifling +experiment! The thought, again, of the mighty revolution in human +beliefs and affairs that might grow out of the same insignificant little +phenomenon. A wine-glassful of clear liquid growing muddy. If we had +found a wriggle, or a zigzag, or a shoot from one side to the other, in +this last flask, what a scare there would have been, to be sure, in +the schools of the prophets! Talk about your megatherium and your +megalosaurus,--what are these to the bacterium and the vibrio? These are +the dreadful monsters of today. If they show themselves where they have +no business, the little rascals frighten honest folks worse than ever +people were frightened by the Dragon of Rhodes! + +The Master gets going sometimes, there is no denying it, until his +imagination runs away with him. He had been trying, as the reader sees, +one of those curious experiments in spontaneous generation, as it is +called, which have been so often instituted of late years, and by +none more thoroughly than by that eminent American student of nature +(Professor Jeffries Wyman) whose process he had imitated with a result +like his. + +We got talking over these matters among us the next morning at the +breakfast-table. + +We must agree they couldn't stand six hours' boiling,--I said. + +--Good for the Pope of Rome!--exclaimed the Master. + +--The Landlady drew back with a certain expression of dismay in her +countenance. She hoped he did n't want the Pope to make any more +converts in this country. She had heard a sermon only last Sabbath, and +the minister had made it out, she thought, as plain as could be, that +the Pope was the Man of Sin and that the Church of Rome was--Well, there +was very strong names applied to her in Scripture. + +What was good for the Pope was good for your minister, too, my dear +madam,--said the Master. Good for everybody that is afraid of what +people call “science.” If it should prove that dead things come to life +of themselves, it would be awkward, you know, because then somebody will +get up and say if one dead thing made itself alive another might, and +so perhaps the earth peopled itself without any help. Possibly the +difficulty wouldn't be so great as many people suppose. We might perhaps +find room for a Creator after all, as we do now, though we see a little +brown seed grow till it sucks up the juices of half an acre of ground, +apparently all by its own inherent power. That does not stagger us; I am +not sure that it would if Mr. Crosses or Mr. Weekes's acarus should +show himself all of a sudden, as they said he did, in certain mineral +mixtures acted on by electricity. + +The Landlady was off soundings, and looking vacant enough by this time. + +The Master turned to me.--Don't think too much of the result of our +one experiment. It means something, because it confirms those other +experiments of which it was a copy; but we must remember that a hundred +negatives don't settle such a question. Life does get into the world +somehow. You don't suppose Adam had the cutaneous unpleasantness +politely called psora, do you? + +--Hardly,--I answered.--He must have been a walking hospital if he +carried all the maladies about him which have plagued his descendants. + +--Well, then, how did the little beast which is peculiar to that special +complaint intrude himself into the Order of Things? You don't suppose +there was a special act of creation for the express purpose of bestowing +that little wretch on humanity, do you? + +I thought, on the whole, I would n't answer that question. + +--You and I are at work on the same problem, said the Young Astronomer +to the Master.--I have looked into a microscope now and then, and I +have seen that perpetual dancing about of minute atoms in a fluid, which +you call molecular motion. Just so, when I look through my telescope I +see the star-dust whirling about in the infinite expanse of ether; or +if I do not see its motion, I know that it is only on account of its +immeasurable distance. Matter and motion everywhere; void and rest +nowhere. You ask why your restless microscopic atoms may not come +together and become self-conscious and self-moving organisms. I ask why +my telescopic star-dust may not come together and grow and organize +into habitable worlds,--the ripened fruit on the branches of the tree +Yggdrasil, if I may borrow from our friend the Poet's province. It +frightens people, though, to hear the suggestion that worlds shape +themselves from star-mist. It does not trouble them at all to see +the watery spheres that round themselves into being out of the vapors +floating over us; they are nothing but raindrops. But if a planet can +grow as a rain-drop grows, why then--It was a great comfort to these +timid folk when Lord Rosse's telescope resolved certain nebula into +star-clusters. Sir John Herschel would have told them that this +made little difference in accounting for the formation of worlds by +aggregation, but at any rate it was a comfort to them. + +--These people have always been afraid of the astronomers,--said the +Master.--They were shy, you know, of the Copernican system, for a long +while; well they might be with an oubliette waiting for them if they +ventured to think that the earth moved round the sun. Science settled +that point finally for them, at length, and then it was all right,--when +there was no use in disputing the fact any longer. By and by geology +began turning up fossils that told extraordinary stories about the +duration of life upon our planet. What subterfuges were not used to get +rid of their evidence! Think of a man seeing the fossilized skeleton of +an animal split out of a quarry, his teeth worn down by mastication, and +the remains of food still visible in his interior, and, in order to +get rid of a piece of evidence contrary to the traditions he holds to, +seriously maintaining that this skeleton never belonged to a living +creature, but was created with just these appearances; a make-believe, +a sham, a Barnum's-mermaid contrivance to amuse its Creator and impose +upon his intelligent children! And now people talk about geological +epochs and hundreds of millions of years in the planet's history +as calmly as if they were discussing the age of their deceased +great-grandmothers. Ten or a dozen years ago people said Sh! Sh! if you +ventured to meddle with any question supposed to involve a doubt of +the generally accepted Hebrew traditions. To-day such questions are +recognized as perfectly fair subjects for general conversation; not in +the basement story, perhaps, or among the rank and file of the curbstone +congregations, but among intelligent and educated persons. You may +preach about them in your pulpit, you may lecture about them, you may +talk about them with the first sensible-looking person you happen to +meet, you may write magazine articles about them, and the editor +need not expect to receive remonstrances from angry subscribers and +withdrawals of subscriptions, as he would have been sure to not a great +many years ago. Why, you may go to a tea-party where the clergyman's +wife shows her best cap and his daughters display their shining +ringlets, and you will hear the company discussing the Darwinian theory +of the origin of the human race as if it were as harmless a question as +that of the lineage of a spinster's lapdog. You may see a fine lady who +is as particular in her genuflections as any Buddhist or Mahometan saint +in his manifestations of reverence, who will talk over the anthropoid +ape, the supposed founder of the family to which we belong, and even go +back with you to the acephalous mollusk, first cousin to the clams and +mussels, whose rudimental spine was the hinted prophecy of humanity; all +this time never dreaming, apparently, that what she takes for a matter +of curious speculation involves the whole future of human progress and +destiny. + +I can't help thinking that if we had talked as freely as we can and do +now in the days of the first boarder at this table,--I mean the one who +introduced it to the public,--it would have sounded a good deal more +aggressively than it does now.--The old Master got rather warm in +talking; perhaps the consciousness of having a number of listeners had +something to do with it. + +--This whole business is an open question,--he said,--and there is no +use in saying, “Hush! don't talk about such things!” People do talk +about 'em everywhere; and if they don't talk about 'em they think about +'em, and that is worse,--if there is anything bad about such questions, +that is. If for the Fall of man, science comes to substitute the RISE +of man, sir, it means the utter disintegration of all the spiritual +pessimisms which have been like a spasm in the heart and a cramp in the +intellect of men for so many centuries. And yet who dares to say that +it is not a perfectly legitimate and proper question to be discussed, +without the slightest regard to the fears or the threats of Pope or +prelate? + +Sir, I believe,--the Master rose from his chair as he spoke, and said in +a deep and solemn tone, but without any declamatory vehemence,--sir, I +believe that we are at this moment in what will be recognized not many +centuries hence as one of the late watches in the night of the dark +ages. There is a twilight ray, beyond question. We know something of the +universe, a very little, and, strangely enough, we know most of what is +farthest from us. We have weighed the planets and analyzed the flames of +the--sun and stars. We predict their movements as if they were machines +we ourselves had made and regulated. We know a good deal about the earth +on which we live. But the study of man has been so completely subjected +to our preconceived opinions, that we have got to begin all over again. +We have studied anthropology through theology; we have now to begin +the study of theology through anthropology. Until we have exhausted the +human element in every form of belief, and that can only be done by what +we may call comparative spiritual anatomy, we cannot begin to deal with +the alleged extra-human elements without blundering into all imaginable +puerilities. If you think for one moment that there is not a single +religion in the world which does not come to us through the medium of +a preexisting language; and if you remember that this language embodies +absolutely nothing but human conceptions and human passions, you will +see at once that every religion presupposes its own elements as already +existing in those to whom it is addressed. I once went to a church in +London and heard the famous Edward Irving preach, and heard some of +his congregation speak in the strange words characteristic of their +miraculous gift of tongues. I had a respect for the logical basis of +this singular phenomenon. I have always thought it was natural that +any celestial message should demand a language of its own, only to be +understood by divine illumination. All human words tend, of course, to +stop short in human meaning. And the more I hear the most sacred terms +employed, the more I am satisfied that they have entirely and radically +different meanings in the minds of those who use them. Yet they deal +with them as if they were as definite as mathematical quantities or +geometrical figures. What would become of arithmetic if the figure 2 +meant three for one man and five for another and twenty for a third, and +all the other numerals were in the same way variable quantities? Mighty +intelligent correspondence business men would have with each other! But +how is this any worse than the difference of opinion which led a famous +clergyman to say to a brother theologian, “Oh, I see, my dear sir, your +God is my Devil.” + +Man has been studied proudly, contemptuously, rather, from the point +of view supposed to be authoritatively settled. The self-sufficiency of +egotistic natures was never more fully shown than in the expositions of +the worthlessness and wretchedness of their fellow-creatures given by +the dogmatists who have “gone back,” as the vulgar phrase is, on their +race, their own flesh and blood. Did you ever read what Mr. Bancroft +says about Calvin in his article on Jonathan Edwards?--and mighty well +said it is too, in my judgment. Let me remind you of it, whether you +have read it or not. “Setting himself up over against the privileged +classes, he, with a loftier pride than theirs, revealed the power of a +yet higher order of nobility, not of a registered ancestry of fifteen +generations, but one absolutely spotless in its escutcheon, preordained +in the council chamber of eternity.” I think you'll find I have got that +sentence right, word for word, and there 's a great deal more in it than +many good folks who call themselves after the reformer seem to be aware +of. The Pope put his foot on the neck of kings, but Calvin and his +cohort crushed the whole human race under their heels in the name of the +Lord of Hosts. Now, you see, the point that people don't understand +is the absolute and utter humility of science, in opposition to this +doctrinal self-sufficiency. I don't doubt this may sound a little +paradoxical at first, but I think you will find it is all right. You +remember the courtier and the monarch,--Louis the Fourteenth, wasn't +it?--never mind, give the poor fellows that live by setting you right a +chance. “What o'clock is it?” says the king. “Just whatever o'clock your +Majesty pleases,” says the courtier. I venture to say the monarch was a +great deal more humble than the follower, who pretended that his master +was superior to such trifling facts as the revolution of the planet. It +was the same thing, you remember, with King Canute and the tide on the +sea-shore. The king accepted the scientific fact of the tide's rising. +The loyal hangers-on, who believed in divine right, were too proud +of the company they found themselves in to make any such humiliating +admission. But there are people, and plenty of them, to-day, who will +dispute facts just as clear to those who have taken the pains to learn +what is known about them, as that of the tide's rising. They don't +like to admit these facts, because they throw doubt upon some of their +cherished opinions. We are getting on towards the last part of this +nineteenth century. What we have gained is not so much in positive +knowledge, though that is a good deal, as it is in the freedom of +discussion of every subject that comes within the range of observation +and inference. How long is it since Mrs. Piozzi wrote,--“Let me +hope that you will not pursue geology till it leads you into doubts +destructive of all comfort in this world and all happiness in the next”? + +The Master paused and I remained silent, for I was thinking things I +could not say. + +--It is well always to have a woman near by when one is talking on this +class of subjects. Whether there will be three or four women to one man +in heaven is a question which I must leave to those who talk as if they +knew all about the future condition of the race to answer. But very +certainly there is much more of hearty faith, much more of spiritual +life, among women than among men, in this world. They need faith to +support them more than men do, for they have a great deal less to call +them out of themselves, and it comes easier to them, for their habitual +state of dependence teaches them to trust in others. When they become +voters, if they ever do, it may be feared that the pews will lose what +the ward-rooms gain. Relax a woman's hold on man, and her knee-joints +will soon begin to stiffen. Self-assertion brings out many fine +qualities, but it does not promote devotional habits. + +I remember some such thoughts as this were passing through my mind while +the Master was talking. I noticed that the Lady was listening to the +conversation with a look of more than usual interest. We men have the +talk mostly to ourselves at this table; the Master, as you have found +out, is fond of monologues, and I myself--well, I suppose I must own +to a certain love for the reverberated music of my own accents; at any +rate, the Master and I do most of the talking. But others help us do +the listening. I think I can show that they listen to some purpose. I am +going to surprise my reader with a letter which I received very shortly +after the conversation took place which I have just reported. It is of +course by a special license, such as belongs to the supreme prerogative +of an author, that I am enabled to present it to him. He need ask +no questions: it is not his affair how I obtained the right to give +publicity to a private communication. I have become somewhat more +intimately acquainted with the writer of it than in the earlier period +of my connection with this establishment, and I think I may say have +gained her confidence to a very considerable degree. + +MY DEAR SIR: The conversations I have had with you, limited as they +have been, have convinced me that I am quite safe in addressing you with +freedom on a subject which interests me, and others more than myself. We +at our end of the table have been listening, more or less intelligently, +to the discussions going on between two or three of you gentlemen on +matters of solemn import to us all. This is nothing very new to me. I +have been used, from an early period of my life, to hear the discussion +of grave questions, both in politics and religion. I have seen gentlemen +at my father's table get as warm over a theological point of dispute +as in talking over their political differences. I rather think it has +always been very much so, in bad as well as in good company; for you +remember how Milton's fallen angels amused themselves with disputing on +“providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate,” and it was the same thing +in that club Goldsmith writes so pleasantly about. Indeed, why should +not people very often come, in the course of conversation, to the +one subject which lies beneath all else about which our thoughts are +occupied? And what more natural than that one should be inquiring about +what another has accepted and ceased to have any doubts concerning? +It seems to me all right that at the proper time, in the proper place, +those who are less easily convinced than their neighbors should have +the fullest liberty of calling to account all the opinions which others +receive without question. Somebody must stand sentry at the outposts of +belief, and it is a sentry's business, I believe, to challenge every one +who comes near him, friend or foe. + +I want you to understand fully that I am not one of those poor nervous +creatures who are frightened out of their wits when any question is +started that implies the disturbance of their old beliefs. I manage to +see some of the periodicals, and now and then dip a little way into +a new book which deals with these curious questions you were talking +about, and others like them. You know they find their way almost +everywhere. They do not worry me in the least. When I was a little girl, +they used to say that if you put a horsehair into a tub of water it +would turn into a snake in the course of a few days. That did not seem +to me so very much stranger than it was that an egg should turn into a +chicken. What can I say to that? Only that it is the Lord's doings, and +marvellous in my eyes; and if our philosophical friend should find some +little live creatures, or what seem to be live creatures, in any of his +messes, I should say as much, and no more. You do not think I would shut +up my Bible and Prayer-Book because there is one more thing I do not +understand in a world where I understand so very little of all the +wonders that surround me? + +It may be very wrong to pay any attention to those speculations about +the origin of mankind which seem to conflict with the Sacred Record. But +perhaps there is some way of reconciling them, as there is of making the +seven days of creation harmonize with modern geology. At least, these +speculations are curious enough in themselves; and I have seen so +many good and handsome children come of parents who were anything +but virtuous and comely, that I can believe in almost any amount of +improvement taking place in a tribe of living beings, if time and +opportunity favor it. I have read in books of natural history that dogs +came originally from wolves. When I remember my little Flora, who, as I +used to think, could do everything but talk, it does not seem to me +that she was much nearer her savage ancestors than some of the horrid +cannibal wretches are to their neighbors the great apes. + +You see that I am tolerably liberal in my habit of looking at all +these questions. We women drift along with the current of the times, +listening, in our quiet way, to the discussions going on round us in +books and in conversation, and shift the phrases in which we think and +talk with something of the same ease as that with which we change our +style of dress from year to year. I doubt if you of the other sex +know what an effect this habit of accommodating our tastes to changing +standards has upon us. Nothing is fixed in them, as you know; the very +law of fashion is change. I suspect we learn from our dressmakers to +shift the costume of our minds, and slip on the new fashions of thinking +all the more easily because we have been accustomed to new styles of +dressing every season. + +It frightens me to see how much I have written without having yet said a +word of what I began this letter on purpose to say. I have taken so much +space in “defining my position,” to borrow the politicians' phrase, that +I begin to fear you will be out of patience before you come to the part +of my letter I care most about your reading. + +What I want to say is this. When these matters are talked about before +persons of different ages and various shades of intelligence, I think +one ought to be very careful that his use of language does not injure +the sensibilities, perhaps blunt the reverential feelings, of those +who are listening to him. You of the sterner sex say that we women have +intuitions, but not logic, as our birthright. I shall not commit my sex +by conceding this to be true as a whole, but I will accept the first +half of it, and I will go so far as to say that we do not always care +to follow out a train of thought until it ends in a blind cul de sac, as +some of what are called the logical people are fond of doing. + +Now I want to remind you that religion is not a matter of intellectual +luxury to those of us who are interested in it, but something very +different. It is our life, and more than our life; for that is measured +by pulse-beats, but our religious consciousness partakes of the +Infinite, towards which it is constantly yearning. It is very possible +that a hundred or five hundred years from now the forms of religious +belief may be so altered that we should hardly know them. But the sense +of dependence on Divine influence and the need of communion with the +unseen and eternal will be then just what they are now. It is not the +geologist's hammer, or the astronomer's telescope, or the naturalist's +microscope, that is going to take away the need of the human soul for +that Rock to rest upon which is higher than itself, that Star which +never sets, that all-pervading Presence which gives life to all the +least moving atoms of the immeasurable universe. + +I have no fears for myself, and listen very quietly to all your debates. +I go from your philosophical discussions to the reading of Jeremy +Taylor's “Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying” without feeling that I have +unfitted myself in the least degree for its solemn reflections. And, as +I have mentioned his name, I cannot help saying that I do not believe +that good man himself would have ever shown the bitterness to those who +seem to be at variance with the received doctrines which one may see in +some of the newspapers that call themselves “religious.” I have kept +a few old books from my honored father's library, and among them is +another of his which I always thought had more true Christianity in its +title than there is in a good many whole volumes. I am going to take the +book down, or up,--for it is not a little one,--and write out the title, +which, I dare say, you remember, and very likely you have the book. +“Discourse of the Liberty of Prophesying, showing the Unreasonableness +of prescribing to other Men's Faith, and the Iniquity of persecuting +Different Opinions.” + +Now, my dear sir, I am sure you believe that I want to be liberal and +reasonable, and not to act like those weak alarmists who, whenever the +silly sheep begin to skip as if something was after them, and huddle +together in their fright, are sure there must be a bear or a lion coming +to eat them up. But for all that, I want to beg you to handle some +of these points, which are so involved in the creed of a good many +well-intentioned persons that you cannot separate them from it without +picking their whole belief to pieces, with more thought for them than +you might think at first they were entitled to. I have no doubt you +gentlemen are as wise as serpents, and I want you to be as harmless as +doves. + +The Young Girl who sits by me has, I know, strong religious instincts. +Instead of setting her out to ask all sorts of questions, I would +rather, if I had my way, encourage her to form a habit of attending to +religious duties, and make the most of the simple faith in which she was +bred. I think there are a good many questions young persons may safely +postpone to a more convenient season; and as this young creature is +overworked, I hate to have her excited by the fever of doubt which it +cannot be denied is largely prevailing in our time. + +I know you must have looked on our other young friend, who has devoted +himself to the sublimest of the sciences, with as much interest as I do. +When I was a little girl I used to write out a line of Young's as a copy +in my writing-book, + + “An undevout astronomer is mad”; + +but I do not now feel quite so sure that the contemplation of all +the multitude of remote worlds does not tend to weaken the idea of a +personal Deity. It is not so much that nebular theory which worries me, +when I think about this subject, as a kind of bewilderment when I try to +conceive of a consciousness filling all those frightful blanks of space +they talk about. I sometimes doubt whether that young man worships +anything but the stars. They tell me that many young students of science +like him never see the inside of a church. I cannot help wishing they +did. It humanizes people, quite apart from any higher influence it +exerts upon them. One reason, perhaps, why they do not care to go to +places of worship is that they are liable to hear the questions they +know something about handled in sermons by those who know very much less +about them. And so they lose a great deal. Almost every human being, +however vague his notions of the Power addressed, is capable of being +lifted and solemnized by the exercise of public prayer. When I was a +young girl we travelled in Europe, and I visited Ferney with my parents; +and I remember we all stopped before a chapel, and I read upon its +front, I knew Latin enough to understand it, I am pleased to say,--Deo +erexit Voltaire. I never forgot it; and knowing what a sad scoffer he +was at most sacred things, I could not but be impressed with the fact +that even he was not satisfied with himself, until he had shown his +devotion in a public and lasting form. + +We all want religion sooner or later. I am afraid there are some who +have no natural turn for it, as there are persons without an ear for +music, to which, if I remember right, I heard one of you comparing what +you called religious genius. But sorrow and misery bring even these to +know what it means, in a great many instances. May I not say to you, my +friend, that I am one who has learned the secret of the inner life by +the discipline of trials in the life of outward circumstance? I can +remember the time when I thought more about the shade of color in a +ribbon, whether it matched my complexion or not, than I did about my +spiritual interests in this world or the next. It was needful that +I should learn the meaning of that text, “Whom the Lord loveth he +chasteneth.” + +Since I have been taught in the school of trial I have felt, as I never +could before, how precious an inheritance is the smallest patrimony +of faith. When everything seemed gone from me, I found I had still one +possession. The bruised reed that I had never leaned on became my staff. +The smoking flax which had been a worry to my eyes burst into flame, and +I lighted the taper at it which has since guided all my footsteps. And I +am but one of the thousands who have had the same experience. They have +been through the depths of affliction, and know the needs of the human +soul. It will find its God in the unseen,--Father, Saviour, Divine +Spirit, Virgin Mother, it must and will breathe its longings and its +griefs into the heart of a Being capable of understanding all its +necessities and sympathizing with all its woes. + +I am jealous, yes, I own I am jealous of any word, spoken or written, +that would tend to impair that birthright of reverence which becomes for +so many in after years the basis of a deeper religious sentiment. And +yet, as I have said, I cannot and will not shut my eyes to the problems +which may seriously affect our modes of conceiving the eternal truths +on which, and by which, our souls must live. What a fearful time is this +into which we poor sensitive and timid creatures are born! I suppose the +life of every century has more or less special resemblance to that of +some particular Apostle. I cannot help thinking this century has Thomas +for its model. How do you suppose the other Apostles felt when that +experimental philosopher explored the wounds of the Being who to them +was divine with his inquisitive forefinger? In our time that finger has +multiplied itself into ten thousand thousand implements of research, +challenging all mysteries, weighing the world as in a balance, and +sifting through its prisms and spectroscopes the light that comes from +the throne of the Eternal. + +Pity us, dear Lord, pity us! The peace in believing which belonged to +other ages is not for us. Again Thy wounds are opened that we may know +whether it is the blood of one like ourselves which flows from them, or +whether it is a Divinity that is bleeding for His creatures. Wilt Thou +not take the doubt of Thy children whom the time commands to try +all things in the place of the unquestioning faith of earlier and +simpler-hearted generations? We too have need of Thee. Thy martyrs in +other ages were cast into the flames, but no fire could touch their +immortal and indestructible faith. We sit in safety and in peace, so +far as these poor bodies are concerned; but our cherished beliefs, the +hopes, the trust that stayed the hearts of those we loved who have +gone before us, are cast into the fiery furnace of an age which is fast +turning to dross the certainties and the sanctities once prized as our +most precious inheritance. You will understand me, my dear sir, and +all my solicitudes and apprehensions. Had I never been assailed by the +questions that meet all thinking persons in our time, I might not have +thought so anxiously about the risk of perplexing others. I know as +well as you must that there are many articles of belief clinging to the +skirts of our time which are the bequests of the ages of ignorance that +God winked at. But for all that I would train a child in the nurture and +admonition of the Lord, according to the simplest and best creed I could +disentangle from those barbarisms, and I would in every way try to keep +up in young persons that standard of reverence for all sacred subjects +which may, without any violent transition, grow and ripen into the +devotion of later years. Believe me, + +Very sincerely yours, + +I have thought a good deal about this letter and the writer of it +lately. She seemed at first removed to a distance from all of us, +but here I find myself in somewhat near relations with her. What has +surprised me more than that, however, is to find that she is becoming so +much acquainted with the Register of Deeds. Of all persons in the world, +I should least have thought of him as like to be interested in her, and +still less, if possible, of her fancying him. I can only say they have +been in pretty close conversation several times of late, and, if I dared +to think it of so very calm and dignified a personage, I should say that +her color was a little heightened after one or more of these interviews. +No! that would be too absurd! But I begin to think nothing is absurd +in the matter of the relations of the two sexes; and if this high-bred +woman fancies the attentions of a piece of human machinery like this +elderly individual, it is none of my business. + +I have been at work on some more of the Young Astronomer's lines. I +find less occasion for meddling with them as he grows more used to +versification. I think I could analyze the processes going on in his +mind, and the conflict of instincts which he cannot in the nature of +things understand. But it is as well to give the reader a chance to find +out for himself what is going on in the young man's heart and intellect. + + WIND-CLOUDS AND STAR-DRIFTS. + + III + + The snows that glittered on the disk of Mars + Have melted, and the planet's fiery orb + Rolls in the crimson summer of its year; + But what to me the summer or the snow + Of worlds that throb with life in forms unknown, + If life indeed be theirs; I heed not these. + My heart is simply human; all my care + For them whose dust is fashioned like mine own; + These ache with cold and hunger, live in pain, + And shake with fear of worlds more full of woe; + There may be others worthier of my love, + But such I know not save through these I know. + + There are two veils of language, hid beneath + Whose sheltering folds, we dare to be ourselves; + And not that other self which nods and smiles + And babbles in our name; the one is Prayer, + Lending its licensed freedom to the tongue + That tells our sorrows and our sins to Heaven; + The other, Verse, that throws its spangled web + Around our naked speech and makes it bold. + I, whose best prayer is silence; sitting dumb + In the great temple where I nightly serve + Him who is throned in light, have dared to claim + The poet's franchise, though I may not hope + To wear his garland; hear me while I tell + My story in such form as poets use, + But breathed in fitful whispers, as the wind + Sighs and then slumbers, wakes and sighs again. + + Thou Vision, floating in the breathless air + Between me and the fairest of the stars, + I tell my lonely thoughts as unto thee. + Look not for marvels of the scholar's pen + In my rude measure; I can only show + A slender-margined, unillumined page, + And trust its meaning to the flattering eye + That reads it in the gracious light of love. + Ah, wouldst thou clothe thyself in breathing shape + And nestle at my side, my voice should lend + Whate'er my verse may lack of tender rhythm + To make thee listen. + + I have stood entranced + When, with her fingers wandering o'er the keys, + The white enchantress with the golden hair + Breathed all her soul through some unvalued rhyme; + Some flower of song that long had lost its bloom; + Lo! its dead summer kindled as she sang! + The sweet contralto, like the ringdove's coo, + Thrilled it with brooding, fond, caressing tones, + And the pale minstrel's passion lived again, + Tearful and trembling as a dewy rose + The wind has shaken till it fills the air + With light and fragrance. Such the wondrous charm + A song can borrow when the bosom throbs + That lends it breath. + + So from the poet's lips + His verse sounds doubly sweet, for none like him + Feels every cadence of its wave-like flow; + He lives the passion over, while he reads, + That shook him as he sang his lofty strain, + And pours his life through each resounding line, + As ocean, when the stormy winds are hushed, + Still rolls and thunders through his billowy caves. + + Let me retrace the record of the years + That made me what I am. A man most wise, + But overworn with toil and bent with age, + Sought me to be his scholar,--me, run wild + From books and teachers,--kindled in my soul + The love of knowledge; led me to his tower, + Showed me the wonders of the midnight realm + His hollow sceptre ruled, or seemed to rule, + Taught me the mighty secrets of the spheres, + Trained me to find the glimmering specks of light + Beyond the unaided sense, and on my chart + To string them one by one, in order due, + As on a rosary a saint his beads. + + I was his only scholar; I became + The echo to his thought; whate'er he knew + Was mine for asking; so from year to year + We wrought together, till there came a time + When I, the learner, was the master half + Of the twinned being in the dome-crowned tower. + + Minds roll in paths like planets; they revolve + This in a larger, that a narrower ring, + But round they come at last to that same phase, + That self-same light and shade they showed before. + I learned his annual and his monthly tale, + His weekly axiom and his daily phrase, + I felt them coming in the laden air, + And watched them laboring up to vocal breath, + Even as the first-born at his father's board + Knows ere he speaks the too familiar jest + Is on its way, by some mysterious sign + Forewarned, the click before the striking bell. + + He shrivelled as I spread my growing leaves, + Till trust and reverence changed to pitying care; + He lived for me in what he once had been, + But I for him, a shadow, a defence, + The guardian of his fame, his guide, his staff, + Leaned on so long he fell if left alone. + I was his eye, his ear, his cunning hand, + Love was my spur and longing after fame, + But his the goading thorn of sleepless age + That sees its shortening span, its lengthening shades, + That clutches what it may with eager grasp, + And drops at last with empty, outstretched hands. + + All this he dreamed not. He would sit him down + Thinking to work his problems as of old, + And find the star he thought so plain a blur, + The columned figures labyrinthine wilds + Without my comment, blind and senseless scrawls + That vexed him with their riddles; he would strive + And struggle for a while, and then his eye + Would lose its light, and over all his mind + The cold gray mist would settle; and erelong + The darkness fell, and I was left alone. + + Alone! no climber of an Alpine cliff, + No Arctic venturer on the waveless sea, + Feels the dread stillness round him as it chills + The heart of him who leaves the slumbering earth + To watch the silent worlds that crowd the sky. + + Alone! And as the shepherd leaves his flock + To feed upon the hillside, he meanwhile + Finds converse in the warblings of the pipe + Himself has fashioned for his vacant hour, + So have I grown companion to myself, + And to the wandering spirits of the air + That smile and whisper round us in our dreams. + Thus have I learned to search if I may know + The whence and why of all beneath the stars + And all beyond them, and to weigh my life + As in a balance, poising good and ill + Against each other,-asking of the Power + That flung me forth among the whirling worlds, + If I am heir to any inborn right, + Or only as an atom of the dust + That every wind may blow where'er it will. + + I am not humble; I was shown my place, + Clad in such robes as Nature had at hand; + Took what she gave, not chose; I know no shame, + No fear for being simply what I am. + I am not proud, I hold my every breath + At Nature's mercy. I am as a babe + Borne in a giant's arms, he knows not where; + Each several heart-beat, counted like the coin + A miser reckons, is a special gift + As from an unseen hand; if that withhold + Its bounty for a moment, I am left + A clod upon the earth to which I fall. + + Something I find in me that well might claim + The love of beings in a sphere above + This doubtful twilight world of right and wrong; + Something that shows me of the self-same clay + That creeps or swims or flies in humblest form. + Had I been asked, before I left my bed + Of shapeless dust, what clothing I would wear, + I would have said, More angel and less worm; + But for their sake who are even such as I, + Of the same mingled blood, I would not choose + To hate that meaner portion of myself + Which makes me brother to the least of men. + + I dare not be a coward with my lips + Who dare to question all things in my soul; + Some men may find their wisdom on their knees, + Some prone and grovelling in the dust like slaves; + Let the meek glow-worm glisten in the dew; + I ask to lift my taper to the sky + As they who hold their lamps above their heads, + Trusting the larger currents up aloft, + Rather than crossing eddies round their breast, + Threatening with every puff the flickering blaze. + + My life shall be a challenge, not a truce! + This is my homage to the mightier powers, + To ask my boldest question, undismayed + By muttered threats that some hysteric sense + Of wrong or insult will convulse the throne + Where wisdom reigns supreme; and if I err, + They all must err who have to feel their way + As bats that fly at noon; for what are we + But creatures of the night, dragged forth by day, + Who needs must stumble, and with stammering steps + Spell out their paths in syllables of pain? + + Thou wilt not hold in scorn the child who dares + Look up to Thee, the Father,--dares to ask + More than Thy wisdom answers. From Thy hand + The worlds were cast; yet every leaflet claims + From that same hand its little shining sphere + Of star-lit dew; thine image, the great sun, + Girt with his mantle of tempestuous flame, + + Glares in mid-heaven; but to his noontide blaze + The slender violet lifts its lidless eye, + And from his splendor steals its fairest hue, + Its sweetest perfume from his scorching fire. + +I may just as well stop here as anywhere, for there is more of the +manuscript to come, and I can only give it in instalments. + +The Young Astronomer had told me I might read any portions of his +manuscript I saw fit to certain friends. I tried this last extract on +the old Master. + +It's the same story we all have to tell,--said he, when I had done +reading.--We are all asking questions nowadays. I should like to hear +him read some of his verses himself, and I think some of the other +boarders would like to. I wonder if he wouldn't do it, if we asked him! +Poets read their own compositions in a singsong sort of way; but they do +seem to love 'em so, that I always enjoy it. It makes me laugh a little +inwardly to see how they dandle their poetical babies, but I don't let +them know it. We must get up a select party of the boarders to hear him +read. We'll send him a regular invitation. I will put my name at the +head of it, and you shall write it. + +--That was neatly done. How I hate writing such things! But I suppose I +must do it. + + + + +VIII + +The Master and I had been thinking for some time of trying to get the +Young Astronomer round to our side of the table. There are many subjects +on which both of us like to talk with him, and it would be convenient +to have him nearer to us. How to manage it was not quite so clear as it +might have been. The Scarabee wanted to sit with his back to the light, +as it was in his present position. He used his eyes so much in studying +minute objects, that he wished to spare them all fatigue, and did not +like facing a window. Neither of us cared to ask the Man of Letters, so +called, to change his place, and of course we could not think of making +such a request of the Young Girl or the Lady. So we were at a stand with +reference to this project of ours. + +But while we were proposing, Fate or Providence disposed everything +for us. The Man of Letters, so called, was missing one morning, having +folded his tent--that is, packed his carpet-bag--with the silence of the +Arabs, and encamped--that is, taken lodgings--in some locality which he +had forgotten to indicate. + +The Landlady bore this sudden bereavement remarkably well. Her remarks +and reflections; though borrowing the aid of homely imagery and doing +occasional violence to the nicer usages of speech, were not without +philosophical discrimination. + +--I like a gentleman that is a gentleman. But there's a difference in +what folks call gentlemen as there is in what you put on table. There is +cabbages and there is cauliflowers. There is clams and there is oysters. +There is mackerel and there is salmon. And there is some that knows +the difference and some that doos n't. I had a little account with that +boarder that he forgot to settle before he went off, so all of a suddin. +I sha'n't say anything about it. I've seen the time when I should have +felt bad about losing what he owed me, but it was no great matter; and +if he 'll only stay away now he 's gone, I can stand losing it, and not +cry my eyes out nor lay awake all night neither. I never had ought to +have took him. Where he come from and where he's gone to is unbeknown to +me. If he'd only smoked good tobacco, I wouldn't have said a word; but +it was such dreadful stuff, it 'll take a week to get his chamber sweet +enough to show them that asks for rooms. It doos smell like all possest. + +--Left any goods?--asked the Salesman. + +--Or dockermunts?--added the Member of the Haouse. + +The Landlady answered with a faded smile, which implied that there was +no hope in that direction. Dr. Benjamin, with a sudden recurrence of +youthful feeling, made a fan with the fingers of his right hand, the +second phalanx of the thumb resting on the tip of the nose, and the +remaining digits diverging from each other, in the plane of the median +line of the face,--I suppose this is the way he would have described +the gesture, which is almost a specialty of the Parisian gamin. That Boy +immediately copied it, and added greatly to its effect by extending +the fingers of the other hand in a line with those of the first, and +vigorously agitating those of the two hands,--a gesture which acts like +a puncture on the distended self-esteem of one to whom it is addressed, +and cheapens the memory of the absent to a very low figure. + +I wish the reader to observe that I treasure up with interest all the +words uttered by the Salesman. It must have been noticed that he +very rarely speaks. Perhaps he has an inner life, with its own deep +emotional, and lofty contemplative elements, but as we see him, he is +the boarder reduced to the simplest expression of that term. Yet, +like most human creatures, he has generic and specific characters not +unworthy of being studied. I notice particularly a certain electrical +briskness of movement, such as one may see in a squirrel, which clearly +belongs to his calling. The dry-goodsman's life behind his counter is a +succession of sudden, snappy perceptions and brief series of coordinate +spasms; as thus: + +“Purple calico, three quarters wide, six yards.” + +Up goes the arm; bang! tumbles out the flat roll and turns half a dozen +somersets, as if for the fun of the thing; the six yards of calico hurry +over the measuring nails, hunching their backs up, like six cankerworms; +out jump the scissors; snip, clip, rip; the stuff is wisped up, +brown--papered, tied, labelled, delivered, and the man is himself again, +like a child just come out of a convulsion-fit. Think of a man's having +some hundreds of these semi-epileptic seizures every day, and you need +not wonder that he does not say much; these fits take the talk all out +of him. + +But because he, or any other man, does not say much, it does not follow +that he may not have, as I have said, an exalted and intense inner +life. I have known a number of cases where a man who seemed thoroughly +commonplace and unemotional has all at once surprised everybody by +telling the story of his hidden life far more pointedly and dramatically +than any playwright or novelist or poet could have told it for him. I +will not insult your intelligence, Beloved, by saying how he has told +it. + +--We had been talking over the subjects touched upon in the Lady's +letter. + +--I suppose one man in a dozen--said the Master--ought to be born a +skeptic. That was the proportion among the Apostles, at any rate. + +--So there was one Judas among them,--I remarked. + +--Well,--said the Master,--they 've been whitewashing Judas of late. +But never mind him. I did not say there was not one rogue on the +average among a dozen men. I don't see how that would interfere with my +proposition. If I say that among a dozen men you ought to find one that +weighs over a hundred and fifty pounds, and you tell me that there were +twelve men in your club, and one of 'em had red hair, I don't see that +you have materially damaged my statement. + +--I thought it best to let the old Master have his easy victory, which +was more apparent than real, very evidently, and he went on. + +--When the Lord sends out a batch of human beings, say a hundred--Did +you ever read my book, the new edition of it, I mean? + +It is rather awkward to answer such a question in the negative, but I +said, with the best grace I could, “No, not the last edition.” + +--Well, I must give you a copy of it. My book and I are pretty much the +same thing. Sometimes I steal from my book in my talk without mentioning +it, and then I say to myself, “Oh, that won't do; everybody has read my +book and knows it by heart.” And then the other I says,--you know there +are two of us, right and left, like a pair of shoes,--the other I says, +“You're a--something or other--fool. They have n't read your confounded +old book; besides, if they have, they have forgotten all about it.” + Another time, I say, thinking I will be very honest, “I have said +something about that in my book”; and then the other I says, “What a +Balaam's quadruped you are to tell 'em it's in your book; they don't +care whether it is or not, if it's anything worth saying; and if it +isn't worth saying, what are you braying for?” That is a rather sensible +fellow, that other chap we talk with, but an impudent whelp. I never got +such abuse from any blackguard in my life as I have from that No. 2 of +me, the one that answers the other's questions and makes the comments, +and does what in demotic phrase is called the “sarsing.” + +--I laughed at that. I have just such a fellow always with me, as +wise as Solomon, if I would only heed him; but as insolent as Shimei, +cursing, and throwing stones and dirt, and behaving as if he had the +traditions of the “ape-like human being” born with him rather than +civilized instincts. One does not have to be a king to know what it is +to keep a king's jester. + +--I mentioned my book,--the Master said, because I have something in +it on the subject we were talking about. I should like to read you a +passage here and there out of it, where I have expressed myself a little +more freely on some of those matters we handle in conversation. If you +don't quarrel with it, I must give you a copy of the book. It's a rather +serious thing to get a copy of a book from the writer of it. It has +made my adjectives sweat pretty hard, I know, to put together an answer +returning thanks and not lying beyond the twilight of veracity, if one +may use a figure. Let me try a little of my book on you, in divided +doses, as my friends the doctors say. + +-Fiat experimentum in corpore vili,--I said, laughing at my own expense. +I don't doubt the medicament is quite as good as the patient deserves, +and probably a great deal better,--I added, reinforcing my feeble +compliment. + +[When you pay a compliment to an author, don't qualify it in the next +sentence so as to take all the goodness out of it. Now I am thinking of +it, I will give you one or two pieces of advice. Be careful to assure +yourself that the person you are talking with wrote the article or book +you praise. It is not very pleasant to be told, “Well, there, now! I +always liked your writings, but you never did anything half so good as +this last piece,” and then to have to tell the blunderer that this last +piece is n't yours, but t' other man's. Take care that the phrase or +sentence you commend is not one that is in quotation-marks. “The best +thing in your piece, I think, is a line I do not remember meeting +before; it struck me as very true and well expressed: + +“'An honest man's the noblest work of God.' + +“But, my dear lady, that line is one which is to be found in a writer +of the last century, and not original with me.” One ought not to have +undeceived her, perhaps, but one is naturally honest, and cannot bear to +be credited with what is not his own. The lady blushes, of course, and +says she has not read much ancient literature, or some such thing. The +pearl upon the Ethiop's arm is very pretty in verse, but one does not +care to furnish the dark background for other persons' jewelry.] + +I adjourned from the table in company with the old Master to his +apartments. He was evidently in easy circumstances, for he had the best +accommodations the house afforded. We passed through a reception room +to his library, where everything showed that he had ample means for +indulging the modest tastes of a scholar. + +--The first thing, naturally, when one enters a scholar's study or +library, is to look at his books. One gets a notion very speedily of his +tastes and the range of his pursuits by a glance round his bookshelves. + +Of course, you know there are many fine houses where the library is +a part of the upholstery, so to speak. Books in handsome binding kept +locked under plate-glass in showy dwarf bookcases are as important to +stylish establishments as servants in livery; who sit with folded arms, +are to stylish equipages. I suppose those wonderful statues with the +folded arms do sometimes change their attitude, and I suppose those +books with the gilded backs do sometimes get opened, but it is nobody's +business whether they do or not, and it is not best to ask too many +questions. + +This sort of thing is common enough, but there is another case that may +prove deceptive if you undertake to judge from appearances. Once in a +while you will come on a house where you will find a family of readers +and almost no library. Some of the most indefatigable devourers of +literature have very few books. They belong to book clubs, they haunt +the public libraries, they borrow of friends, and somehow or other get +hold of everything they want, scoop out all it holds for them, and have +done with it. When I want a book, it is as a tiger wants a sheep. I must +have it with one spring, and, if I miss it, go away defeated and hungry. +And my experience with public libraries is that the first volume of the +book I inquire for is out, unless I happen to want the second, when that +is out. + +--I was pretty well prepared to understand the Master's library and his +account of it. We seated ourselves in two very comfortable chairs, and I +began the conversation. + +-I see you have a large and rather miscellaneous collection of books. +Did you get them together by accident or according to some preconceived +plan? + +--Both, sir, both,--the Master answered. When Providence throws a good +book in my way, I bow to its decree and purchase it as an act of piety, +if it is reasonably or unreasonably cheap. I adopt a certain number of +books every year, out of a love for the foundlings and stray children of +other people's brains that nobody seems to care for. Look here. + +He took down a Greek Lexicon finely bound in calf, and spread it open. + +Do you see that Hedericus? I had Greek dictionaries enough and to spare, +but I saw that noble quarto lying in the midst of an ignoble crowd of +cheap books, and marked with a price which I felt to be an insult +to scholarship, to the memory of Homer, sir, and the awful shade of +AEschylus. I paid the mean price asked for it, and I wanted to double +it, but I suppose it would have been a foolish sacrifice of coin to +sentiment: I love that book for its looks and behavior. None of your +“half-calf” economies in that volume, sir! And see how it lies open +anywhere! There is n't a book in my library that has such a generous way +of laying its treasures before you. From Alpha to Omega, calm, assured +rest at any page that your choice or accident may light on. No lifting +of a rebellious leaf like an upstart servant that does not know his +place and can never be taught manners, but tranquil, well-bred repose. +A book may be a perfect gentleman in its aspect and demeanor, and this +book would be good company for personages like Roger Ascham and his +pupils the Lady Elizabeth and the Lady Jane Grey. + +The Master was evidently riding a hobby, and what I wanted to know was +the plan on which he had formed his library. So I brought him back to +the point by asking him the question in so many words. + +Yes,--he said,--I have a kind of notion of the way in which a library +ought to be put together--no, I don't mean that, I mean ought to grow. +I don't pretend to say that mine is a model, but it serves my turn well +enough, and it represents me pretty accurately. A scholar must shape +his own shell, secrete it one might almost say, for secretion is only +separation, you know, of certain elements derived from the materials +of the world about us. And a scholar's study, with the books lining +its walls, is his shell. It is n't a mollusk's shell, either; it 's a +caddice-worm's shell. You know about the caddice-worm? + +--More or less; less rather than more,--was my humble reply. + +Well, sir, the caddice-worm is the larva of a fly, and he makes a case +for himself out of all sorts of bits of everything that happen to suit +his particular fancy, dead or alive, sticks and stones and small shells +with their owners in 'em, living as comfortable as ever. Every one of +these caddice-worms has his special fancy as to what he will pick up +and glue together, with a kind of natural cement he provides himself, +to make his case out of. In it he lives, sticking his head and shoulders +out once in a while, that is all. Don't you see that a student in his +library is a caddice-worm in his case? I've told you that I take an +interest in pretty much everything, and don't mean to fence out any +human interests from the private grounds of my intelligence. Then, +again, there is a subject, perhaps I may say there is more than one, +that I want to exhaust, to know to the very bottom. And besides, of +course I must have my literary harem, my pare aux cerfs, where my +favorites await my moments of leisure and pleasure,--my scarce and +precious editions, my luxurious typographical masterpieces; my Delilahs, +that take my head in their lap: the pleasant story-tellers and the +like; the books I love because they are fair to look upon, prized by +collectors, endeared by old associations, secret treasures that nobody +else knows anything about; books, in short, that I like for insufficient +reasons it may be, but peremptorily, and mean to like and to love and to +cherish till death us do part. + +Don't you see I have given you a key to the way my library is made up, +so that you can apriorize the plan according to which I have filled my +bookcases? I will tell you how it is carried out. + +In the first place, you see, I have four extensive cyclopaedias. Out +of these I can get information enough to serve my immediate purpose on +almost any subject. These, of course, are supplemented by geographical, +biographical, bibliographical, and other dictionaries, including of +course lexicons to all the languages I ever meddle with. Next to +these come the works relating to my one or two specialties, and these +collections I make as perfect as I can. Every library should try to be +complete on something, if it were only on the history of pin-heads. +I don't mean that I buy all the trashy compilations on my special +subjects, but I try to have all the works of any real importance +relating to them, old as well as new. In the following compartment you +will find the great authors in all the languages I have mastered, from +Homer and Hesiod downward to the last great English name. + +This division, you see, you can make almost as extensive or as limited +as you choose. You can crowd the great representative writers into +a small compass; or you can make a library consisting only of the +different editions of Horace, if you have space and money enough. Then +comes the Harem, the shelf or the bookcase of Delilahs, that you +have paid wicked prices for, that you love without pretending to be +reasonable about it, and would bag in case of fire before all the +rest, just as Mr. Townley took the Clytie to his carriage when the +anti-Catholic mob threatened his house in 1780. As for the foundlings +like my Hedericus, they go among their peers; it is a pleasure to +take them, from the dusty stall where they were elbowed by plebeian +school-books and battered odd volumes, and give them Alduses and +Elzevirs for companions. + +Nothing remains but the Infirmary. The most painful subjects are the +unfortunates that have lost a cover. Bound a hundred years ago, perhaps, +and one of the rich old browned covers gone--what a pity! Do you know +what to do about it? I 'll tell you,--no, I 'll show you. Look at this +volume. M. T. Ciceronis Opera,--a dozen of 'em,--one of 'em minus half +his cover, a poor one-legged cripple, six months ago,--now see him. + +--He looked very respectably indeed, both covers dark, ancient, very +decently matched; one would hardly notice the fact that they were not +twins. + +-I 'll tell you what I did. You poor devil, said I, you are a disgrace +to your family. We must send you to a surgeon and have some kind of a +Taliacotian operation performed on you. (You remember the operation as +described in Hudibras, of course.) The first thing was to find a subject +of similar age and aspect ready to part with one of his members. So I +went to Quidlibet's,--you know Quidlibet and that hieroglyphic sign of +his with the omniscient-looking eye as its most prominent feature,--and +laid my case before him. I want you, said I, to look up an old book of +mighty little value,--one of your ten-cent vagabonds would be the sort +of thing,--but an old beggar, with a cover like this, and lay it by for +me. + +And Quidlibet, who is a pleasant body to deal with,--only he has +insulted one or two gentlemanly books by selling them to me at very +low-bred and shamefully insufficient prices,--Quidlibet, I say, laid by +three old books for me to help myself from, and did n't take the trouble +even to make me pay the thirty cents for 'em. Well, said I to myself, +let us look at our three books that have undergone the last insult short +of the trunkmaker's or the paper-mills, and see what they are. There may +be something worth looking at in one or the other of 'em. + +Now do you know it was with a kind of a tremor that I untied the package +and looked at these three unfortunates, too humble for the companionable +dime to recognize as its equal in value. The same sort of feeling you +know if you ever tried the Bible-and-key, or the Sortes Virgiliance. +I think you will like to know what the three books were which had been +bestowed upon me gratis, that I might tear away one of the covers of the +one that best matched my Cicero, and give it to the binder to cobble my +crippled volume with. + +The Master took the three books from a cupboard and continued. + +No. I. An odd volume of The Adventurer. It has many interesting things +enough, but is made precious by containing Simon Browne's famous +Dedication to the Queen of his Answer to Tindal's “Christianity as old +as the Creation.” Simon Browne was the Man without a Soul. An excellent +person, a most worthy dissenting minister, but lying under a strange +delusion. + +Here is a paragraph from his Dedication: + +“He was once a man; and of some little name; but of no worth, as his +present unparalleled case makes but too manifest; for by the immediate +hand of an avenging GOD, his very thinking substance has, for more than +seven years, been continually wasting away, till it is wholly perished +out of him, if it be not utterly come to nothing. None, no, not the +least remembrance of its very ruins, remains, not the shadow of an +idea is left, nor any sense that so much as one single one, perfect or +imperfect, whole or diminished, ever did appear to a mind within him, or +was perceived by it.” + +Think of this as the Dedication of a book “universally allowed to be +the best which that controversy produced,” and what a flood of light it +pours on the insanities of those self-analyzing diarists whose morbid +reveries have been so often mistaken for piety! No. I. had something +for me, then, besides the cover, which was all it claimed to have worth +offering. + +No. II. was “A View of Society and Manners in Italy.” Vol. III. By +John Moore, M. D. (Zeluco Moore.) You know his pleasant book. In +this particular volume what interested me most, perhaps, was the very +spirited and intelligent account of the miracle of the liquefaction of +the blood of Saint Januarius, but it gave me an hour's mighty agreeable +reading. So much for Number Two. + +No. III. was “An ESSAY On the Great EFFECTS of Even Languid and Unheeded +LOCAL MOTION.” By the Hon. Robert Boyle. Published in 1685, and, as +appears from other sources, “received with great and general applause.” + I confess I was a little startled to find how near this earlier +philosopher had come to the modern doctrines, such as are illustrated in +Tyndall's “Heat considered as a Mode of Motion.” He speaks of “Us, +who endeavor to resolve the Phenomena of Nature into Matter and Local +motion.” That sounds like the nineteenth century, but what shall we say +to this? “As when a bar of iron or silver, having been well hammered, +is newly taken off of the anvil; though the eye can discern no motion +in it, yet the touch will readily perceive it to be very hot, and if you +spit upon it, the brisk agitation of the insensible parts will become +visible in that which they will produce in the liquor.” He takes a bar +of tin, and tries whether by bending it to and fro two or three times he +cannot “procure a considerable internal commotion among the parts “; and +having by this means broken or cracked it in the middle, finds, as he +expected, that the middle parts had considerably heated each other. +There are many other curious and interesting observations in the volume +which I should like to tell you of, but these will serve my purpose. + +--Which book furnished you the old cover you wanted?--said I. + +--Did he kill the owl?--said the Master, laughing. [I suppose you, the +reader, know the owl story.]--It was Number Two that lent me one of his +covers. Poor wretch! He was one of three, and had lost his two brothers. +From him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath. The +Scripture had to be fulfilled in his case. But I couldn't help saying to +myself, What do you keep writing books for, when the stalls are covered +all over with 'em, good books, too, that nobody will give ten cents +apiece for, lying there like so many dead beasts of burden, of no +account except to strip off their hides? What is the use, I say? I have +made a book or two in my time, and I am making another that perhaps +will see the light one of these days. But if I had my life to live over +again, I think I should go in for silence, and get as near to Nirvana as +I could. This language is such a paltry tool! The handle of it cuts and +the blade doesn't. You muddle yourself by not knowing what you mean by a +word, and send out your unanswered riddles and rebuses to clear up other +people's difficulties. It always seems to me that talk is a ripple and +thought is a ground swell. A string of words, that mean pretty much +anything, helps you in a certain sense to get hold of a thought, just as +a string of syllables that mean nothing helps you to a word; but it's a +poor business, it's a poor business, and the more you study definition +the more you find out how poor it is. Do you know I sometimes think our +little entomological neighbor is doing a sounder business than we people +that make books about ourselves and our slippery abstractions? A man can +see the spots on a bug and count 'em, and tell what their color is, and +put another bug alongside of him and see whether the two are alike or +different. And when he uses a word he knows just what he means. There +is no mistake as to the meaning and identity of pulex irritans, confound +him! + +--What if we should look in, some day, on the Scarabeeist, as he calls +himself?--said I.--The fact is the Master had got agoing at such a rate +that I was willing to give a little turn to the conversation. + +--Oh, very well,--said the Master,--I had some more things to say, but I +don't doubt they'll keep. And besides, I take an interest in entomology, +and have my own opinion on the meloe question. + +--You don't mean to say you have studied insects as well as solar +systems and the order of things generally? + +--He looked pleased. All philosophers look pleased when people say +to them virtually, “Ye are gods.” The Master says he is vain +constitutionally, and thanks God that he is. I don't think he has enough +vanity to make a fool of himself with it, but the simple truth is he +cannot help knowing that he has a wide and lively intelligence, and +it pleases him to know it, and to be reminded of it, especially in an +oblique and tangential sort of way, so as not to look like downright +flattery. + +Yes, yes, I have amused a summer or two with insects, among other +things. I described a new tabanus,--horsefly, you know,--which, I think, +had escaped notice. I felt as grand when I showed up my new discovery +as if I had created the beast. I don't doubt Herschel felt as if he had +made a planet when he first showed the astronomers Georgium Sidus, as he +called it. And that reminds me of something. I was riding on the outside +of a stagecoach from London to Windsor in the year--never mind the +year, but it must have been in June, I suppose, for I bought some +strawberries. England owes me a sixpence with interest from date, for I +gave the woman a shilling, and the coach contrived to start or the woman +timed it so that I just missed getting my change. What an odd thing +memory is, to be sure, to have kept such a triviality, and have lost +so much that was invaluable! She is a crazy wench, that Mnemosyne; she +throws her jewels out of the window and locks up straws and old rags in +her strong box. + +[De profundis! said I to myself, the bottom of the bushel has dropped +out! Sancta--Maria, ora pro nobis!] + +--But as I was saying, I was riding on the outside of a stage-coach from +London to Windsor, when all at once a picture familiar to me from my New +England village childhood came upon me like a reminiscence rather than a +revelation. It was a mighty bewilderment of slanted masts and spars and +ladders and ropes, from the midst of which a vast tube, looking as if +it might be a piece of ordnance such as the revolted angels battered the +walls of Heaven with, according to Milton, lifted its muzzle defiantly +towards the sky. Why, you blessed old rattletrap, said I to myself, I +know you as well as I know my father's spectacles and snuff-box! And +that same crazy witch of a Memory, so divinely wise and foolish, travels +thirty-five hundred miles or so in a single pulse-beat, makes straight +for an old house and an old library and an old corner of it, and whisks +out a volume of an old cyclopaedia, and there is the picture of which +this is the original. Sir William Herschel's great telescope! It was +just about as big, as it stood there by the roadside, as it was in the +picture, not much different any way. Why should it be? The pupil of your +eye is only a gimlet-hole, not so very much bigger than the eye of a +sail-needle, and a camel has to go through it before you can see him. +You look into a stereoscope and think you see a miniature of a +building or a mountain; you don't, you 're made a fool of by your lying +intelligence, as you call it; you see the building and the mountain just +as large as with your naked eye looking straight at the real objects. +Doubt it, do you? Perhaps you'd like to doubt it to the music of a +couple of gold five-dollar pieces. If you would, say the word, and +man and money, as Messrs. Heenan and Morrissey have it, shall be +forthcoming; for I will make you look at a real landscape with your +right eye, and a stereoscopic view of it with your left eye, both at +once, and you can slide one over the other by a little management and +see how exactly the picture overlies the true landscape. We won't try it +now, because I want to read you something out of my book. + +--I have noticed that the Master very rarely fails to come back to his +original proposition, though he, like myself, is fond of zigzagging in +order to reach it. Men's minds are like the pieces on a chess-board in +their way of moving. One mind creeps from the square it is on to the +next, straight forward, like the pawns. Another sticks close to its +own line of thought and follows it as far as it goes, with no heed for +others' opinions, as the bishop sweeps the board in the line of his own +color. And another class of minds break through everything that lies +before them, ride over argument and opposition, and go to the end of +the board, like the castle. But there is still another sort of intellect +which is very apt to jump over the thought that stands next and come +down in the unexpected way of the knight. But that same knight, as the +chess manuals will show you, will contrive to get on to every square +of the board in a pretty series of moves that looks like a pattern +of embroidery, and so these zigzagging minds like the Master's, and I +suppose my own is something like it, will sooner or later get back to +the square next the one they started from. + +The Master took down a volume from one of the shelves. I could not +help noticing that it was a shelf near his hand as he sat, and that the +volume looked as if he had made frequent use of it. I saw, too, that +he handled it in a loving sort of way; the tenderness he would have +bestowed on a wife and children had to find a channel somewhere, and +what more natural than that he should look fondly on the volume which +held the thoughts that had rolled themselves smooth and round in his +mind like pebbles on a beach, the dreams which, under cover of the +simple artifices such as all writers use, told the little world of +readers his secret hopes and aspirations, the fancies which had pleased +him and which he could not bear to let die without trying to please +others with them? I have a great sympathy with authors, most of all with +unsuccessful ones. If one had a dozen lives or so, it would all be very +well, but to have only a single ticket in the great lottery, and have +that drawn a blank, is a rather sad sort of thing. So I was pleased to +see the affectionate kind of pride with which the Master handled his +book; it was a success, in its way, and he looked on it with a cheerful +sense that he had a right to be proud of it. The Master opened the +volume, and, putting on his large round glasses, began reading, as +authors love to read that love their books. + +--The only good reason for believing in the stability of the moral order +of things is to be found in the tolerable steadiness of human averages. +Out of a hundred human beings fifty-one will be found in the long run +on the side of the right, so far as they know it, and against the wrong. +They will be organizers rather than disorganizers, helpers and not +hinderers in the upward movement of the race. This is the main fact +we have to depend on. The right hand of the great organism is a little +stronger than the left, that is all. + +Now and then we come across a left-handed man. So now and then we find +a tribe or a generation, the subject of what we may call moral +left-handedness, but that need not trouble us about our formula. All we +have to do is to spread the average over a wider territory or a longer +period of time. Any race or period that insists on being left-handed +must go under if it comes in contact with a right-handed one. If there +were, as a general rule, fifty-one rogues in the hundred instead +of forty-nine, all other qualities of mind and body being equally +distributed between the two sections, the order of things would sooner +or later end in universal disorder. It is the question between the leak +and the pumps. + +It does not seem very likely that the Creator of all things is taken by +surprise at witnessing anything any of his creatures do or think. Men +have sought out many inventions, but they can have contrived nothing +which did not exist as an idea in the omniscient consciousness to which +past, present, and future are alike Now. + +We read what travellers tell us about the King of Dahomey, or the +Fejee Island people, or the short and simple annals of the celebrities +recorded in the Newgate Calendar, and do not know just what to make +of these brothers and sisters of the race; but I do not suppose an +intelligence even as high as the angelic beings, to stop short there, +would see anything very peculiar or wonderful about them, except as +everything is wonderful and unlike everything else. + +It is very curious to see how science, that is, looking at and arranging +the facts of a case with our own eyes and our own intelligence, without +minding what somebody else has said, or how some old majority vote went +in a pack of intriguing ecclesiastics,--I say it is very curious to see +how science is catching up with one superstition after another. + +There is a recognized branch of science familiar to all those who know +anything of the studies relating to life, under the name of Teratology. +It deals with all sorts of monstrosities which are to be met with in +living beings, and more especially in animals. It is found that what +used to be called lusus naturae, or freaks of nature, are just as much +subject to laws as the naturally developed forms of living creatures. + +The rustic looks at the Siamese twins, and thinks he is contemplating +an unheard-of anomaly; but there are plenty of cases like theirs in the +books of scholars, and though they are not quite so common as double +cherries, the mechanism of their formation is not a whit more mysterious +than that of the twinned fruits. Such cases do not disturb the average +arrangement; we have Changs and Engs at one pole, and Cains and Abels at +the other. One child is born with six fingers on each hand, and another +falls short by one or more fingers of his due allowance; but the glover +puts his faith in the great law of averages, and makes his gloves with +five fingers apiece, trusting nature for their counterparts. + +Thinking people are not going to be scared out of explaining or at least +trying to explain things by the shrieks of persons whose beliefs are +disturbed thereby. Comets were portents to Increase Mather, President of +Harvard College; “preachers of Divine wrath, heralds and messengers +of evil tidings to the world.” It is not so very long since Professor +Winthrop was teaching at the same institution. I can remember two of his +boys very well, old boys, it is true, they were, and one of them wore a +three-cornered cocked hat; but the father of these boys, whom, as I say, +I can remember, had to defend himself against the minister of the Old +South Church for the impiety of trying to account for earthquakes on +natural principles. And his ancestor, Governor Winthrop, would probably +have shaken his head over his descendant's dangerous audacity, if one +may judge by the solemn way in which he mentions poor Mrs. Hutchinson's +unpleasant experience, which so grievously disappointed her maternal +expectations. But people used always to be terribly frightened by those +irregular vital products which we now call “interesting specimens” and +carefully preserve in jars of alcohol. It took next to nothing to make a +panic; a child was born a few centuries ago with six teeth in its head, +and about that time the Turks began gaining great advantages over the +Christians. Of course there was an intimate connection between the +prodigy and the calamity. So said the wise men of that day. + +--All these out-of-the-way cases are studied connectedly now, and are +found to obey very exact rules. With a little management one can even +manufacture living monstrosities. Malformed salmon and other fish can be +supplied in quantity, if anybody happens to want them. Now, what all +I have said is tending to is exactly this, namely, that just as +the celestial movements are regulated by fixed laws, just as bodily +monstrosities are produced according to rule, and with as good reason +as normal shapes, so obliquities of character are to be accounted for on +perfectly natural principles; they are just as capable of classification +as the bodily ones, and they all diverge from a certain average or +middle term which is the type of its kind. If life had been a little +longer I would have written a number of essays for which, as it is, I +cannot expect to have time. I have set down the titles of a hundred or +more, and I have often been tempted to publish these, for according +to my idea, the title of a book very often renders the rest of it +unnecessary. “Moral Teratology,” for instance, which is marked No. 67 +on my list of “Essays Potential, not Actual,” suggests sufficiently well +what I should be like to say in the pages it would preface. People hold +up their hands at a moral monster as if there was no reason for his +existence but his own choice. That was a fine specimen we read of in the +papers a few years ago, the Frenchman, it may be remembered, who used +to waylay and murder young women, and after appropriating their effects, +bury their bodies in a private cemetery he kept for that purpose. It +is very natural, and I do not say it is not very proper, to hang such +eccentric persons as this; but it is not clear whether his vagaries +produce any more sensation at Headquarters than the meek enterprises of +the mildest of city missionaries. For the study of Moral Teratology will +teach you that you do not get such a malformed character as that without +a long chain of causes to account for it; and if you only knew those +causes, you would know perfectly well what to expect. + +You may feel pretty sure that our friend of the private cemetery was not +the child of pious and intelligent parents; that he was not nurtured by +the best of mothers, and educated by the most judicious teachers; +and that he did not come of a lineage long known and honored for its +intellectual and moral qualities. Suppose that one should go to the +worst quarter of the city and pick out the worst-looking child of the +worst couple he could find, and then train him up successively at the +School for Infant Rogues, the Academy for Young Scamps, and the College +for Complete Criminal Education, would it be reasonable to expect a +Francois Xavier or a Henry Martyn to be the result of such a training? +The traditionists, in whose presumptuous hands the science of +anthropology has been trusted from time immemorial, have insisted on +eliminating cause and effect from the domain of morals. When they +have come across a moral monster they have seemed to think that he put +himself together, having a free choice of all the constituents which +make up manhood, and that consequently no punishment could be too bad +for him. + +I say, hang him and welcome, if that is the best thing for society; hate +him, in a certain sense, as you hate a rattlesnake, but, if you pretend +to be a philosopher, recognize the fact that what you hate in him is +chiefly misfortune, and that if you had been born with his villanous low +forehead and poisoned instincts, and bred among creatures of the Races +Maudites whose natural history has to be studied like that of beasts +of prey and vermin, you would not have been sitting there in your +gold-bowed spectacles and passing judgment on the peccadilloes of your +fellow-creatures. + +I have seen men and women so disinterested and noble, and devoted to the +best works, that it appeared to me if any good and faithful servant was +entitled to enter into the joys of his Lord, such as these might be. +But I do not know that I ever met with a human being who seemed to me to +have a stronger claim on the pitying consideration and kindness of +his Maker than a wretched, puny, crippled, stunted child that I saw in +Newgate, who was pointed out as one of the most notorious and inveterate +little thieves in London. I have no doubt that some of those who +were looking at this pitiable morbid secretion of the diseased social +organism thought they were very virtuous for hating him so heartily. + +It is natural, and in one sense is all right enough. I want to catch a +thief and put the extinguisher on an incendiary as much as my neighbors +do; but I have two sides to my consciousness as I have two sides to my +heart, one carrying dark, impure blood, and the other the bright stream +which has been purified and vivified by the great source of life and +death,--the oxygen of the air which gives all things their vital heat, +and burns all things at last to ashes. + +One side of me loves and hates; the other side of me judges, say rather +pleads and suspends judgment. I think, if I were left to myself, I +should hang a rogue and then write his apology and subscribe to a neat +monument, commemorating, not his virtues, but his misfortunes. I should, +perhaps, adorn the marble with emblems, as is the custom with regard to +the more regular and normally constituted members of society. It would +not be proper to put the image of a lamb upon the stone which marked the +resting-place of him of the private cemetery. But I would not hesitate +to place the effigy of a wolf or a hyena upon the monument. I do not +judge these animals, I only kill them or shut them up. I presume they +stand just as well with their Maker as lambs and kids, and the existence +of such beings is a perpetual plea for God Almighty's poor, yelling, +scalping Indians, his weasand-stopping Thugs, his despised felons, +his murdering miscreants, and all the unfortunates whom we, picked +individuals of a picked class of a picked race, scrubbed, combed, and +catechized from our cradles upward, undertake to find accommodations +for in another state of being where it is to be hoped they will have a +better chance than they had in this. + +The Master paused, and took off his great round spectacles. I could not +help thinking that he looked benevolent enough to pardon Judas Iscariot +just at that moment, though his features can knot themselves up pretty, +formidably on occasion. + +--You are somewhat of a phrenologist, I judge, by the way you talk of +instinctive and inherited tendencies--I said. + +--They tell me I ought to be,--he answered, parrying my question, as +I thought.--I have had a famous chart made out of my cerebral organs, +according to which I ought to have been--something more than a poor +Magister Artaum. + +--I thought a shade of regret deepened the lines on his broad, +antique-looking forehead, and I began talking about all the sights I had +seen in the way of monstrosities, of which I had a considerable list, +as you will see when I tell you my weakness in that direction. This, you +understand, Beloved, is private and confidential. + +I pay my quarter of a dollar and go into all the side-shows that follow +the caravans and circuses round the country. I have made friends of all +the giants and all the dwarfs. I became acquainted with Monsieur Bihin, +le plus bel homme du monde, and one of the biggest, a great many years +ago, and have kept up my agreeable relations with him ever since. He +is a most interesting giant, with a softness of voice and tenderness +of feeling which I find very engaging. I was on friendly terms with Mr. +Charles Freeman, a very superior giant of American birth, seven feet +four, I think, in height, “double-jointed,” of mylodon muscularity, the +same who in a British prize-ring tossed the Tipton Slasher from one +side of the rope to the other, and now lies stretched, poor fellow! in a +mighty grave in the same soil which holds the sacred ashes of Cribb, and +the honored dust of Burke,--not the one “commonly called the sublime,” + but that other Burke to whom Nature had denied the sense of hearing lest +he should be spoiled by listening to the praises of the admiring circles +which looked on his dear-bought triumphs. Nor have I despised those +little ones whom that devout worshipper of Nature in her exceptional +forms, the distinguished Barnum, has introduced to the notice of +mankind. The General touches his chapeau to me, and the Commodore gives +me a sailor's greeting. I have had confidential interviews with the +double-headed daughter of Africa,--so far, at least, as her twofold +personality admitted of private confidences. I have listened to the +touching experiences of the Bearded Lady, whose rough cheeks belie her +susceptible heart. Miss Jane Campbell has allowed me to question her on +the delicate subject of avoirdupois equivalents; and the armless fair +one, whose embrace no monarch could hope to win, has wrought me a +watch-paper with those despised digits which have been degraded from +gloves to boots in our evolution from the condition of quadrumana. + +I hope you have read my experiences as good-naturedly as the old Master +listened to them. He seemed to be pleased with my whim, and promised to +go with me to see all the side-shows of the next caravan. Before I left +him he wrote my name in a copy of the new edition of his book, telling +me that it would not all be new to me by a great deal, for he often +talked what he had printed to make up for having printed a good deal of +what he had talked. + +Here is the passage of his Poem the Young Astronomer read to us. + + WIND-CLOUDS AND STAR-DRIFTS. + + IV + + From my lone turret as I look around + O'er the green meadows to the ring of blue, + From slope, from summit, and from half-hid vale + The sky is stabbed with dagger-pointed spires, + Their gilded symbols whirling in the wind, + Their brazen tongues proclaiming to the world, + Here truth is sold, the only genuine ware; + See that it has our trade-mark! + You will buy Poison instead of food across the way, + The lies of--this or that, each several name + The standard's blazon and the battle-cry + Of some true-gospel faction, and again + The token of the Beast to all beside. + And grouped round each I see a huddling crowd + Alike in all things save the words they use; + In love, in longing, hate and fear the same. + + Whom do we trust and serve? We speak of one + And bow to many; Athens still would find + The shrines of all she worshipped safe within + Our tall barbarian temples, and the thrones + That crowned Olympus mighty as of old. + The god of music rules the Sabbath choir; + The lyric muse must leave the sacred nine + To help us please the dilettante's ear; + Plutus limps homeward with us, as we leave + The portals of the temple where we knelt + And listened while the god of eloquence + (Hermes of ancient days, but now disguised + In sable vestments) with that other god + Somnus, the son of Erebus and Nog, + Fights in unequal contest for our souls; + The dreadful sovereign of the under world + Still shakes his sceptre at us, and we hear + The baying of the triple-throated hound; + Eros-is young as ever, and as fair + The lovely Goddess born of ocean's foam. + + These be thy gods, O Israel! Who is he, + The one ye name and tell us that ye serve, + Whom ye would call me from my lonely tower + To worship with the many-headed throng? + Is it the God that walked in Eden's grove + In the cool hour to seek our guilty sire? + The God who dealt with Abraham as the sons + Of that old patriarch deal with other men? + The jealous God of Moses, one who feels + An image as an insult, and is wroth + With him who made it and his child unborn? + The God who plagued his people for the sin + Of their adulterous king, beloved of him, + The same who offers to a chosen few + The right to praise him in eternal song + While a vast shrieking world of endless woe + Blends its dread chorus with their rapturous hymn? + Is this the God ye mean, or is it he + Who heeds the sparrow's fall, whose loving heart + Is as the pitying father's to his child, + Whose lesson to his children is, “Forgive,” + Whose plea for all, “They know not what they do” + + I claim the right of knowing whom I serve, + Else is my service idle; He that asks + My homage asks it from a reasoning soul. + To crawl is not to worship; we have learned + A drill of eyelids, bended neck and knee, + Hanging our prayers on binges, till we ape + The flexures of the many-jointed worm. + Asia has taught her Aliabs and salaams + To the world's children,--we have grown to men! + We who have rolled the sphere beneath our feet + To find a virgin forest, as we lay + The beams of our rude temple, first of all + Must frame its doorway high enough for man + To pass unstooping; knowing as we do + That He who shaped us last of living forms + Has long enough been served by creeping things, + Reptiles that left their foot-prints in the sand + Of old sea-margins that have turned to stone, + And men who learned their ritual; we demand + To know him first, then trust him and then love + When we have found him worthy of our love, + Tried by our own poor hearts and not before; + He must be truer than the truest friend, + He must be tenderer than a woman's love, + A father better than the best of sires; + Kinder than she who bore us, though we sin + Oftener than did the brother we are told, + We-poor ill-tempered mortals-must forgive, + Though seven times sinning threescore times and ten. + + This is the new world's gospel: Be ye men! + Try well the legends of the children's time; + Ye are the chosen people, God has led + Your steps across the desert of the deep + As now across the desert of the shore; + Mountains are cleft before you as the sea + Before the wandering tribe of Israel's sons; + Still onward rolls the thunderous caravan, + Its coming printed on the western sky, + A cloud by day, by night a pillared flame; + Your prophets are a hundred unto one + Of them of old who cried, “Thus saith the Lord”; + They told of cities that should fall in heaps, + But yours of mightier cities that shall rise + Where yet the lonely fishers spread their nets, + Where hides the fox and hoots the midnight owl; + The tree of knowledge in your garden grows + Not single, but at every humble door; + Its branches lend you their immortal food, + That fills you with the sense of what ye are, + No servants of an altar hewed and carved + From senseless stone by craft of human hands, + Rabbi, or dervish, Brahmin, bishop, bonze, + But masters of the charm with which they work + To keep your hands from that forbidden tree! + + Ye that have tasted that divinest fruit, + Look on this world of yours with opened eyes! + Ye are as gods! Nay, makers of your gods, + Each day ye break an image in your shrine + And plant a fairer image where it stood + Where is the Moloch of your fathers' creed, + Whose fires of torment burned for span-long babes? + Fit object for a tender mother's love! + Why not? It was a bargain duly made + For these same infants through the surety's act + Intrusted with their all for earth and heaven, + By Him who chose their guardian, knowing well + His fitness for the task,--this, even this, + Was the true doctrine only yesterday + As thoughts are reckoned,--and to-day you hear + In words that sound as if from human tongues + Those monstrous, uncouth horrors of the past + That blot the blue of heaven and shame the earth + As would the saurians of the age of slime, + Awaking from their stony sepulchres + And wallowing hateful in the eye of day! + +Four of us listened to these lines as the young man read them,--the +Master and myself and our two ladies. This was the little party we +got up to hear him read. I do not think much of it was very new to the +Master or myself. At any rate, he said to me when we were alone, That is +the kind of talk the “natural man,” as the theologians call him, is apt +to fall into. + +--I thought it was the Apostle Paul, and not the theologians, that used +the term “natural man”, I ventured to suggest. + +--I should like to know where the Apostle Paul learned English?--said +the Master, with the look of one who does not mean to be tripped up if +he can help himself.--But at any rate,--he continued,--the “natural +man,” so called, is worth listening to now and then, for he didn't make +his nature, and the Devil did n't make it; and if the Almighty made it, +I never saw or heard of anything he made that wasn't worth attending to. + +The young man begged the Lady to pardon anything that might sound +harshly in these crude thoughts of his. He had been taught strange +things, he said, from old theologies, when he was a child, and had +thought his way out of many of his early superstitions. As for the Young +Girl, our Scheherezade, he said to her that she must have got dreadfully +tired (at which she colored up and said it was no such thing), and he +promised that, to pay for her goodness in listening, he would give her a +lesson in astronomy the next fair evening, if she would be his scholar, +at which she blushed deeper than before, and said something which +certainly was not No. + + + + +IX + +There was no sooner a vacancy on our side of the table, than the Master +proposed a change of seats which would bring the Young Astronomer into +our immediate neighborhood. The Scarabee was to move into the place of +our late unlamented associate, the Man of Letters, so called. I was to +take his place, the Master to take mine, and the young man that which +had been occupied by the Master. The advantages of this change were +obvious. The old Master likes an audience, plainly enough; and with +myself on one side of him, and the young student of science, whose +speculative turn is sufficiently shown in the passages from his poem, +on the other side, he may feel quite sure of being listened to. There +is only one trouble in the arrangement, and that is that it brings this +young man not only close to us, but also next to our Scheherezade. + +I am obliged to confess that he has shown occasional marks of +inattention even while the Master was discoursing in a way that I found +agreeable enough. I am quite sure it is no intentional disrespect to the +old Master. It seems to me rather that he has become interested in the +astronomical lessons he has been giving the Young Girl. He has studied +so much alone, that it is naturally a pleasure to him to impart some of +his knowledge. As for his young pupil, she has often thought of being +a teacher herself, so that she is of course very glad to acquire any +accomplishment that may be useful to her in that capacity. I do not see +any reason why some of the boarders should have made such remarks as +they have done. One cannot teach astronomy to advantage, without going +out of doors, though I confess that when two young people go out by +daylight to study the stars, as these young folks have done once or +twice, I do not so much wonder at a remark or suggestion from those who +have nothing better to do than study their neighbors. + +I ought to have told the reader before this that I found, as I +suspected, that our innocent-looking Scheherezade was at the bottom of +the popgun business. I watched her very closely, and one day, when the +little monkey made us all laugh by stopping the Member of the Haouse in +the middle of a speech he was repeating to us,--it was his great effort +of the season on a bill for the protection of horn-pout in Little Muddy +River,--I caught her making the signs that set him going. At a slight +tap of her knife against her plate, he got all ready, and presently I +saw her cross her knife and fork upon her plate, and as she did so, pop! +went the small piece of artillery. The Member of the Haouse was just +saying that this bill hit his constitooents in their most vital--when +a pellet hit him in the feature of his countenance most exposed to +aggressions and least tolerant of liberties. The Member resented this +unparliamentary treatment by jumping up from his chair and giving the +small aggressor a good shaking, at the same time seizing the implement +which had caused his wrath and breaking it into splinters. The Boy +blubbered, the Young Girl changed color, and looked as if she would cry, +and that was the last of these interruptions. + +I must own that I have sometimes wished we had the popgun back, for it +answered all the purpose of “the previous question” in a deliberative +assembly. No doubt the Young Girl was capricious in setting the little +engine at work, but she cut short a good many disquisitions that +threatened to be tedious. I find myself often wishing for her and her +small fellow-conspirator's intervention, in company where I am supposed +to be enjoying myself. When my friend the politician gets too far into +the personal details of the quorum pars magna fui, I find myself all +at once exclaiming in mental articulation, Popgun! When my friend the +story-teller begins that protracted narrative which has often emptied +me of all my voluntary laughter for the evening, he has got but a very +little way when I say to myself, What wouldn't I give for a pellet from +that popgun! In short, so useful has that trivial implement proved as a +jaw-stopper and a boricide, that I never go to a club or a dinner-party, +without wishing the company included our Scheherezade and That Boy with +his popgun. + +How clearly I see now into the mechanism of the Young Girl's audacious +contrivance for regulating our table-talk! Her brain is tired half +the time, and she is too nervous to listen patiently to what a quieter +person would like well enough, or at least would not be annoyed by. It +amused her to invent a scheme for managing the headstrong talkers, and +also let off a certain spirit of mischief which in some of these nervous +girls shows itself in much more questionable forms. How cunning these +half-hysteric young persons are, to be sure! I had to watch a long +time before I detected the telegraphic communication between the two +conspirators. I have no doubt she had sedulously schooled the little +monkey to his business, and found great delight in the task of +instruction. + +But now that our Scheherezade has become a scholar instead of a teacher, +she seems to be undergoing a remarkable transformation. Astronomy is +indeed a noble science. It may well kindle the enthusiasm of a youthful +nature. I fancy at times that I see something of that starry light which +I noticed in the young man's eyes gradually kindling in hers. But can it +be astronomy alone that does it? Her color comes and goes more readily +than when the old Master sat next her on the left. It is having this +young man at her side, I suppose. Of course it is. I watch her with +great, I may say tender interest. If he would only fall in love with +her, seize upon her wandering affections and fancies as the Romans +seized the Sabine virgins, lift her out of herself and her listless and +weary drudgeries, stop the outflow of this young life which is draining +itself away in forced literary labor--dear me, dear me--if, if, if-- + + “If I were God + An' ye were Martin Elginbrod!” + +I am afraid all this may never be. I fear that he is too much given to +lonely study, to self-companionship, to all sorts of questionings, to +looking at life as at a solemn show where he is only a spectator. I dare +not build up a romance on what I have yet seen. My reader may, but I +will answer for nothing. I shall wait and see. + +The old Master and I have at last made that visit to the Scarabee which +we had so long promised ourselves. + +When we knocked at his door he came and opened it, instead of saying, +Come in. He was surprised, I have no doubt, at the sound of our +footsteps; for he rarely has a visitor, except the little monkey of a +boy, and he may have thought a troop of marauders were coming to rob +him of his treasures. Collectors feel so rich in the possession of their +rarer specimens, that they forget how cheap their precious things +seem to common eyes, and are as afraid of being robbed as if they were +dealers in diamonds. They have the name of stealing from each other +now and then, it is true, but many of their priceless possessions would +hardly tempt a beggar. Values are artificial: you will not be able to +get ten cents of the year 1799 for a dime. + +The Scarabee was reassured as soon as he saw our faces, and he welcomed +us not ungraciously into his small apartment. It was hard to find a +place to sit down, for all the chairs were already occupied by cases and +boxes full of his favorites. I began, therefore, looking round the room. +Bugs of every size and aspect met my eyes wherever they turned. I felt +for the moment as I suppose a man may feel in a fit of delirium tremens. +Presently my attention was drawn towards a very odd-looking insect on +the mantelpiece. This animal was incessantly raising its arms as if +towards heaven and clasping them together, as though it were wrestling +in prayer. + +Do look at this creature,--I said to the Master, he seems to be very +hard at work at his devotions. + +Mantas religiosa,--said the Master,--I know the praying rogue. Mighty +devout and mighty cruel; crushes everything he can master, or impales +it on his spiny shanks and feeds upon it, like a gluttonous wretch as +he is. I have seen the Mantis religiosa on a larger scale than this, now +and then. A sacred insect, sir,--sacred to many tribes of men; to the +Hottentots, to the Turks, yes, sir, and to the Frenchmen, who call the +rascal prie dieu, and believe him to have special charge of children +that have lost their way. + +Doesn't it seem as if there was a vein of satire as well as of fun +that ran through the solemn manifestations of creative wisdom? And of +deception too--do you see how nearly those dried leaves resemble an +insect? + +They do, indeed,--I answered,--but not so closely as to deceive me. They +remind me of an insect, but I could not mistake them for one. + +--Oh, you couldn't mistake those dried leaves for an insect, hey? Well, +how can you mistake that insect for dried leaves? That is the question; +for insect it is,--phyllum siccifolium, the “walking leaf,” as some have +called it.--The Master had a hearty laugh at my expense. + +The Scarabee did not seem to be amused at the Master's remarks or at +my blunder. Science is always perfectly serious to him; and he would +no more laugh over anything connected with his study, than a clergyman +would laugh at a funeral. + +They send me all sorts of trumpery,--he said, Orthoptera and +Lepidoptera; as if a coleopterist--a scarabeeist--cared for such things. +This business is no boy's play to me. The insect population of the world +is not even catalogued yet, and a lifetime given to the scarabees is +a small contribution enough to their study. I like your men of general +intelligence well enough,--your Linnwuses and your Buffons and your +Cuviers; but Cuvier had to go to Latreille for his insects, and if +Latreille had been able to consult me,--yes, me, gentlemen!--he would +n't have made the blunders he did about some of the coleoptera. + +The old Master, as I think you must have found out by this time,--you, +Beloved, I mean, who read every word,--has a reasonably good opinion, +as perhaps he has a right to have, of his own intelligence and +acquirements. The Scarabee's exultation and glow as he spoke of the +errors of the great entomologist which he himself could have corrected, +had the effect on the old Master which a lusty crow has upon the +feathered champion of the neighboring barnyard. He too knew something +about insects. Had he not discovered a new tabanus? Had he not +made preparations of the very coleoptera the Scarabee studied so +exclusively,--preparations which the illustrious Swammerdam would not +have been ashamed of, and dissected a melolontha as exquisitely as +Strauss Durckheim himself ever did it? So the Master, recalling these +studies of his and certain difficult and disputed points at which he +had labored in one of his entomological paroxysms, put a question which +there can be little doubt was intended to puzzle the Scarabee, and +perhaps,--for the best of us is human (I am beginning to love the old +Master, but he has his little weaknesses, thank Heaven, like the rest +of us),--I say perhaps, was meant to show that some folks knew as much +about some things as some other folks. + +The little dried-up specialist did not dilate into fighting dimensions +as--perhaps, again--the Master may have thought he would. He looked a +mild surprise, but remained as quiet as one of his own beetles when +you touch him and he makes believe he is dead. The blank silence became +oppressive. Was the Scarabee crushed, as so many of his namesakes are +crushed, under the heel of this trampling omniscient? + +At last the Scarabee creaked out very slowly, “Did I understand you to +ask the following question, to wit?” and so forth; for I was quite +out of my depth, and only know that he repeated the Master's somewhat +complex inquiry, word for word. + +--That was exactly my question,--said the Master,--and I hope it is not +uncivil to ask one which seems to me to be a puzzler. + +Not uncivil in the least,--said the Scarabee, with something as much +like a look of triumph as his dry face permitted,--not uncivil at all, +but a rather extraordinary question to ask at this date of entomological +history. I settled that question some years ago, by a series of +dissections, six-and-thirty in number, reported in an essay I can show +you and would give you a copy of, but that I am a little restricted in +my revenue, and our Society has to be economical, so I have but this +one. You see, sir,--and he went on with elytra and antennae and tarsi +and metatarsi and tracheae and stomata and wing-muscles and leg-muscles +and ganglions,--all plain enough, I do not doubt, to those accustomed +to handling dor-bugs and squash-bugs and such undesirable objects of +affection to all but naturalists. + +He paused when he got through, not for an answer, for there evidently +was none, but to see how the Master would take it. The Scarabee had had +it all his own way. + +The Master was loyal to his own generous nature. He felt as a peaceful +citizen might feel who had squared off at a stranger for some supposed +wrong, and suddenly discovered that he was undertaking to chastise Mr. +Dick Curtis, “the pet of the Fancy,” or Mr. Joshua Hudson; “the John +Bull fighter.” + +He felt the absurdity of his discomfiture, for he turned to me +good-naturedly, and said, + + “Poor Johnny Raw! What madness could impel + So rum a flat to face so prime a swell?” + +To tell the truth, I rather think the Master enjoyed his own defeat. The +Scarabee had a right to his victory; a man does not give his life to the +study of a single limited subject for nothing, and the moment we come +across a first-class expert we begin to take a pride in his superiority. +It cannot offend us, who have no right at all to be his match on his +own ground. Besides, there is a very curious sense of satisfaction +in getting a fair chance to sneer at ourselves and scoff at our own +pretensions. The first person of our dual consciousness has been +smirking and rubbing his hands and felicitating himself on his +innumerable superiorities, until we have grown a little tired of him. +Then, when the other fellow, the critic, the cynic, the Shimei, who has +been quiet, letting self-love and self-glorification have their perfect +work, opens fire upon the first half of our personality and overwhelms +it with that wonderful vocabulary of abuse of which he is the unrivalled +master, there is no denying that he enjoys it immensely; and as he is +ourself for the moment, or at least the chief portion of ourself (the +other half-self retiring into a dim corner of semiconsciousness and +cowering under the storm of sneers and contumely,--you follow me +perfectly, Beloved,--the way is as plain as the path of the babe to the +maternal fount), as, I say, the abusive fellow is the chief part of us +for the time, and he likes to exercise his slanderous vocabulary, we on +the whole enjoy a brief season of self-depreciation and self-scolding +very heartily. + +It is quite certain that both of us, the Master and myself, conceived on +the instant a respect for the Scarabee which we had not before felt. +He had grappled with one difficulty at any rate and mastered it. He had +settled one thing, at least, so it appeared, in such a way that it was +not to be brought up again. And now he was determined, if it cost him +the effort of all his remaining days, to close another discussion and +put forever to rest the anxious doubts about the larva of meloe. + +--Your thirty-six dissections must have cost you a deal of time and +labor,--the Master said. + +--What have I to do with time, but to fill it up with labor?--answered +the Scarabee.--It is my meat and drink to work over my beetles. My +holidays are when I get a rare specimen. My rest is to watch the habits +of insects, those that I do not pretend to study. Here is my muscarium, +my home for house-flies; very interesting creatures; here they breed and +buzz and feed and enjoy themselves, and die in a good old age of a few +months. My favorite insect lives in this other case; she is at home, but +in her private-chamber; you shall see her. + +He tapped on the glass lightly, and a large, gray, hairy spider came +forth from the hollow of a funnel-like web. + +--And this is all the friend you have to love? said the Master, with a +tenderness in his voice which made the question very significant. + +--Nothing else loves me better than she does, that I know of,--he +answered. + +--To think of it! Not even a dog to lick his hand, or a cat to purr +and rub her fur against him! Oh, these boarding-houses, these +boarding-houses! What forlorn people one sees stranded on their desolate +shores! Decayed gentlewomen with the poor wrecks of what once made their +households beautiful, disposed around them in narrow chambers as they +best may be, coming down day after day, poor souls! to sit at the board +with strangers; their hearts full of sad memories which have no language +but a sigh, no record but the lines of sorrow on their features; +orphans, creatures with growing tendrils and nothing to cling to; lonely +rich men, casting about them what to do with the wealth they never +knew how to enjoy, when they shall no longer worry over keeping and +increasing it; young men and young women, left to their instincts, +unguarded, unwatched, save by malicious eyes, which are sure to be +found and to find occupation in these miscellaneous collections of human +beings; and now and then a shred of humanity like this little adust +specialist, with just the resources needed to keep the “radical +moisture” from entirely exhaling from his attenuated organism, and +busying himself over a point of science, or compiling a hymn-book, +or editing a grammar or a dictionary;--such are the tenants of +boarding-houses whom we cannot think of without feeling how sad it is +when the wind is not tempered to the shorn lamb; when the solitary, +whose hearts are shrivelling, are not set in families! + +The Master was greatly interested in the Scarabee's Muscarium. + +--I don't remember,--he said,--that I have heard of such a thing as that +before. Mighty curious creatures, these same house-flies! Talk about +miracles! Was there ever anything more miraculous, so far as our common +observation goes, than the coming and the going of these creatures? Why +didn't Job ask where the flies come from and where they go to? I did +not say that you and I don't know, but how many people do know anything +about it? Where are the cradles of the young flies? Where are the +cemeteries of the dead ones, or do they die at all except when we kill +them? You think all the flies of the year are dead and gone, and there +comes a warm day and all at once there is a general resurrection of 'em; +they had been taking a nap, that is all. + +--I suppose you do not trust your spider in the Muscarium?--said I, +addressing the Scarabee. + +--Not exactly,--he answered,--she is a terrible creature. She loves +me, I think, but she is a killer and a cannibal among other insects. I +wanted to pair her with a male spider, but it wouldn't do. + +-Wouldn't do?--said I,--why not? Don't spiders have their mates as well +as other folks? + +-Oh yes, sometimes; but the females are apt to be particular, and if +they don't like the mate you offer them they fall upon him and kill him +and eat him up. You see they are a great deal bigger and stronger +than the males, and they are always hungry and not always particularly +anxious to have one of the other sex bothering round. + +--Woman's rights!--said I,--there you have it! Why don't those +talking ladies take a spider as their emblem? Let them form arachnoid +associations, spinsters and spiders would be a good motto. + +--The Master smiled. I think it was an eleemosynary smile, for my +pleasantry seems to me a particularly basso rilievo, as I look upon it +in cold blood. But conversation at the best is only a thin sprinkling of +occasional felicities set in platitudes and commonplaces. I never heard +people talk like the characters in the “School for Scandal,”--I should +very much like to.--I say the Master smiled. But the Scarabee did not +relax a muscle of his countenance. + +--There are persons whom the very mildest of faecetiae sets off into +such convulsions of laughter, that one is afraid lest they should injure +themselves. Even when a jest misses fire completely, so that it is no +jest at all, but only a jocular intention, they laugh just as heartily. +Leave out the point of your story, get the word wrong on the duplicity +of which the pun that was to excite hilarity depended, and they +still honor your abortive attempt with the most lusty and vociferous +merriment. + +There is a very opposite class of persons whom anything in the nature +of a joke perplexes, troubles, and even sometimes irritates, seeming +to make them think they are trifled with, if not insulted. If you are +fortunate enough to set the whole table laughing, one of this class of +persons will look inquiringly round, as if something had happened, and, +seeing everybody apparently amused but himself, feel as if he was being +laughed at, or at any rate as if something had been said which he was +not to hear. Often, however, it does not go so far as this, and there +is nothing more than mere insensibility to the cause of other people's +laughter, a sort of joke-blindness, comparable to the well-known +color-blindness with which many persons are afflicted as a congenital +incapacity. + +I have never seen the Scarabee smile. I have seen him take off his +goggles,--he breakfasts in these occasionally,--I suppose when he +has been tiring his poor old eyes out over night gazing through his +microscope,--I have seen him take his goggles off, I say, and stare +about him, when the rest of us were laughing at something which amused +us, but his features betrayed nothing more than a certain bewilderment, +as if we had been foreigners talking in an unknown tongue. I do not +think it was a mere fancy of mine that he bears a kind of resemblance +to the tribe of insects he gives his life to studying. His shiny black +coat; his rounded back, convex with years of stooping over his minute +work; his angular movements, made natural to him by his habitual style +of manipulation; the aridity of his organism, with which his voice is +in perfect keeping;--all these marks of his special sedentary occupation +are so nearly what might be expected, and indeed so much, in accordance +with the more general fact that a man's aspect is subdued to the look +of what he works in, that I do not feel disposed to accuse myself of +exaggeration in my account of the Scarabee's appearance. But I think +he has learned something else of his coleopterous friends. The beetles +never smile. Their physiognomy is not adapted to the display of the +emotions; the lateral movement of their jaws being effective for +alimentary purposes, but very limited in its gamut of expression. It is +with these unemotional beings that the Scarabee passes his life. He has +but one object, and that is perfectly serious, to his mind, in fact, +of absorbing interest and importance. In one aspect of the matter he is +quite right, for if the Creator has taken the trouble to make one of His +creatures in just such a way and not otherwise, from the beginning of +its existence on our planet in ages of unknown remoteness to the present +time, the man who first explains His idea to us is charged with a +revelation. It is by no means impossible that there may be angels in +the celestial hierarchy to whom it would be new and interesting. I have +often thought that spirits of a higher order than man might be willing +to learn something from a human mind like that of Newton, and I see no +reason why an angelic being might not be glad to hear a lecture from Mr. +Huxley, or Mr. Tyndall, or one of our friends at Cambridge. + +I have been sinuous as the Links of Forth seen from Stirling Castle, +or as that other river which threads the Berkshire valley and runs, a +perennial stream, through my memory,--from which I please myself with +thinking that I have learned to wind without fretting against the shore, +or forgetting cohere I am flowing,--sinuous, I say, but not jerky,--no, +not jerky nor hard to follow for a reader of the right sort, in the +prime of life and full possession of his or her faculties. + +--All this last page or so, you readily understand, has been my +private talk with you, the Reader. The cue of the conversation which +I interrupted by this digression is to be found in the words “a good +motto;” from which I begin my account of the visit again. + +--Do you receive many visitors,--I mean vertebrates, not articulates? +--said the Master. + +I thought this question might perhaps bring il disiato riso, the +long-wished-for smile, but the Scarabee interpreted it in the simplest +zoological sense, and neglected its hint of playfulness with the most +absolute unconsciousness, apparently, of anything not entirely serious +and literal. + +--You mean friends, I suppose,--he answered.--I have correspondents, but +I have no friends except this spider. I live alone, except when I go to +my subsection meetings; I get a box of insects now and then, and send +a few beetles to coleopterists in other entomological districts; but +science is exacting, and a man that wants to leave his record has not +much time for friendship. There is no great chance either for making +friends among naturalists. People that are at work on different things +do not care a great deal for each other's specialties, and people that +work on the same thing are always afraid lest one should get ahead of +the other, or steal some of his ideas before he has made them public. +There are none too many people you can trust in your laboratory. I +thought I had a friend once, but he watched me at work and stole the +discovery of a new species from me, and, what is more, had it named +after himself. Since that time I have liked spiders better than men. +They are hungry and savage, but at any rate they spin their own webs out +of their own insides. I like very well to talk with gentlemen that play +with my branch of entomology; I do not doubt it amused you, and if you +want to see anything I can show you, I shall have no scruple in letting +you see it. I have never had any complaint to make of amatoors. + +--Upon my honor,--I would hold my right hand up and take my Bible-oath, +if it was not busy with the pen at this moment,--I do not believe the +Scarabee had the least idea in the world of the satire on the student of +the Order of Things implied in his invitation to the “amatoor.” As for +the Master, he stood fire perfectly, as he always does; but the idea +that he, who had worked a considerable part of several seasons at +examining and preparing insects, who believed himself to have given a +new tabanus to the catalogue of native diptera, the idea that he was +playing with science, and might be trusted anywhere as a harmless +amateur, from whom no expert could possibly fear any anticipation of his +unpublished discoveries, went beyond anything set down in that book of +his which contained so much of the strainings of his wisdom. + +The poor little Scarabee began fidgeting round about this time, and +uttering some half-audible words, apologetical, partly, and involving an +allusion to refreshments. As he spoke, he opened a small cupboard, and +as he did so out bolted an uninvited tenant of the same, long in person, +sable in hue, and swift of movement, on seeing which the Scarabee simply +said, without emotion, blatta, but I, forgetting what was due to good +manners, exclaimed cockroach! + +We could not make up our minds to tax the Scarabee's hospitality, +already levied upon by the voracious articulate. So we both alleged a +state of utter repletion, and did not solve the mystery of the contents +of the cupboard,--not too luxurious, it may be conjectured, and yet +kindly offered, so that we felt there was a moist filament of the +social instinct running like a nerve through that exsiccated and almost +anhydrous organism. + +We left him with professions of esteem and respect which were real. We +had gone, not to scoff, but very probably to smile, and I will not say +we did not. But the Master was more thoughtful than usual. + +--If I had not solemnly dedicated myself to the study of the Order of +Things,--he said,--I do verily believe I would give what remains to +me of life to the investigation of some single point I could utterly +eviscerate and leave finally settled for the instruction and, it may be, +the admiration of all coming time. The keel ploughs ten thousand leagues +of ocean and leaves no trace of its deep-graven furrows. The chisel +scars only a few inches on the face of a rock, but the story it has +traced is read by a hundred generations. The eagle leaves no track of +his path, no memory of the place where he built his nest; but a patient +mollusk has bored a little hole in a marble column of the temple of +Serapis, and the monument of his labor outlasts the altar and the statue +of the divinity. + +--Whew!--said I to myself,--that sounds a little like what we college +boys used to call a “squirt.”--The Master guessed my thought and said, +smiling, + +--That is from one of my old lectures. A man's tongue wags along quietly +enough, but his pen begins prancing as soon as it touches paper. I know +what you are thinking--you're thinking this is a squirt. That word has +taken the nonsense out of a good many high-stepping fellows. But it +did a good deal of harm too, and it was a vulgar lot that applied it +oftenest. + +I am at last perfectly satisfied that our Landlady has no designs on +the Capitalist, and as well convinced that any fancy of mine that he +was like to make love to her was a mistake. The good woman is too much +absorbed in her children, and more especially in “the Doctor,” as +she delights to call her son, to be the prey of any foolish desire of +changing her condition. She is doing very well as it is, and if the +young man succeeds, as I have little question that he will, I think it +probable enough that she will retire from her position as the head of +a boarding-house. We have all liked the good woman who have lived with +her,--I mean we three friends who have put ourselves on record. Her +talk, I must confess, is a little diffuse and not always absolutely +correct, according to the standard of the great Worcester; she is +subject to lachrymose cataclysms and semiconvulsive upheavals when she +reverts in memory to her past trials, and especially when she recalls +the virtues of her deceased spouse, who was, I suspect, an adjunct such +as one finds not rarely annexed to a capable matron in charge of an +establishment like hers; that is to say, an easy-going, harmless, +fetch-and-carry, carve-and-help, get-out-of-the-way kind of neuter, who +comes up three times (as they say drowning people do) every day, namely, +at breakfast, dinner, and tea, and disappears, submerged beneath the +waves of life, during the intervals of these events. + +It is a source of genuine delight to me, who am of a kindly nature +enough, according to my own reckoning, to watch the good woman, and see +what looks of pride and affection she bestows upon her Benjamin, and +how, in spite of herself, the maternal feeling betrays its influence in +her dispensations of those delicacies which are the exceptional element +in our entertainments. I will not say that Benjamin's mess, like his +Scripture namesake's, is five times as large as that of any of the +others, for this would imply either an economical distribution to the +guests in general or heaping the poor young man's plate in a way that +would spoil the appetite of an Esquimau, but you may be sure he fares +well if anybody does; and I would have you understand that our Landlady +knows what is what as well as who is who. + +I begin really to entertain very sanguine expectations of young Doctor +Benjamin Franklin. He has lately been treating a patient of whose +good-will may prove of great importance to him. The Capitalist hurt one +of his fingers somehow or other, and requested our young doctor to take +a look at it. The young doctor asked nothing better than to take charge +of the case, which proved more serious than might have been at first +expected, and kept him in attendance more than a week. There was one +very odd thing about it. The Capitalist seemed to have an idea that he +was like to be ruined in the matter of bandages,--small strips of worn +linen which any old woman could have spared him from her rag-bag, but +which, with that strange perversity which long habits of economy give +to a good many elderly people, he seemed to think were as precious as +if they had been turned into paper and stamped with promises to pay in +thousands, from the national treasury. It was impossible to get this +whim out of him, and the young doctor had tact enough to humor him in +it. All this did not look very promising for the state of mind in which +the patient was like to receive his bill for attendance when that should +be presented. Doctor Benjamin was man enough, however, to come up to the +mark, and sent him in such an account as it was becoming to send a +man of ample means who had been diligently and skilfully cared for. He +looked forward with some uncertainty as to how it would be received. +Perhaps his patient would try to beat him down, and Doctor Benjamin made +up his mind to have the whole or nothing. Perhaps he would pay the whole +amount, but with a look, and possibly a word, that would make every +dollar of it burn like a blister. + +Doctor Benjamin's conjectures were not unnatural, but quite remote from +the actual fact. As soon as his patient had got entirely well, the young +physician sent in his bill. The Capitalist requested him to step into +his room with him, and paid the full charge in the handsomest and most +gratifying way, thanking him for his skill and attention, and assuring +him that he had had great satisfaction in submitting himself to such +competent hands, and should certainly apply to him again in case he +should have any occasion for a medical adviser. We must not be too +sagacious in judging people by the little excrescences of their +character. Ex pede Herculem may often prove safe enough, but ex verruca +Tullium is liable to mislead a hasty judge of his fellow-men. + +I have studied the people called misers and thought a good deal about +them. In former years I used to keep a little gold by me in order to +ascertain for myself exactly the amount of pleasure to be got out of +handling it; this being the traditional delight of the old-fashioned +miser. It is by no means to be despised. Three or four hundred dollars +in double-eagles will do very well to experiment on. There is something +very agreeable in the yellow gleam, very musical in the metallic clink, +very satisfying in the singular weight, and very stimulating in +the feeling that all the world over these same yellow disks are the +master-keys that let one in wherever he wants to go, the servants that +bring him pretty nearly everything he wants, except virtue,--and a good +deal of what passes for that. I confess, then, to an honest liking for +the splendors and the specific gravity and the manifold potentiality of +the royal metal, and I understand, after a certain imperfect fashion, +the delight that an old ragged wretch, starving himself in a crazy +hovel, takes in stuffing guineas into old stockings and filling earthen +pots with sovereigns, and every now and then visiting his hoards and +fingering the fat pieces, and thinking ever all that they represent of +earthly and angelic and diabolic energy. A miser pouring out his guineas +into his palm and bathing his shrivelled and trembling hands in the +yellow heaps before him, is not the prosaic being we are in the habit of +thinking him. He is a dreamer, almost a poet. You and I read a novel or +a poem to help our imaginations to build up palaces, and transport us +into the emotional states and the felicitous conditions of the ideal +characters pictured in the book we are reading. But think of him and the +significance of the symbols he is handling as compared with the empty +syllables and words we are using to build our aerial edifices with! +In this hand he holds the smile of beauty and in that the dagger of +revenge. The contents of that old glove will buy him the willing service +of many an adroit sinner, and with what that coarse sack contains he can +purchase the prayers of holy men for all succeeding time. In this chest +is a castle in Spain, a real one, and not only in Spain, but anywhere +he will choose to have it. If he would know what is the liberality of +judgment of any of the straiter sects, he has only to hand over that box +of rouleaux to the trustees of one of its educational institutions for +the endowment of two or three professorships. If he would dream of being +remembered by coming generations, what monument so enduring as a college +building that shall bear his name, and even when its solid masonry shall +crumble give place to another still charged with the same sacred duty +of perpetuating his remembrance. Who was Sir Matthew Holworthy, that his +name is a household word on the lips of thousands of scholars, and will +be centuries hence, as that of Walter de Merton, dead six hundred years +ago, is to-day at Oxford? Who was Mistress Holden, that she should be +blessed among women by having her name spoken gratefully and the +little edifice she caused to be erected preserved as her monument from +generation to generation? All these possibilities, the lust of the eye, +the lust of the flesh, the pride of life; the tears of grateful orphans +by the gallon; the prayers of Westminster Assembly's Catechism divines +by the thousand; the masses of priests by the century;--all these +things, and more if more there be that the imagination of a lover of +gold is likely to range over, the miser hears and sees and feels and +hugs and enjoys as he paddles with his lean hands among the sliding, +shining, ringing, innocent-looking bits of yellow metal, toying with +them as the lion-tamer handles the great carnivorous monster, whose +might and whose terrors are child's play to the latent forces and power +of harm-doing of the glittering counters played with in the great game +between angels and devils. + +I have seen a good deal of misers, and I think I understand them as +well as most persons do. But the Capitalist's economy in rags and his +liberality to the young doctor are very oddly contrasted with each +other. I should not be surprised at any time to hear that he had endowed +a scholarship or professorship or built a college dormitory, in spite of +his curious parsimony in old linen. + +I do not know where our Young Astronomer got the notions that he +expresses so freely in the lines that follow. I think the statement is +true, however, which I see in one of the most popular Cyclopaedias, that +“the non-clerical mind in all ages is disposed to look favorably upon +the doctrine of the universal restoration to holiness and happiness of +all fallen intelligences, whether human or angelic.” Certainly, most +of the poets who have reached the heart of men, since Burns dropped the +tear for poor “auld Nickie-ben” that softened the stony-hearted theology +of Scotland, have had “non-clerical” minds, and I suppose our young +friend is in his humble way an optimist like them. What he says in verse +is very much the same thing as what is said in prose in all companies, +and thought by a great many who are thankful to anybody that will say +it for them,--not a few clerical as wall as “non-clerical” persons among +them. + + WIND-CLOUDS AND STAR-DRIFTS. + + V + + What am I but the creature Thou hast made? + What have I save the blessings Thou hast lent? + What hope I but Thy mercy and Thy love? + Who but myself shall cloud my soul with fear? + Whose hand protect me from myself but Thine? + + I claim the rights of weakness, I, the babe, + Call on my sire to shield me from the ills + That still beset my path, not trying me + With snares beyond my wisdom or my strength, + He knowing I shall use them to my harm, + And find a tenfold misery in the sense + That in my childlike folly I have sprung + The trap upon myself as vermin use + Drawn by the cunning bait to certain doom. + Who wrought the wondrous charm that leads us on + To sweet perdition, but the self-same power + That set the fearful engine to destroy + His wretched offspring (as the Rabbis tell), + And hid its yawning jaws and treacherous springs + In such a show of innocent sweet flowers + It lured the sinless angels and they fell? + + Ah! He who prayed the prayer of all mankind + Summed in those few brief words the mightiest plea + For erring souls before the courts of heaven, + Save us from being tempted,--lest we fall! + If we are only as the potter's clay + Made to be fashioned as the artist wills, + And broken into shards if we offend + The eye of Him who made us, it is well; + Such love as the insensate lump of clay + That spins upon the swift-revolving wheel + Bears to the hand that shapes its growing form, + --Such love, no more, will be our hearts' return + To the great Master-workman for his care, + Or would be, save that this, our breathing clay, + Is intertwined with fine innumerous threads + That make it conscious in its framer's hand; + And this He must remember who has filled + These vessels with the deadly draught of life, + Life, that means death to all it claims. Our love + Must kindle in the ray that streams from heaven, + A faint reflection of the light divine; + The sun must warm the earth before the rose + Can show her inmost heart-leaves to the sun. + + He yields some fraction of the Maker's right + Who gives the quivering nerve its sense of pain; + Is there not something in the pleading eye + Of the poor brute that suffers, which arraigns + The law that bids it suffer? Has it not + A claim for some remembrance in the book + That fills its pages with the idle words + Spoken of men? Or is it only clay, + Bleeding and aching in the potter's hand, + Yet all his own to treat it as he will + And when he will to cast it at his feet, + Shattered, dishonored, lost forevermore? + My dog loves me, but could he look beyond + His earthly master, would his love extend + To Him who--Hush! I will not doubt that He + Is better than our fears, and will not wrong + The least, the meanest of created things! + + He would not trust me with the smallest orb + That circles through the sky; he would not give + A meteor to my guidance; would not leave + The coloring of a cloudlet to my hand; + He locks my beating heart beneath its bars + And keeps the key himself; he measures out + The draughts of vital breath that warm my blood, + Winds up the springs of instinct which uncoil, + Each in its season; ties me to my home, + My race, my time, my nation, and my creed + So closely that if I but slip my wrist + Out of the band that cuts it to the bone, + Men say, “He hath a devil”; he has lent + All that I hold in trust, as unto one + By reason of his weakness and his years + Not fit to hold the smallest shred in fee + Of those most common things he calls his own + And yet--my Rabbi tells me--he has left + The care of that to which a million worlds. + Filled with unconscious life were less than naught, + Has left that mighty universe, the Soul, + To the weak guidance of our baby hands, + Turned us adrift with our immortal charge, + Let the foul fiends have access at their will, + Taking the shape of angels, to our hearts, + Our hearts already poisoned through and through + With the fierce virus of ancestral sin. + If what my Rabbi tells me is the truth, + Why did the choir of angels sing for joy? + Heaven must be compassed in a narrow space, + And offer more than room enough for all + That pass its portals; but the underworld, + The godless realm, the place where demons forge + Their fiery darts and adamantine chains, + Must swarm with ghosts that for a little while + Had worn the garb of flesh, and being heirs + Of all the dulness of their stolid sires, + And all the erring instincts of their tribe, + Nature's own teaching, rudiments of “sin,” + Fell headlong in the snare that could not fail + To trap the wretched creatures shaped of clay + And cursed with sense enough to lose their souls! + + Brother, thy heart is troubled at my word; + Sister, I see the cloud is on thy brow. + He will not blame me, He who sends not peace, + But sends a sword, and bids us strike amain + At Error's gilded crest, where in the van + Of earth's great army, mingling with the best + And bravest of its leaders, shouting loud + The battle-cries that yesterday have led + The host of Truth to victory, but to-day + Are watchwords of the laggard and the slave, + He leads his dazzled cohorts. God has made + This world a strife of atoms and of spheres; + With every breath I sigh myself away + And take my tribute from the wandering wind + To fan the flame of life's consuming fire; + So, while my thought has life, it needs must burn, + And burning, set the stubble-fields ablaze, + Where all the harvest long ago was reaped + And safely garnered in the ancient barns, + But still the gleaners, groping for their food, + Go blindly feeling through the close-shorn straw, + While the young reapers flash their glittering steel + Where later suns have ripened nobler grain! + +We listened to these lines in silence. They were evidently written +honestly, and with feeling, and no doubt meant to be reverential. I +thought, however, the Lady looked rather serious as he finished reading. +The Young Girl's cheeks were flushed, but she was not in the mood for +criticism. + +As we came away the Master said to me--The stubble-fields are mighty +slow to take fire. These young fellows catch up with the world's ideas +one after another,--they have been tamed a long while, but they find +them running loose in their minds, and think they are ferae naturae. +They remind me of young sportsmen who fire at the first feathers they +see, and bring down a barnyard fowl. But the chicken may be worth +bagging for all that, he said, good-humoredly. + + + + +X + +Caveat Lector. Let the reader look out for himself. The old Master, +whose words I have so frequently quoted and shall quote more of, is a +dogmatist who lays down the law, ex cathedra, from the chair of his own +personality. I do not deny that he has the ambition of knowing something +about a greater number of subjects than any one man ought to meddle +with, except in a very humble and modest way. And that is not his way. +There was no doubt something of, humorous bravado in his saying that the +actual “order of things” did not offer a field sufficiently ample for +his intelligence. But if I found fault with him, which would be easy +enough, I should say that he holds and expresses definite opinions +about matters that he could afford to leave open questions, or ask the +judgment of others about. But I do not want to find fault with him. If +he does not settle all the points he speaks of so authoritatively, he +sets me thinking about them, and I like a man as a companion who is not +afraid of a half-truth. I know he says some things peremptorily that +he may inwardly debate with himself. There are two ways of dealing +with assertions of this kind. One may attack them on the false side and +perhaps gain a conversational victory. But I like better to take them +up on the true side and see how much can be made of that aspect of +the dogmatic assertion. It is the only comfortable way of dealing with +persons like the old Master. + +There have been three famous talkers in Great Britain, either of whom +would illustrate what I say about dogmatists well enough for my purpose. +You cannot doubt to what three I refer: Samuel the First, Samuel the +Second, and Thomas, last of the Dynasty. (I mean the living Thomas and +not Thomas B.) + +I say the last of the Dynasty, for the conversational dogmatist on the +imperial scale becomes every year more and more an impossibility. If he +is in intelligent company he will be almost sure to find some one who +knows more about some of the subjects he generalizes upon than any +wholesale thinker who handles knowledge by the cargo is like to know. I +find myself, at certain intervals, in the society of a number of experts +in science, literature, and art, who cover a pretty wide range, taking +them all together, of human knowledge. I have not the least doubt that +if the great Dr. Samuel Johnson should come in and sit with this company +at one of their Saturday dinners, he would be listened to, as he always +was, with respect and attention. But there are subjects upon which the +great talker could speak magisterially in his time and at his club, upon +which so wise a man would express himself guardedly at the meeting where +I have supposed him a guest. We have a scientific man or two among +us, for instance, who would be entitled to smile at the good Doctor's +estimate of their labors, as I give it here: + +“Of those that spin out life in trifles and die without a memorial, many +flatter themselves with high opinion of their own importance and imagine +that they are every day adding some improvement to human life.”--“Some +turn the wheel of electricity, some suspend rings to a loadstone, +and find that what they did yesterday they can do again to-day. Some +register the changes of the wind, and die fully convinced that the wind +is changeable. + +“There are men yet more profound, who have heard that two colorless +liquors may produce a color by union, and that two cold bodies will +grow hot if they are mingled; they mingle them, and produce the effect +expected, say it is strange, and mingle them again.” + +I cannot transcribe this extract without an intense inward delight in +its wit and a full recognition of its thorough half-truthfulness. Yet +if while the great moralist is indulging in these vivacities, he can be +imagined as receiving a message from Mr. Boswell or Mrs. Thrale flashed +through the depths of the ocean, we can suppose he might be tempted to +indulge in another oracular utterance, something like this:---A wise +man recognizes the convenience of a general statement, but he bows to +the authority of a particular fact. He who would bound the possibilities +of human knowledge by the limitations of present acquirements would take +the dimensions of the infant in ordering the habiliments of the adult. +It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of +wisdom to listen. Will the Professor have the kindness to inform me by +what steps of gradual development the ring and the loadstone, which were +but yesterday the toys of children and idlers, have become the means +of approximating the intelligences of remote continents, and wafting +emotions unchilled through the abysses of the no longer unfathomable +deep? + +--This, you understand, Beloved, is only a conventional imitation of the +Doctor's style of talking. He wrote in grand balanced phrases, but his +conversation was good, lusty, off-hand familiar talk. He used very often +to have it all his own way. If he came back to us we must remember that +to treat him fairly we must suppose him on a level with the knowledge of +our own time. But that knowledge is more specialized, a great deal, than +knowledge was in his day. Men cannot talk about things they have seen +from the outside with the same magisterial authority the talking dynasty +pretended to. The sturdy old moralist felt grand enough, no doubt, when +he said, “He that is growing great and happy by electrifying a bottle +wonders how the world can be engaged by trifling prattle about war or +peace.” Benjamin Franklin was one of these idlers who were electrifying +bottles, but he also found time to engage in the trifling prattle about +war and peace going on in those times. The talking Doctor hits him very +hard in “Taxation no Tyranny”: “Those who wrote the Address (of the +American Congress in 1775), though they have shown no great extent or +profundity of mind, are yet probably wiser than to believe it: but they +have been taught by some master of mischief how to put in motion the +engine of political electricity; to attract by the sounds of Liberty and +Property, to repel by those of Popery and Slavery; and to give the great +stroke by the name of Boston.” The talking dynasty has always been +hard upon us Americans. King Samuel II. says: “It is, I believe, a fact +verified beyond doubt, that some years ago it was impossible to obtain +a copy of the Newgate Calendar, as they had all been bought up by the +Americans, whether to suppress the blazon of their forefathers or +to assist in their genealogical researches I could never learn +satisfactorily.” As for King Thomas, the last of the monological +succession, he made such a piece of work with his prophecies and his +sarcasms about our little trouble with some of the Southern States, that +we came rather to pity him for his whims and crotchets than to get angry +with him for calling us bores and other unamiable names. + +I do not think we believe things because considerable people say them, +on personal authority, that is, as intelligent listeners very commonly +did a century ago. The newspapers have lied that belief out of us. Any +man who has a pretty gift of talk may hold his company a little while +when there is nothing better stirring. Every now and then a man who may +be dull enough prevailingly has a passion of talk come over him which +makes him eloquent and silences the rest. I have a great respect for +these divine paroxysms, these half-inspired moments of influx when they +seize one whom we had not counted among the luminaries of the social +sphere. But the man who can--give us a fresh experience on anything that +interests us overrides everybody else. A great peril escaped makes a +great story-teller of a common person enough. I remember when a certain +vessel was wrecked long ago, that one of the survivors told the story as +well as Defoe could have told it. Never a word from him before; never +a word from him since. But when it comes to talking one's common +thoughts,--those that come and go as the breath does; those that +tread the mental areas and corridors with steady, even foot-fall, an +interminable procession of every hue and garb,--there are few, indeed, +that can dare to lift the curtain which hangs before the window in the +breast and throw open the window, and let us look and listen. We are all +loyal enough to our sovereign when he shows himself, but sovereigns are +scarce. I never saw the absolute homage of listeners but once, that I +remember, to a man's common talk, and that was to the conversation of an +old man, illustrious by his lineage and the exalted honors he had won, +whose experience had lessons for the wisest, and whose eloquence had +made the boldest tremble. + +All this because I told you to look out for yourselves and not take for +absolute truth everything the old Master of our table, or anybody else +at it sees fit to utter. At the same time I do not think that he, or any +of us whose conversation I think worth reporting, says anything for the +mere sake of saying it and without thinking that it holds some truth, +even if it is not unqualifiedly true. + +I suppose a certain number of my readers wish very heartily that the +Young Astronomer whose poetical speculations I am recording would stop +trying by searching to find out the Almighty, and sign the thirty-nine +articles, or the Westminster Confession of Faith, at any rate slip his +neck into some collar or other, and pull quietly in the harness, whether +it galled him or not. I say, rather, let him have his talk out; if +nobody else asks the questions he asks, some will be glad to hear them, +but if you, the reader, find the same questions in your own mind, +you need not be afraid to see how they shape themselves in another's +intelligence. Do you recognize the fact that we are living in a new +time? Knowledge--it excites prejudices to call it science--is advancing +as irresistibly, as majestically, as remorselessly as the ocean moves in +upon the shore. The courtiers of King Canute (I am not afraid of the old +comparison), represented by the adherents of the traditional beliefs +of the period, move his chair back an inch at a time, but not until his +feet are pretty damp, not to say wet. The rock on which he sat securely +awhile ago is completely under water. And now people are walking up and +down the beach and judging for themselves how far inland the chair +of King Canute is like to be moved while they and their children are +looking on, at the rate in which it is edging backward. And it is quite +too late to go into hysterics about it. + +The shore, solid, substantial, a great deal more than eighteen +hundred years old, is natural humanity. The beach which the ocean of +knowledge--you may call it science if you like--is flowing over, is +theological humanity. Somewhere between the Sermon on the Mount and the +teachings of Saint Augustine sin was made a transferable chattel. (I +leave the interval wide for others to make narrow.) + +The doctrine of heritable guilt, with its mechanical consequences, has +done for our moral nature what the doctrine of demoniac possession +has done in barbarous times and still does among barbarous tribes for +disease. Out of that black cloud came the lightning which struck the +compass of humanity. Conscience, which from the dawn of moral being had +pointed to the poles of right and wrong only as the great current of +will flowed through the soul, was demagnetized, paralyzed, and knew +henceforth no fixed meridian, but stayed where the priest or the council +placed it. There is nothing to be done but to polarize the needle over +again. And for this purpose we must study the lines of direction of all +the forces which traverse our human nature. + +We must study man as we have studied stars and rocks. We need not go, +we are told, to our sacred books for astronomy or geology or other +scientific knowledge. Do not stop there! Pull Canute's chair back fifty +rods at once, and do not wait until he is wet to the knees! Say now, +bravely, as you will sooner or later have to say, that we need not go to +any ancient records for our anthropology. Do we not all hold, at least, +that the doctrine of man's being a blighted abortion, a miserable +disappointment to his Creator, and hostile and hateful to him from his +birth, may give way to the belief that he is the latest terrestrial +manifestation of an ever upward-striving movement of divine power? If +there lives a man who does not want to disbelieve the popular notions +about the condition and destiny of the bulk of his race, I should like +to have him look me in the face and tell me so. + +I am not writing for the basement story or the nursery, and I do not +pretend to be, but I say nothing in these pages which would not be said +without fear of offence in any intelligent circle, such as clergymen of +the higher castes are in the habit of frequenting. There are teachers +in type for our grandmothers and our grandchildren who vaccinate the +two childhoods with wholesome doctrine, transmitted harmlessly from one +infant to another. But we three men at our table have taken the disease +of thinking in the natural way. It is an epidemic in these times, and +those who are afraid of it must shut themselves up close or they will +catch it. + +I hope none of us are wanting in reverence. One at least of us is a +regular church-goer, and believes a man may be devout and yet very free +in the expression of his opinions on the gravest subjects. There may be +some good people who think that our young friend who puts his thoughts +in verse is going sounding over perilous depths, and are frightened +every time he throws the lead. There is nothing to be frightened at. +This is a manly world we live in. Our reverence is good for nothing if +it does not begin with self-respect. Occidental manhood springs from +that as its basis; Oriental manhood finds the greatest satisfaction in +self-abasement. There is no use in trying to graft the tropical palm +upon the Northern pine. The same divine forces underlie the growth of +both, but leaf and flower and fruit must follow the law of race, of +soil, of climate. Whether the questions which assail my young friend +have risen in my reader's mind or not, he knows perfectly well that +nobody can keep such questions from springing up in every young mind of +any force or honesty. As for the excellent little wretches who grow up +in what they are taught, with never a scruple or a query, Protestant or +Catholic, Jew or Mormon, Mahometan or Buddhist, they signify nothing in +the intellectual life of the race. If the world had been wholly peopled +with such half-vitalized mental negatives, there never would have been a +creed like that of Christendom. + +I entirely agree with the spirit of the verses I have looked over, in +this point at least, that a true man's allegiance is given to that which +is highest in his own nature. He reverences truth, he loves kindness, +he respects justice. The two first qualities he understands well enough. +But the last, justice, at least as between the Infinite and the +finite, has been so utterly dehumanized, disintegrated, decomposed, and +diabolized in passing through the minds of the half-civilized banditti +who have peopled and unpeopled the world for some scores of generations, +that it has become a mere algebraic x, and has no fixed value whatever +as a human conception. + +As for power, we are outgrowing all superstition about that. We have not +the slightest respect for it as such, and it is just as well to remember +this in all our spiritual adjustments. We fear power when we cannot +master it; but just as far as we can master it, we make a slave and a +beast of burden of it without hesitation. We cannot change the ebb and +flow of the tides, or the course of the seasons, but we come as near it +as we can. We dam out the ocean, we make roses bloom in winter and water +freeze in summer. We have no more reverence for the sun than we have for +a fish-tail gas-burner; we stare into his face with telescopes as at a +ballet-dancer with opera-glasses; we pick his rays to pieces with prisms +as if they were so many skeins of colored yarn; we tell him we do not +want his company and shut him out like a troublesome vagrant. The gods +of the old heathen are the servants of to-day. Neptune, Vulcan, Aolus, +and the bearer of the thunderbolt himself have stepped down from their +pedestals and put on our livery. We cannot always master them, neither +can we always master our servant, the horse, but we have put a bridle +on the wildest natural agencies. The mob of elemental forces is as noisy +and turbulent as ever, but the standing army of civilization keeps it +well under, except for an occasional outbreak. + +When I read the Lady's letter printed some time since, I could not +help honoring the feeling which prompted her in writing it. But while I +respect the innocent incapacity of tender age and the limitations of the +comparatively uninstructed classes, it is quite out of the question to +act as if matters of common intelligence and universal interest were the +private property of a secret society, only to be meddled with by those +who know the grip and the password. + +We must get over the habit of transferring the limitations of the +nervous temperament and of hectic constitutions to the great Source +of all the mighty forces of nature, animate and inanimate. We may +confidently trust that we have over us a Being thoroughly robust and +grandly magnanimous, in distinction from the Infinite Invalid bred in +the studies of sickly monomaniacs, who corresponds to a very common +human type, but makes us blush for him when we contrast him with a truly +noble man, such as most of us have had the privilege of knowing both in +public and in private life. + +I was not a little pleased to find that the Lady, in spite of her +letter, sat through the young man's reading of portions of his poem with +a good deal of complacency. I think I can guess what is in her mind. She +believes, as so many women do, in that great remedy for discontent, and +doubts about humanity, and questionings of Providence, and all sorts of +youthful vagaries,--I mean the love-cure. And she thinks, not without +some reason, that these astronomical lessons, and these readings of +poetry and daily proximity at the table, and the need of two young +hearts that have been long feeling lonely, and youth and nature and “all +impulses of soul and sense,” as Coleridge has it, will bring these two +young people into closer relations than they perhaps have yet thought +of; and so that sweet lesson of loving the neighbor whom he has seen +may lead him into deeper and more trusting communion with the Friend and +Father whom he has not seen. + +The Young Girl evidently did not intend that her accomplice should be a +loser by the summary act of the Member of the Haouse: I took occasion +to ask That Boy what had become of all the popguns. He gave me to +understand that popguns were played out, but that he had got a squirt +and a whip, and considered himself better off than before. + +This great world is full of mysteries. I can comprehend the pleasure to +be got out of the hydraulic engine; but what can be the fascination of a +whip, when one has nothing to flagellate but the calves of his own legs, +I could never understand. Yet a small riding-whip is the most +popular article with the miscellaneous New-Englander at all great +gatherings,--cattle-shows and Fourth-of-July celebrations. If Democritus +and Heraclitus could walk arm in arm through one of these crowds, the +first would be in a broad laugh to see the multitude of young persons +who were rejoicing in the possession of one of these useless and +worthless little commodities; happy himself to see how easily others +could purchase happiness. But the second would weep bitter tears to +think what a rayless and barren life that must be which could extract +enjoyment from the miserable flimsy wand that has such magic attraction +for sauntering youths and simpering maidens. What a dynamometer of +happiness are these paltry toys, and what a rudimentary vertebrate must +be the freckled adolescent whose yearning for the infinite can be stayed +even for a single hour by so trifling a boon from the venal hands of the +finite! + +Pardon these polysyllabic reflections, Beloved, but I never contemplate +these dear fellow-creatures of ours without a delicious sense of +superiority to them and to all arrested embryos of intelligence, in +which I have no doubt you heartily sympathize with me. It is not +merely when I look at the vacuous countenances of the mastigophori, the +whip-holders, that I enjoy this luxury (though I would not miss that +holiday spectacle for a pretty sum of money, and advise you by all means +to make sure of it next Fourth of July, if you missed it this), but I +get the same pleasure from many similar manifestations. + +I delight in Regalia, so called, of the kind not worn by kings, nor +obtaining their diamonds from the mines of Golconda. I have a passion +for those resplendent titles which are not conferred by a sovereign and +would not be the open sesame to the courts of royalty, yet which are as +opulent in impressive adjectives as any Knight of the Garter's list +of dignities. When I have recognized in the every-day name of His Very +Worthy High Eminence of some cabalistic association, the inconspicuous +individual whose trifling indebtedness to me for value received remains +in a quiescent state and is likely long to continue so, I confess to +having experienced a thrill of pleasure. I have smiled to think how +grand his magnificent titular appendages sounded in his own ears and +what a feeble tintinnabulation they made in mine. The crimson sash, the +broad diagonal belt of the mounted marshal of a great procession, so +cheap in themselves, yet so entirely satisfactory to the wearer, tickle +my heart's root. + +Perhaps I should have enjoyed all these weaknesses of my infantile +fellow-creatures without an afterthought, except that on a certain +literary anniversary when I tie the narrow blue and pink ribbons in my +button-hole and show my decorated bosom to the admiring public, I am +conscious of a certain sense of distinction and superiority in virtue of +that trifling addition to my personal adornments which reminds me that I +too have some embryonic fibres in my tolerably well-matured organism. + +I hope I have not hurt your feelings, if you happen to be a High and +Mighty Grand Functionary in any illustrious Fraternity. When I tell you +that a bit of ribbon in my button-hole sets my vanity prancing, I think +you cannot be grievously offended that I smile at the resonant titles +which make you something more than human in your own eyes. I would not +for the world be mistaken for one of those literary roughs whose brass +knuckles leave their mark on the foreheads of so many inoffensive +people. + +There is a human sub-species characterized by the coarseness of its +fibre and the acrid nature of its intellectual secretions. It is to a +certain extent penetrative, as all creatures are which are provided with +stings. It has an instinct which guides it to the vulnerable parts of +the victim on which it fastens. These two qualities give it a certain +degree of power which is not to be despised. It might perhaps be less +mischievous, but for the fact that the wound where it leaves its poison +opens the fountain from which it draws its nourishment. + +Beings of this kind can be useful if they will only find their +appropriate sphere, which is not literature, but that circle of +rough-and-tumble political life where the fine-fibred men are at a +discount, where epithets find their subjects poison-proof, and the sting +which would be fatal to a literary debutant only wakes the eloquence +of the pachydermatous ward-room politician to a fiercer shriek of +declamation. + +The Master got talking the other day about the difference between races +and families. I am reminded of what he said by what I have just been +saying myself about coarse-fibred and fine-fibred people. + +--We talk about a Yankee, a New-Englander,--he said,-as if all of 'em +were just the same kind of animal. “There is knowledge and knowledge,” + said John Bunyan. There are Yankees and Yankees. Do you know two native +trees called pitch pine and white pine respectively? Of course you know +'em. Well, there are pitch-pine Yankees and white-pine Yankees. We don't +talk about the inherited differences of men quite as freely, perhaps, +as they do in the Old World, but republicanism doesn't alter the laws +of physiology. We have a native aristocracy, a superior race, just as +plainly marked by nature as of a higher and finer grade than the common +run of people as the white pine is marked in its form, its stature, its +bark, its delicate foliage, as belonging to the nobility of the forest; +and the pitch pine, stubbed, rough, coarse-haired, as of the plebeian +order. Only the strange thing is to see in what a capricious way our +natural nobility is distributed. The last born nobleman I have seen, +I saw this morning; he was pulling a rope that was fastened to a Maine +schooner loaded with lumber. I should say he was about twenty years +old, as fine a figure of a young man as you would ask to see, and with +a regular Greek outline of countenance, waving hair, that fell as if +a sculptor had massed it to copy, and a complexion as rich as a red +sunset. I have a notion that the State of Maine breeds the natural +nobility in a larger proportion than some other States, but they spring +up in all sorts of out-of-the-way places. The young fellow I saw this +morning had on an old flannel shirt, a pair of trowsers that meant hard +work, and a cheap cloth cap pushed back on his head so as to let the +large waves of hair straggle out over his forehead; he was tugging at +his rope with the other sailors, but upon my word I don't think I have +seen a young English nobleman of all those whom I have looked upon that +answered to the notion of “blood” so well as this young fellow did. I +suppose if I made such a levelling confession as this in public, people +would think I was looking towards being the labor-reform candidate for +President. But I should go on and spoil my prospects by saying that +I don't think the white-pine Yankee is the more generally prevailing +growth, but rather the pitch-pine Yankee. + +--The Member of the Haouse seemed to have been getting a dim idea that +all this was not exactly flattering to the huckleberry districts. His +features betrayed the growth of this suspicion so clearly that the +Master replied to his look as if it had been a remark. [I need hardly +say that this particular member of the General Court was a pitch-pine +Yankee of the most thoroughly characterized aspect and flavor.] + +--Yes, Sir,--the Master continued,--Sir being anybody that listened, +--there is neither flattery nor offence in the views which a +physiological observer takes of the forms of life around him. It won't +do to draw individual portraits, but the differences of natural groups +of human beings are as proper subjects of remark as those of different +breeds of horses, and if horses were Houyhnhnms I don't think they would +quarrel with us because we made a distinction between a “Morgan” and a +“Messenger.” The truth is, Sir, the lean sandy soil and the droughts and +the long winters and the east-winds and the cold storms, and all sorts +of unknown local influences that we can't make out quite so plainly as +these, have a tendency to roughen the human organization and make it +coarse, something as it is with the tree I mentioned. Some spots and +some strains of blood fight against these influences, but if I should +say right out what I think, it would be that the finest human fruit, on +the whole; and especially the finest women that we get in New England +are raised under glass. + +--Good gracious!--exclaimed the Landlady, under glass! + +--Give me cowcumbers raised in the open air, said the Capitalist, who +was a little hard of hearing. + +--Perhaps,--I remarked,--it might be as well if you would explain this +last expression of yours. Raising human beings under glass I take to be +a metaphorical rather than a literal statement of your meaning. + +--No, Sir!--replied the Master, with energy,--I mean just what I say, +Sir. Under glass, and with a south exposure. During the hard season, of +course,--for in the heats of summer the tenderest hot-house plants are +not afraid of the open air. Protection is what the transplanted Aryan +requires in this New England climate. Keep him, and especially keep her, +in a wide street of a well-built city eight months of the year; good +solid brick walls behind her, good sheets of plate-glass, with the sun +shining warm through them, in front of her, and you have put her in the +condition of the pine-apple, from the land of which, and not from that +of the other kind of pine, her race started on its travels. People don't +know what a gain there is to health by living in cities, the best parts +of them of course, for we know too well what the worst parts are. In the +first place you get rid of the noxious emanations which poison so many +country localities with typhoid fever and dysentery, not wholly rid of +them, of course, but to a surprising degree. Let me tell you a doctor's +story. I was visiting a Western city a good many years ago; it was in +the autumn, the time when all sorts of malarious diseases are about. The +doctor I was speaking of took me to see the cemetery just outside the +town, I don't know how much he had done to fill it, for he didn't tell +me, but I'll tell you what he did say. + +“Look round,” said the doctor. “There isn't a house in all the ten-mile +circuit of country you can see over, where there isn't one person, at +least, shaking with fever and ague. And yet you need n't be afraid of +carrying it away with you, for as long as your home is on a paved street +you are safe.” + +--I think it likely--the Master went on to say--that my friend the +doctor put it pretty strongly, but there is no doubt at all that while +all the country round was suffering from intermittent fever, the paved +part of the city was comparatively exempted. What do you do when you +build a house on a damp soil, and there are damp soils pretty much +everywhere? Why you floor the cellar with cement, don't you? Well, +the soil of a city is cemented all over, one may say, with certain +qualifications of course. A first-rate city house is a regular +sanatorium. The only trouble is, that the little good-for-nothings that +come of utterly used-up and worn-out stock, and ought to die, can't die, +to save their lives. So they grow up to dilute the vigor of the race +with skim-milk vitality. They would have died, like good children, in +most average country places; but eight months of shelter in a regulated +temperature, in a well-sunned house, in a duly moistened air, with good +sidewalks to go about on in all weather, and four months of the cream +of summer and the fresh milk of Jersey cows, make the little sham +organizations--the worm-eaten wind-falls, for that 's what they look +like--hang on to the boughs of life like “froze-n-thaws”; regular +struldbrugs they come to be, a good many of 'em. + +--The Scarabee's ear was caught by that queer word of Swift's, and he +asked very innocently what kind of bugs he was speaking of, whereupon +That Boy shouted out, Straddlebugs! to his own immense amusement and the +great bewilderment of the Scarabee, who only saw that there was one of +those unintelligible breaks in the conversation which made other people +laugh, and drew back his antennae as usual, perplexed, but not amused. + +I do not believe the Master had said all he was going to say on this +subject, and of course all these statements of his are more or less +one-sided. But that some invalids do much better in cities than in the +country is indisputable, and that the frightful dysenteries and fevers +which have raged like pestilences in many of our country towns are +almost unknown in the better built sections of some of our large cities +is getting to be more generally understood since our well-to-do people +have annually emigrated in such numbers from the cemented surface of the +city to the steaming soil of some of the dangerous rural districts. If +one should contrast the healthiest country residences with the worst +city ones the result would be all the other way, of course, so that +there are two sides to the question, which we must let the doctors pound +in their great mortar, infuse and strain, hoping that they will present +us with the clear solution when they have got through these processes. +One of our chief wants is a complete sanitary map of every State in the +Union. + +The balance of our table, as the reader has no doubt observed, has been +deranged by the withdrawal of the Man of Letters, so called, and +only the side of the deficiency changed by the removal of the Young +Astronomer into our neighborhood. The fact that there was a vacant chair +on the side opposite us had by no means escaped the notice of That Boy. +He had taken advantage of his opportunity and invited in a schoolmate +whom he evidently looked upon as a great personage. This boy or youth +was a good deal older than himself and stood to him apparently in the +light of a patron and instructor in the ways of life. A very jaunty, +knowing young gentleman he was, good-looking, smartly dressed, +smooth-checked as yet, curly-haired, with a roguish eye, a sagacious +wink, a ready tongue, as I soon found out; and as I learned could catch +a ball on the fly with any boy of his age; not quarrelsome, but, if he +had to strike, hit from the shoulder; the pride of his father (who was +a man of property and a civic dignitary), and answering to the name of +Johnny. + +I was a little surprised at the liberty That Boy had taken in +introducing an extra peptic element at our table, reflecting as I did +that a certain number of avoirdupois ounces of nutriment which the +visitor would dispose of corresponded to a very appreciable pecuniary +amount, so that he was levying a contribution upon our Landlady +which she might be inclined to complain of. For the Caput mortuum (or +deadhead, in vulgar phrase) is apt to be furnished with a Venter vivus, +or, as we may say, a lively appetite. But the Landlady welcomed the +new-comer very heartily. + +--Why! how--do--you--do Johnny?! with the notes of interrogation and of +admiration both together, as here represented. + +Johnny signified that he was doing about as well as could be expected +under the circumstances, having just had a little difference with a +young person whom he spoke of as “Pewter-jaw” (I suppose he had worn a +dentist's tooth-straightening contrivance during his second dentition), +which youth he had finished off, as he said, in good shape, but at +the expense of a slight epistaxis, we will translate his vernacular +expression. + +--The three ladies all looked sympathetic, but there did not seem to be +any great occasion for it, as the boy had come out all right, and seemed +to be in the best of spirits. + +--And how is your father and your mother? asked the Landlady. + +--Oh, the Governor and the Head Centre? A 1, both of 'em. Prime order +for shipping,--warranted to stand any climate. The Governor says he +weighs a hunderd and seventy-five pounds. Got a chin-tuft just like +Ed'in Forrest. D'd y' ever see Ed'in Forrest play Metamora? Bully, I +tell you! My old gentleman means to be Mayor or Governor or President or +something or other before he goes off the handle, you'd better b'lieve. +He's smart,--and I've heard folks say I take after him. + +--Somehow or other I felt as if I had seen this boy before, or known +something about him. Where did he get those expressions “A 1” and +“prime” and so on? They must have come from somebody who has been in the +retail dry-goods business, or something of that nature. I have certain +vague reminiscences that carry me back to the early times of this +boardinghouse.--Johnny.--Landlady knows his father well. + +--Boarded with her, no doubt.--There was somebody by the name of John, +I remember perfectly well, lived with her. I remember both my friends +mentioned him, one of them very often. I wonder if this boy isn't a son +of his! I asked the Landlady after breakfast whether this was not, as I +had suspected, the son of that former boarder. + +--To be sure he is,--she answered,--and jest such a good-natur'd sort of +creatur' as his father was. I always liked John, as we used to call his +father. He did love fun, but he was a good soul, and stood by me when I +was in trouble, always. He went into business on his own account after a +while, and got merried, and settled down into a family man. They tell +me he is an amazing smart business man,--grown wealthy, and his wife's +father left her money. But I can't help calling him John,--law, we never +thought of calling him anything else, and he always laughs and says, +“That's right.” This is his oldest son, and everybody calls him Johnny. +That Boy of ours goes to the same school with his boy, and thinks there +never was anybody like him,--you see there was a boy undertook to impose +on our boy, and Johnny gave the other boy a good licking, and ever since +that he is always wanting to have Johnny round with him and bring him +here with him,--and when those two boys get together, there never was +boys that was so chock full of fun and sometimes mischief, but not very +bad mischief, as those two boys be. But I like to have him come once in +a while when there is room at the table, as there is now, for it puts me +in mind of the old times, when my old boarders was all round me, that +I used to think so much of,--not that my boarders that I have now a'nt +very nice people, but I did think a dreadful sight of the gentleman that +made that first book; it helped me on in the world more than ever +he knew of,--for it was as good as one of them Brandreth's pills +advertisements, and did n't cost me a cent, and that young lady he +merried too, she was nothing but a poor young schoolma'am when she come +to my house, and now--and she deserved it all too; for she was always +just the same, rich or poor, and she is n't a bit prouder now she wears +a camel's-hair shawl, than she was when I used to lend her a woollen one +to keep her poor dear little shoulders warm when she had to go out and +it was storming,--and then there was that old gentleman,--I can't speak +about him, for I never knew how good he was till his will was opened, +and then it was too late to thank him.... + +I respected the feeling which caused the interval of silence, and found +my own eyes moistened as I remembered how long it was since that friend +of ours was sitting in the chair where I now sit, and what a tidal wave +of change has swept over the world and more especially over this great +land of ours, since he opened his lips and found so many kind listeners. + +The Young Astronomer has read us another extract from his manuscript. I +ran my eye over it, and so far as I have noticed it is correct enough +in its versification. I suppose we are getting gradually over our +hemispherical provincialism, which allowed a set of monks to pull their +hoods over our eyes and tell us there was no meaning in any religious +symbolism but our own. If I am mistaken about this advance I am very +glad to print the young man's somewhat outspoken lines to help us in +that direction. + + WIND-CLOUDS AND STAR-DRIFTS. + + VI + + The time is racked with birth-pangs; every hour + Brings forth some gasping truth, and truth new-born + Looks a misshapen and untimely growth, + The terror of the household and its shame, + A monster coiling in its nurse's lap + That some would strangle, some would only starve; + But still it breathes, and passed from hand to hand, + And suckled at a hundred half-clad breasts, + Comes slowly to its stature and its form, + Calms the rough ridges of its dragon-scales, + Changes to shining locks its snaky hair, + And moves transfigured into angel guise, + Welcomed by all that cursed its hour of birth, + And folded in the same encircling arms + That cast it like a serpent from their hold! + + If thou wouldst live in honor, die in peace, + Have the fine words the marble-workers learn + To carve so well, upon thy funeral-stone, + And earn a fair obituary, dressed + In all the many-colored robes of praise, + Be deafer than the adder to the cry + Of that same foundling truth, until it grows + To seemly favor, and at length has won + The smiles of hard-mouthed men and light-upped dames, + Then snatch it from its meagre nurse's breast, + Fold it in silk and give it food from gold; + So shalt thou share its glory when at last + It drops its mortal vesture, and revealed + In all the splendor of its heavenly form, + Spreads on the startled air its mighty wings! + + Alas! how much that seemed immortal truth + That heroes fought for, martyrs died to save, + Reveals its earth-born lineage, growing old + And limping in its march, its wings unplumed, + Its heavenly semblance faded like a dream! + + Here in this painted casket, just unsealed, + Lies what was once a breathing shape like thine, + Once loved as thou art loved; there beamed the eyes + That looked on Memphis in its hour of pride, + That saw the walls of hundred-gated Thebes, + And all the mirrored glories of the Nile. + See how they toiled that all-consuming time + Might leave the frame immortal in its tomb; + Filled it with fragrant balms and odorous gums + That still diffuse their sweetness through the air, + And wound and wound with patient fold on fold + The flaxen bands thy hand has rudely torn! + Perchance thou yet canst see the faded stain + Of the sad mourner's tear. + + But what is this? + The sacred beetle, bound upon the breast + Of the blind heathen! Snatch the curious prize, + Give it a place among thy treasured spoils + Fossil and relic,--corals, encrinites, + The fly in amber and the fish in stone, + The twisted circlet of Etruscan gold, + Medal, intaglio, poniard, poison-ring, + --Place for the Memphian beetle with thine hoard! + + Ah! longer than thy creed has blest the world + This toy, thus ravished from thy brother's breast, + Was to the heart of Mizraim as divine, + As holy, as the symbol that we lay + On the still bosom of our white-robed dead, + And raise above their dust that all may know + Here sleeps an heir of glory. Loving friends, + With tears of trembling faith and choking sobs, + And prayers to those who judge of mortal deeds, + Wrapped this poor image in the cerement's fold + That Isis and Osiris, friends of man, + Might know their own and claim the ransomed soul + + An idol? Man was born to worship such! + An idol is an image of his thought; + Sometimes he carves it out of gleaming stone, + And sometimes moulds it out of glittering gold, + Or rounds it in a mighty frescoed dome, + Or lifts it heavenward in a lofty spire, + Or shapes it in a cunning frame of words, + Or pays his priest to make it day by day; + For sense must have its god as well as soul; + A new-born Dian calls for silver shrines, + And Egypt's holiest symbol is our own, + The sign we worship as did they of old + When Isis and Osiris ruled the world. + + Let us be true to our most subtle selves, + We long to have our idols like the rest. + Think! when the men of Israel had their God + Encamped among them, talking with their chief, + Leading them in the pillar of the cloud + And watching o'er them in the shaft of fire, + They still must have an image; still they longed + For somewhat of substantial, solid form + Whereon to hang their garlands, and to fix + Their wandering thoughts, and gain a stronger hold + For their uncertain faith, not yet assured + If those same meteors of the day and night + Were not mere exhalations of the soil. + + Are we less earthly than the chosen race? + Are we more neighbors of the living God + Than they who gathered manna every morn, + Reaping where none had sown, and heard the voice + Of him who met the Highest in the mount, + And brought them tables, graven with His hand? + Yet these must have their idol, brought their gold, + That star-browed Apis might be god again; + Yea, from their ears the women brake the rings + That lent such splendors to the gypsy brown + Of sunburnt cheeks,--what more could woman do + To show her pious zeal? They went astray, + But nature led them as it leads us all. + + We too, who mock at Israel's golden calf + And scoff at Egypt's sacred scarabee, + Would have our amulets to clasp and kiss, + And flood with rapturous tears, and bear with us + To be our dear companions in the dust, + Such magic works an image in our souls! + + Man is an embryo; see at twenty years + His bones, the columns that uphold his frame + Not yet cemented, shaft and capital, + Mere fragments of the temple incomplete. + At twoscore, threescore, is he then full grown? + Nay, still a child, and as the little maids + Dress and undress their puppets, so he tries + To dress a lifeless creed, as if it lived, + And change its raiment when the world cries shame! + We smile to see our little ones at play + So grave, so thoughtful, with maternal care + Nursing the wisps of rags they call their babes; + Does He not smile who sees us with the toys + We call by sacred names, and idly feign + To be what we have called them? + He is still The Father of this helpless nursery-brood, + Whose second childhood joins so close its first, + That in the crowding, hurrying years between + We scarce have trained our senses to their task + Before the gathering mist has dimmed our eyes, + And with our hollowed palm we help our ear, + And trace with trembling hand our wrinkled names, + And then begin to tell our stories o'er, + And see--not hear-the whispering lips that say, + “You know--? Your father knew him.--This is he, + Tottering and leaning on the hireling's arm,--” + And so, at length, disrobed of all that clad + The simple life we share with weed and worm, + Go to our cradles, naked as we came. + + + + +XI + +I suppose there would have been even more remarks upon the growing +intimacy of the Young Astronomer and his pupil, if the curiosity of the +boarders had not in the mean time been so much excited at the apparently +close relation which had sprung up between the Register of Deeds and +the Lady. It was really hard to tell what to make of it. The Register +appeared at the table in a new coat. Suspicious. The Lady was evidently +deeply interested in him, if we could judge by the frequency and the +length of their interviews. On at least one occasion he has brought a +lawyer with him, which naturally suggested the idea that there were +some property arrangements to be attended to, in case, as seems probable +against all reasons to the contrary, these two estimable persons, so +utterly unfitted, as one would say, to each other, contemplated an +alliance. It is no pleasure to me to record an arrangement of this kind. +I frankly confess I do not know what to make of it. With her tastes +and breeding, it is the last thing that I should have thought of,--her +uniting herself with this most commonplace and mechanical person, who +cannot even offer her the elegances and luxuries to which she might seem +entitled on changing her condition. + +While I was thus interested and puzzled I received an unexpected visit +from our Landlady. She was evidently excited, and by some event which +was of a happy nature, for her countenance was beaming and she seemed +impatient to communicate what she had to tell. Impatient or not, she +must wait a moment, while I say a word about her. Our Landlady is as +good a creature as ever lived. She is a little negligent of grammar +at times, and will get a wrong word now and then; she is garrulous, +circumstantial, associates facts by their accidental cohesion rather +than by their vital affinities, is given to choking and tears on slight +occasions, but she has a warm heart, and feels to her boarders as if +they were her blood-relations. She began her conversation abruptly.--I +expect I'm a going to lose one of my boarders,--she said. + +--You don't seem very unhappy about it, madam,--I answered.--We all +took it easily when the person who sat on our side of the table quitted +us in such a hurry, but I do not think there is anybody left that either +you or the boarders want to get rid of--unless it is myself,--I added +modestly. + +--You! said the Landlady--you! No indeed. When I have a quiet boarder +that 's a small eater, I don't want to lose him. You don't make trouble, +you don't find fault with your vit--[Dr. Benjamin had schooled his +parent on this point and she altered the word] with your food, and you +know when you 've had enough. + +--I really felt proud of this eulogy, which embraces the most desirable +excellences of a human being in the capacity of boarder. + +The Landlady began again.--I'm going to lose--at least, I suppose I +shall--one of the best boarders I ever had,--that Lady that's been with +me so long. + +--I thought there was something going on between her and the +Register,--I said. + +--Something! I should think there was! About three months ago he began +making her acquaintance. I thought there was something particular. I did +n't quite like to watch 'em very close; but I could n't help overbearing +some of the things he said to her, for, you see, he used to follow her +up into the parlor, they talked pretty low, but I could catch a word now +and then. I heard him say something to her one day about “bettering +her condition,” and she seemed to be thinking very hard about it, and +turning of it over in her mind, and I said to myself, She does n't want +to take up with him, but she feels dreadful poor, and perhaps he has +been saving and has got money in the bank, and she does n't want to +throw away a chance of bettering herself without thinking it over. But +dear me,--says I to myself,--to think of her walking up the broad aisle +into meeting alongside of such a homely, rusty-looking creatur' as that! +But there 's no telling what folks will do when poverty has got hold of +'em. + +--Well, so I thought she was waiting to make up her mind, and he was +hanging on in hopes she'd come round at last, as women do half the time, +for they don't know their own minds and the wind blows both ways at once +with 'em as the smoke blows out of the tall chimlies,--east out of this +one and west out of that,--so it's no use looking at 'em to know what +the weather is. + +--But yesterday she comes up to me after breakfast, and asks me to go up +with her into her little room. Now, says I to myself, I shall hear all +about it. I saw she looked as if she'd got some of her trouble off her +mind, and I guessed that it was settled, and so, says I to myself, I +must wish her joy and hope it's all for the best, whatever I think about +it. + +--Well, she asked me to set down, and then she begun. She said that she +was expecting to have a change in her condition of life, and had asked +me up so that I might' have the first news of it. I am sure--says +I--I wish you both joy. Merriage is a blessed thing when folks is well +sorted, and it is an honorable thing, and the first meracle was at the +merriage in Canaan. It brings a great sight of happiness with it, as +I've had a chance of knowing, for my hus-- + +The Landlady showed her usual tendency to “break” from the +conversational pace just at this point, but managed to rein in the +rebellious diaphragm, and resumed her narrative. + +--Merriage!--says she,--pray who has said anything about merriage?--I +beg your pardon, ma'am,--says I,--I thought you had spoke of changing +your condition and I--She looked so I stopped right short. + +-Don't say another word, says she, but jest listen to what I am going to +tell you. + +--My friend, says she, that you have seen with me so often lately, was +hunting among his old Record books, when all at once he come across an +old deed that was made by somebody that had my family name. He took it +into his head to read it over, and he found there was some kind of a +condition that if it was n't kept, the property would all go back to +them that was the heirs of the one that gave the deed, and that he found +out was me. Something or other put it into his head, says she, that the +company that owned the property--it was ever so rich a company and owned +land all round everywhere--hadn't kept to the conditions. So he went to +work, says she, and hunted through his books and he inquired all round, +and he found out pretty much all about it, and at last he come to me--it +'s my boarder, you know, that says all this--and says he, Ma'am, says +he, if you have any kind of fancy for being a rich woman you've only got +to say so. I didn't know what he meant, and I began to think, says she, +he must be crazy. But he explained it all to me, how I'd nothing to do +but go to court and I could get a sight of property back. Well, so she +went on telling me--there was ever so much more that I suppose was all +plain enough, but I don't remember it all--only I know my boarder was +a good deal worried at first at the thought of taking money that other +people thought was theirs, and the Register he had to talk to her, and +he brought a lawyer and he talked to her, and her friends they talked to +her, and the upshot of it all was that the company agreed to settle the +business by paying her, well, I don't know just how much, but enough to +make her one of the rich folks again. + +I may as well add here that, as I have since learned, this is one of the +most important cases of releasing right of reentry for condition broken +which has been settled by arbitration for a considerable period. If I +am not mistaken the Register of Deeds will get something more than a +new coat out of this business, for the Lady very justly attributes her +change of fortunes to his sagacity and his activity in following up the +hint he had come across by mere accident. + +So my supernumerary fellow-boarder, whom I would have dispensed with as +a cumberer of the table, has proved a ministering angel to one of the +personages whom I most cared for. + +One would have thought that the most scrupulous person need not have +hesitated in asserting an unquestioned legal and equitable claim simply +because it had lain a certain number of years in abeyance. But before +the Lady could make up her mind to accept her good fortune she had been +kept awake many nights in doubt and inward debate whether she should +avail herself of her rights. If it had been private property, so that +another person must be made poor that she should become rich, she would +have lived and died in want rather than claim her own. I do not think +any of us would like to turn out the possessor of a fine estate enjoyed +for two or three generations on the faith of unquestioned ownership by +making use of some old forgotten instrument, which accident had thrown +in our way. + +But it was all nonsense to indulge in any sentiment in a case like this, +where it was not only a right, but a duty which she owed herself and +others in relation with her, to accept what Providence, as it appeared, +had thrust upon her, and when no suffering would be occasioned to +anybody. Common sense told her not to refuse it. So did several of her +rich friends, who remembered about this time that they had not called +upon her for a good while, and among them Mrs. Midas Goldenrod. + +Never had that lady's carriage stood before the door of our +boarding-house so long, never had it stopped so often, as since the +revelation which had come from the Registry of Deeds. Mrs. Midas +Goldenrod was not a bad woman, but she loved and hated in too exclusive +and fastidious a way to allow us to consider her as representing the +highest ideal of womanhood. She hated narrow ill-ventilated courts, +where there was nothing to see if one looked out of the window but old +men in dressing-gowns and old women in caps; she hated little dark rooms +with air-tight stoves in them; she hated rusty bombazine gowns and last +year's bonnets; she hated gloves that were not as fresh as new-laid +eggs, and shoes that had grown bulgy and wrinkled in service; she hated +common crockeryware and teaspoons of slight constitution; she hated +second appearances on the dinner-table; she hated coarse napkins and +table-cloths; she hated to ride in the horsecars; she hated to walk +except for short distances, when she was tired of sitting in her +carriage. She loved with sincere and undisguised affection a spacious +city mansion and a charming country villa, with a seaside cottage for +a couple of months or so; she loved a perfectly appointed household, a +cook who was up to all kinds of salmis and vol-au-vents, a French maid, +and a stylish-looking coachman, and the rest of the people necessary to +help one live in a decent manner; she loved pictures that other people +said were first-rate, and which had at least cost first-rate prices; +she loved books with handsome backs, in showy cases; she loved heavy +and richly wought plate; fine linen and plenty of it; dresses from +Paris frequently, and as many as could be got in without troubling the +customhouse; Russia sables and Venetian point-lace; diamonds, and good +big ones; and, speaking generally, she loved dear things in distinction +from cheap ones, the real article and not the economical substitute. + +For the life of me I cannot see anything Satanic in all this. Tell +me, Beloved, only between ourselves, if some of these things are not +desirable enough in their way, and if you and I could not make up our +minds to put up with some of the least objectionable of them without +any great inward struggle? Even in the matter of ornaments there is +something to be said. Why should we be told that the New Jerusalem is +paved with gold, and that its twelve gates are each of them a pearl, and +that its foundations are garnished with sapphires and emeralds and all +manner of precious stones, if these are not among the most desirable +of objects? And is there anything very strange in the fact that many a +daughter of earth finds it a sweet foretaste of heaven to wear about +her frail earthly tabernacle these glittering reminders of the celestial +city? + +Mrs. Midas Goldenrod was not so entirely peculiar and anomalous in +her likes and dislikes; the only trouble was that she mixed up these +accidents of life too much with life itself, which is so often serenely +or actively noble and happy without reference to them. She valued +persons chiefly according to their external conditions, and of course +the very moment her relative, the Lady of our breakfast-table, began +to find herself in a streak of sunshine she came forward with a lighted +candle to show her which way her path lay before her. + +The Lady saw all this, how plainly, how painfully! yet she exercised a +true charity for the weakness of her relative. Sensible people have as +much consideration for the frailties of the rich as for those of +the poor. There is a good deal of excuse for them. Even you and I, +philosophers and philanthropists as we may think ourselves, have a +dislike for the enforced economies, proper and honorable though they +certainly are, of those who are two or three degrees below us in the +scale of agreeable living. + +--These are very worthy persons you have been living with, my dear, +--said Mrs. Midas--[the “My dear” was an expression which had flowered +out more luxuriantly than ever before in the new streak of sunshine] +--eminently respectable parties, I have no question, but then we shall +want you to move as soon as possible to our quarter of the town, where +we can see more of you than we have been able to in this queer place. + +It was not very pleasant to listen to this kind of talk, but the Lady +remembered her annual bouquet, and her occasional visits from the rich +lady, and restrained the inclination to remind her of the humble sphere +from which she herself, the rich and patronizing personage, had worked +her way up (if it was up) into that world which she seemed to think was +the only one where a human being could find life worth having. Her +cheek flushed a little, however, as she said to Mrs. Midas that she felt +attached to the place where she had been living so long. She doubted, +she was pleased to say, whether she should find better company in +any circle she was like to move in than she left behind her at our +boarding-house. I give the old Master the credit of this compliment. If +one does not agree with half of what he says, at any rate he always has +something to say, and entertains and lets out opinions and whims and +notions of one kind and another that one can quarrel with if he is +out of humor, or carry away to think about if he happens to be in the +receptive mood. + +But the Lady expressed still more strongly the regret she should feel at +leaving her young friend, our Scheherezade. I cannot wonder at this. +The Young Girl has lost what little playfulness she had in the earlier +months of my acquaintance with her. I often read her stories partly from +my interest in her, and partly because I find merit enough in them to +deserve something, better than the rough handling they got from her +coarse-fibred critic, whoever he was. I see evidence that her thoughts +are wandering from her task, that she has fits of melancholy, and bursts +of tremulous excitement, and that she has as much as she can do to +keep herself at all to her stated, inevitable, and sometimes almost +despairing literary labor. I have had some acquaintance with vital +phenomena of this kind, and know something of the nervous nature of +young women and its “magnetic storms,” if I may borrow an expression +from the physicists, to indicate the perturbations to which they are +liable. She is more in need of friendship and counsel now than ever +before, it seems to me, and I cannot bear to think that the Lady, who +has become like a mother to her, is to leave her to her own guidance. + +It is plain enough what is at the bottom of this disturbance. The +astronomical lessons she has been taking have become interesting enough +to absorb too much of her thoughts, and she finds them wandering to the +stars or elsewhere, when they should be working quietly in the editor's +harness. + +The Landlady has her own views on this matter which she communicated to +me something as follows: + +--I don't quite like to tell folks what a lucky place my boarding-house +is, for fear I should have all sorts of people crowding in to be my +boarders for the sake of their chances. Folks come here poor and they go +away rich. Young women come here without a friend in the world, and the +next thing that happens is a gentleman steps up to 'em and says, “If +you'll take me for your pardner for life, I'll give you a good home and +love you ever so much besides”; and off goes my young lady-boarder +into a fine three-story house, as grand as the governor's wife, with +everything to make her comfortable, and a husband to care for her into +the bargain. That's the way it is with the young ladies that comes to +board with me, ever since the gentleman that wrote the first book that +advertised my establishment (and never charged me a cent for it neither) +merried the Schoolma'am. And I think but that's between you and me--that +it 's going to be the same thing right over again between that young +gentleman and this young girl here--if she doos n't kill herself with +writing for them news papers,--it 's too bad they don't pay her more +for writing her stories, for I read one of 'em that made me cry so the +Doctor--my Doctor Benjamin--said, “Ma, what makes your eyes look so?” + and wanted to rig a machine up and look at 'em, but I told him what the +matter was, and that he needn't fix up his peeking contrivances on +my account,--anyhow she's a nice young woman as ever lived, and +as industrious with that pen of hers as if she was at work with a +sewing-machine,--and there ain't much difference, for that matter, +between sewing on shirts and writing on stories,--one way you work with +your foot, and the other way you work with your fingers, but I rather +guess there's more headache in the stories than there is in the +stitches, because you don't have to think quite so hard while your +foot's going as you do when your fingers is at work, scratch, scratch, +scratch, scribble, scribble, scribble. + +It occurred to me that this last suggestion of the Landlady was worth +considering by the soft-handed, broadcloth-clad spouters to the laboring +classes,--so called in distinction from the idle people who only +contrive the machinery and discover the processes and lay out the work +and draw the charts and organize the various movements which keep the +world going and make it tolerable. The organ-blower works harder with +his muscles, for that matter, than the organ player, and may perhaps be +exasperated into thinking himself a downtrodden martyr because he does +not receive the same pay for his services. + +I will not pretend that it needed the Landlady's sagacious guess +about the Young Astronomer and his pupil to open my eyes to certain +possibilities, if not probabilities, in that direction. Our Scheherezade +kept on writing her stories according to agreement, so many pages for so +many dollars, but some of her readers began to complain that they could +not always follow her quite so well as in her earlier efforts. It seemed +as if she must have fits of absence. In one instance her heroine began +as a blonde and finished as a brunette; not in consequence of the use +of any cosmetic, but through simple inadvertence. At last it happened in +one of her stories that a prominent character who had been killed in +an early page, not equivocally, but mortally, definitively killed, done +for, and disposed of, reappeared as if nothing had happened towards the +close of her narrative. Her mind was on something else, and she had got +two stories mixed up and sent her manuscript without having looked it +over. She told this mishap to the Lady, as something she was dreadfully +ashamed of and could not possibly account for. It had cost her a sharp +note from the publisher, and would be as good as a dinner to some +half-starved Bohemian of the critical press. + +The Lady listened to all this very thoughtfully, looking at her with +great tenderness, and said, “My poor child!” Not another word then, but +her silence meant a good deal. + +When a man holds his tongue it does not signify much. But when a woman +dispenses with the office of that mighty member, when she sheathes her +natural weapon at a trying moment, it means that she trusts to still +more formidable enginery; to tears it may be, a solvent more powerful +than that with which Hannibal softened the Alpine rocks, or to the +heaving bosom, the sight of which has subdued so many stout natures, +or, it may be, to a sympathizing, quieting look which says “Peace, be +still!” to the winds and waves of the little inland ocean, in a language +that means more than speech. + +While these matters were going on the Master and I had many talks on +many subjects. He had found me a pretty good listener, for I had learned +that the best way of getting at what was worth having from him was to +wind him up with a question and let him run down all of himself. It is +easy to turn a good talker into an insufferable bore by contradicting +him, and putting questions for him to stumble over,--that is, if he +is not a bore already, as “good talkers” are apt to be, except now and +then. + +We had been discussing some knotty points one morning when he said all +at once: + +--Come into my library with me. I want to read you some new passages +from an interleaved copy of my book. You haven't read the printed part +yet. I gave you a copy of it, but nobody reads a book that is given to +him. Of course not. Nobody but a fool expects him to. He reads a little +in it here and there, perhaps, and he cuts all the leaves if he cares +enough about the writer, who will be sure to call on him some day, and +if he is left alone in his library for five minutes will have hunted +every corner of it until he has found the book he sent,--if it is to be +found at all, which does n't always happen, if there's a penal colony +anywhere in a garret or closet for typographical offenders and vagrants. + +--What do you do when you receive a book you don't want, from the +author?--said I. + +--Give him a good-natured adjective or two if I can, and thank him, and +tell him I am lying under a sense of obligation to him. + +--That is as good an excuse for lying as almost any,--I said. + +--Yes, but look out for the fellows that send you a copy of their book +to trap you into writing a bookseller's advertisement for it. I got +caught so once, and never heard the end of it and never shall hear +it.--He took down an elegantly bound volume, on opening which +appeared a flourishing and eminently flattering dedication to +himself.--There,--said he, what could I do less than acknowledge such +a compliment in polite terms, and hope and expect the book would prove +successful, and so forth and so forth? Well, I get a letter every few +months from some new locality where the man that made that book is +covering the fences with his placards, asking me whether I wrote that +letter which he keeps in stereotype and has kept so any time these dozen +or fifteen years. Animus tuus oculus, as the freshmen used to say. If +her Majesty, the Queen of England, sends you a copy of her “Leaves from +the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands,” be sure you mark your letter +of thanks for it Private! + +We had got comfortably seated in his library in the mean time, and the +Master had taken up his book. I noticed that every other page was left +blank, and that he had written in a good deal of new matter. + +--I tell you what,--he said,--there 's so much intelligence about +nowadays in books and newspapers and talk that it's mighty hard to write +without getting something or other worth listening to into your essay +or your volume. The foolishest book is a kind of leaky boat on a sea of +wisdom; some of the wisdom will get in anyhow. Every now and then I find +something in my book that seems so good to me, I can't help thinking +it must have leaked in. I suppose other people discover that it came +through a leak, full as soon as I do. You must write a book or two to +find out how much and how little you know and have to say. Then you must +read some notices of it by somebody that loves you and one or two by +somebody that hates you. You 'll find yourself a very odd piece of +property after you 've been through these experiences. They 're trying +to the constitution; I'm always glad to hear that a friend is as well as +can be expected after he 's had a book. + +You must n't think there are no better things in these pages of mine +than the ones I'm going to read you, but you may come across something +here that I forgot to say when we were talking over these matters. + +He began, reading from the manuscript portion of his book: + +--We find it hard to get and to keep any private property in thought. +Other people are all the time saying the same things we are hoarding to +say when we get ready. [He looked up from his book just here and said, +“Don't be afraid, I am not going to quote Pereant.”] One of our old +boarders--the one that called himself “The Professor” I think +it was--said some pretty audacious things about what he called +“pathological piety,” as I remember, in one of his papers. And here +comes along Mr. Galton, and shows in detail from religious biographies +that “there is a frequent correlation between an unusually devout +disposition and a weak constitution.” Neither of them appeared to know +that John Bunyan had got at the same fact long before them. He tells us, +“The more healthy the lusty man is, the more prone he is unto evil.” If +the converse is true, no wonder that good people, according to Bunyan, +are always in trouble and terror, for he says, + + “A Christian man is never long at ease; + When one fright is gone, another doth him seize.” + +If invalidism and the nervous timidity which is apt to go with it +are elements of spiritual superiority, it follows that pathology and +toxicology should form a most important part of a theological education, +so that a divine might know how to keep a parish in a state of chronic +bad health in order that it might be virtuous. + +It is a great mistake to think that a man's religion is going to rid +him of his natural qualities. “Bishop Hall” (as you may remember to have +seen quoted elsewhere) “prefers Nature before Grace in the Election of +a wife, because, saith he, it will be a hard Task, where the Nature is +peevish and froward, for Grace to make an entire conquest while Life +lasteth.” + +“Nature” and “Grace” have been contrasted with each other in a way not +very respectful to the Divine omnipotence. Kings and queens reign “by +the Grace of God,” but a sweet, docile, pious disposition, such as is +born in some children and grows up with them,--that congenital gift +which good Bishop Hall would look for in a wife,--is attributed to +“Nature.” In fact “Nature” and “Grace,” as handled by the scholastics, +are nothing more nor less than two hostile Divinities in the Pantheon of +post-classical polytheism. + +What is the secret of the profound interest which “Darwinism” has +excited in the minds and hearts of more persons than dare to confess +their doubts and hopes? It is because it restores “Nature” to its place +as a true divine manifestation. It is that it removes the traditional +curse from that helpless infant lying in its mother's arms. It is that +it lifts from the shoulders of man the responsibility for the fact of +death. It is that, if it is true, woman can no longer be taunted with +having brought down on herself the pangs which make her sex a martyrdom. +If development upward is the general law of the race; if we have grown +by natural evolution out of the cave-man, and even less human forms of +life, we have everything to hope from the future. That the question can +be discussed without offence shows that we are entering on a new era, a +Revival greater than that of Letters, the Revival of Humanity. + +The prevalent view of “Nature” has been akin to that which long reigned +with reference to disease. This used to be considered as a distinct +entity apart from the processes of life, of which it is one of the +manifestations. It was a kind of demon to be attacked with things of +odious taste and smell; to be fumigated out of the system as the evil +spirit was driven from the bridal-chamber in the story of Tobit. The +Doctor of earlier days, even as I can remember him, used to exorcise the +demon of disease with recipes of odor as potent as that of the +angel's diabolifuge,--the smoke from a fish's heart and liver, duly +burned,--“the which smell when the evil spirit had smelled he fled into +the uttermost parts of Egypt.” The very moment that disease passes into +the category of vital processes, and is recognized as an occurrence +absolutely necessary, inevitable, and as one may say, normal under +certain given conditions of constitution and circumstance, the +medicine-man loses his half-miraculous endowments. The mythical serpent +is untwined from the staff of Esculapius, which thenceforth becomes a +useful walking-stick, and does not pretend to be anything more. + +Sin, like disease, is a vital process. It is a function, and not an +entity. It must be studied as a section of anthropology. No preconceived +idea must be allowed to interfere with our investigation of the deranged +spiritual function, any more than the old ideas of demoniacal possession +must be allowed to interfere with our study of epilepsy. Spiritual +pathology is a proper subject for direct observation and analysis, like +any other subject involving a series of living actions. + +In these living actions everything is progressive. There are sudden +changes of character in what is called “conversion” which, at first, +hardly seem to come into line with the common laws of evolution. But +these changes have been long preparing, and it is just as much in the +order of nature that certain characters should burst all at once from +the rule of evil propensities, as it is that the evening primrose should +explode, as it were, into bloom with audible sound, as you may read in +Keats's Endymion, or observe in your own garden. + +There is a continual tendency in men to fence in themselves and a few of +their neighbors who agree with them in their ideas, as if they were +an exception to their race. We must not allow any creed or religion +whatsoever to confiscate to its own private use and benefit the virtues +which belong to our common humanity. The Good Samaritan helped his +wounded neighbor simply because he was a suffering fellow-creature. +Do you think your charitable act is more acceptable than the Good +Samaritan's, because you do it in the name of Him who made the memory of +that kind man immortal? Do you mean that you would not give the cup +of cold water for the sake simply and solely of the poor, suffering +fellow-mortal, as willingly as you now do, professing to give it for the +sake of Him who is not thirsty or in need of any help of yours? We must +ask questions like this, if we are to claim for our common nature what +belongs to it. + +The scientific study of man is the most difficult of all branches of +knowledge. It requires, in the first place, an entire new terminology +to get rid of that enormous load of prejudices with which every term +applied to the malformations, the functional disturbances, and the +organic diseases of the moral nature is at present burdened. Take that +one word Sin, for instance: all those who have studied the subject from +nature and not from books know perfectly well that a certain fraction +of what is so called is nothing more or less than a symptom of hysteria; +that another fraction is the index of a limited degree of insanity; that +still another is the result of a congenital tendency which removes the +act we sit in judgment upon from the sphere of self-determination, +if not entirely, at least to such an extent that the subject of the +tendency cannot be judged by any normal standard. + +To study nature without fear is possible, but without reproach, +impossible. The man who worships in the temple of knowledge must carry +his arms with him as our Puritan fathers had to do when they gathered +in their first rude meeting-houses. It is a fearful thing to meddle with +the ark which holds the mysteries of creation. I remember that when I +was a child the tradition was whispered round among us little folks that +if we tried to count the stars we should drop down dead. Nevertheless, +the stars have been counted and the astronomer has survived. This +nursery legend is the child's version of those superstitions which would +have strangled in their cradles the young sciences now adolescent and +able to take care of themselves, and which, no longer daring to +attack these, are watching with hostile aspect the rapid growth of the +comparatively new science of man. + +The real difficulty of the student of nature at this time is to +reconcile absolute freedom and perfect fearlessness with that respect +for the past, that reverence, for the spirit of reverence wherever we +find it, that tenderness for the weakest fibres by which the hearts of +our fellow-creatures hold to their religious convictions, which will +make the transition from old belief to a larger light and liberty an +interstitial change and not a violent mutilation. + +I remember once going into a little church in a small village some miles +from a great European capital. The special object of adoration in this +humblest of places of worship was a bambino, a holy infant, done in wax, +and covered with cheap ornaments such as a little girl would like to +beautify her doll with. Many a good Protestant of the old Puritan type +would have felt a strong impulse to seize this “idolatrous” figure and +dash it to pieces on the stone floor of the little church. But one must +have lived awhile among simple-minded pious Catholics to know what this +poor waxen image and the whole baby-house of bambinos mean for a humble, +unlettered, unimaginative peasantry. He will find that the true office +of this eidolon is to fix the mind of the worshipper, and that in virtue +of the devotional thoughts it has called forth so often for so many +years in the mind of that poor old woman who is kneeling before it, it +is no longer a wax doll for her, but has undergone a transubstantiation +quite as real as that of the Eucharist. The moral is that we must not +roughly smash other people's idols because we know, or think we know, +that they are of cheap human manufacture. + +--Do you think cheap manufactures encourage idleness?--said I. + +The Master stared. Well he might, for I had been getting a little +drowsy, and wishing to show that I had been awake and attentive, asked +a question suggested by some words I had caught, but which showed that +I had not been taking the slightest idea from what he was reading me. He +stared, shook his head slowly, smiled good-humoredly, took off his great +round spectacles, and shut up his book. + +--Sat prates biberunt,--he said. A sick man that gets talking about +himself, a woman that gets talking about her baby, and an author that +begins reading out of his own book, never know when to stop. You'll +think of some of these things you've been getting half asleep over by +and by. I don't want you to believe anything I say; I only want you to +try to see what makes me believe it. + +My young friend, the Astronomer, has, I suspect, been making some +addition to his manuscript. At any rate some of the lines he read us +in the afternoon of this same day had never enjoyed the benefit of my +revision, and I think they had but just been written. I noticed that his +manner was somewhat more excited than usual, and his voice just towards +the close a little tremulous. Perhaps I may attribute his improvement +to the effect of my criticisms, but whatever the reason, I think these +lines are very nearly as correct as they would have been if I had looked +them over. + + WIND-CLOUDS AND STAR-DRIFTS. + + VII + + What if a soul redeemed, a spirit that loved + While yet on earth and was beloved in turn, + And still remembered every look and tone + Of that dear earthly sister who was left + Among the unwise virgins at the gate, + Itself admitted with the bridegroom's train, + What if this spirit redeemed, amid the host + Of chanting angels, in some transient lull + Of the eternal anthem, heard the cry + Of its lost darling, whom in evil hour + Some wilder pulse of nature led astray + And left an outcast in a world of fire, + Condemned to be the sport of cruel fiends, + Sleepless, unpitying, masters of the skill + To wring the maddest ecstasies of pain + From worn-out souls that only ask to die, + Would it not long to leave the bliss of Heaven, + Bearing a little water in its hand + To moisten those poor lips that plead in vain + With Him we call our Father? Or is all + So changed in such as taste celestial joy + They hear unmoved the endless wail of woe, + The daughter in the same dear tones that hushed + Her cradled slumbers; she who once had held + A babe upon her bosom from its voice + Hoarse with its cry of anguish, yet the same? + + No! not in ages when the Dreadful Bird + Stamped his huge footprints, and the Fearful Beast + Strode with the flesh about those fossil bones + We build to mimic life with pygmy hands, + Not in those earliest days when men ran wild + And gashed each other with their knives of stone, + When their low foreheads bulged in ridgy brows + And their flat hands were callous in the palm + With walking in the fashion of their sires, + Grope as they might to find a cruel god + To work their will on such as human wrath + Had wrought its worst to torture, and had left + With rage unsated, white and stark and cold, + Could hate have shaped a demon more malign + Than him the dead men mummied in their creed + And taught their trembling children to adore! + Made in his image! Sweet and gracious souls + Dear to my heart by nature's fondest names, + Is not your memory still the precious mould + That lends its form to Him who hears my prayer? + Thus only I behold him, like to them, + Long-suffering, gentle, ever slow to wrath, + If wrath it be that only wounds to heal, + Ready to meet the wanderer ere he reach + The door he seeks, forgetful of his sin, + Longing to clasp him in a father's arms, + And seal his pardon with a pitying tear! + + Four gospels tell their story to mankind, + And none so full of soft, caressing words + That bring the Maid of Bethlehem and her Babe + Before our tear-dimmed eyes, as his who learned + In the meek service of his gracious art + The tones which like the medicinal balms + That calm the sufferer's anguish, soothe our souls. + --Oh that the loving woman, she who sat + So long a listener at her Master's feet, + Had left us Mary's Gospel,--all she heard + Too sweet, too subtle for the ear of man! + Mark how the tender-hearted mothers read + The messages of love between the lines + Of the same page that loads the bitter tongue + Of him who deals in terror as his trade + With threatening words of wrath that scorch like flame! + They tell of angels whispering round the bed + Of the sweet infant smiling in its dream, + Of lambs enfolded in the Shepherd's arms, + Of Him who blessed the children; of the land + Where crystal rivers feed unfading flowers, + Of cities golden-paved with streets of pearl, + Of the white robes the winged creatures wear, + The crowns and harps from whose melodious strings + One long, sweet anthem flows forevermore! + + --We too bad human mothers, even as Thou, + Whom we have learned to worship as remote + From mortal kindred, wast a cradled babe. + The milk of woman filled our branching veins, + She lulled us with her tender nursery-song, + And folded round us her untiring arms, + While the first unremembered twilight year + Shaped us to conscious being; still we feel + Her pulses in our own,--too faintly feel; + Would that the heart of woman warmed our creeds! + + Not from the sad-eyed hermit's lonely cell, + Not from the conclave where the holy men + Glare on each other, as with angry eyes + They battle for God's glory and their own, + Till, sick of wordy strife, a show of hands + Fixes the faith of ages yet unborn, + Ah, not from these the listening soul can hear + The Father's voice that speaks itself divine! + Love must be still our Master; till we learn + What he can teach us of a woman's heart, + We know not His, whose love embraces all. + +There are certain nervous conditions peculiar to women in which the +common effects of poetry and of music upon their sensibilities are +strangely exaggerated. It was not perhaps to be wondered at that Octavia +fainted when Virgil in reading from his great poem came to the line +beginning Tu Marcellus eris: It is not hard to believe the story told +of one of the two Davidson sisters, that the singing of some of Moore's +plaintive melodies would so impress her as almost to take away the +faculties of sense and motion. But there must have been some special +cause for the singular nervous state into which this reading threw the +young girl, our Scheherezade. She was doubtless tired with overwork and +troubled with the thought that she was not doing herself justice, and +that she was doomed to be the helpless prey of some of those corbies who +not only pick out corbies' eyes, but find no other diet so nutritious +and agreeable. + +Whatever the cause may have been, her heart heaved tumultuously, her +color came and went, and though she managed to avoid a scene by the +exercise of all her self-control, I watched her very anxiously, for I +was afraid she would have had a hysteric turn, or in one of her pallid +moments that she would have fainted and fallen like one dead before us. + +I was very glad, therefore, when evening came, to find that she was +going out for a lesson on the stars. I knew the open air was what she +needed, and I thought the walk would do her good, whether she made any +new astronomical acquisitions or not. + +It was now late in the autumn, and the trees were pretty nearly stripped +of their leaves.--There was no place so favorable as the Common for the +study of the heavens. The skies were brilliant with stars, and the air +was just keen enough to remind our young friends that the cold season +was at hand. They wandered round for a while, and at last found +themselves under the Great Elm, drawn thither, no doubt, by the +magnetism it is so well known to exert over the natives of its own soil +and those who have often been under the shadow of its outstretched arms. +The venerable survivor of its contemporaries that flourished in the days +when Blackstone rode beneath it on his bull was now a good deal broken +by age, yet not without marks of lusty vitality. It had been wrenched +and twisted and battered by so many scores of winters that some of its +limbs were crippled and many of its joints were shaky, and but for the +support of the iron braces that lent their strong sinews to its more +infirm members it would have gone to pieces in the first strenuous +northeaster or the first sudden and violent gale from the southwest. +But there it stood, and there it stands as yet,--though its obituary +was long ago written after one of the terrible storms that tore its +branches,--leafing out hopefully in April as if it were trying in its +dumb language to lisp “Our Father,” and dropping its slender burden of +foliage in October as softly as if it were whispering Amen! + +Not far from the ancient and monumental tree lay a small sheet of water, +once agile with life and vocal with evening melodies, but now stirred +only by the swallow as he dips his wing, or by the morning bath of +the English sparrows, those high-headed, thick-bodied, full-feeding, +hot-tempered little John Bulls that keep up such a swashing and swabbing +and spattering round all the water basins, one might think from the fuss +they make about it that a bird never took a bath here before, and that +they were the missionaries of ablution to the unwashed Western world. + +There are those who speak lightly of this small aqueous expanse, the eye +of the sacred enclosure, which has looked unwinking on the happy faces +of so many natives and the curious features of so many strangers. +The music of its twilight minstrels has long ceased, but their memory +lingers like an echo in the name it bears. Cherish it, inhabitants +of the two-hilled city, once three-hilled; ye who have said to the +mountain, “Remove hence,” and turned the sea into dry land! May no +contractor fill his pockets by undertaking to fill thee, thou granite +girdled lakelet, or drain the civic purse by drawing off thy waters! For +art thou not the Palladium of our Troy? Didst thou not, like the Divine +image which was the safeguard of Ilium, fall from the skies, and if +the Trojan could look with pride upon the heaven-descended form of the +Goddess of Wisdom, cannot he who dwells by thy shining oval look in that +mirror and contemplate Himself,--the Native of Boston. + +There must be some fatality which carries our young men and maidens in +the direction of the Common when they have anything very particular +to exchange their views about. At any rate I remember two of our young +friends brought up here a good many years ago, and I understand that +there is one path across the enclosure which a young man must not ask +a young woman to take with him unless he means business, for an action +will hold--for breach of promise, if she consents to accompany him, and +he chooses to forget his obligations: + +Our two young people stood at the western edge of the little pool, +studying astronomy in the reflected firmament. The Pleiades were +trembling in the wave before them, and the three great stars of +Orion,--for these constellations were both glittering in the eastern +sky. + +“There is no place too humble for the glories of heaven to shine in,” + she said. + +“And their splendor makes even this little pool beautiful and noble,” he +answered. “Where is the light to come from that is to do as much for our +poor human lives?” + +A simple question enough, but the young girl felt her color change as +she answered, “From friendship, I think.” + +--Grazing only as-yet,--not striking full, hardly hitting at all,--but +there are questions and answers that come so very near, the wind of them +alone almost takes the breath away. + +There was an interval of silence. Two young persons can stand looking +at water for a long time without feeling the necessity of speaking. +Especially when the water is alive with stars and the young persons +are thoughtful and impressible. The water seems to do half the thinking +while one is looking at it; its movements are felt in the brain very +much like thought. When I was in full training as a flaneur, I could +stand on the Pont Neuf with the other experts in the great science +of passive cerebration and look at the river for half an hour with +so little mental articulation that when I moved on it seemed as if my +thinking-marrow had been asleep and was just waking up refreshed after +its nap. + +So the reader can easily account for the interval of silence. It is +hard to tell how long it would have lasted, but just then a lubberly +intrusive boy threw a great stone, which convulsed the firmament, the +one at their feet, I mean. The six Pleiads disappeared as if in search +of their lost sister; the belt of Orion was broken asunder, and a +hundred worlds dissolved back into chaos. They turned away and strayed +off into one of the more open paths, where the view of the sky over them +was unobstructed. For some reason or other the astronomical lesson did +not get on very fast this evening. + +Presently the young man asked his pupil: + +--Do you know what the constellation directly over our heads is? + +--Is it not Cassiopea?--she asked a little hesitatingly. + +--No, it is Andromeda. You ought not to have forgotten her, for I +remember showing you a double star, the one in her right foot, through +the equatorial telescope. You have not forgotten the double star,--the +two that shone for each other and made a little world by themselves? + +--No, indeed,--she answered, and blushed, and felt ashamed because she +had said indeed, as if it had been an emotional recollection. + +The double-star allusion struck another dead silence. She would have +given a week's pay to any invisible attendant that would have cut her +stay-lace. + +At last: Do you know the story of Andromeda? he said. + +--Perhaps I did once, but suppose I don't remember it. + +He told her the story of the unfortunate maiden chained to a rock and +waiting for a sea-beast that was coming to devour her, and how Perseus +came and set her free, and won her love with her life. And then he +began something about a young man chained to his rock, which was +a star-gazer's tower, a prey by turns to ambition, and lonely +self-contempt and unwholesome scorn of the life he looked down upon +after the serenity of the firmament, and endless questionings that led +him nowhere,--and now he had only one more question to ask. He loved +her. Would she break his chain?--He held both his hands out towards her, +the palms together, as if they were fettered at the wrists. She took +hold of them very gently; parted them a little; then wider--wider--and +found herself all at once folded, unresisting, in her lover's arms. + +So there was a new double-star in the living firmament. The +constellations seemed to kindle with new splendors as the student and +the story-teller walked homeward in their light; Alioth and Algol looked +down on them as on the first pair of lovers they shone over, and the +autumn air seemed full of harmonies as when the morning stars sang +together. + + + + +XII + +The old Master had asked us, the Young Astronomer and myself, into his +library, to hear him read some passages from his interleaved book. We +three had formed a kind of little club without knowing it from the +time when the young man began reading those extracts from his poetical +reveries which I have reproduced in these pages. Perhaps we agreed in +too many things,--I suppose if we could have had a good hard-headed, +old-fashioned New England divine to meet with us it might have acted as +a wholesome corrective. For we had it all our own way; the Lady's kindly +remonstrance was taken in good part, but did not keep us from talking +pretty freely, and as for the Young Girl, she listened with the +tranquillity and fearlessness which a very simple trusting creed +naturally gives those who hold it. The fewer outworks to the citadel of +belief, the fewer points there are to be threatened and endangered. + +The reader must not suppose that I even attempt to reproduce everything +exactly as it took place in our conversations, or when we met to listen +to the Master's prose or to the Young Astronomer's verse. I do not +pretend to give all the pauses and interruptions by question or +otherwise. I could not always do it if I tried, but I do not want +to, for oftentimes it is better to let the speaker or reader go on +continuously, although there may have been many breaks in the course of +the conversation or reading. When, for instance, I by and by reproduce +what the Landlady said to us, I shall give it almost without any +hint that it was arrested in its flow from time to time by various +expressions on the part of the hearers. + +I can hardly say what the reason of it was, but it is very certain that +I had a vague sense of some impending event as we took our seats in +the Master's library. He seemed particularly anxious that we should be +comfortably seated, and shook up the cushions of the arm-chairs himself, +and got them into the right places. + +Now go to sleep--he said--or listen,--just which you like best. But I am +going to begin by telling you both a secret. + +Liberavi animam meam. That is the meaning of my book and of my literary +life, if I may give such a name to that party-colored shred of human +existence. I have unburdened myself in this book, and in some other +pages, of what I was born to say. Many things that I have said in my +ripe days have been aching in my soul since I was a mere child. I say +aching, because they conflicted with many of my inherited beliefs, or +rather traditions. I did not know then that two strains of blood were +striving in me for the mastery,--two! twenty, perhaps,--twenty thousand, +for aught I know,--but represented to me by two,--paternal and maternal. +Blind forces in themselves; shaping thoughts as they shaped features +and battled for the moulding of constitution and the mingling of +temperament. + +Philosophy and poetry came--to me before I knew their names. + + Je fis mes premiers vers, sans savoir les ecrire. + +Not verses so much as the stuff that verses are made of. I don't suppose +that the thoughts which came up of themselves in my mind were so mighty +different from what come up in the minds of other young folks. And +that 's the best reason I could give for telling 'em. I don't believe +anything I've written is as good as it seemed to me when I wrote it,--he +stopped, for he was afraid he was lying,--not much that I 've written, +at any rate,--he said--with a smile at the honesty which made him +qualify his statement. But I do know this: I have struck a good many +chords, first and last, in the consciousness of other people. I confess +to a tender feeling for my little brood of thoughts. When they have been +welcomed and praised it has pleased me, and if at any time they have +been rudely handled and despitefully entreated it has cost me a little +worry. I don't despise reputation, and I should like to be remembered as +having said something worth lasting well enough to last. + +But all that is nothing to the main comfort I feel as a writer. I have +got rid of something my mind could not keep to itself and rise as it was +meant to into higher regions. I saw the aeronauts the other day emptying +from the bags some of the sand that served as ballast. It glistened a +moment in the sunlight as a slender shower, and then was lost and seen +no more as it scattered itself unnoticed. But the airship rose higher +as the sand was poured out, and so it seems to me I have felt myself +getting above the mists and clouds whenever I have lightened myself of +some portion of the mental ballast I have carried with me. Why should I +hope or fear when I send out my book? I have had my reward, for I have +wrought out my thought, I have said my say, I have freed my soul. I can +afford to be forgotten. + +Look here!--he said. I keep oblivion always before me.--He pointed to a +singularly perfect and beautiful trilobite which was lying on a pile of +manuscripts.--Each time I fill a sheet of paper with what I am writing, +I lay it beneath this relic of a dead world, and project my thought +forward into eternity as far as this extinct crustacean carries it +backward. When my heart beats too lustily with vain hopes of being +remembered, I press the cold fossil against it and it grows calm. I +touch my forehead with it, and its anxious furrows grow smooth. Our +world, too, with all its breathing life, is but a leaf to be folded with +the other strata, and if I am only patient, by and by I shall be just as +famous as imperious Caesar himself, embedded with me in a conglomerate. + +He began reading:--“There is no new thing under the sun,” said the +Preacher. He would not say so now, if he should come to life for a +little while, and have his photograph taken, and go up in a balloon, +and take a trip by railroad and a voyage by steamship, and get a message +from General Grant by the cable, and see a man's leg cut off without its +hurting him. If it did not take his breath away and lay him out as flat +as the Queen of Sheba was knocked over by the splendors of his court, he +must have rivalled our Indians in the nil admarari line. + +For all that, it is a strange thing to see what numbers of new things +are really old. There are many modern contrivances that are of as early +date as the first man, if not thousands of centuries older. Everybody +knows how all the arrangements of our telescopes and microscopes +are anticipated in the eye, and how our best musical instruments +are surpassed by the larynx. But there are some very odd things any +anatomist can tell, showing how our recent contrivances are anticipated +in the human body. In the alimentary canal are certain pointed eminences +called villi, and certain ridges called valvuloe conniventes. The makers +of heating apparatus have exactly reproduced the first in the “pot” of +their furnaces, and the second in many of the radiators to be seen in +our public buildings. The object in the body and the heating apparatus +is the same; to increase the extent of surface.--We mix hair with +plaster (as the Egyptians mixed straw with clay to make bricks) so that +it shall hold more firmly. But before man had any artificial dwelling +the same contrivance of mixing fibrous threads with a cohesive substance +had been employed in the jointed fabric of his own spinal column. +India-rubber is modern, but the yellow animal substance which is elastic +like that, and serves the same purpose in the animal economy which that +serves in our mechanical contrivances, is as old as the mammalia. +The dome, the round and the Gothic arch, the groined roof, the flying +buttress, are all familiar to those who have studied the bony frame of +man. All forms of the lever and all the principal kinds of hinges are +to be met with in our own frames. The valvular arrangements of the +blood-vessels are unapproached by any artificial apparatus, and the +arrangements for preventing friction are so perfect that two surfaces +will play on each other for fourscore years or more and never once +trouble their owner by catching or rubbing so as to be felt or heard. + +But stranger than these repetitions are the coincidences one finds in +the manners and speech of antiquity and our own time. In the days when +Flood Ireson was drawn in the cart by the Maenads of Marblehead, that +fishing town had the name of nurturing a young population not over fond +of strangers. It used to be said that if an unknown landsman showed +himself in the streets, the boys would follow after him, crying, “Rock +him! Rock him! He's got a long-tailed coat on!” + +Now if one opens the Odyssey, he will find that the Phaeacians, three +thousand years ago, were wonderfully like these youthful Marbleheaders. +The blue-eyed Goddess who convoys Ulysses, under the disguise of a +young maiden of the place, gives him some excellent advice. “Hold your +tongue,” she says, “and don't look at anybody or ask any questions, for +these are seafaring people, and don't like to have strangers round or +anybody that does not belong here.” + +Who would have thought that the saucy question, “Does your mother know +you're out?” was the very same that Horace addressed to the bore who +attacked him in the Via Sacra? + + Interpellandi locus hic erat; Est tibi mater? + Cognati, queis te salvo est opus? + +And think of the London cockney's prefix of the letter h to innocent +words beginning with a vowel having its prototype in the speech of the +vulgar Roman, as may be seen in the verses of Catullus: + + Chommoda dicebat, siquando commoda vellet + Dicere, et hinsidias Arrius insidias. + Et tum mirifice sperabat se esse locutum, + Cum quantum poterat, dixerat hinsidias... + + Hoc misso in Syriam, requierant omnibus aures... + Cum subito affertur nuncius horribilis; + Ionios fluctus, postquam illue Arrius isset, + Jam non Ionios esse, sed Hionios. + +--Our neighbors of Manhattan have an excellent jest about our crooked +streets which, if they were a little more familiar with a native author +of unquestionable veracity, they would strike out from the letter of +“Our Boston Correspondent,” where it is a source of perennial hilarity. +It is worth while to reprint, for the benefit of whom it may concern, +a paragraph from the authentic history of the venerable Diedrich +Knickerbocker: + +“The sage council, as has been mentioned in a preceding chapter, +not being able to determine upon any plan for the building of their +city,--the cows, in a laudable fit of patriotism, took it under their +peculiar charge, and as they went to and from pasture, established paths +through the bushes, on each side of which the good folks built their +houses; which is one cause of the rambling and picturesque turns and +labyrinths, which distinguish certain streets of New York at this very +day.” + +--When I was a little boy there came to stay with us for a while a young +lady with a singularly white complexion. Now I had often seen the masons +slacking lime, and I thought it was the whitest thing I had ever looked +upon. So I always called this fair visitor of ours Slacked Lime. I think +she is still living in a neighboring State, and I am sure she has never +forgotten the fanciful name I gave her. But within ten or a dozen years +I have seen this very same comparison going the round of the papers, and +credited to a Welsh poet, David Ap Gwyllym, or something like that, by +name. + +--I turned a pretty sentence enough in one of my lectures about finding +poppies springing up amidst the corn; as if it had been foreseen by +nature that wherever there should be hunger that asked for food, there +would be pain that needed relief,--and many years afterwards. I had the +pleasure of finding that Mistress Piozzi had been beforehand with me in +suggesting the same moral reflection. + +--I should like to carry some of my friends to see a giant bee-hive I +have discovered. Its hum can be heard half a mile, and the great +white swarm counts its tens of thousands. They pretend to call it a +planing-mill, but if it is not a bee-hive it is so like one that if a +hundred people have not said so before me, it is very singular that they +have not. If I wrote verses I would try to bring it in, and I suppose +people would start up in a dozen places, and say, “Oh, that bee-hive +simile is mine,--and besides, did not Mr. Bayard Taylor call the +snowflakes 'white bees'?” + +I think the old Master had chosen these trivialities on purpose to amuse +the Young Astronomer and myself, if possible, and so make sure of our +keeping awake while he went on reading, as follows: + +--How the sweet souls of all time strike the same note, the same because +it is in unison with the divine voice that sings to them! I read in the +Zend Avesta, “No earthly man with a hundred-fold strength speaks so much +evil as Mithra with heavenly strength speaks good. No earthly man with a +hundred-fold strength does so much evil as Mithra with heavenly strength +does good.” + +And now leave Persia and Zoroaster, and come down with me to our own +New England and one of our old Puritan preachers. It was in the dreadful +days of the Salem Witchcraft delusion that one Jonathan Singletary, +being then in the prison at Ipswich, gave his testimony as to certain +fearful occurrences,--a great noise, as of many cats climbing, skipping, +and jumping, of throwing about of furniture, and of men walking in the +chambers, with crackling and shaking as if the house would fall upon +him. + +“I was at present,” he says, “something affrighted; yet considering what +I had lately heard made out by Mr. Mitchel at Cambridge, that there is +more good in God than there is evil in sin, and that although God is +the greatest good and sin the greatest evil, yet the first Being of +evil cannot weave the scales or overpower the first Being of good: +so considering that the authour of good was of greater power than the +authour of evil, God was pleased of his goodness to keep me from being +out of measure frighted.” + +I shall always bless the memory of this poor, timid creature for saving +that dear remembrance of “Matchless Mitchel.” How many, like him, +have thought they were preaching a new gospel, when they were only +reaffirming the principles which underlie the Magna Charta of humanity, +and are common to the noblest utterances of all the nobler creeds! But +spoken by those solemn lips to those stern, simpleminded hearers, the +words I have cited seem to me to have a fragrance like the precious +ointment of spikenard with which Mary anointed her Master's feet. I can +see the little bare meeting-house, with the godly deacons, and the grave +matrons, and the comely maidens, and the sober manhood of the village, +with the small group of college students sitting by themselves under +the shadow of the awful Presidential Presence, all listening to that +preaching, which was, as Cotton Mather says, “as a very lovely song of +one that hath a pleasant voice”; and as the holy pastor utters those +blessed words, which are not of any one church or age, but of all time, +the humble place of worship is filled with their perfume, as the house +where Mary knelt was filled with the odor of the precious ointment. + +--The Master rose, as he finished reading this sentence, and, walking +to the window, adjusted a curtain which he seemed to find a good deal of +trouble in getting to hang just as he wanted it. + +He came back to his arm-chair, and began reading again + +--If men would only open their eyes to the fact which stares them in the +face from history, and is made clear enough by the slightest glance +at the condition of mankind, that humanity is of immeasurably greater +importance than their own or any other particular belief, they would no +more attempt to make private property of the grace of God than to fence +in the sunshine for their own special use and enjoyment. + +We are all tattoed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the +record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a +man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were early implanted in +his imagination; no matter how utterly his reason may reject them, he +will still feel as the famous woman did about ghosts, Je n'y crois pas, +mais je les crains,--“I don't believe in them, but I am afraid of them, +nevertheless.” + +--As people grow older they come at length to live so much in memory +that they often think with a kind of pleasure of losing their dearest +blessings. Nothing can be so perfect while we possess it as it will seem +when remembered. The friend we love best may sometimes weary us by his +presence or vex us by his infirmities. How sweet to think of him as he +will be to us after we have outlived him ten or a dozen years! Then we +can recall him in his best moments, bid him stay with us as long as we +want his company, and send him away when we wish to be alone again. One +might alter Shenstone's well-known epitaph to suit such a case:-- + + Hen! quanto minus est cum to vivo versari + + Quam erit (vel esset) tui mortui reminisse! + + “Alas! how much less the delight of thy living presence + Than will (or would) be that of remembering thee when thou hast + left us!” + +I want to stop here--I the Poet--and put in a few reflections of my own, +suggested by what I have been giving the reader from the Master's Book, +and in a similar vein. + +--How few things there are that do not change their whole aspect in +the course of a single generation! The landscape around us is wholly +different. Even the outlines of the hills that surround us are changed +by the creeping of the villages with their spires and school-houses +up their sides. The sky remains the same, and the ocean. A few old +churchyards look very much as they used to, except, of course, in +Boston, where the gravestones have been rooted up and planted in rows +with walks between them, to the utter disgrace and ruin of our most +venerated cemeteries. The Registry of Deeds and the Probate Office show +us the same old folios, where we can read our grandfather's title to his +estate (if we had a grandfather and he happened to own anything) and see +how many pots and kettles there were in his kitchen by the inventory of +his personal property. + +Among living people none remain so long unchanged as the actors. I can +see the same Othello to-day, if I choose, that when I was a boy I saw +smothering Mrs. Duff-Desdemona with the pillow, under the instigations +of Mr. Cooper-Iago. A few stone heavier than he was then, no doubt, +but the same truculent blackamoor that took by the thr-r-r-oat the +circumcised dog in Aleppo, and told us about it in the old Boston +Theatre. In the course of a fortnight, if I care to cross the water, I +can see Mademoiselle Dejazet in the same parts I saw her in under Louis +Philippe, and be charmed by the same grace and vivacity which delighted +my grandmother (if she was in Paris, and went to see her in the part of +Fanchon toute seule at the Theatre des Capucines) in the days when the +great Napoleon was still only First Consul. + +The graveyard and the stage are pretty much the only places where you +can expect to find your friends--as you left them, five and twenty or +fifty years ago. I have noticed, I may add, that old theatre-goers bring +back the past with their stories more vividly than men with any other +experiences. There were two old New-Yorkers that I used to love to sit +talking with about the stage. One was a scholar and a writer of note; a +pleasant old gentleman, with the fresh cheek of an octogenarian Cupid. +The other not less noted in his way, deep in local lore, large-brained, +full-blooded, of somewhat perturbing and tumultuous presence. It was +good to hear them talk of George Frederic Cooke, of Kean, and the lesser +stars of those earlier constellations. Better still to breakfast with +old Samuel Rogers, as some of my readers have done more than once, and +hear him answer to the question who was the best actor he remembered, “I +think, on the whole, Garrick.” + +If we did but know how to question these charming old people before +it is too late! About ten years, more or less, after the generation +in advance of our own has all died off, it occurs to us all at once, +“There! I can ask my old friend what he knows of that picture, which +must be a Copley; of that house and its legends about which there is +such a mystery. He (or she) must know all about that.” Too late! Too +late! + +Still, now and then one saves a reminiscence that means a good deal +by means of a casual question. I asked the first of those two old +New-Yorkers the following question: “Who, on the whole, seemed to you +the most considerable person you ever met?” + +Now it must be remembered that this was a man who had lived in a city +that calls itself the metropolis, one who had been a member of the +State and the National Legislature, who had come in contact with men +of letters and men of business, with politicians and members of all the +professions, during a long and distinguished public career. I paused +for his answer with no little curiosity. Would it be one of the great +Ex-Presidents whose names were known to, all the world? Would it be +the silver-tongued orator of Kentucky or the “God-like” champion of the +Constitution, our New-England Jupiter Capitolinus? Who would it be? + +“Take it altogether,” he answered, very deliberately, “I should say +Colonel Elisha Williams was the most notable personage that I have met +with.” + +--Colonel Elisha Williams! And who might he be, forsooth? A gentleman of +singular distinction, you may be well assured, even though you are +not familiar with his name; but as I am not writing a biographical +dictionary, I shall leave it to my reader to find out who and what he +was. + +--One would like to live long enough to witness certain things which +will no doubt come to pass by and by. I remember that when one of our +good kindhearted old millionnaires was growing very infirm, his limbs +failing him, and his trunk getting packed with the infirmities which +mean that one is bound on a long journey, he said very simply and +sweetly, “I don't care about living a great deal longer, but I should +like to live long enough to find out how much old (a many-millioned +fellow-citizen) is worth.” And without committing myself on the +longevity-question, I confess I should like to live long enough to see a +few things happen that are like to come, sooner or later. + +I want to hold the skull of Abraham in my hand. They will go through +the cave of Machpelah at Hebron, I feel sure, in the course of a few +generations at the furthest, and as Dr. Robinson knows of nothing +which should lead us to question the correctness of the tradition +which regards this as the place of sepulture of Abraham and the other +patriarchs, there is no reason why we may not find his mummied body in +perfect preservation, if he was embalmed after the Egyptian fashion. I +suppose the tomb of David will be explored by a commission in due time, +and I should like to see the phrenological developments of that great +king and divine singer and warm-blooded man. If, as seems probable, the +anthropological section of society manages to get round the curse that +protects the bones of Shakespeare, I should like to see the dome which +rounded itself over his imperial brain. Not that I am what is called a +phrenologist, but I am curious as to the physical developments of these +fellow-mortals of mine, and a little in want of a sensation. + +I should like to live long enough to see the course of the Tiber turned, +and the bottom of the river thoroughly dredged. I wonder if they would +find the seven-branched golden candlestick brought from Jerusalem by +Titus, and said to have been dropped from the Milvian bridge. I +have often thought of going fishing for it some year when I wanted +a vacation, as some of my friends used to go to Ireland to fish for +salmon. There was an attempt of that kind, I think, a few years ago. + +We all know how it looks well enough, from the figure of it on the Arch +of Titus, but I should like to “heft” it in my own hand, and carry it +home and shine it up (excuse my colloquialisms), and sit down and look +at it, and think and think and think until the Temple of Solomon +built up its walls of hewn stone and its roofs of cedar around me as +noiselessly as when it rose, and “there was neither hammer nor axe nor +any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building.” + +All this, you will remember, Beloved, is a digression on my own account, +and I return to the old Master whom I left smiling at his own alteration +of Shenstone's celebrated inscription. He now begin reading again: + +--I want it to be understood that I consider that a certain number +of persons are at liberty to dislike me peremptorily, without showing +cause, and that they give no offence whatever in so doing. + +If I did not cheerfully acquiesce in this sentiment towards myself +on the part of others, I should not feel at liberty to indulge my +own aversions. I try to cultivate a Christian feeling to all my +fellow-creatures, but inasmuch as I must also respect truth and honesty, +I confess to myself a certain number of inalienable dislikes and +prejudices, some of which may possibly be shared by others. Some of +these are purely instinctive, for others I can assign a reason. Our +likes and dislikes play so important a part in the Order of Things that +it is well to see on what they are founded. + +There are persons I meet occasionally who are too intelligent by half +for my liking. They know my thoughts beforehand, and tell me what I was +going to say. Of course they are masters of all my knowledge, and a +good deal besides; have read all the books I have read, and in later +editions; have had all the experiences I have been through, and +more-too. In my private opinion every mother's son of them will lie at +any time rather than confess ignorance. + +--I have a kind of dread, rather than hatred, of persons with a large +excess of vitality; great feeders, great laughers, great story-tellers, +who come sweeping over their company with a huge tidal wave of animal +spirits and boisterous merriment. I have pretty good spirits myself, and +enjoy a little mild pleasantry, but I am oppressed and extinguished by +these great lusty, noisy creatures,--and feel as if I were a mute at a +funeral when they get into full blast. + +--I cannot get along much better with those drooping, languid people, +whose vitality falls short as much as that of the others is in excess. I +have not life enough for two; I wish I had. It is not very enlivening +to meet a fellow-creature whose expression and accents say, “You are the +hair that breaks the camel's back of my endurance, you are the last drop +that makes my cup of woe run over”; persons whose heads drop on one side +like those of toothless infants, whose voices recall the tones in which +our old snuffling choir used to wail out the verses of: + + “Life is the time to serve the Lord.” + +--There is another style which does not captivate me. I recognize an +attempt at the grand manner now and then, in persons who are well enough +in their way, but of no particular importance, socially or otherwise. +Some family tradition of wealth or distinction is apt to be at the +bottom of it, and it survives all the advantages that used to set +it off. I like family pride as well as my neighbors, and respect the +high-born fellow-citizen whose progenitors have not worked in their +shirt-sleeves for the last two generations full as much as I ought +to. But grand pere oblige; a person with a known grandfather is too +distinguished to find it necessary to put on airs. The few Royal Princes +I have happened to know were very easy people to get along with, and +had not half the social knee-action I have often seen in the collapsed +dowagers who lifted their eyebrows at me in my earlier years. + +--My heart does not warm as it should do towards the persons, not +intimates, who are always too glad to see me when we meet by accident, +and discover all at once that they have a vast deal to unbosom +themselves of to me. + +--There is one blameless person whom I cannot love and have no excuse +for hating. It is the innocent fellow-creature, otherwise inoffensive +to me, whom I find I have involuntarily joined on turning a corner. I +suppose the Mississippi, which was flowing quietly along, minding its +own business, hates the Missouri for coming into it all at once with +its muddy stream. I suppose the Missouri in like manner hates the +Mississippi for diluting with its limpid, but insipid current the rich +reminiscences of the varied soils through which its own stream has +wandered. I will not compare myself, to the clear or the turbid current, +but I will own that my heart sinks when I find all of a sudden I am in +for a corner confluence, and I cease loving my neighbor as myself until +I can get away from him. + +--These antipathies are at least weaknesses; they may be sins in the eye +of the Recording Angel. I often reproach myself with my wrong-doings. I +should like sometimes to thank Heaven for saving me from some kinds of +transgression, and even for granting me some qualities that if I dared I +should be disposed to call virtues. I should do so, I suppose, if I did +not remember the story of the Pharisee. That ought not to hinder me. The +parable was told to illustrate a single virtue, humility, and the most +unwarranted inferences have been drawn from it as to the whole character +of the two parties. It seems not at all unlikely, but rather probable, +that the Pharisee was a fairer dealer, a better husband, and a more +charitable person than the Publican, whose name has come down to us +“linked with one virtue,” but who may have been guilty, for aught that +appears to the contrary, of “a thousand crimes.” Remember how we limit +the application of other parables. The lord, it will be recollected, +commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely. His shrewdness +was held up as an example, but after all he was a miserable swindler, +and deserved the state-prison as much as many of our financial +operators. The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican is a perpetual +warning against spiritual pride. But it must not frighten any one of us +out of being thankful that he is not, like this or that neighbor, +under bondage to strong drink or opium, that he is not an Erie-Railroad +Manager, and that his head rests in virtuous calm on his own pillow. If +he prays in the morning to be kept out of temptation as well as for his +daily bread, shall he not return thanks at night that he has not fallen +into sin as well as that his stomach has been filled? I do not think the +poor Pharisee has ever had fair play, and I am afraid a good many people +sin with the comforting, half-latent intention of smiting their breasts +afterwards and repeating the prayer of the Publican. + + (Sensation.) + +This little movement which I have thus indicated seemed to give the +Master new confidence in his audience. He turned over several pages +until he came to a part of the interleaved volume where we could all +see he had written in a passage of new matter in red ink as of special +interest. + +--I told you, he said, in Latin, and I repeat it in English, that I have +freed my soul in these pages,--I have spoken my mind. I have read you a +few extracts, most of them of rather slight texture, and some of them, +you perhaps thought, whimsical. But I meant, if I thought you were in +the right mood for listening to it, to read you some paragraphs which +give in small compass the pith, the marrow, of all that my experience +has taught me. Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious +one. I took it early, as we all do, and have treated it all along with +the best palliatives I could get hold of, inasmuch as I could find +no radical cure for its evils, and have so far managed to keep pretty +comfortable under it. + +It is a great thing for a man to put the whole meaning of his life into +a few paragraphs, if he does it so that others can make anything out of +it. If he conveys his wisdom after the fashion of the old alchemists, he +may as well let it alone. He must talk in very plain words, and that is +what I have done. You want to know what a certain number of scores of +years have taught me that I think best worth telling. If I had half a +dozen square inches of paper, and one penful of ink, and five minutes to +use them in for the instruction of those who come after me, what should +I put down in writing? That is the question. + +Perhaps I should be wiser if I refused to attempt any such brief +statement of the most valuable lesson that life has taught me. I am by +no means sure that I had not better draw my pen through the page that +holds the quintessence of my vital experiences, and leave those who wish +to know what it is to distil to themselves from my many printed pages. +But I have excited your curiosity, and I see that you are impatient to +hear what the wisdom, or the folly, it may be, of a life shows for, when +it is crowded into a few lines as the fragrance of a gardenful of roses +is concentrated in a few drops of perfume. + +--By this time I confess I was myself a little excited. What was he +going to tell us? The Young Astronomer looked upon him with an eye as +clear and steady and brilliant as the evening star, but I could see that +he too was a little nervous, wondering what would come next. + +The old Master adjusted his large round spectacles, and began: + +--It has cost me fifty years to find my place in the Order of Things. I +had explored all the sciences; I had studied the literature of all ages; +I had travelled in many lands; I had learned how to follow the working +of thought in men and of sentiment and instinct in women. I had +examined for myself all the religions that could make out any claim for +themselves. I had fasted and prayed with the monks of a lonely convent; +I had mingled with the crowds that shouted glory at camp-meetings; I had +listened to the threats of Calvinists and the promises of Universalists; +I had been a devout attendant on a Jewish Synagogue; I was in +correspondence with an intelligent Buddhist; and I met frequently with +the inner circle of Rationalists, who believed in the persistence of +Force, and the identity of alimentary substances with virtue, and were +reconstructing the universe on this basis, with absolute exclusion of +all Supernumeraries. In these pursuits I had passed the larger part of +my half-century of existence, as yet with little satisfaction. It was +on the morning of my fiftieth birthday that the solution of the great +problem I had sought so long came to me as a simple formula, with a few +grand but obvious inferences. I will repeat the substance of this final +intuition: + +The one central fact an the Order of Things which solves all questions +is: + +At this moment we were interrupted by a knock at the Master's door. It +was most inopportune, for he was on the point of the great disclosure, +but common politeness compelled him to answer it, and as the step which +we had heard was that of one of the softer-footed sex, he chose to rise +from his chair and admit his visitor. + +This visitor was our Landlady. She was dressed with more than usual +nicety, and her countenance showed clearly that she came charged with an +important communication. + +--I did n't low there was company with you, said the Landlady,--but it's +jest as well. I've got something to tell my boarders that I don't want +to tell them, and if I must do it, I may as well tell you all at once +as one to a time. I 'm agoing to give up keeping boarders at the end of +this year,--I mean come the end of December. + +She took out a white handkerchief, at hand in expectation of what was +to happen, and pressed it to her eyes. There was an interval of +silence. The Master closed his book and laid it on the table. The Young +Astronomer did not look as much surprised as I should have expected. I +was completely taken aback,--I had not thought of such a sudden breaking +up of our little circle. + +When the Landlady had recovered her composure, she began again: + +The Lady that's been so long with me is going to a house of her own, +--one she has bought back again, for it used to belong to her folks. +It's a beautiful house, and the sun shines in at the front windows all +day long. She's going to be wealthy again, but it doos n't make any +difference in her ways. I've had boarders complain when I was doing as +well as I knowed how for them, but I never heerd a word from her that +wasn't as pleasant as if she'd been talking to the Governor's lady. I've +knowed what it was to have women-boarders that find fault,--there's +some of 'em would quarrel with me and everybody at my table; they would +quarrel with the Angel Gabriel if he lived in the house with 'em, and +scold at him and tell him he was always dropping his feathers round, if +they could n't find anything else to bring up against him. + +Two other boarders of mine has given me notice that they was expecting +to leave come the first of January. I could fill up their places easy +enough, for ever since that first book was wrote that called people's +attention to my boarding-house, I've had more wanting to come than I +wanted to keep. + +But I'm getting along in life, and I ain't quite so rugged as I used +to be. My daughter is well settled and my son is making his own living. +I've done a good deal of hard work in my time, and I feel as if I had a +right to a little rest. There's nobody knows what a woman that has the +charge of a family goes through, but God Almighty that made her. I've +done my best for them that I loved, and for them that was under my roof. +My husband and my children was well cared for when they lived, and he +and them little ones that I buried has white marble head-stones and +foot-stones, and an iron fence round the lot, and a place left for me +betwixt him and the.... + +Some has always been good to me,--some has made it a little of a strain +to me to get along. When a woman's back aches with overworking herself +to keep her house in shape, and a dozen mouths are opening at her three +times a day, like them little young birds that split their heads open +so you can a'most see into their empty stomachs, and one wants this and +another wants that, and provisions is dear and rent is high, and nobody +to look to,--then a sharp word cuts, I tell you, and a hard look goes +right to your heart. I've seen a boarder make a face at what I set +before him, when I had tried to suit him jest as well as I knew how, and +I haven't cared to eat a thing myself all the rest of that day, and I've +laid awake without a wink of sleep all night. And then when you come +down the next morning all the boarders stare at you and wonder what +makes you so low-spirited, and why you don't look as happy and talk +as cheerful as one of them rich ladies that has dinner-parties, where +they've nothing to do but give a few orders, and somebody comes and +cooks their dinner, and somebody else comes and puts flowers on the +table, and a lot of men dressed up like ministers come and wait on +everybody, as attentive as undertakers at a funeral. + +And that reminds me to tell you that I'm agoing to live with my +daughter. Her husband's a very nice man, and when he isn't following a +corpse, he's as good company as if he was a member of the city council. +My son, he's agoing into business with the old Doctor he studied with, +and he's agoing to board with me at my daughter's for a while,--I +suppose he'll be getting a wife before long. [This with a pointed look +at our young friend, the Astronomer.] + +It is n't but a little while longer that we are going to be together, +and I want to say to you gentlemen, as I mean to say to the others and +as I have said to our two ladies, that I feel more obligated to, you for +the way you 've treated me than I know very well how to put into words. +Boarders sometimes expect too much of the ladies that provides for them. +Some days the meals are better than other days; it can't help being so. +Sometimes the provision-market is n't well supplied, sometimes the +fire in the cooking-stove does n't burn so well as it does other +days; sometimes the cook is n't so lucky as she might be. And there is +boarders who is always laying in wait for the days when the meals is not +quite so good as they commonly be, to pick a quarrel with the one that +is trying to serve them so as that they shall be satisfied. But you've +all been good and kind to me. I suppose I'm not quite so spry and +quick-sighted as I was a dozen years ago, when my boarder wrote that +first book so many have asked me about. But--now I'm going to stop +taking boarders. I don't believe you'll think much about what I did n't +do,--because I couldn't,--but remember that at any rate I tried honestly +to serve you. I hope God will bless all that set at my table, old and +young, rich and poor, merried and single, and single that hopes soon to +be merried. My husband that's dead and gone always believed that we all +get to heaven sooner or later,--and sence I've grown older and buried so +many that I've loved I've come to feel that perhaps I should meet all of +them that I've known here--or at least as many of 'em as I wanted +to--in a better world. And though I don't calculate there is any +boarding-houses in heaven, I hope I shall some time or other meet them +that has set round my table one year after another, all together, where +there is no fault-finding with the food and no occasion for it,--and if +I do meet them and you there--or anywhere,--if there is anything I can +do for you.... + +.... Poor dear soul! Her ideas had got a little mixed, and her heart was +overflowing, and the white handkerchief closed the scene with its timely +and greatly needed service. + +--What a pity, I have often thought, that she came in just at that +precise moment! For the old Master was on the point of telling us, and +through one of us the reading world,--I mean that fraction of it which +has reached this point of the record,--at any rate, of telling you, +Beloved, through my pen, his solution of a great problem we all have to +deal with. We were some weeks longer together, but he never offered to +continue his reading. At length I ventured to give him a hint that our +young friend and myself would both of us be greatly gratified if he +would begin reading from his unpublished page where he had left off. + +--No, sir,--he said,--better not, better not. That which means so much +to me, the writer, might be a disappointment, or at least a puzzle, to +you, the listener. Besides, if you'll take my printed book and be at +the trouble of thinking over what it says, and put that with what you've +heard me say, and then make those comments and reflections which will +be suggested to a mind in so many respects like mine as is your +own,--excuse my good opinion of myself. + +(It is a high compliment to me, I replied) you will perhaps find you +have the elements of the formula and its consequences which I was about +to read you. It's quite as well to crack your own filberts as to borrow +the use of other people's teeth. I think we will wait awhile before we +pour out the Elixir Vitae. + +--To tell the honest truth, I suspect the Master has found out that his +formula does not hold water quite so perfectly as he was thinking, so +long as he kept it to himself, and never thought of imparting it to +anybody else. The very minute a thought is threatened with publicity +it seems to shrink towards mediocrity, as I have noticed that a great +pumpkin, the wonder of a village, seemed to lose at least a third of +its dimensions between the field where it grew and the cattle-show +fair-table, where it took its place with other enormous pumpkins from +other wondering villages. But however that maybe, I shall always regret +that I had not the opportunity of judging for myself how completely the +Master's formula, which, for him, at least, seemed to have solved the +great problem, would have accomplished that desirable end for me. + +The Landlady's announcement of her intention to give up keeping boarders +was heard with regret by all who met around her table. The Member of the +Haouse inquired of me whether I could tell him if the Lamb Tahvern was +kept well abaout these times. He knew that members from his place used +to stop there, but he hadn't heerd much abaout it of late years. I had +to inform him that that fold of rural innocence had long ceased offering +its hospitalities to the legislative, flock. He found refuge at last, +I have learned, in a great public house in the northern section of the +city, where, as he said, the folks all went up stairs in a rat-trap, +and the last I heard of him was looking out of his somewhat elevated +attic-window in a northwesterly direction in hopes that he might perhaps +get a sight of the Grand Monadnock, a mountain in New Hampshire which I +have myself seen from the top of Bunker Hill Monument. + +The Member of the Haouse seems to have been more in a hurry to find +a new resting-place than the other boarders. By the first of January, +however, our whole company was scattered, never to meet again around the +board where we had been so long together. + +The Lady moved to the house where she had passed many of her prosperous +years. It had been occupied by a rich family who had taken it nearly as +it stood, and as the pictures had been dusted regularly, and the books +had never been handled, she found everything in many respects as she had +left it, and in some points improved, for the rich people did not know +what else to do, and so they spent money without stint on their house +and its adornments, by all of which she could not help profiting. I do +not choose to give the street and number of the house where she lives, +but a-great many poor people know very well where it is, and as a matter +of course the rich ones roll up to her door in their carriages by the +dozen every fine Monday while anybody is in town. + +It is whispered that our two young folks are to be married before +another season, and that the Lady has asked them to come and stay with +her for a while. Our Scheherezade is to write no more stories. It is +astonishing to see what a change for the better in her aspect a few +weeks of brain-rest and heart's ease have wrought in her. I doubt very +much whether she ever returns to literary labor. The work itself was +almost heart-breaking, but the effect upon her of the sneers and cynical +insolences of the literary rough who came at her in mask and brass +knuckles was to give her what I fear will be a lifelong disgust against +any writing for the public, especially in any of the periodicals. I am +not sorry that she should stop writing, but I am sorry that she should +have been silenced in such a rude way. I doubt, too, whether the Young +Astronomer will pass the rest of his life in hunting for comets and +planets. I think he has found an attraction that will call him down from +the celestial luminaries to a light not less pure and far less remote. +And I am inclined to believe that the best answer to many of those +questions which have haunted him and found expression in his verse +will be reached by a very different channel from that of lonely +contemplation, the duties, the cares, the responsible realities of a +life drawn out of itself by the power of newly awakened instincts and +affections. The double star was prophetic,--I thought it would be. + +The Register of Deeds is understood to have been very handsomely treated +by the boarder who owes her good fortune to his sagacity and activity. +He has engaged apartments at a very genteel boarding-house not far from +the one where we have all been living. The Salesman found it a simple +matter to transfer himself to an establishment over the way; he had very +little to move, and required very small accommodations. + +The Capitalist, however, seems to have felt it impossible to move +without ridding himself of a part at--least of his encumbrances. The +community was startled by the announcement that a citizen who did +not wish his name to be known had made a free gift of a large sum of +money--it was in tens of thousands--to an institution of long standing +and high character in the city of which he was a quiet resident. +The source of such a gift could not long be kept secret. It, was our +economical, not to say parsimonious Capitalist who had done this noble +act, and the poor man had to skulk through back streets and keep out of +sight, as if he were a show character in a travelling caravan, to avoid +the acknowledgments of his liberality, which met him on every hand and +put him fairly out of countenance. + +That Boy has gone, in virtue of a special invitation, to make a visit of +indefinite length at the house of the father of the older boy, whom +we know by the name of Johnny. Of course he is having a good time, for +Johnny's father is full of fun, and tells first-rate stories, and if +neither of the boys gets his brains kicked out by the pony, or blows +himself up with gunpowder, or breaks through the ice and gets drowned, +they will have a fine time of it this winter. + +The Scarabee could not bear to remove his collections, and the old +Master was equally unwilling to disturb his books. It was arranged, +therefore, that they should keep their apartments until the new tenant +should come into the house, when, if they were satisfied with her +management, they would continue as her boarders. + +The last time I saw the Scarabee he was still at work on the meloe +question. He expressed himself very pleasantly towards all of us, his +fellow-boarders, and spoke of the kindness and consideration with which +the Landlady had treated him when he had been straitened at times for +want of means. Especially he seemed to be interested in our young couple +who were soon to be united. His tired old eyes glistened as he asked +about them,--could it be that their little romance recalled some early +vision of his own? However that may be, he got up presently and went +to a little box in which, as he said, he kept some choice specimens. He +brought to me in his hand something which glittered. It was an exquisite +diamond beetle. + +--If you could get that to her,--he said,--they tell me that ladies +sometimes wear them in their hair. If they are out of fashion, she can +keep it till after they're married, and then perhaps after a while there +may be--you know--you know what I mean--there may be larvae, that 's +what I 'm thinking there may be, and they 'll like to look at it. + +--As he got out the word larvae, a faint sense of the ridiculous seemed +to take hold of the Scarabee, and for the first and only time during my +acquaintance with him a slight attempt at a smile showed itself on his +features. It was barely perceptible and gone almost as soon as seen, yet +I am pleased to put it on record that on one occasion at least in his +life the Scarabee smiled. + +The old Master keeps adding notes and reflections and new suggestions to +his interleaved volume, but I doubt if he ever gives them to the public. +The study he has proposed to himself does not grow easier the longer +it is pursued. The whole Order of Things can hardly be completely +unravelled in any single person's lifetime, and I suspect he will have +to adjourn the final stage of his investigations to that more luminous +realm where the Landlady hopes to rejoin the company of boarders who are +nevermore to meet around her cheerful and well-ordered table. + +The curtain has now fallen, and I show myself a moment before it to +thank my audience and say farewell. The second comer is commonly less +welcome than the first, and the third makes but a rash venture. I hope +I have not wholly disappointed those who have been so kind to my +predecessors. + +To you, Beloved, who have never failed to cut the leaves which hold my +record, who have never nodded over its pages, who have never hesitated +in your allegiance, who have greeted me with unfailing smiles and part +from me with unfeigned regrets, to you I look my last adieu as I bow +myself out of sight, trusting my poor efforts to your always kind +remembrance. + + EPILOGUE TO THE BREAKFAST-TABLE SERIES + + AUTOCRAT--PROFESSOR--POET. + + AT A BOOKSTORE. + + Anno Domini 1972. + + A crazy bookcase, placed before + A low-price dealer's open door; + Therein arrayed in broken rows + A ragged crew of rhyme and prose, + The homeless vagrants, waifs and strays + Whose low estate this line betrays + (Set forth the lesser birds to lime) + YOUR CHOICE AMONG THESE BOOKS, 1 DIME! + + Ho! dealer; for its motto's sake + This scarecrow from the shelf I take; + Three starveling volumes bound in one, + Its covers warping in the sun. + Methinks it hath a musty smell, + I like its flavor none too well, + But Yorick's brain was far from dull, + Though Hamlet pah!'d, and dropped his skull. + + Why, here comes rain! The sky grows dark, + --Was that the roll of thunder? Hark! + The shop affords a safe retreat, + A chair extends its welcome seat, + The tradesman has a civil look + (I've paid, impromptu, for my book), + The clouds portend a sudden shower, + I'll read my purchase for an hour. + + .............. + + What have I rescued from the shelf? + A Boswell, writing out himself! + For though he changes dress and name, + The man beneath is still the same, + Laughing or sad, by fits and starts, + One actor in a dozen parts, + And whatsoe'er the mask may be, + The voice assures us, This is he. + + I say not this to cry him clown; + I find my Shakespeare in his clown, + His rogues the self-same parent own; + Nay! Satan talks in Milton's tone! + Where'er the ocean inlet strays, + The salt sea wave its source betrays, + Where'er the queen of summer blows, + She tells the zephyr, “I'm the rose!” + + And his is not the playwright's page; + His table does not ape the stage; + What matter if the figures seen + Are only shadows on a screen, + He finds in them his lurking thought, + And on their lips the words he sought, + Like one who sits before the keys + And plays a tune himself to please. + + And was he noted in his day? + Read, flattered, honored? Who shall say? + Poor wreck of time the wave has cast + To find a peaceful shore at last, + Once glorying in thy gilded name + And freighted deep with hopes of fame, + Thy leaf is moistened with a tear, + The first for many a long, long year! + + For be it more or less of art + That veils the lowliest human heart + Where passion throbs, where friendship glows, + Where pity's tender tribute flows, + Where love has lit its fragrant fire, + And sorrow quenched its vain desire, + For me the altar is divine, + Its flame, its ashes,--all are mine! + + And thou, my brother, as I look + And see thee pictured in thy book, + Thy years on every page confessed + In shadows lengthening from the west, + Thy glance that wanders, as it sought + Some freshly opening flower of thought, + Thy hopeful nature, light and free, + I start to find myself in thee! + + Come, vagrant, outcast, wretch forlorn + In leather jerkin stained and torn, + Whose talk has filled my idle hour + And made me half forget the shower, + I'll do at least as much for you, + Your coat I'll patch, your gilt renew, + Read you,--perhaps,--some other time. + Not bad, my bargain! Price one dime! + Not bad, my bargain! Price one dime! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poet at the Breakfast Table +by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POET AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE *** + +***** This file should be named 2666.txt or 2666.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/6/2666/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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