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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/28653-8.txt b/28653-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdb648e --- /dev/null +++ b/28653-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7612 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best of the World's Classics, +Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I + +Author: Various + +Editor: Henry Cabot Lodge + Francis W. Halsey + +Release Date: May 1, 2009 [EBook #28653] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEST OF THE WORLD'S CLASSICS *** + + + + +Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: EMERSON, IRVING, COOPER, HAWTHORNE] + + + + THE BEST + + of the + + WORLD'S CLASSICS + + RESTRICTED TO PROSE + + + + + + HENRY CABOT LODGE + + Editor-in-Chief + + FRANCIS W. HALSEY + + Associate Editor + + + With an Introduction, Biographical and + Explanatory Notes, etc. + + + + IN TEN VOLUMES + + + Vol. IX + + AMERICA--I + + + + + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + + NEW YORK AND LONDON + + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + + * * * * * + + + + +The Best of the World's Classics + +VOL. IX + +AMERICA--I + +1579-1891 + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + +VOL. IX--AMERICA--I + + _Page_ + +JOHN SMITH--(Born in 1579, died in 1631.) + His Story of Pocahontas. + (From the "General History of Virginia") 3 + +WILLIAM BRADFORD--(Born in 1590, died in 1657.) + The Pilgrims Land and Meet the Indians. + (From the "History of Plymouth") 11 + +SAMUEL SEWALL--(Born in 1652, died in 1730.) + How He Courted Madam Winthrop. + (From his "Diary") 19 + +COTTON MATHER--(Born in 1663, died in 1728.) + In Praise of John Eliot. + (From the "Magnalia Christi Americana") 33 + +WILLIAM BYRD--(Born in 1674, died in 1744.) + At the Home of Colonel Spotswood. + (From "A Visit to the Mines") 38 + +JONATHAN EDWARDS--(Born in 1703, died in 1758.) + Of Liberty and Moral Agencies. + (From the "Freedom of the Will") 44 + +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN--(Born in 1706, died in 1790.) + I His First Entry into Philadelphia. + (From the "Autobiography") 51 + + II Warnings Braddock Did Not Heed. + (From the "Autobiography") 55 + + III How to Draw Lightning from the Clouds. + (From a letter to Peter Collinson) 59 + + IV The Way to Wealth. + (From "Poor Richard's Almanac") 61 + + V Dialog with the Gout 68 + + VI A Proposal to Madame Helvetius. + (A letter to Madame Helvetius) 76 + +GEORGE WASHINGTON--(Born in 1732, died in 1799.) + + I To His Wife on Taking Command of the Army. + (A letter written on June 18, 1775) 79 + + II Of His Army in Cambridge. + (A letter to Joseph Reed) 81 + + III To the Marquis Chastellux on His Marriage. + (A letter of April 25, 1788) 84 + +JOHN ADAMS--(Born in 1735, died in 1826.) + + I On His Nomination of Washington to Be + Commander-in-Chief. + (From his "Diary") 87 + + II An Estimate of Franklin. + (From a letter to the Boston _Patriot_) 90 + +THOMAS PAINE--(Born in 1737, died in 1809.) + + In Favor of the Separation of the Colonies + from Great Britain. + (From "Common Sense") 94 + +THOMAS JEFFERSON--(Born in 1743, died in 1826.) + + I When the Bastile Fell. + (From his "Autobiography") 98 + + II The Futility of Disputes. + (From a letter to his nephew) 106 + + III Of Blacks and Whites in the South. + (From the "Notes on the State of Virginia") 108 + + IV His Account of Logan's Famous Speech. + (From the "Notes on Virginia") 114 + +GOUVERNEUR MORRIS--(Born in 1752, died in 1816.) + + I The Opening of the French States-General. + (From a letter to Mrs. Morris) 117 + + II Of the Execution of Louis XVI. + (From a letter to Thomas Jefferson) 120 + +ALEXANDER HAMILTON--(Born in 1757, died in 1804.) + + I Of the Failure of Confederation. + (From _The Federalist_) 123 + + II His Reasons for not Declining Burr's + Challenge. + (From a statement written before the + day of the duel) 129 + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS--(Born in 1767, died in 1848.) + + I Of His Mother. + (From the "Diary") 133 + + II The Moral Taint Inherent in Slavery. + (From the "Diary") 135 + +WILLIAM E. CHANNING--(Born in 1780, died in 1842.) + + Of Greatness in Napoleon. + (From a review of Scott's "Life of Napoleon") 139 + +JOHN JAMES AUDUBON--(Born in 1780, died in 1857.) + + Where the Mocking Bird Dwells. + (From the "Birds of America") 144 + +WASHINGTON IRVING--(Born in 1783, died in 1859.) + + I The Last of the Dutch Governors of New York. + (From "Knickerbocker's History of New York") 147 + + II The Awakening of Rip Van Winkle. + (From the "Sketch Book") 151 + + III At Abbotsford with Scott. + (From the "Crayon Miscellany") 161 + +FENIMORE COOPER--(Born in 1789, died in 1851.) + + I His Father's Arrival at Otsego Lake. + (From "The Pioneers") 170 + + II Running the Gantlet. + (From "The Last of the Mohicans") 178 + + III Leather-Stocking's Farewell. + (From "The Pioneers") 185 + +WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT--(Born in 1794, died in 1878.) + + An October Day in Florence. + (From a letter) 194 + +WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT--(Born in 1796, died in 1859.) + + I The Fate of Egmont and Hoorne. + (From "Philip II") 198 + + II The Genesis of Don Quixote. + (From the "Miscellanies") 209 + +GEORGE BANCROFT--(Born in 1800, died in 1891.) + + The Fate of Evangeline's Countrymen. + (From the "History of the United States") 217 + +RALPH WALDO EMERSON--(Born in 1803, died in 1882.) + + I Thoreau's Broken Task. + (From the "Funeral Address") 223 + + II The Intellectual Honesty of Montaigne. + (From "Representative Men") 229 + + III His Visit to Carlyle at Craigen-puttock. + (From "English Traits") 231 + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE--(Born in 1804, died in 1864.) + + I Occupants of an Old Manse. + (From "Mosses from an Old Manse") 235 + + II Arthur Dimmesdale on the Scaffold. + (From "The Scarlet Letter") 242 + + III Of Life at Brook Farm. + (From "The Blithedale Romance") 248 + + IV The Death of Judge Pyncheon. + (From "The House of the Seven Gables") 252 + + * * * * * + + + + +AMERICA--I + +1579-1891 + + +JOHN SMITH + + Born in England in 1579, died in 1631; served against the + Turks, captured, but escaped and returned to England in + 1605; sailed for Virginia in 1606, and helped to found + Jamestown; captured by Indians and his life saved by + Pocahontas the same year; explored the Chesapeake to its + head; president of the Colony in 1608; returned to London in + 1609; in 1614 explored the coast of New England; captured by + the French in 1615 and escaped the same year; received the + title of Admiral of New England in 1617; published his "True + Relation" in 1608, "Map of Virginia" in 1612, "A Description + of New England" in 1616, "New England's Trials" in 1620, and + his "General History" in 1624. + + + + +HIS STORY OF POCAHONTAS[1] + + +Here more than two hundred of those grim Courtiers stood wondering at +him [John Smith], as he had beene a monster; till Powhatan[2] and his +train had put themselves in their greatest braveries. Before a fire +upon a seat like a bedsted, he sat covered with a great robe, made of +Rarowcun skinnes, and all the tayles hanging by. On either hand did +sit a young wench of 16 or 18 years, and along on each side the house, +two rowes of men, and behind them as many women, with all their heads +and shoulders painted red; many of their heads bedecked with the +white downe of Birds; but every one with something: and a great chain +of white beads about their necks. + +[Footnote 1: From Smith's "Generall Historie of Virginia."] + +[Footnote 2: Powhatan was chief of a confederacy of Indians known as +the Powhatans, which he had raised from one comprizing only seven +tribes to one of thirty. The word Powhatan means "falls in a stream," +and was originally applied to the falls in the James river at +Richmond.] + +At his entrance before the King, all the people gave a great shout. +The Queene of Appamatuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his +hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel +to dry them. Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they +could, a long consultation was held, but the conclusion was, two great +stones were brought before Powhatan: then as many as could laid hands +on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being +ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines, Pocahontas the +King's dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head +in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death: +whereat the Emperour was contented he should live to make him +hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper; for they thought him as +well of all occupations as themselves. For the King himselfe will make +his owne robes, shooes, bowes, arrowes, pots; plant, hunt, or doe any +thing so well as the rest.... + +To conclude our peace, thus it happened. Captaine Argall[3] having +entered into a great acquaintance with Japazaws, an old friend of +Captaine Smith's, and so to all our Nation, ever since hee discovered +the Countrie: hard by him there was Pocahontas, whom Captaine Smith's +Relations intituleth the Numparell of Virginia, and tho she had beene +many times a preserver of him and the whole Colonie, yet till this +accident shee was never seene at James towne since his departure, +being at Patawomeke, as it seemes, thinking her selfe unknown, was +easily by her friend Japazaws perswaded to goe abroad with him and his +wife to see the ship, for Captaine Argall had promised him a Copper +Kettle to bring her but to him, promising no way to hurt her, but +keepe her till they could conclude a peace with her father. The +Salvage for this Copper Kettle would have done any thing, it seemed by +the Relation; for tho she had seene and beene in many ships, yet he +caused his wife to faine how desirous she was to see one, and that he +offered to beat her for her importunitie, till she wept. + +[Footnote 3: Argall, through intimidation or bribery, had made +Pocahontas a captive in 1612, when she was the wife of an Indian +attached to her father as a subordinate chief or leader.] + +But at last he told her, if Pocahontas would goe with her, he was +content: and thus they betrayed the poore innocent Pocahontas aboord, +where they were all kindly feasted in the cabin. Japazaws treading oft +on the Captaine's foot, to remember he had done his part, the Captaine +when he saw his time, perswaded Pocahontas to the gun-roome, faining +to have some conference with Japazaws, which was only that she should +not perceive he was any way guiltie of her captivitie: so sending for +her againe, he told her before her friends, she must goe with him, and +compound peace betwixt her Countrie and us, before she ever should see +Powhatan, whereat the old Jew and his wife began to howle and crie as +fast as Pocahontas, that upon the Captaine's fair perswasions, by +degrees pacifying her selfe, and Japazaws and his wife, with the +Kettle and other toys, went merrily on shore, and she to James towne. +A messenger forthwith was sent to her father, that his daughter +Pocahontas he loved so dearly, he must ransome with our men, swords, +pieces, tooles, etc., he trecherously had stolne.... + +Long before this, Master John Rolfe, an honest Gentleman, and of good +behaviour, had beene in love with Pocahontas, and she with him, which +thing at that instant I made knowne to Sir Thomas Dale by a letter +from him, wherein hee intreated his advice, and she acquainted her +brother with it, which resolution Sir Thomas Dale[4] well approved. +The bruit of this mariage came soone to the knowledge of Powhatan, a +thing acceptable to him, as appeared by his sudden consent, for within +ten days he sent Opachisco, an old Uncle of hers, and two of his sons, +to see the manner of the mariage, and to doe in that behalfe what they +requested, for the confirmation thereof, as his deputie; which was +accordingly done about the first of Aprill. And ever since we have had +friendly trade and commerce, as well with Powhatan himself, as all his +subjects.... + +[Footnote 4: Dale was colonial governor of Virginia in 1611 and again +in 1614-16. In the latter year he returned to England, taking with him +Captain Rolfe and Pocahontas.] + +The Lady Rebecca,[5] alias Pocahontas, daughter to Powhattan, by the +diligent care of Master John Rolfe her husband and his friends, as +taught to speake such English as might well bee understood, well +instructed in Christianitie, and was become very formal and civil +after our English manner; she had also by him a childe which she loved +most dearely and the Treasurer and Company tooke order both for the +maintenance of her and it, besides there were divers persons of great +ranke and qualitie had beene very kinde to her; and before she arrived +at London, Captaine Smith to deserve her former courtesies, made her +qualities knowne to the Queene's most excellent Majestie and her +Court, and writ a little booke to this effect to the Queene: An +abstract whereof followeth. + +[Footnote 5: Under that name Pocahontas had been baptized in the +original Jamestown church. A legend has survived that an old font, now +preserved in the church at Williamsburg, is the one from which she was +baptized.] + +"_To the most high and vertuous Princesse Queene Anne of Great +Brittanie._ + +"MOST ADMIRED QUEENE, + +"The love I beare my God, my King, and Countrie hath so oft emboldened +me in the worst of extreme dangers, that now honestie doth constraine +mee presume thus far beyond my selfe, to present your Majestie this +short discourse: If ingratitude be a deadly poyson to all honest +vertues, I must bee guiltie of that crime if I should omit any meanes +to bee thankful. So it is, that some ten yeers agoe being in Virginia, +and taken prisoner by the power of Powhatan their chiefe King, I +received from this great Salvage exceeding great courtesie, especially +from his son Nantaquaus, the most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit, +I ever saw in a Salvage, and his sister Pocahontas, the King's most +deare and well-beloved daughter, being but a childe of twelve or +thirteene yeers of age, whose compassionate pitiful heart, of +desperate estate, gave me much cause to respect her: I being the +first Christian this proud King and his grim attendants ever saw: and +thus inthralled in their barbarous power, I cannot say I felt the +least occasion of want that was in the power of those my mortal foes +to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some six weeks +fatting among those Salvage Courtiers, at the minute of my execution, +she hazarded the beating out of her owne braines to save mine, and not +only that, but so prevaild with her father, that I was safely +conducted to James towne, where I found about eight and thirtie +miserable poore and sicke creatures, to keepe possession of all those +large territories of Virginia. Such was the weaknesse of this poore +Commonwealth, as had the Salvages not fed us, we directly had starved. + +"And this reliefe, most gracious Queene, was commonly brought us by +this Lady Pocahontas, notwithstanding all these passages when +inconstant Fortune turned our peace to war, this tender Virgin would +still not spare to dare to visit us, and by her our jars have beene +oft appeased, and our wants still supplyed; were it the policie of her +father thus to imploy her, or the ordinance of God thus to make her +His instrument, or her extraordinary affection to our Nation, I know +not: but of this I am sure:--when her father with the utmost of his +policie and power, sought to surprize mee, having but eighteene with +mee, the darke night could not affright her from comming through the +irkesome woods, and with watered eyes gave me intelligence, with her +best advice to escape his furie; which had hee knowne, hee had surely +slaine her. James towne with her wild traine she as freely +frequented, as her father's habitation; and during the time of two or +three yeeres, she next under God, was still the Instrument to preserve +this Colonie from death, famine and utter confusion, which if in those +times had once beene dissolved, Virginia might have line as it was at +our first arrival to this day. Since then, this businesse having beene +turned and varied by many accidents from that I left it at: it is most +certaine, after a long and troublesome war after my departure, betwixt +her father and our Colonie, all which time shee was not heard of, +about two yeeres after she her selfe was taken prisoner, being so +detained neere two yeeres longer, the Colonie by that meanes was +relieved, peace concluded, and at last rejecting her barbarous +condition, was maried to an English Gentleman, with whom at this +present she is in England; the first Christian ever of that Nation, +the first Virginian ever spake English, or had a childe in mariage by +an Englishman, a matter surely, if my meaning bee truly considered and +well understood, worthy a Prince's understanding.... + +"The small time I staid in London, divers Courtiers and others, my +acquaintances, hath gone with mee to see her, that generally +concluded, they did thinke God had a great hand in her conversion, and +they have seen many English Ladies worse favored, proportioned and +behaviored, and as since I have heard, it pleased both the King and +Queene's Majestie honorably to esteeme her, accompanied with that +honorable Lady the Lady De la Warre, and that honorable Lord her +husband, and divers other persons of good qualities, both publikely +at the maskes and otherwise, to her great satisfaction and content, +which doubtlesse she would have deserved had she lived to arrive in +Virginia."[6] + +[Footnote 6: Pocahontas in England gave birth to a son. She died at +Gravesend in the following year, in 1617. The parish records of +Gravesend describe her as "a Virginia lady borne, here was buried in +ye chauncell." In London a well-known street preserves a memorial of +her in its name--La Belle Sauvage. Her son, Thomas Rolfe, after living +many years in England, settled in Virginia. Several families in that +State have traced their descent from him. One of these was the famous +John Randolph of Roanoke.] + + + + +WILLIAM BRADFORD + + Born in England in 1590, died at Plymouth, Mass., in 1657; + governor of Plymouth Colony from 1627, except for five + years, to 1657; wrote a "History of the Plymouth Plantation" + for the period 1602-47, the manuscript of which was lost in + England, but after the lapse of about seventy-five years it + was found in a library in 1855, and in the following year + published. + + + + +THE PILGRIMS LAND AND MEET THE INDIANS[7] + +(1620) + + +Having the wind good, we sailed all that day along the coast about +fifteen leagues; but saw neither river nor creek to put into. After we +had sailed an hour or two, it began to snow and rain, and to be bad +weather. About the midst of the afternoon the wind increased, and the +seas began to be very rough; and the hinges of the rudder broke, so +that we could steer no longer with it, but two men, with much ado, +were fain to serve with a couple of oars. The seas were grown so great +that we were much troubled and in great danger; and night grew on. +Anon, Master Coppin bade us be of good cheer; he saw the harbor. As we +drew near, the gale being stiff, and we bearing great sail to get in, +split our mast in three pieces, and were like to have cast away our +shallop. Yet, by God's mercy, recovering ourselves, we had the flood +with us, and struck into the harbor. + +[Footnote 7: From what was long known as "Mourt's Relation," published +in London in 1622, but more properly, and now generally, called the +"Journal," or diary, of Bradford and Edward Winslow. This important +historical document covers the first year of the Plymouth colony.] + +Now he that thought that had been the place, was deceived, it being a +place where not any of us had been before; and coming into the harbor, +he that was our pilot, did bear up northward, which if he had +continued, we had been cast away. Yet still the Lord kept us and we +bare up for an island before us, and recovering of that island, being +compassed about with many rocks, and dark night growing upon us, it +pleased the Divine Providence that we fell upon a place of sandy +ground, where our shallop did ride safe and secure all that night; and +coming upon a strange island, kept our watch all night in the rain +upon that island. And in the morning we marched about it, and found no +inhabitants at all; and here we made our rendezvous all that day, +being Saturday, 10th of December. On the Sabbath day we rested; and on +Monday we sounded the harbor, and found it a very good harbor for our +shipping. We marched also into the land, and found divers cornfields, +and little running brooks, a place very good for situation. So we +returned to our ship again with good news to the rest of our people, +which did much comfort their hearts.... + +Some of us, having a good mind, for safety, to plant in the greater +isle, we crossed the bay, which is there five or six miles over, and +found the isle about a mile and half or two miles about, all wooded, +and no fresh water but two or three pits, that we doubted of fresh +water in summer, and so full of wood as we could hardly clear so much +as to serve us for corn. Besides, we judged it cold for our corn, and +some part very rocky; yet divers thought of it as a place defensible, +and of great security. That night we returned again a shipboard, with +resolution the next morning to settle on some of those places. + +So in the morning, after we had called on God for direction, we came +to this resolution, to go presently ashore again, and to take a better +view of two places which we thought most fitting for us; for we could +not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals +being much spent, especially our beer, and it being now the 19th of +December. After our landing and viewing of the places, so well as we +could, we came to a conclusion, by most voices, to set on the main +land, on the first place, on a high ground, where there is a great +deal of land cleared, and hath been planted with corn three or four +years ago; and there is a very sweet brook runs under the hill side, +and many delicate springs of as good water as can be drunk, and where +we may harbor our shallops and boats exceeding well; and in this brook +much good fish in their seasons; on the further side of the river also +much corn-ground cleared. In one field is a great hill, on which we +point to make a platform, and plant our ordnance, which will command +all round about. From thence we may see into the bay, and far into the +sea; and we may see thence Cape Cod. Our greatest labor will be +fetching of our wood, which is half a quarter of an English mile; but +there is enough so far off. What people inhabit here we yet know not, +for as yet we have seen none. So there we made our rendezvous, and a +place for some of our people, about twenty, resolving in the morning +to come all ashore and to build houses. + +But the next morning, being Thursday, the 21st of December, it was +stormy and wet, that we could not go ashore; and those that remained +there all night could do nothing, but were wet, not having daylight +enough to make them a sufficient court of guard, to keep them dry. All +that night it blew and rained extremely. It was so tempestuous that +the shallop could not go on land so soon as was meet, for they had no +victuals on land. About eleven o'clock the shallop went off with much +ado with provision, but could not return, it blew so strong; and was +such foul weather that we were forced to let fall our anchor, and ride +with three anchors ahead. + +Friday, the 22d, the storm still continued, that we could not get a +land, nor they come to us aboard.... + +Saturday, the 23d, so many of us as could went on shore, felled and +carried timber, to provide themselves stuff for building. + +Sunday, the 24th, our people on shore heard a cry of some savages, as +they thought, which caused an alarm and to stand on their guard, +expecting an assault; but all was quiet. + +Friday, the 16th, a fair warm day toward. This morning we determined +to conclude of the military orders, which we had begun to consider of +before, but were interrupted by the savages, as we mentioned formerly. +And while we were busied, hereabout, we were interrupted again; for +there presented himself a savage, which caused an alarm. He very +boldly came all alone, and along the houses, straight to the +rendezvous; where we intercepted him, not suffering him to go in, as +undoubtedly he would out of his boldness. He saluted us in English, +and bade us "Welcome!" for he had learned some broken English among +the Englishmen that came to fish at Monhiggon, and knew by name the +most of the captains, commanders and masters, that usually come. He +was a man free in speech, so far as he could express his mind, and of +a seemly carriage. We questioned him of many things; he was the first +savage we could meet withal. He said he was not of these parts, but of +Morattiggon, and one of the sagamores or lords thereof; and had been +eight months in these parts, it lying hence a day's sail with a great +wind, and five days by land. He discoursed of the whole country, and +of every province, and of their sagamores, and their number of men and +strength. The wind beginning to rise a little, we cast a horseman's +coat about him; for he was stark naked, only a leather about his +waist, with a fringe about a span long or little more. He had a bow +and two arrows, the one headed, and the other unheaded. He was a tall, +straight man, the hair of his head black, long behind, only short +before, none on his face at all. He asked some beer, but we gave him +strong water, and biscuit, and butter, and cheese, and pudding, and a +piece of mallard; all which he liked well, and had been acquainted +with such amongst the English. He told us the place where we now live +is called Patuxet, and that about four years ago all the inhabitants +died of an extraordinary plague, and there is neither man, woman, nor +child remaining, as indeed we have found none; so as there is none to +hinder our possession, or to lay claim unto it. All the afternoon we +spent in communication with him. We would gladly have been rid of him +at night, but he was not willing to go this night. Then we thought to +carry him on shipboard, wherewith he was well content, and went into +the shallop; but the wind was high and the water scant, that it could +not return back. We lodged him that night at Steven Hopkin's house, +and watched him. + +The next day he went away back to the Masasoits, from whence he said +he came, who are our next bordering neighbors. They are sixty strong, +as he saith. The Nausites are as near, southeast of them, and are a +hundred strong; and those were they of whom our people were +encountered, as we before related. They are much incensed and provoked +against the English; and about eight months ago slew three Englishmen, +and two more hardly escaped by flight to Monhiggon. They were Sir +Ferdinando Gorge's[8] men, as this savage told us; as he did likewise +of the _huggery_, that is, fight, that our discoverers had with the +Nausites, and of our tools that were taken out of the woods, which we +willed him, should be brought again; otherwise we would right +ourselves. These people are ill affected toward the English by reason +of one Hunt, a master of a ship, who deceived the people and got them +under color of trucking with them, twenty out of this very place where +we inhabit, and seven men from the Nausites, and carried them away, +and sold them for slaves, like a wretched man (for twenty pound a man) +that cares not what mischief he doth for his profit. + +[Footnote 8: Gorge was an English naval and military commander who +came of an ancient family in Somersetshire. He had undertaken several +schemes of discovery and settlement in America, but with small +success. His pioneer work, however, was of such importance that he has +sometimes been called "the father of English colonization in +America."] + +Saturday, in the morning, we dismissed the savage, and gave him a +knife, a bracelet, and a ring. He promised within a night or two to +come again and to bring with him some of the Masasoits, our neighbors, +with such beavers' skins as they had to truck with us. + +Saturday and Sunday reasonable fair days. On this day came again the +savage, and brought with him five other tall, proper men. They had +every man a deer's skin on him, and the principal of them had a wild +cat's skin, or such like, on the one arm. They had most of them long +hosen up to their groins, close made, and above their groins to their +waist another leather; they were altogether like the Irish trousers. +They are of complexion like our English gipseys; no hair or very +little on their faces; on their heads long hair to their shoulders, +only cut before; some trussed up before with a feather, broad-wise, +like a fan; another a fox-tail, hanging out. These left (according to +our charge given him before) their bows and arrows a quarter of a mile +from our town. We gave them entertainment as we thought was fitting +them. They did eat liberally of our English victuals. They made +semblance unto us of friendship and amity. They sang and danced after +their manner, like antics. They brought with them in a thing like a +bow-case (which the principal of them had about his waist) a little of +their corn pounded to powder, which, put to a little water, they eat. +He had a little tobacco in a bag; but none of them drank but when he +liked. Some of them had their faces painted black, from the forehead +to the chin, four or five fingers broad; others after other fashions, +as they liked. They brought three or four skins; but we would not +truck with them at all that day, but wished them to bring more, and we +would truck for all; which they promised within a night or two, and +would leave these behind them, tho we were not willing they should; +and they brought us all our tools again, which were taken in the +woods, in our men's absence. So, because of the day, we dismissed them +so soon as we could. But Samoset,[9] our first acquaintance, either +was sick or feigned himself so, and would not go with them, and stayed +with us till Wednesday morning. Then we sent him to them to know the +reason they came not according to their words; and we gave him a hat, +a pair of stockings and shoes, a shirt, and a piece of cloth to tie +about his waist. + +[Footnote 9: Samoset is still famous as an Indian who remained firm in +his friendship with the Plymouth colonists.] + + + + +SAMUEL SEWALL + + Born in England in 1652, died in Boston in 1730; served in + the Bay Colony as judge and in other public stations; one of + the judges at trials for witchcraft in 1692; chief justice + in 1718; a philanthropist, and in 1700 wrote a pamphlet + against slavery; his other works: "Queries Respecting + America," published in 1690; "The Kennebec Indians" in 1721, + and his "Diary" covering the period 1664-1729 in 1882. + + + + +HOW HE COURTED MADAM WINTHROP[10] + +(1720) + + +September 5, 1720. Mary Hirst goes to Board with Madam Oliver and her +Mother Loyd. Going to Son Sewall's I there meet with Madam Winthrop, +told her I was glad to meet her there, had not seen her a great while; +gave her Mr. Homes's Sermon.... + +[Footnote 10: From Sewall's "Diary," as published by the Massachusetts +Historical Society in 1882. + +Mrs. Winthrop was the widow of General Waite Still Winthrop, a son of +John Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut, who was a son of John +Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her maiden name +was Katharine Brattle. She had first married John Eyre, with whom she +lived about twenty years, and by whom she had twelve children. She was +born in 1664, and at the time of Sewall's courtship of her was +fifty-six and he sixty-nine. General Winthrop and Mrs. Sewall had died +a few years before within a month of each other. Madam Winthrop did +not marry Judge Sewall, nor any one else. She died five years after +the date of this courtship.] + +September 30. Mr. Colman's Lecture: Daughter Sewall acquaints Madam +Winthrop that if she pleas'd to be within at 3 P.M. I would wait on +her. She answer'd she would be at home. + +October 1. Satterday, I dine at Mr. Stoddard's: from thence I went to +Madam Winthrop's just at 3. Spake to her, saying, my loving wife died +so soon and suddenly, 'twas hardly convenient for me to think of +marrying again; however I came to this Resolution, that I would not +make my Court to any person without first Consulting with her. Had a +pleasant discourse about 7 [seven] Single persons sitting in the +Fore-seat. She propounded one and another for me; but none would do, +said Mrs. Loyd was about her Age. + +October 3. 2. Waited on Madam Winthrop again; 'twas a little while +before she came in. Her daughter Noyes being there alone with me, I +said, I hoped my Waiting on her Mother would not be disagreeable to +her. She answer'd she should not be against that that might be for her +Comfort. I Saluted her, and told her I perceived I must shortly wish +her a good Time; (her mother had told me, she was with Child, and +within a Moneth or two of her Time). By and by in came Mr. Airs, +Chaplain of the Castle, and hang'd up his Hat, which I was a little +startled at, it seeming as if he was to lodge there. At last Madam +Winthrop came too. After a considerable time, I went up to her and +said, if it might not be inconvenient I desired to speak with her. She +assented, and spake of going into another Room; but Mr. Airs and Mrs. +Noyes presently rose up, and went out, leaving us there alone. Then I +usher'd in Discourse from the names in the Fore-seat; at last I pray'd +that Katharine [Mrs. Winthrop] might be the person assign'd for me. +She instantly took it up in the way of Denyal, as if she had catch'd +at an Opportunity to do it, saying she could not do it before she was +asked. Said that was her mind unless she should Change it, which she +believed she should not; could not leave her Children. I express'd my +Sorrow that she should do it so Speedily, pray'd her Consideration, +and ask'd her when I should wait on her agen. She setting no time, I +mentioned that day Sennight. Gave her Mr. Willard's Fountain open'd +with the little print and verses; saying, I hop'd if we did well read +that book, we should meet together hereafter, if we did not now. She +took the Book, and put it in her Pocket. Took Leave. + +October 5. Midweek, I din'ed with the Court; from thence went and +visited Cousin Jonathan's wife, Lying in with her little Betty. Gave +the Nurse 2s. Altho I had appointed to wait upon her, Madam Winthrop, +next Monday, yet I went from my Cousin Sewall's thither about 3 P.M. +The Nurse told me Madam dined abroad at her daughter Noyes's, they +were to go out together. I ask'd for the Maid, who was not within. +Gave Katee a penny and a Kiss, and came away. Accompanyed my Son and +daughter Cooper in their Remove to their New House. + +October 6. A little after 6 P.M. I went to Madam Winthrop's. She was +not within. I gave Sarah Chickering the Maid 2s., Juno, who brought in +wood, 1s. Afterward the Nurse came in, I gave her 18d., having no +other small Bill. After awhile Dr. Noyes came in with his Mother; and +quickly after his wife came in: They sat talking, I think, till eight +a-clock. I said I fear'd I might be some Interruption to their +Business: Dr. Noyes reply'd pleasantly: He fear'd they might be an +Interruption to me, and went away. Madam seem'd to harp upon the same +string. Must take care of her Children; could not leave that House and +Neighborhood where she had dwelt so long. I told her she might doe her +children as much or more good by bestowing what she laid out in +Hous-keeping, upon them. Said her Son would be of age the 7th of +August. I said it might be inconvenient for her to dwell with her +Daughter-in-Law, who must be Mistress of the House. I gave her a piece +of Mr. Belcher's Cake and Ginger-Bread wrapped up in a clean sheet of +Paper; told her of her Father's kindness to me when Treasurer, and I +Constable. My Daughter Judith was gon from me and I was more +lonesom--might help to forward one another in our Journey to +Canaan.--Mr. Eyre[11] came within the door; I saluted him, ask'd how +Mr. Clark did, and he went away. I took leave about 9 a-clock. I told +[her] I came now to refresh her Memory as to Monday night; said she +had not forgot it. In discourse with her, I ask'd leave to speak with +her Sister; I meant to gain Madam Mico's favour to persuade her +Sister. She seem'd surpris'd and displeas'd, and said she was in the +same condition!... + +[Footnote 11: A son of Madam Winthrop by her first marriage.] + +October 10. In the Evening I visited Madam Winthrop, who treated me +with a great deal of Curtesy; Wine, Marmalade. I gave her a +News-Letter about the Thanksgiving; Proposals, for sake of the Verses +for David Jeffries. She tells me Dr. Increase Mather visited her this +day, in Mr. Hutchinson's Coach. + +October 11. I writ a few Lines to Madam Winthrop to this purpose: +"Madam, These wait on you with Mr. Mayhew's Sermon, and Account of the +state of the Indians on Martha's Vinyard. I thank you for your +Unmerited Favors of yesterday; and hope to have the Happiness of +Waiting on you to-morrow before Eight a-clock after Noon. I pray GOD +to keep you, and give you a joyfull entrance upon the Two Hundred and +twenty-ninth year of Christopher Columbus his Discovery; and take +Leave, who am, Madam, your humble Servant. S. S." + +Sent this by Deacon Green, who deliver'd it to Sarah Chickering, her +Mistress not being at home. + +October 12. At Madam Winthrop's Steps I took leave of Capt Hill, &c. +Mrs. Anne Cotton came to door (twas before 8.) said Madam Winthrop was +within, directed me into the little Room, where she was full of work +behind a Stand Mrs. Cotton came in and stood. Madam Winthrop pointed +to her to set me a Chair. Madam Winthrop's Countenance was much +changed from what 'twas on Monday, look'd dark and lowering. At last, +the work, (black stuff or Silk) was taken away, I got my Chair in +place, had some Converse, but very Cold and indifferent to what 'twas +before. Ask'd her to acquit me of Rudeness if I drew off her Glove. +Enquiring the reason, I told her twas great odds between handling a +dead Goat, and a living Lady. Got it off. I told her I had one +Petition to ask of her, that was, that she would take off the Negative +she laid on me the third of October; She readily answer'd she could +not, and enlarg'd upon it; She told me of it so soon as she could; +could not leave her house, children, neighbours, business. I told her +she might do som Good to help and support me. Mentioning Mrs. Gookin, +Nath, the widow Weld was spoken of; said I had visited Mrs. Denison. I +told her Yes! Afterward I said, If after a first and second Vagary she +would Accept of me returning, Her Victorious Kindness and Good Will +would be very Obliging. She thank'd me for my Book, (Mr. Mayhew's +Sermon), But said not a word of the Letter. When she insisted on the +Negative, I pray'd there might be no more Thunder and Lightening, I +should not sleep all night. I gave her Dr. Preston, The Church's +Marriage and the Church's Carriage, which cost me 6s. at the Sale. The +door standing open, Mr. Airs came in, hung up His hat, and sat down. +After awhile, Madam Winthrop moving, he went out. Jno. Eyre look'd in, +I said How do ye, or your servant Mr. Eyre: but heard no word from +him. Sarah fill'd a Glass of Wine, she drank to me, I to her, She sent +Juno home with me with a good Lantern, I gave her 6d. and bid her +thank her Mistress. In some of our Discourse, I told her I had rather +go the Stone-House adjoining to her, than to come to her against her +mind. Told her the reason why I came every other night was lest I +should drink too deep draughts of Pleasure. She had talk'd of Canary, +her Kisses were to me better than the best Canary. Explain'd the +expression Concerning Columbus. + +October 13. I tell my Son and daughter Sewall, that the Weather was +not so fair as I apprehended. + +October 17. In the Evening I visited Madam Winthrop, who Treated me +Courteously, but not in Clean Linen as somtimes. She said, she did not +know whether I would come again, or no. I ask'd her how she could so +impute inconstancy to me. (I had not visited her since Wednesday night +being unable to get over the Indisposition received by the Treatment +received that night, and _I must_ in it seem'd to sound like a made +piece of Formality.) Gave her this day's Gazett. Heard David Jeffries +say the Lord's Prayer, and some other portions of the Scriptures. He +came to the door, and ask'd me to go into Chamber, where his +Grandmother was tending Little Katee, to whom she had given Physick; +but I chose to sit below. Dr. Noyes and his wife came in, and sat a +considerable time; had been visiting Son and daughter Cooper. Juno +came home with me. + +October 18. Visited Madam Mico, who came to me in a splendid Dress. I +said, It may be you have heard of my Visiting Madam Winthrop, her +Sister. She answered, Her Sister had told her of it. I ask'd her good +Will in the Affair. She answer'd, If her Sister were for it, she +should not hinder it. I gave her Mr. Homes's Sermon. She gave me a +Glass of Canary, entertain'd me with good Discourse, and a Respectfull +Remembrance of my first Wife. I took Leave. + +October 19. Midweek, Visited Madam Winthrop; Sarah told me she was at +Mr. Walley's, would not come home till late. I gave her Hannah 3 +oranges with her Duty, not knowing whether I should find her or no. +Was ready to go home: but said if I knew she was there, I would go +thither. Sarah seem'd to speak with pretty good Courage, She would be +there. I went and found her there, with Mr. Walley and his wife in the +little Room below. At 7 a-clock I mentioned going home; at 8. I put on +my Coat, and quickly waited on her home. She found occasion to speak +loud to the servant, as if she had a mind to be known. Was Courteous +to me; but took occasion to speak pretty earnestly about my keeping a +Coach: I said 'twould cost £100. per annum: she said twould cost but +£40. Spake much against John Winthrop, his false-heartedness. Mr. Eyre +came in and sat awhile; I offer'd him Dr. Incr. Mather's Sermons, +whereof Mr. Appleton's Ordination Sermon was one; said he had them +already. I said I would give him another. Exit. Came away somewhat +late. + +October 20. Promis'd to wait on the Governor about 7. Madam Winthrop +not being at Lecture, I went thither first; found her very Serene with +her daughter Noyes, Mrs. Dering, and the widow Shipreev sitting at a +little Table, she in her arm'd Chair. She drank to me, and I to Mrs. +Noyes. After awhile pray'd the favor to speak with her. She took one +of the Candles, and went into the best Room, clos'd the shutters, sat +down upon the Couch. She told me Madam Usher had been there, and said +the Coach must be set on Wheels, and not by Rusting. She spake +something of my needing a Wigg. Ask'd me what her Sister said to me. I +told her, She said, If her Sister were for it, She would not hinder +it. But I told her, she did not say she would be glad to have me for +her Brother. Said, I shall keep you in the Cold, and asked her if she +would be within to morrow night, for we had had but a running Feat. +She said she could not tell whether she should, or no. I took Leave. +As were drinking at the Governour's, he said: In England the Ladies +minded little more than that they might have Money, and Coaches to +ride in. I said, And New-England brooks its Name. At which Mr. Dudley +smiled. Governour said they were not quite so bad here. + +October 21. Friday, My Son, the Minister, came to me P.M. by +appointment and we pray one for another in the Old Chamber; more +especially respecting my Courtship. About 6. a-clock I go to Madam +Winthrop's; Sarah told me her Mistress was gon out, but did not tell +me whither she went. She presently order'd me a Fire; so I went in, +having Dr. Sibb's Bowels with me to read. I read the two first +Sermons, still no body came in: at last about 9. a-clock Mr. Jno. Eyre +came in; I took the opportunity to say to him as I had done to Mrs. +Noyes before, that I hoped my Visiting his Mother would not be +disagreeable to him; He answered me with much Respect. When twas after +9. a-clock He of himself said he would go and call her, she was but at +one of his Brothers: A while after I heard Madam Winthrop's voice, +enquiring somthing about John. After a good while and Clapping the +Garden door twice or thrice, she came in. I mention'd somthing of the +lateness; she banter'd me, and said I was later. She receiv'd me +Courteously. I ask'd when our proceedings should be made publick: She +said They were like to be no more publick than they were already. +Offer'd me no Wine that I remember. I rose up at 11 a-clock to come +away, saying I would put on my Coat, She offer'd not to help me. I +pray'd her that Juno might light me home, she open'd the Shutter, and +said twas pretty light abroad; Juno was weary and gon to bed. So I +came home by Star-light as well as I could. At my first coming in, I +gave Sarah five Shillings. I writ Mr. Eyre his name in his book with +the date October 21, 1720. It cost me 8s. Jehovah jireh! Madam told me +she had visited M. Mico, Wendell, and Wm. Clark of the South [Church]. + +October 22. Daughter Cooper visited me before my going out of Town, +staid till about Sun set. I brought her going near as far as the +Orange Tree. Coming back, near Leg's Corner, Little David Jeffries saw +me, and looking upon me very lovingly, ask'd me if I was going to see +his Grandmother? I said, Not to-night. Gave him a peny, and bid him +present my Service to his Grandmother. + +October 24. I went in the Hackny Coach through the Common, stop'd at +Madam Winthrop's (had told her I would take my departure from thence). +Sarah came to the door with Katee in her Arms: but I did not think to +take notice of the Child. Call'd her Mistress. I told her, being +encourag'd by David Jeffries loving eyes, and sweet Words, I was come +to enquire whether she could find in her heart to leave that House and +Neighbourhood, and go and dwell with me at the South-end; I think she +said softly, Not yet. I told her It did not ly in my Lands to keep a +Coach. If I should, I should be in danger to be brought to keep +company with her Neighbour Brooker, (he was a little before sent to +prison for Debt). Told her I had an Antipathy against those who would +pretend to give themselves; but nothing of their Estate. I would a +proportion of my Estate with my self. And I supposed she would do so. +As to a Perriwig, My best and greatest Friend, I could not possibly +have a greater, began to find me with Hair before I was born, and had +continued to do so ever since; and I could not find in my heart to go +to another. She commended the book I gave her, Dr. Preston, the Church +Marriage; quoted him saying 'twas inconvenient keeping out of a +Fashion commonly used. I said the Time and Tide did circumscribe my +Visit. She gave me a Dram of Black-Cherry Brandy, and gave me a lump +of the Sugar that was in it. She wish'd me a good Journy. I pray'd God +to keep her, and came away. Had a very pleasant Journy to Salem. + +November 1. I was so taken up that I could not go if I would. + +November 2. Midweek, went again, and found Mrs. Alden there, who +quickly went out. Gave her about 1/2 pound of Sugar Almonds, cost 3s. +per £. Carried them on Monday. She seem'd pleas'd with them, ask'd +what they cost. Spake of giving her a Hundred pounds per annum if I +dy'd before her. Ask'd her what sum she would give me, if she should +dy first? Said I would give her time to Consider of it. She said she +heard as if I had given all to my Children by Deeds of Gift. I told +her 'twas a mistake, Point-Judith was mine &c. That in England I +own'd, my Father's desire was that it should go to my eldest Son; +'twas 20£ per annum; she thought 'twas forty. I think when I seem'd to +excuse pressing this, she seemed to think twas best to speak of it; a +long winter was coming on. Gave me a Glass or two of Canary. + +November 4. Friday, Went again, about 7. a-clock; found there Mr. John +Walley and his wife: sat discoursing pleasantly. I shew'd them Isaac +Moses's [an Indian] Writing. Madam W. serv'd Comfeits to us. After +awhile a Table was spread, and Supper was set. I urg'd Mr. Walley to +Crave a Blessing; but he put it upon me. About 9. they went away. I +ask'd Madam what fashioned Neck-lace I should present her with, She +said, None at all. I ask'd her Whereabout we left off last time; +mention'd what I had offer'd to give her; Ask'd her what she would +give me; She said she could not Change her Condition: She had said so +from the beginning; could not be so far from her Children, the +Lecture. Quoted the Apostle Paul affirming that a single Life was +better than a Married. I answered That was for the present Distress. +Said she had not pleasure in things of that nature as formerly: I +said, you are the fitter to make me a Wife. If she held in that mind, +I must go home and bewail my Rashness in making more haste than good +Speed. However, considering the Supper, I desired her to be within +next Monday night, if we liv'd so long. Assented. She charg'd me with +saying, that she must put away Juno, if she came to me: I utterly +deny'd it, it never came in my heart; yet she insisted upon it; +saying it came in upon discourse about the Indian woman that obtained +her Freedom this Court. About 10. I said I would not disturb the good +orders of her House, and came away. She not seeming pleas'd with my +Coming away. Spake to her about David Jeffries, had not seen him. + +Monday, November 7. My Son pray'd in the Old Chamber. Our time had +been taken up by Son and Daughter Cooper's Visit; so that I only read +the 130th and 143. Psalm. Twas on the Account of my Courtship. I went +to Mad. Winthrop; found her rocking her little Katee in the Cradle. I +excus'd my Coming so late (near Eight). She set me an arm'd Chair and +Cusheon; and so the Cradle was between her arm'd Chair and mine. Gave +her the remnant of my Almonds; She did not eat of them as before; but +laid them away; I said I came to enquire whether she had alter'd her +mind since Friday, or remained of the same mind still. She said, +Thereabouts. I told her I loved her, and was so fond as to think that +she loved me: she said had a great respect for me. I told her, I had +made her an offer, without asking any advice; she had so many to +advise with, that 'twas an hindrance. The Fire was come to one short +Brand besides the Block, which Brand was set up in end; at last it +fell to pieces, and no Recruit was made: She gave me a glass of Wine. +I think I repeated again that I would go home and bewail my Rashness +in making more haste than good Speed. I would endeavor to contain +myself, and not go on to sollicit her to do that which she could not +Consent to. Took leave of her. As came down the steps she bid me have +a care. Treated me Courteously. Told her she had enter'd the 4th year +of her Widowhood. I had given her the News-Letter before: I did not +bid her draw off her Glove as sometime I had done. Her Dress was not +so clean as somtime it had been. Jehovah Jireh. + +Midweek, November 9th. Dine at Brother Stoddard's: were so kind as to +enquire of me if they should invite Madam Winthrop; I answer'd No. +Thank'd my Sister Stoddard for her Courtesie. Had a noble Treat. At +night our Meeting was at the Widow Belknap's. Gave each one of the +Meeting One of Mr. Holmes's Sermons, 12 in all; She sent her servant +home with me with a Lantern. Madam Winthrop's Shutters were open as I +pass'd by. + +November 11th. Went not to Madam Winthrop's. This is the 2d +Withdraw.... + +About the middle of December Madam Winthrop made a Treat for her +Children; Mr. Sewall, Prince, Willoughby: I knew nothing of it; but +the same day abode in the Council Chamber for fear of the Rain, and +din'd alone upon Kilby's Pyes and good Beer.[12] + +[Footnote 12: In the following summer Judge Sewall made his addresses +to an old friend of his, then a widow, Mrs. Ruggles, by whom he was +rejected. In March of the next year he married Mrs. Mary Gibbs.] + + + + +COTTON MATHER + + Born in Boston in 1663, died in 1728; son of Increase + Mather; colleague of his father in the North Church of + Boston in 1684, remaining in that pulpit until his death; + active in the suppression of witchcraft; published his + "Magnalia" in 1702, his "Wonders of the Invisible World" in + 1692. + + + + +IN PRAISE OF JOHN ELIOT[13] + + +He that will write of Eliot must write of charity, or say nothing. His +charity was a star of the first magnitude in the bright constellation +of his vertues, and the rays of it were wonderfully various and +extensive. His liberality to pious uses, whether publick or private, +went much beyond the proportions of his little estate in the world. +Many hundreds of pounds did he freely bestow upon the poor; and he +would, with a very forcible importunity, press his neighbors to join +with him in such beneficences. It was a marvelous alacrity with which +he imbraced all opportunities of relieving any that were miserable; +and the good people of Roxbury doubtless cannot remember (but the +righteous God will!) how often, and with what ardors, with what +arguments, he became a beggar to them for collections in their +assemblies, to support such needy objects as had fallen under his +observation. The poor counted him their father, and repaired still +unto him with a filial confidence in their necessities; and they were +more than seven or eight, or indeed than so many scores, who received +their portions of his bounty. Like that worthy and famous English +general, he could not perswade himself "that he had anything but what +he gave away," but he drove a mighty trade at such exercises as he +thought would furnish him with bills of exchange, which he hoped +"after many days" to find the comfort of; and yet, after all, he would +say, like one of the most charitable souls that ever lived in the +world, "that looking over his accounts he could nowhere find the God +of heaven charged a debtor there." He did not put off his charity to +be put in his last will, as many who therein shew that their charity +is against their will; but he was his own administrator; he made his +own hands his executors, and his own eyes his overseers. It has been +remarked that liberal men are often long-lived men; so do they after +many days find the bread with which they have been willing to keep +other men alive. The great age of our Eliot was but agreeable to this +remark; and when his age had unfitted him for almost all employments, +and bereaved him of those gifts and parts which once he had been +accomplished with, being asked, "How he did?" he would sometimes +answer, "Alas, I have lost everything; my understanding leaves me, my +memory fails me, my utterance fails me; but, I thank God, my charity +holds out still; I find that rather grows than fails!" And I make no +question, that at his death his happy soul was received and welcomed +into the "everlasting habitations," by many scores got thither before +him, of such as his charity had been liberal unto. + +[Footnote 13: From the "Magnalia Christi Americana." This work +comprizes an ecclesiastical history of early New England, and has been +in much favor with collectors. John Eliot has commonly been called +"The Apostle of the Indians." He labored among them many years and +translated into their language the Bible. Copies of the "Eliot Bible" +are now among the most valuable of early American books.] + +But besides these more substantial expressions of his charity, he made +the odors of that grace yet more fragrant unto all that were about +him, by that pitifulness and that peaceableness which rendered him yet +further amiable. If any of his neighborhood were in distress, he was +like a "brother born for their adversity," he would visit them, and +comfort them with a most fraternal sympathy; yea, 'tis not easy to +recount how many whole days of prayer and fasting he has got his +neighbors to keep with him, on the behalf of those whose calamities he +found himself touched withal. It was an extreme satisfaction to him +that his wife had attained unto a considerable skill in physick and +chirurgery, which enabled her to dispense many safe, good and useful +medicines unto the poor that had occasion for them; and some hundreds +of sick and weak and maimed people owed praises to God for the benefit +which therein they freely received of her. The good gentleman her +husband would still be casting oil into the flame of that charity, +wherein she was of her own accord abundantly forward thus to be doing +of good unto all; and he would urge her to be serviceable unto the +worst enemies that he had in the world. Never had any man fewer +enemies than he! but once having delivered something in his ministry +which displeased one of his hearers, the man did passionately abuse +him for it, and this both with speeches and with writings that +reviled him. Yet it happening not long after that this man gave +himself a very dangerous wound, Mr. Eliot immediately sends his wife +to cure him; who did accordingly. When the man was well, he came to +thank her, but she took no rewards; and this good man made him stay +and eat with him, taking no notice of all the calumnies with which he +had loaded him; but by this carriage he mollified and conquered the +stomach of his reviler. + +He was also a great enemy to all contention, and would ring aloud +courfeu bell wherever he saw the fires of animosity. When he heard any +ministers complain that such and such in their flocks were too +difficult for them, the strain of his answer still was, "Brother, +compass them!" and "Brother, learn the meaning of those three little +words, bear, forbear, forgive." Yea, his inclinations for peace, +indeed, sometimes almost made him to sacrifice right itself. When +there was laid before an assembly of ministers a bundle of papers +which contained certain matters of difference and contention between +some people which our Eliot thought should rather unite, with an +amnesty upon all their former quarrels, he (with some imitation of +what Constantine did upon the like occasion) hastily threw the papers +into the fire before them all, and, with a zeal for peace as hot as +that fire, said immediately, "Brethren, wonder not at what I have +done; I did it on my knees this morning before I came among you." Such +an excess (if it were one) flowed from his charitable inclinations to +be found among those peace-makers which, by following the example of +that Man who is our peace, come to be called "the children of God." +Very worthily might he be called an Irenæus as being all for peace; +and the commendation which Epiphanius gives unto the ancient of that +name, did belong unto our Eliot; he was "a most blessed and a most +holy man." He disliked all sorts of bravery; but yet with an ingenious +note upon the Greek word in Col. iii. 15, he propounded, "that peace +might brave it among us." In short, wherever he came, it was like +another old John, with solemn and earnest persuasives to love; and +when he could say little else he would give that charge, "My children, +love one another!" + +Finally, 'twas his charity which disposed him to continual +applications for, and benedictions on those that he met withal; he had +an heart full of good wishes and a mouth full of kind blessings for +them. And he often made his expressions very wittily agreeable to the +circumstances which he saw the persons in. Sometimes when he came into +a family, he would call for all the young people in it, that so he +might very distinctly lay his holy hands upon every one of them, and +bespeak the mercies of heaven for them all. + + + + +WILLIAM BYRD + + Born in Virginia in 1674, died, in 1744; educated in England + and the Netherlands; visited the court of France; chosen a + Fellow of the Royal Society; receiver-general of the revenue + in Virginia and three times colonial agent for Virginia in + England; for thirty-seven years member, and finally + president, of the Council of Virginia; his home in Virginia + the famous ancestral seat called Westover. + + + + +AT THE HOME OF COLONEL SPOTSWOOD[14] + + +Sept., 1732. Colonel Spotswood's enchanted castle is on one side of +the street, and a baker's dozen of ruinous tenements on the other, +where so many German families had dwelt some years ago; but are now +removed ten miles higher, in the Fork of Rappahannock, to land of +their own. There had also been a chapel about a bow-shot from the +colonel's house, at the end of an avenue of cherry trees, but some +pious people had lately burned it down, with intent to get another +built nearer to their own homes. Here I arrived about three o'clock, +and found only Mrs. Spotswood at home, who received her old +acquaintance with many a gracious smile. I was carried into a room +elegantly set off with pier glasses, the largest of which came soon +after to an odd misfortune. Amongst other favorite animals that +cheered this lady's solitude, a brace of tame deer ran familiarly +about the house, and one of them came to stare at me as a stranger. +But unluckily spying his own figure in the glass, he made a spring +over the tea-table that stood under it, and shattered the glass to +pieces, and falling back upon the tea-table made a terrible fracas +among the china. + +[Footnote 14: From "A Progress to the Mines," the date of the visit +being 1732, which was the year in which Washington was born. Byrd's +work is one of several admired writings by Byrd, now known +collectively as the "Westover Manuscripts." Colonel Spotswood, of whom +Byrd here writes, in early life had been a soldier under Marlborough, +and in 1710 Governor of Virginia. In 1714, on his appointment to +command a British expedition to the West Indies, he was made a +major-general, but he died before embarking. He maintained fine +establishments at Yorktown and on the Rapidan.] + +This exploit was so sudden, and accompanied with such a noise, that it +surprized me, and perfectly frightened Mrs. Spotswood. But 'twas worth +all the damage to show the moderation and good humor with which she +bore this disaster. In the evening the noble colonel came home from +his mines, who saluted me very civilly, and Mrs. Spotswood's sister, +Miss Theky, who had been to meet him _en cavalier_, was so kind too as +to bid me welcome. We talked over a legend of old stories, supped +about 9, and then prattled with the ladies, till it was time for a +traveler to retire. In the mean time I observed my old friend to be +very uxorious, and exceedingly fond of his children. This was so +opposite to the maxims he used to preach up before he was married, +that I could not forbear rubbing up the memory of them. But he gave a +very good-natured turn to his change of sentiments by alleging that +whoever brings a poor gentlewoman into so solitary a place, from all +her friends and acquaintance, would be ungrateful not to use her and +all that belongs to her with all possible tenderness. + +We all kept snug in our several apartments till nine, except Miss +Theky, who was the housewife of the family. At that hour we met over a +pot of coffee, which was not quite strong enough to give us the palsy. +After breakfast the colonel and I left the ladies to their domestic +affairs, and took a turn in the garden, which has nothing beautiful +but three terrace walks that fall in slopes one below another. I let +him understand that, besides the pleasure of paying him a visit, I +came to be instructed by so great a master in the mystery of making of +iron, wherein he had led the way, and was the Tubal Cain of Virginia. +He corrected me a little there, by assuring me he was not only the +first in this country, but the first in North America who had erected +a regular furnace. That they ran altogether upon bloomeries in New +England and Pennsylvania till his example had made them attempt +greater works. But in this last colony they have so few ships to carry +their iron to Great Britain that they must be content to make it only +for their own use, and must be obliged to manufacture it when they +have done. That he hoped he had done the country very great service by +setting so good an example.... + +Our conversation on this subject continued till dinner, which was both +elegant and plentiful. The afternoon was devoted to the ladies, who +showed me one of their most beautiful walks. They conducted me through +a shady lane to the landing, and by the way made me drink some very +fine water that issued from a marble fountain, and ran incessantly. +Just behind it was a covered bench, where Miss Theky often sat and +bewailed her virginity. Then we proceeded to the river, which is the +south branch of Rappahannock, about fifty yards wide, and so rapid +that the ferry boat is drawn over by a chain, and therefore called the +Rapidan. At night we drank prosperity to all the colonel's projects in +a bowl of rack punch, and then retired to our devotions. + +Having employed about two hours in retirement, I sallied out at the +first summons to breakfast, where our conversation with the ladies, +like whip syllabub, was very pretty, but had nothing in it. This, it +seems, was Miss Theky's birthday, upon which I made her my +compliments, and wished she might live twice as long a married woman +as she had lived a maid. I did not presume to pry into the secret of +her age, nor was she forward to disclose it, for this humble reason, +lest I should think her wisdom fell short of her years.... + +We had a Michaelmas goose for dinner, of Miss Theky's own raising, who +was now good-natured enough to forget the jeopardy of her dog. In the +afternoon we walked in a meadow by the river side, which winds in the +form of a horseshoe about Germanna, making it a peninsula containing +about four hundred acres. Rappahannock forks about fourteen miles +below this place, the northern branch being the larger, and +consequently must be the river that bounds my Lord Fairfax's grant of +the northern neck. + +The sun rose clear this morning, and so did I, and finished all my +little affairs by breakfast. It was then resolved to wait on the +ladies on horseback, since the bright sun, the fine air, and the +wholesome exercise, all invited us to it. We forded the river a little +above the ferry, and rode six miles up the neck to a fine level piece +of rich land, where we found about twenty plants of ginseng, with the +scarlet berries growing on the top of the middle stalk. The root of +this is of wonderful virtue in many cases, particularly to raise the +spirits and promote perspiration, which makes it a specific in colds +and coughs. The colonel complimented me with all we found, in return +for my telling him the virtues of it. We were all pleased to find so +much of this king of plants so near the colonel's habitation, and +growing, too, upon his own land; but were, however surprized to find +it upon level ground, after we had been told it grew only upon the +north side of Stony Mountains. I carried home this treasure with as +much joy as if every root had been a graft of the Tree of Life, and +washed and dried it carefully. This airing made us as hungry as so +many hawks, so that between appetite and a very good dinner, 'twas +difficult to eat like a philosopher. In the afternoon the ladies +walked me about amongst all their little animals, with which they +amuse themselves, and furnish the table; the worst of it is, they are +so tenderhearted they shed a silent tear every time any of them are +killed. At night the colonel and I quitted the threadbare subject of +iron, and changed the scene to politics. He told me the ministry had +receded from their demand upon New England, to raise a standing +salary for all succeeding governors, for fear some curious members of +the House of Commons should inquire how the money was disposed of that +had been raised in the other American colonies for the support of +their governors.... + +Our conversation was interrupted by a summons to supper, for the +ladies, to show their power, had by this time brought us tamely to go +to bed with our bellies full, tho we both at first declared positively +against it. So very pliable a thing is frail man, when women have the +bending of him. + + + + +JONATHAN EDWARDS + + Born In Connecticut in 1703, died in Princeton in 1758; + pastor at Northampton, Mass., in 1727-50; missionary to the + Indians at Stockbridge in 1751-58; president of Princeton in + 1758; his "Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections" + published in 1746; "Qualifications for Full Communion" in + 1749; "The Freedom of the Will," his most famous book, in + 1754; "Doctrine of Original Sin Defended" in 1758, and + "History of the Redemption" in 1772. + + + + +OF LIBERTY AND MORAL AGENCIES[15] + + +The plain and obvious meaning of the words freedom and liberty, in +common speech, is power, opportunity, or advantage, that any one has, +to do as he pleases. Or, in other words, his being free from hindrance +or impediment in the way of doing, or conducting in any respect, as he +wills. (I say not only doing, but conducting; because a voluntary +forbearing to do, sitting still, keeping silence, etc., are instances +of persons' conduct, about which liberty is exercised; tho they are +not so properly called doing.) And the contrary to Liberty, whatever +name we call that by, is a person's being hindered or unable to +conduct as he will, or being necessitated to do otherwise. + +[Footnote 15: From "The Freedom of the Will." It is not alone as a +contribution to theology that this work has been much admired. It is +probably the most famous theological treatise yet produced in America; +one writer has called it "one of the most famous philosophical works +in the world." But as an intellectual achievement solely, and for the +perfection of its style, it has been quite as generally praised.] + +If this which I have mentioned be the meaning of the word liberty, in +the ordinary use of language; as I trust that none that has ever +learned to talk, and is unprejudiced, will deny: then it will follow +that in propriety of speech neither liberty, nor its contrary, can +properly be ascribed to any being or thing but that which has such a +faculty, power or property as is called will. For that which is +possest of no such thing as will, can not have any power or +opportunity of doing according to its will, nor be necessitated to act +contrary to its will, nor be restrained from acting agreeably to it. +And therefore to talk of liberty, or the contrary, as belonging to the +very will itself is not to speak good sense; if we judge of sense and +nonsense by the original and proper signification of words. For the +will itself is not an agent that has a will: the power of choosing +itself has not a power of choosing. That which has the power of +volition or choice is the man or the soul, and not the power of +volition itself. And he that has the liberty of doing according to his +will, is the agent or doer who is possest of the will; and not the +will which he is possest of. We say with propriety that a bird let +loose has power and liberty to fly; but not that the bird's power of +flying has a power and liberty of flying. To be free is the property +of an agent, who is possest of powers and faculties, as much as to be +cunning, valiant, bountiful, or zealous. But these qualities are the +properties of men or persons and not the properties of properties. + +There are two things that are contrary to this which is called liberty +in common speech. One is constraint; the same is otherwise called +force, compulsion, and coaction; which is a person's being +necessitated to do a thing contrary to his will. The other is +restraint; which is his being hindered, and not having power to do +according to his will. But that which has no will, can not be the +subject of these things. I need say the less on this head, Mr. Locke +having set the same thing forth, with so great clearness, in his +"Essay on the Human Understanding." + +But one thing more I would observe concerning what is vulgarly called +liberty; namely, that power and opportunity for one to do and conduct +as he will, or according to his choice, is all that is meant by it; +without taking into the meaning of the word anything of the cause or +original of that choice; or at all considering how the person came to +have such a volition; whether it was caused by some external motive or +internal habitual bias; whether it was determined by some internal +antecedent volition, or whether it happened without a cause; whether +it was necessarily connected with something foregoing, or not +connected. Let the person come by his volition or choice how he will, +yet, if he is able, and there is nothing in the way to hinder his +pursuing and executing his will, the man is fully and perfectly free, +according to the primary and common notion of freedom. + +What has been said may be sufficient to show what is meant by liberty, +according to the common notions of mankind, and in the usual and +primary acceptation of the word: but the word, as used by Arminians, +Pelagians and others, who oppose the Calvinists, has an entirely +different signification. These several things belong to their notion +of liberty. 1. That it consists in a self-determining power in the +will, or a certain sovereignty the will has over itself, and its own +acts, whereby it determines its own volitions; so as not to be +dependent, in its determinations, on any cause without itself, nor +determined by anything prior to its own acts. 2. Indifference belongs +to liberty in their notion of it, or that the mind, previous to the +act of volition, be in equilibrio. 3. Contingence is another thing +that belongs and is essential to it; not in the common acceptation of +the word, as that has been already explained, but as opposed to all +necessity, or any fixt and certain connection with some previous +ground or reason of its existence. They suppose the essence of liberty +so much to consist in these things that unless the will of man be free +in this sense, he has no real freedom, how much soever he may be at +liberty to act according to his will. + +A moral agent is a being that is capable of those actions that have a +moral quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a +moral sense, virtuous or vicious, commendable or faulty. To moral +agency belongs a moral faculty, or sense of moral good and evil, or of +such a thing as desert or worthiness, of praise or blame, reward or +punishment; and a capacity which an agent has of being influenced in +his actions by moral inducements or motives, exhibited to the view of +understanding and reason, to engage to a conduct agreeable to the +moral faculty. + +The sun is very excellent and beneficial in its action and influence +on the earth, in warming it, and causing it to bring forth its fruits; +but it is not a moral agent. Its action, tho good, is not virtuous or +meritorious. Fire that breaks out in a city, and consumes great part +of it, is very mischievous in its operation; but is not a moral agent. +What it does is not faulty or sinful, or deserving of any punishment. +The brute creatures are not moral agents. The actions of some of them +are very profitable and pleasant; others are very hurtful; yet, seeing +they have no moral faculty, or sense of desert, and do not act from +choice guided by understanding, or with a capacity of reasoning and +reflecting, but only from instinct, and are not capable of being +influenced by moral inducements, their actions are not properly sinful +or virtuous; nor are they properly the subjects of any such moral +treatment for what they do, as moral agents are for their faults or +good deeds. + +Here it may be noted that there is a circumstantial difference between +the moral agency of a ruler and a subject. I call it circumstantial, +because it lies only in the difference of moral inducements they are +capable of being influenced by, arising from the difference of +circumstances. A ruler, acting in that capacity only, is not capable +of being influenced by a moral law, and its sanctions of threatenings +and promises, rewards and punishments as the subject is; tho both may +be influenced by a knowledge of moral good and evil. And therefore +the moral agency of the Supreme Being, who acts only in the capacity +of a ruler toward His creatures, and never as a subject, differs in +that respect from the moral agency of created intelligent beings. +God's actions, and particularly those which are to be attributed to +Him as moral governor, are morally good in the highest degree. They +are most perfectly holy and righteous; and we must conceive of Him as +influenced in the highest degree by that which, above all others, is +properly a moral inducement, viz., the moral good which He sees in +such and such things: and therefore He is, in the most proper sense, a +moral agent, the source of all moral ability and agency, the fountain +and rule of all virtue and moral good; tho by reason of His being +supreme over all, it is not possible He should be under the influence +of law or command, promises or threatenings, rewards or punishments, +counsels or warnings. The essential qualities of a moral agent are in +God, in the greatest possible perfection; such as understanding, to +perceive the difference between moral good and evil; a capacity of +discerning that moral worthiness and demerit, by which some things are +praiseworthy, others deserving of blame and punishment; and also a +capacity of choice, and choice guided by understanding, and a power of +acting according to his choice or pleasure, and being capable of doing +those things which are in the highest sense praiseworthy. And herein +does very much consist that image of God wherein He made man (which we +read of Gen. i. 26, 27, and chapter ix. 6), by which God distinguishes +man from the beasts, viz., in those faculties and principles of +nature, whereby he is capable of moral agency. Herein very much +consists the natural image of God; as His spiritual and moral image, +wherein man was made at first, consisted in that moral excellency, +that he was endowed with. + + + + +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN + + Born in Boston in 1706, died in 1790; settled in + Philadelphia in 1729; Postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737; + discovered the identity of lightning with electricity in + 1753; proposed a "Plan of Union" at Albany in 1754; Colonial + Agent for Pennsylvania in England in 1757-62 and 1764-75; + Member of the Second Continental Congress in 1775; Member of + the Committee which drew up the Declaration of Independence + in 1776; Ambassador to France in 1776; helped to negotiate + the treaty of peace with England in 1783; President of + Pennsylvania in 1785-88; Member of the Constitutional + Convention in 1787. + + + + +I + +HIS FIRST ENTRY INTO PHILADELPHIA[16] + +(1729) + + +I have been the more particular in this description of my journey, and +shall be so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your +mind compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since +made there. I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come +round by sea. I was dirty from my journey; my pockets were stuffed out +with shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul nor where to look for +lodging. I was fatigued with traveling, rowing and want of rest, I was +very hungry; and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar, +and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the people of the +boat for my passage, who at first refused it, on account of my rowing; +but I insisted on their taking it. A man being sometimes more generous +when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps +through fear of being thought to have but little. + +[Footnote 16: From Chapters I and II of the "Autobiography."] + +Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the market-house I +met a boy with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and, inquiring +where he got it, I went immediately to the baker's he directed me to, +in Second street, and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had in +Boston; but they, it seems, were not made in Philadelphia. Then I +asked for a three-penny loaf, and was told they had none such. So, not +considering or knowing the difference of money, and the greater +cheapness nor the names of his bread, I had him give me three +pennyworth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great puffy +rolls. I was surprized at the quantity, but took it, and, having no +room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm, and eating +the other. Thus I went up Market street as far as Fourth street, +passing by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife's father;[17] when +she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly +did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance. Then I turned and went +down Chestnut street and part of Walnut street, eating my roll all the +way, and, coming round, found myself again at Market street wharf, +near the boat I came in, to which I went for a draft of the river +water; and, being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other two to a +woman and her child that came down the river in the boat with us, and +were waiting to go farther. + +[Footnote 17: Deborah was Mr. Read's daughter's name. Her grave, +alongside Franklin's, in Philadelphia, has been a place of much +pilgrimage these many years. One of the letters of Mrs. Franklin that +has survived may be given here in illustration of her limited +education. It was addrest to Franklin while he was in England, being +dated "October ye 11, 1770": + +"My dear Child:--the bairer of this is the Son of Dr. Phinis Bond his +only son and a worthey young man he is going to studey the Law he +desired a line to you I believe you have such a number of worthey +young Jentelmen as ever wonte to gather I hope to give you pleshner to +see such a number of fine youthes from your one country which will be +an Honour to thar parentes and Countrey. + + "I am my dear Child your + ffeckshonot + Wife D. Franklin."] + +Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by this time had +many clean-drest people in it, who were all walking the same way. I +joined them, and thereby was led into the great meeting-house of the +Quakers near the market. I sat down among them, and, after looking +round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy through labor +and want of rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and +continued so till the meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to +rouse me. This was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, +in Philadelphia. + +Walking down again toward the river, and, looking in the faces of +people, I met a young Quaker man, whose countenance I liked, and, +accosting him, requested he would tell me where a stranger could get +lodging. We were then near the sign of the Three Mariners. "Here," +says he, "is one place that entertains strangers, but it is not a +reputable house; if thee wilt walk with me, I'll show thee a better." +He brought me to the Crooked Billet in Water street. Here I got a +dinner; and, while I was eating it, several sly questions were asked +me, as it seemed to be suspected, from my youth and appearance, that I +might be some runaway. + +After dinner, my host having shown me to a bed, I laid myself on +without undressing, and slept till six in the evening, when I was +called to supper. I went to bed again very early, and slept very +soundly till next morning. Then I drest myself as neat as I could, and +went to Andrew Bradford the printer's. I found in the shop the old man +his father, whom I had seen at New York, and who, traveling on +horseback, had got to Philadelphia before me. He introduced me to his +son, who received me civilly, gave me a breakfast, but told me he did +not at present want a hand, being lately supplied with one; but there +was another printer in town, lately set up, one Keimer, who, perhaps, +might employ me; if not, I should be welcome to lodge at his house, +and he would give me a little work to do now and then till fuller +business should offer. + + + + +II + +WARNINGS BRADDOCK DID NOT HEED[18] + + +This general [Braddock] was, I think, a brave man, and might probably +have made a figure as a good officer in some European war. But he had +too much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of +regular troops, and too mean a one of both Americans and Indians. +George Croghan,[19] our Indian interpreter, joined him on his march +with one hundred of those people, who might have been of great use to +his army as guides, scouts, etc., if he had treated them kindly; but +he slighted and neglected them, and they gradually left him. + +[Footnote 18: From Chapter X of the "Autobiography."] + +[Footnote 19: Croghan afterward became associated closely with Sir +William Johnson in the Mohawk and Upper Susquehanna Valleys. He +acquired title to a large tract of land at the foot of Otsego Lake, +but, while settling it, mortgaged the land heavily, and eventually +lost it through foreclosure. William Cooper, father of the novelist, +subsequently obtained title to these lands and went into the country +to settle them. In the course of his labors, he founded the village of +Cooperstown, and made it his home. It was this circumstance which led +to Fenimore Cooper's knowledge of Indian and frontier life as depicted +in his writings. The home of William Cooper had previously been in +Burlington, N. J.] + +In conversation with him one day he was giving me some account of his +intended progress. "After taking Fort Duquesne,"[20] says he, "I am to +proceed to Niagara; and, having taken that, to Frontenac,[21] if the +season will allow time; and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can hardly +detain me above three or four days; and then I see nothing that can +obstruct my march to Niagara." Having before revolved in my mind the +long line his army must make in their march by a very narrow road, to +be cut for them through the woods and bushes, and also what I had read +of a former defeat of fifteen hundred French, who invaded the Iroquois +country, I had conceived some doubts and some fears for the event of +the campaign. But I ventured only to say, "To be sure, sir, if you +arrive well before Duquesne, with these fine troops, so well provided +with artillery, that place, not yet completely fortified and as we +hear with no very strong garrison, can probably make but a short +resistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march +is from ambuscades of Indians, who, by constant practise, are dextrous +in laying and executing them; and the slender line, near four miles +long, which your army must make, may expose it to be attacked by +surprize in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several +pieces, which, from their distance, can not come up in time to support +each other." + +[Footnote 20: Now Pittsburg.] + +[Footnote 21: In early times commonly called Fort Frontenac, but now +Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The name was changed to Kingston by +Loyalists who settled at the fort after the American Revolution.] + +He smiled at my ignorance, and replied, "These savages may, indeed, be +a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the King's +regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make +any impression." I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing +with a military man in matters of his profession, and said no more. +The enemy, however, did not take advantage of his army which I +apprehended its long line of march exposed it to, but let it advance +without interruption till within nine miles of the place; and then, +when more in a body (for it had just passed a river, where the front +had halted till all were come over), and in a more open part of the +woods than any it had passed, attacked its advanced guard by a heavy +fire from behind trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence +the general had of an enemy's being near him. This guard being +disordered, the general hurried the troops up to their assistance, +which was done in great confusion, through wagons, baggage, and +cattle; and presently the fire came upon their flank: the officers, +being on horseback, were more easily distinguished, picked out as +marks, and fell very fast; and the soldiers were crowded together in a +huddle, having or hearing no orders, and standing to be shot at till +two-thirds of them were killed; and then, being seized with a panic, +the whole fled with precipitation. + +The wagoners took each a horse out of his team and scampered; their +example was immediately followed by others; so that all the wagons, +provisions, artillery, and stores were left to the enemy. The general, +being wounded, was brought off with difficulty; his secretary, Mr. +Shirley, was killed by his side; and out of eighty-six officers, +sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven hundred and fourteen men +killed out of eleven hundred. These eleven hundred had been picked +men from the whole army; the rest had been left behind with Colonel +Dunbar, who was to follow with the heavier part of the stores, +provisions, and baggage. The flyers, not being pursued, arrived at +Dunbar's camp, and the panic they brought with them instantly seized +him and all his people; and, tho he had now above one thousand men, +and the enemy who had beaten Braddock did not at most exceed four +hundred Indians and French together, instead of proceeding, and +endeavoring to recover some of the lost honor, he ordered all the +stores, ammunition, etc., to be destroyed, that he might have more +horses to assist his flight toward the settlements, and less lumber to +remove. He was there met with requests from the governors of Virginia, +Maryland and Pennsylvania that he would post his troops on the +frontiers, so as to afford some protection to the inhabitants; but he +continued his hasty march through all the country, not thinking +himself safe till he arrived at Philadelphia, where the inhabitants +could protect him. This whole transaction gave us Americans the first +suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess of British regulars +had not been well founded. + +In their first march, too, from their landing till they got beyond the +settlements, they had plundered and stript the inhabitants, totally +ruining some poor families, besides insulting, abusing, and confining +the people if they remonstrated. This was enough to put us out of +conceit of such defenders, if we had really wanted any. How different +was the conduct of our French friends in 1781, who, during a march +through the most inhabited part of our country, from Rhode Island to +Virginia, near seven hundred miles, occasioned not the smallest +complaint for the loss of a pig, a chicken, or even an apple. + + + + +III + +HOW TO DRAW LIGHTNING FROM THE CLOUDS[22] + + +As frequent mention is made in public papers from Europe of the +success of the Philadelphia experiment for drawing the electric fire +from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron erected on high +buildings, etc., it may be agreeable to the curious to be informed +that the same experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia, tho made in a +different and more easy manner, which is as follows. + +[Footnote 22: From a letter to Peter Collinson, dated October 19, +1752, and read before the Royal Society of London in December of the +same year.] + +Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so long as +to reach to the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief when +extended; tie the corners of the handkerchief to the extremities of +the cross, so you have the body of a kite; which, being properly +accommodated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air, like +those made of paper; but this being of silk is fitter to bear the wet +and wind of a thunder-gust without tearing. To the top of the upright +stick of the cross is to be fixt a very sharp pointed wire, rising a +foot or more above the wood. To the end of the twine, next the hand, +is to be tied a silk ribbon, and where the silk and twine join, a key +may be fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thunder-gust appears +to be coming on, and the person who holds the string must stand within +a door or window, or under some cover, so that the silk ribbon may not +be wet; and care must be taken that the twine does not touch the frame +of the door or window. As soon as any of the thunder-clouds come over +the kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and +the kite, with all the twine, will be electrified, and the loose +filaments of the twine will stand out every way, and be attracted by +an approaching finger. And when the rain has wetted the kite and +twine, so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find +it stream out plentifully from the key on the approach of your +knuckle. At this key the vial may be charged; and from electric fire +thus obtained, spirits may be kindled, and all the other electric +experiments be performed, which are usually done by the help of a +rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the sameness of the electric +matter with that of lightning completely demonstrated. + + + + +IV + +THE WAY TO WEALTH[23] + + +COURTEOUS reader: + +I have heard that nothing gives an author so great pleasure as to find +his works respectfully quoted by others. Judge, then, how much I must +have been gratified by an incident I am going to relate to you. I +stopt my horse lately, where a great number of people were collected +at an auction of merchants' goods. The hour of the sale not being +come, they were conversing on the badness of the times; and one of the +company called to a plain, clean old man, with white locks, "Pray, +Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Will not these heavy +taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we ever be able to pay them? +What would you advise us to do?" Father Abraham stood up and replied, +"If you would have my advice, I will give it you in short; for 'A word +to the wise is enough,' as Poor Richard says." They joined in desiring +him to speak his mind, and gathering round him he proceeded as +follows. + +[Footnote 23: From "Poor Richard's Almanac" for 1757, where it was +printed as a preface signed "Richard Saunders." Franklin began this +Almanac in 1732. John Bigelow, Franklin's biographer and editor, says +it "attained an astonishing popularity." For twenty-five years it had +an average circulation of 10,000 copies. Sometimes it was sent to +press as early as October in order to supply remote colonists in time +for the new year. Translations of it have been printed in nearly all +written languages.] + +"Friends," said he, "the taxes are indeed very heavy, and, if those +laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might +more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more +grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, +three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; +and from these taxes the commissioners can not ease or deliver us by +allowing an abatement. However, let us harken to good advice, and +something may be done for us; 'God helps them that help themselves,' +as Poor Richard says. + +"I. It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people +one-tenth part of their time, to be employed in its service; but +idleness taxes many of us much more; sloth, by bringing on diseases, +absolutely shortens life. 'Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than +labor wears; while the used key is always bright,' as Poor Richard +says. 'But dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that is +the stuff life is made of,' as Poor Richard says. How much more than +is necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that 'The sleeping fox +catches no poultry,' and that 'There will be sleeping enough in the +grave,' as Poor Richard says. + +"'If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be,' +as Poor Richard says, 'the greatest prodigality'; since, as he +elsewhere tells us, 'Lost time is never found again; and what we call +time enough, always proves little enough.' Let us, then, up and be +doing, and doing to the purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with +less perplexity. 'Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all +easy'; and 'He that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce +overtake his business at night'; while 'Laziness travels so slowly +that Poverty soon overtakes him. Drive thy business, let not that +drive thee'; and 'Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man +healthy, wealthy, and wise,' as Poor Richard says.... + +"Methinks I hear some of you say, 'Must a man afford himself no +leisure?' I will tell thee, my friend, what Poor Richard says, 'Employ +thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure; and, since thou art +not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.' Leisure is time for +doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but +the lazy man never; for 'A life of leisure and a life of laziness are +two things. Many, without labor, would live by their wits only, but +they break for want of stock'; whereas industry gives comfort, and +plenty, and respect. 'Fly pleasures, and they will follow you. The +diligent spinner has a large shift; and now I have a sheep and a cow, +everybody bids me good morrow.' + +"II. But with our industry we must likewise be steady, settled, and +careful, and oversee our own affairs with our own eye, and not trust +too much to others; for, as Poor Richard says, + + 'I never saw an oft-removed tree, + Nor yet an oft-removed family, + That throve so well as those that settled be.' + +And again, 'Three removes are as bad as a fire'; and again, 'Keep thy +shop, and thy shop will keep thee'; and again, 'If you would have your +business done, go; if not, send.' And again, + + 'He that by the plough would thrive, + Himself must either hold or drive.' + +And again, 'The eye of a master will do more work than both his +hands'; and again, 'Want of care does us more damage than want of +knowledge'; and again, 'Not to oversee workmen, is to leave them your +purse open.' Trusting too much to others' care is the ruin of many; +for 'In the affairs of this world men are saved not by faith, but by +the want of it'; but a man's own care is profitable; for 'If you would +have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself. A +little neglect may breed great mischief; for want of a nail the shoe +was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a +horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy; all +for want of a little care about a horseshoe nail.' + +"III. So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own +business; but to these we must add frugality, if we would make our +industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to +save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die +not worth a groat at last. 'A fat kitchen makes a lean will'; and + + 'Many estates are spent in the getting, + Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting, + And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting.' + +'If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as of getting. The +Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes are greater than +her incomes.' + +"Away, then, with your expensive follies, and you will not then have +so much cause to complain of hard times, heavy taxes, and chargeable +families; for + + 'Women and wine, game and deceit, + Make the wealth small and the want great.' + +"And further, 'What maintains one vice would bring up two children.' +You may think, perhaps, that a little tea, or a little punch now and +then, diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer, and a little +entertainment now and then can be no great matter; but remember, 'Many +a little makes a mickle.' Beware of little expenses; 'A small leak +will sink a great ship,' as Poor Richard says; and again, 'Who +dainties love, shall beggars prove'; and moreover, 'Fools makes +feasts, and wise men eat them.... If you would know the value of +money, go and try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes +a-sorrowing,' as Poor Richard says; and, indeed, so does he that lends +to such people, when he goes to get it in again. Poor Dick further +advises, and says, + + 'Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse; + Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse.' + +And again, 'Pride is as loud a beggar as Want, and a great deal more +saucy.' When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, +that your appearance may be all of a piece; but Poor Dick says, 'It is +easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow +it.' And it is as truly folly for the poor to ape the rich as for the +frog to swell in order to equal the ox. + + 'Vessels large may venture more, + But little boats should keep near shore. + +It is, however, a folly soon punished; for, as Poor Richard says, +'Pride that dines on vanity sups on contempt. Pride breakfasted with +Plenty, dined with Poverty, and supped with Infamy.' And, after all, +of what use is this pride of appearance, for which so much is risked, +so much is suffered? It can not promote health, nor ease pain; it +makes no increase of merit in the person; it creates envy; it hastens +misfortune. + +"But what madness must it be to run in debt for these +superfluities.... When you have got your bargain, you may, perhaps, +think little of payment; but, as Poor Richard says, 'Creditors have +better memories than debtors; creditors are a superstitious sect, +great observers of set days and times.' The day comes round before you +are aware, and the demand is made before you are prepared to satisfy +it; or, if you bear your debt in mind, the term, which at first seemed +so long, will, as it lessens, appear extremely short. Time will seem +to have added wings to his heels as well as his shoulders. 'Those have +a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter.' At present, perhaps, +you may think yourselves in thriving circumstances, and that you can +bear a little extravagance without injury; but + + 'For age and want save while you may; + No morning sun lasts a whole day.' + +Gain may be temporary and uncertain, but ever, while you live, expense +is constant and certain; and 'It is easier to build two chimneys than +to keep one in fuel,' as Poor Richard says; so, 'Rather go to bed +supperless than rise in debt.' + + 'Get what you can, and what you get hold; + 'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold.' + +And when you have got the philosopher's stone, sure you will no longer +complain of bad times, or the difficulty of paying taxes. + +"IV. This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wisdom; but, after all, +do not depend too much upon your own industry, and frugality, and +prudence, tho excellent things; for they may all be blasted without +the blessing of Heaven; and, therefore, ask that blessing humbly, and +be not uncharitable to those that at present seem to want it, but +comfort and help them. Remember, Job suffered, and was afterward +prosperous. + +"And now, to conclude, 'Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will +learn in no other,' as Poor Richard says, and scarce in that; for, it +is true, 'We may give advice, but we can not give conduct.' However, +remember this, 'They that will not be counseled, can not be helped;' +and further, that 'If you will not hear Reason, she will surely rap +your knuckles' as Poor Richard says." + +Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue. The people heard it and +approved the doctrine; and immediately practised the contrary, just as +if it had been a common sermon; for the auction opened, and they began +to buy extravagantly. I found the good man had thoroughly studied my +Almanacs, and digested all I had dropt on these topics during the +course of twenty-five years. The frequent mention he made of me must +have tired any one else; but my vanity was wonderfully delighted with +it, tho I was conscious that not a tenth part of the wisdom was my +own, which he ascribed to me, but rather the gleanings that I had made +of the sense of all ages and nations. However, I resolved to be the +better for the echo of it; and tho I had at first determined to buy +stuff for a new coat, I went away resolved to wear my old one a little +longer. Reader, if thou wilt do the same, thy profit will be as great +as mine. + + + + +V + +A DIALOG WITH THE GOUT + +[_Dated at midnight, 22 October,1780._] + + +_Franklin._ Eh! Oh! Eh! What have I done to merit these cruel +sufferings? + +_Gout._ Many things; you have ate and drank too freely, and too much +indulged those legs of yours in their indolence. + +_Franklin._ Who is it that accuses me? + +_Gout._ It is I, even I, the Gout. + +_Franklin._ What! my enemy in person? + +_Gout._ No, not your enemy. + +_Franklin._ I repeat it; my enemy; for you would not only torment my +body to death, but ruin my good name; you reproach me as a glutton +and a tippler; now all the world that knows me will allow that I am +neither the one nor the other. + +_Gout._ The world may think as it pleases; it is always very +complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends; but I very well +know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man who takes a +reasonable degree of exercise, would be too much for another, who +never takes any. + +_Franklin._ I take--Eh! Oh!--as much exercise--Eh!--as I can, Madam +Gout. You know my sedentary state, and on that account, it would seem, +Madam Gout, as if you might spare me a little, seeing it is not +altogether my own fault. + +_Gout._ Not a jot; your rhetoric and your politeness are thrown away; +your apology avails nothing. If your situation in life is a sedentary +one, your amusements, your recreations, at least, should be active. +You ought to walk or ride; or, if the weather prevents that, play at +billiards. But let us examine your course of life. While the mornings +are long, and you have leisure to go abroad, what do you do? Why, +instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast, by salutary exercise, +you amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or newspapers, which +commonly are not worth the reading. Yet you eat an inordinate +breakfast, four dishes of tea, with cream, and one or two buttered +toasts, with slices of hung beef, which I fancy are not things the +most easily digested. Immediately afterward you sit down to write at +your desk, or converse with persons who apply to you on business. Thus +the time passes till one, without any kind of bodily exercise. + +But all this I could pardon, in regard, as you say, to your sedentary +condition. But what is your practise after dinner? Walking in the +beautiful gardens of those friends with whom you have dined would be +the choice of men of sense; yours is to be fixt down to chess, where +you are found engaged for two or three hours! This is your perpetual +recreation, which is the least eligible of any for a sedentary man, +because, instead of accelerating the motion of the fluids, the rigid +attention it requires helps to retard the circulation and obstruct +internal secretions. Wrapt in the speculations of this wretched game, +you destroy your constitution. What can be expected from such a course +of living but a body replete with stagnant humors, ready to fall a +prey to all kinds of dangerous maladies, if I, the Gout, did not +occasionally bring you relief by agitating those humors, and so +purifying or dissipating them? If it was in some nook or alley in +Paris, deprived of walks, that you played awhile at chess after +dinner, this might be excusable; but the same taste prevails with you +in Passy, Auteuil, Montmartre, or Sanoy, places where there are the +finest gardens and walks, a pure air, beautiful women, and most +agreeable and instructive conversation; all which you might enjoy by +frequenting the walks. But these are rejected for this abominable game +of chess. Fie, then, Mr. Franklin! But amidst my instructions, I had +almost forgot to administer my wholesome corrections; so take that +twinge--and that. + +_Franklin._ Oh! Eh! Oh! Ohhh! As much instruction as you please, Madam +Gout, and as many reproaches; but pray, Madam, a truce with your +corrections! + +_Gout._ No, Sir, no--I will not abate a particle of what is so much +for your good--therefore-- + +_Franklin._ Oh! Ehhh!--It is not fair to say I take no exercise, when +I do very often, going out to dine and returning in my carriage. + +_Gout._ That, of all imaginable exercises, is the most slight and +insignificant, if you allude to the motion of a carriage suspended on +springs. By observing the degree of heat obtained by different kinds +of motion we may form an estimate of the quantity of exercise given by +each. Thus, for example, if you turn out to walk in winter with cold +feet, in an hour's time you will be in a glow all over; ride on +horseback, the same effect will scarcely be perceived by four hours' +round trotting; but if you loll in a carriage, such as you have +mentioned, you may travel all day, and gladly enter the last inn to +warm your feet by a fire. Flatter yourself then no longer that half an +hour's airing in your carriage deserves the name of exercise. +Providence has appointed few to roll in carriages, while he has given +to all a pair of legs, which are machines infinitely more commodious +and serviceable. Be grateful, then, and make a proper use of yours. +Would you know how they forward the circulation of your fluids, in the +very action of transporting you from place to place; observe when you +walk that all your weight is alternately thrown from one leg to the +other; this occasions a great pressure on the vessels of the foot, and +repels their contents; when relieved, by the weight being thrown on +the other foot, the vessels of the first are allowed to replenish, +and, by a return of this weight, this repulsion again succeeds, thus +accelerating the circulation of the blood. The heat produced in any +given time depends on the degree of this acceleration; the fluids are +shaken, the humors attenuated, the secretions facilitated, and all +goes well; the cheeks are ruddy, and health is established. Behold +your fair friend at Auteuil;[24] a lady who received from bounteous +nature more really useful science than half a dozen of such pretenders +to philosophy as you have been able to extract from all your books. +When she honors you with a visit, it is on foot. She walks all hours +of the day, and leaves indolence, and its concomitant maladies, to be +endured by her horses. In this see at once the preservative of her +health and personal charms. But when you go to Auteuil, you must have +your carriage, tho it is no farther from Passy to Auteuil than from +Auteuil to Passy. + +[Footnote 24: The reference is to Madame Helvetius, whom Franklin knew +as the widow of the writer Claude Adrien Helvetius. Her home was long +a center of literary society in France. The friendship with Franklin +was a notable incident in his career as American Ambassador to France. +See his letter to her printed here as the sixth of these selections +from Franklin.] + +_Franklin._ Your reasonings grow very tiresome. + +_Gout._ I stand corrected. I will be silent and continue my office; +take that, and that. + +_Franklin._ Oh! Ohh! Talk on, I pray you. + +_Gout._ No, no; I have a good number of twinges for you to-night, and +you may be sure of some more to-morrow. + +_Franklin._ What, with such a fever! I shall go distracted. Oh! Eh! +Can no one bear it for me? + +_Gout._ Ask that of your horses; they have served you faithfully. + +_Franklin._ How can you so cruelly sport with my torments? + +_Gout._ Sport! I am very serious. I have here a list of offenses +against your own health distinctly written, and can justify every +stroke inflicted on you. + +_Franklin._ Read it then. + +_Gout._ It is too long a detail; but I will briefly mention some +particulars. + +_Franklin._ Proceed. I am all attention. + +_Gout._ Do you remember how often you have promised yourself, the +following morning, a walk in the grove of Boulogne, in the garden de +la Muette, or in your own garden, and have violated your promise, +alleging at one time it was too cold, at another too warm, too windy, +too moist, or what else you pleased; when in truth it was too nothing +but your insuperable love of ease? + +_Franklin._ That I confess may have happened occasionally, probably +ten times in a year. + +_Gout._ Your confession is very far short of the truth; the gross +amount is one hundred and ninety-nine times. + +_Franklin._ Is it possible? + +_Gout._ So possible that it is fact; you may rely on the accuracy of +my statement. You know Mr. Brillon's gardens, and what fine walks they +contain; you know the handsome flight of a hundred steps, which lead +from the terrace above to the lawn below. You have been in the +practise of visiting this amiable family twice a week, after dinner, +and it is a maxim of your own, that "a man may take as much exercise +in walking a mile up and down-stairs as in ten on level ground." What +an opportunity was here for you to have had exercise in both these +ways! Did you embrace it, and how often? + +_Franklin._ I can not immediately answer that question. + +_Gout._ I will do it for you; not once. + +_Franklin._ Not once? + +_Gout._ Even so. During the summer you went there at six o'clock. You +found the charming lady, with her lovely children and friends, eager +to walk with you, and entertain you with their agreeable conversation; +and what has been your choice? Why, to sit on the terrace, satisfying +yourself with the fine prospect, and passing your eye over the +beauties of the garden below, without taking one step to descend and +walk about in them. + +On the contrary, dear sir, you call for tea and the chess-board; and +lo! you are occupied in your seat till nine o'clock, and that besides +two hours' play after dinner; and then, instead of walking home, which +would have bestirred you a little, you step into your carriage. How +absurd to suppose that all this carelessness can be reconcilable with +health, without my interposition! + +_Franklin._ I am convinced now of the justness of Poor Richard's +remark that "Our debts and our sins are always greater than we think +for." + +_Gout._ So it is. You philosophers are sages in your maxims, and fools +in your conduct. + +_Franklin._ But do you charge, among my crimes, that I return in a +carriage from Mr. Brillon's? + +_Gout._ Certainly; for having been seated all the while, you can not +object the fatigue of the day, and can not want, therefore, the +relief of a carriage. + +_Franklin._ What, then, would you have me do with my carriage? + +_Gout._ Burn it, if you choose; you would at least get heat out of it +once in this way, or, if you dislike that proposal, here's another for +you; observe the poor peasants, who work in the vineyards and grounds +about the villages of Passy, Auteuil, Chaillot, etc.; you may find +every day, among these deserving creatures, four or five old men and +women, bent and perhaps crippled by weight of years and too long and +too great labor. After a most fatiguing day, these people have to +trudge a mile or two to their smoky huts. Order your coachman to set +them down. This is an act that will be good for your soul; and, at the +same time, after your visit to the Brillons, if you return on foot, +that will be good for your body. + +_Franklin._ Ah! how tiresome you are! + +_Gout._ Well, then, to my office; it should not be forgotten that I am +your physician. There. + +_Franklin._ Ohhh! what a devil of a physician! + +_Gout._ How ungrateful you are to say so! Is it not I who, in the +character of your physician, have saved you from the palsy, dropsy and +apoplexy? one or other of which would have done for you long ago but +for me. + +_Franklin._ I submit, and thank you for the past, but entreat the +discontinuance of your visits for the future; for, in my mind, one had +better die than be cured so dolefully. Permit me just to hint that I +have also not been unfriendly to you. I never feed physician or quack +of any kind, to enter the list against you; if, then, you do not +leave me to my repose, it may be said you are ungrateful too. + +_Gout._ I can scarcely acknowledge that as any objection. As to +quacks, I despise them; they may kill you, indeed, but can not injure +me. And as to regular physicians, they are at last convinced that the +gout, in such a subject as you are, is no disease, but a remedy; and +wherefore cure a remedy?--but to our business--there. + +_Franklin._ Oh! Oh!--for Heaven's sake leave me; and I promise +faithfully never more to play at chess, but to take exercise daily, +and live temperately. + +_Gout._ I know you too well. You promise fair; after a few months of +good health you will return to your old habits; your fine promises +will be forgotten like the forms of the last year's clouds. Let us +then finish the account, and I will go. But leave you with an +assurance of visiting you again at a proper time and place; for my +object is your good, and you are sensible now that I am your real +friend. + + + + +VI + +A PROPOSAL TO MADAME HELVETIUS[25] + + +Mortified at the barbarous resolution pronounced by you so positively +yesterday evening, that you would remain single for the rest of your +life as a compliment due to the memory of your husband, I retired to +my chamber. Throwing myself upon my bed I dreamt that I was dead, and +was transported to the Elysian fields. + +[Footnote 25: A letter now printed in Volume VI of the "Works of +Franklin," edited by John Bigelow.] + +I was asked whether I wished to see any persons in particular; to +which I replied that I wished to see the philosophers. "There are two +who live here at hand in this garden; they are good neighbors and very +friendly toward one another." "Who are they?" "Socrates and +Helvetius." "I esteem them both highly; but let me see Helvetius +first, because I understand a little French but not a word of Greek." +I was conducted to him; he received me with much courtesy, having +known me, he said, by character some time past. He asked me a thousand +questions relative to the war, the present state of religion, of +liberty, of the government in France. "You do not inquire, then," said +I, "after your dear friend, Madame Helvetius; yet she loves you +exceedingly. I was in her company not more than an hour ago." "Ah," +said he, "you make me recur to my past happiness, which ought to be +forgotten in order to be happy here. For many years I could think of +nothing but her, tho at length I am consoled. I have taken another +wife, the most like her that I could find; she is not, indeed, +altogether so handsome, but she has a great fund of wit and good +sense, and her whole study is to please me. She is at this moment gone +to fetch the nectar and ambrosia to regale me; stay here awhile and +you will see her." "I perceive," said I, "that your former friend is +more faithful to you than you are to her; she has had several good +offers, but has refused them all. I will confess to you that I love +her extremely, but she was cruel to me and rejected me peremptorily +for your sake." "I pity you sincerely," said he, "for she is an +excellent woman, handsome and amiable. But do not the Abbe de la R---- +and the Abbe M---- visit her?" "Certainly they do; not one of your +friends has dropt her acquaintance." "If you had gained the Abbe M---- +with a bribe of good coffee and cream perhaps you would have +succeeded; for he is as deep a reasoner as Dun Scotus or St. Thomas; +he arranges and methodizes his arguments in such a manner that they +are almost irresistible. Or if by a fine edition of some old classic +you had gained the Abbe de la R---- to speak against you, that would +have been still better, as I always observed that when he recommended +anything to her, she had a great inclination to do exactly the +contrary." + +As he finished these words the new Madame Helvetius entered with the +nectar and I recognized her immediately as my former American friend, +Mrs. Franklin! I reclaimed her, but she answered me coldly, "I was a +good wife to you for forty-nine years and four months, nearly half a +century; let that content you. I have formed a new condition here, +which will last to eternity." + +Indignant at this refusal of my Eurydice, I immediately resolved to +quit those ungraceful shades and return to this good world again, to +behold the sun and you. Here am I; let us _avenge ourselves_. + + + + +GEORGE WASHINGTON + + Born in 1732, died in 1799; adjutant of Virginia troops in + 1751; sent on a mission to the French beyond the Alleghany + River in 1753; defended Fort Necessity in 1754; with + Braddock at his defeat in 1755; led the advance guard to + Fort Duquesne in 1758; Member of the Continental Congress in + 1774-75; made Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in + 1775; resigned his commission in 1783; President of the + Constitutional Convention in 1787; elected President of the + United States in 1789; reelected President in 1793; + Commander-in-chief of the Army in 1798. + + + + +I + +TO HIS WIFE ON TAKING COMMAND OF THE ARMY[26] + + +My Dearest: I am now set down to write to you on a subject which fills +me with inexpressible concern, and this concern is greatly aggravated +and increased when I reflect upon the uneasiness I know it will give +you. It has been determined in Congress that the whole army raised for +the defense of the American cause shall be put under my care, and that +it is necessary for me to proceed immediately to Boston to take upon +me the command of it. + +[Footnote 26: A letter written in Philadelphia on June 18, 1775, three +days after his appointment.] + +You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure you, in the most +solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment, I have used +every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my +unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a +consciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity, and that +I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than +I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to +be seven times seven years. But as it has been a kind of destiny that +has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it +is designed to answer some good purpose. + +You might, and I suppose did perceive, from the tenor of my letters, +that I was apprehensive I could not avoid this appointment, as I did +not pretend to intimate when I should return. That was the case. It +was utterly out of my power to refuse this appointment without +exposing my character to such censures as would have reflected +dishonor upon myself, and given pain to my friends. This, I am sure, +could not, and ought not, to be pleasing to you, and must have +lessened me considerably in my own esteem. I shall rely, therefore, +confidently on that Providence which has heretofore preserved and been +bountiful to me, not doubting but that I shall return safe to you in +the fall. I shall feel no pain from the toil or the danger of the +campaign; my unhappiness will flow from the uneasiness I know you will +feel from being left alone. I therefore beg that you will summon your +whole fortitude, and pass your time as agreeably as possible. Nothing +will give me so much sincere satisfaction as to hear this, and to hear +it from your own pen. My earnest and ardent desire is that you would +pursue any plan that is most likely to produce content, and a +tolerable degree of tranquillity; as it must add greatly to my uneasy +feelings to hear that you are dissatisfied or complaining at what I +really could not avoid. + +As life is always uncertain, and common prudence dictates to every man +the necessity of settling his temporal concerns, while it is in his +power, and while the mind is calm and undisturbed, I have, since I +came to this place (for I had not time to do it before I left home) +got Colonel Pendleton to draft a will for me, by the directions I gave +him, which will I now enclose. The provision made for you in case of +my death will, I hope, be agreeable. + +I shall add nothing more, as I have several letters to write, but to +desire that you will remember me to your friends, and to assure you +that I am with the most unfeigned regard, my dear Patsy, your +affectionate, etc. + + + + +II + +OF HIS ARMY IN CAMBRIDGE[27] + + +Nothing would give me more real satisfaction than to know the +sentiments which are entertained of me by the public, whether they be +favorable or otherwise; and I urged as a reason that the man who +wished to steer clear of shelves and rocks must know where they lie. I +know the integrity of my own heart, but to declare it, unless to a +friend, may be an argument of vanity; I know the unhappy predicament I +stand in: I know that much is expected of me; I know that without men, +without arms, without ammunition, without anything fit for the +accommodation of a soldier, little is to be done; and, what is +mortifying, I know that I can not stand justified to the world without +exposing my own weakness, and injuring the cause by declaring my +wants, which I am determined not to do, further than unavoidable +necessity brings every man acquainted with them. + +[Footnote 27: From the letter addrest to Joseph Reed, and dated +February 10, 1776. Washington had assumed command in Cambridge on July +3d of the previous year. Joseph Reed was President of the Pennsylvania +Provincial Congress in 1775, and afterward became Washington's +secretary and aide-de-camp. This letter was in reply to two letters +from Reed containing "early and regular communication of what is +passing in your quarter."] + +If, under these disadvantages, I am able to keep above water, in the +esteem of mankind, I shall feel myself happy; but if, from the unknown +peculiarity of my circumstances, I suffer in the opinion of the world, +I shall not think you take the freedom of a friend, if you conceal the +reflections that may be cast upon my conduct. My own situation is so +irksome to me at times that, if I did not consult the public good more +than my own tranquillity, I should long ere this have put everything +on the cast of a die. So far from my having an army of twenty thousand +men well armed, I have been here with less than one-half of that +number, including sick, furloughed, and on command, and those neither +armed nor clothed, as they should be. In short, my situation has been +such, that I have been obliged to use art to conceal it from my own +officers. + +The party sent to Bunker Hill had some good and some bad men engaged +in it. One or two courts have been held on the conduct of part of +them. To be plain, these people are not to be depended upon if +exposed; and any man will fight well if he thinks himself in no +danger. I do not apply this only to these people. I suppose it to be +the case with all raw and undisciplined troops. Yon may rely upon it +that transports left Boston six weeks ago with troops; where they are +gone, unless driven to the West Indies, I know not. You may also rely +upon General Clinton's sailing from Boston about three weeks ago, with +about four or five hundred men; his destination I am also a stranger +to. I am sorry to hear of the failures you speak of from France. But +why will not Congress forward part of the powder made in your +province? They seem to look upon this as the season for action, but +will not furnish the means. I will not blame them. I dare say the +demands upon them are greater than they can supply. The cause must be +starved till our resources are greater, or more certain within +ourselves. + +With respect to myself, I have never entertained an idea of an +accommodation since I heard of the measures which were adopted in +consequence of the Bunker Hill fight. The King's speech has confirmed +the sentiments I entertained upon the news of that affair; and, if +every man was of my mind, the ministers of Great Britain should know, +in a few words, upon what issue the cause should be put. I would not +be deceived by artful declarations, nor specious pretenses; nor would +I be amused by unmeaning propositions; but in open, undisguised, and +manly terms proclaim our wrongs, and our resolution to be redressed. +I would tell them, that we had borne much, that we had long and +ardently sought for reconciliation upon honorable terms, that it had +been denied us, that all our attempts after peace had proved abortive, +and had been grossly misrepresented, that we had done everything which +could be expected from the best of subjects, that the spirit of +freedom rises too high in us to submit to slavery, and that, if +nothing else would satisfy a tyrant and his diabolical ministry, we +are determined to shake off all connections with a state so unjust and +unnatural. This I would tell them, not under covert, but in words as +clear as the sun in its meridian brightness. + + + + +III + +TO THE MARQUIS DE CHASTELLUX ON HIS MARRIAGE[28] + + +My Dear Marquis: In reading your very friendly and acceptable letter, +which came to hand by the last mail, I was, as you may well suppose, +not less delighted than surprized to meet the plain American words, +"my wife." A wife! Well, my dear Marquis, I can hardly refrain from +smiling to find you are caught at last. I saw by the eulogium you +often made on the happiness of domestic life in America, that you had +swallowed the bait, and that you would as surely be taken, one day or +another, as that you were a philosopher and a soldier. + +[Footnote 28: From a letter, written at Mount Vernon on April 25, +1788, and addrest to the Marquis de Chastellux, author of "Travels in +North America," and a major-general in the army of Rochambeau, who +served under Washington in the American Revolution.] + +So your day has at length come. I am glad of it, with all my heart and +soul. It is quite good enough for you. Now you are well served for +coming to fight in favor of the American rebels, all the way across +the Atlantic Ocean, by catching that terrible contagion, domestic +felicity, which, like the smallpox or the plague, a man can have only +once in his life, because it commonly lasts him (at least with us in +America; I know not how you manage these matters in France), for his +whole lifetime. And yet, after all, the worst wish which I can find in +my heart to make against Madame de Chastellux and yourself is that you +may neither of you ever get the better of this same domestic felicity, +during the entire course of your mortal existence. + +If so wonderful an event should have occasioned me, my dear Marquis, +to write in a strange style, you will understand me as clearly as if I +had said, what in plain English is the simple truth, "Do me the +justice to believe that I take a heartfelt interest in whatsoever +concerns your happiness." And, in this view, I sincerely congratulate +you on your auspicious matrimonial connection. I am happy to find that +Madame de Chastellux is so intimately connected with the Duchess of +Orleans; as I have always understood that this noble lady was an +illustrious example of connubial love, as well as an excellent pattern +of virtue in general. + +While you have been making love under the banner of Hymen, the great +personages in the north have been making war under the inspiration, +or rather under the infatuation, of Mars. Now, for my part, I humbly +conceive that you have acted much the best and wisest part; for +certainly it is more consonant to all the principles of reason and +religion, natural and revealed, to replenish the earth with +inhabitants than to depopulate it by killing those already in +existence. Besides, it is time for the age of knight-errantry and mad +heroism to be at an end. Your young military men, who want to reap the +harvest of laurels, do not care, I suppose, how many seeds of war are +sown; but for the sake of humanity it is devoutly to be wished, that +the manly employment of agriculture, and the humanizing benefits of +commerce, would supersede the waste of war and the rage of conquest; +that the swords might be turned into plowshares, the spears into +pruning-hooks, and, as the Scriptures express it, the "nations learn +war no more." + +Now I will give you a little news from this side of the water, and +then finish. As for us, we are plodding on in the dull road of peace +and politics. We, who live in these ends of the earth, only hear of +the rumors of war like the roar of distant thunder. It is to be hoped +that our remote local situation will prevent us from being swept into +its vortex. + + + + +JOHN ADAMS + + Born in 1735, died in 1826; second President of the United + States; graduated from Harvard in 1755; active in opposing + the Stamp Act; elected to the Revolutionary Congress of + Massachusetts in 1774; delegate to the first and second + Continental Congresses; proposed Washington as + commander-in-chief; signed the Declaration of Independence; + commissioner to France in 1777; to the Netherlands in 1782, + to Great Britain in 1782-83, and to Prussia; minister to + England in 1785; vice-president in 1789; elected President + in 1796; unsuccessful candidate for President in 1800; his + "Life and Works" in ten volumes published in 1850-56. + + + + +I + +ON HIS NOMINATION OF WASHINGTON TO BE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF[29] + + +When Congress had assembled, I rose in my place, and in as short a +speech as the subject would admit, represented the state of the +colonies, the uncertainty in the minds of the people, their great +expectation and anxiety, the distresses of the army, the danger of its +dissolution, the difficulty of collecting another, and the probability +that the British army would take advantage of our delays, march out +of Boston, and spread desolation as far as they could go. I concluded +with a motion, in form, that Congress would adopt the army at +Cambridge, and appoint a general; that tho this was not the proper +time to nominate a general, yet, as I had reason to believe, this was +a point of the greatest difficulty. I had no hesitation to declare +that I had but one gentleman in my mind for that important command, +and that was a gentleman from Virginia who was among us and very well +known to all of us, a gentleman whose skill and experience as an +officer, whose independent fortune, great talents, and excellent +universal character, would command the approbation of all America, and +unite the cordial exertions of all the colonies better than any other +person in the Union. Mr. Washington, who happened to sit near the +door, as soon as he heard me allude to him, from his usual modesty, +darted into the library-room. Mr. Hancock--who was our President, +which gave me an opportunity to observe his countenance while I was +speaking on the state of the colonies, the army at Cambridge, and the +enemy--heard me with visible pleasure; but when I came to describe +Washington for the commander, I never remarked a more sudden and +striking change of countenance. Mortification and resentment were +exprest as forcibly as his face could exhibit them. Mr. Samuel Adams +seconded the motion, and that did not soften the President's +physiognomy at all. + +[Footnote 29: From the "Diary," printed in the "Works of John Adams," +as edited by Charles Francis Adams. In his speech naming Washington, +Adams referred to him as "one who could unite the cordial exertions of +all the colonies better than any other person." Two days later he +wrote to his wife that Congress had chosen "the modest and virtuous, +the amiable, generous and brave George Washington, Esq., to be chief +of the American army."] + +The subject came under debate, and several gentlemen declared +themselves against the appointment of Mr. Washington, not on account +of any personal objection against him, but because the army were all +from New England, had a general of their own, appeared to be satisfied +with him, and had proved themselves able to imprison the British army +in Boston, which was all they expected or desired at that time. Mr. +Pendleton, of Virginia, Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, were very +explicit in declaring this opinion; Mr. Cushing and several others +more faintly exprest their opposition, and their fears of discontents +in the army and in New England. Mr. Paine exprest a great opinion of +General Ward and a strong friendship for him, having been his +classmate at college, or at least his contemporary; but gave no +opinion upon the question. The subject was postponed to a future day. +In the mean time, pains were taken out-of-doors to obtain a unanimity, +and the voices were generally so clearly in favor of Washington, that +the dissentient members were persuaded to withdraw their opposition, +and Mr. Washington was nominated, I believe by Mr. Thomas Johnson of +Maryland, unanimously elected, and the army adopted. + + + + +II + +AN ESTIMATE OF FRANKLIN[30] + + +His reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, +Frederick or Voltaire, and his character more beloved and esteemed +than any or all of them. Newton had astonished perhaps forty or fifty +men in Europe, for not more than that number probably at any one time +had read him and understood him, by his discoveries and +demonstrations. And these being held in admiration in their respective +countries, as at the head of the philosophers, had spread among +scientific people a mysterious wonder at the genius of this, perhaps, +the greatest man that ever lived. But this fame was confined to men of +letters. The common people knew little and cared nothing about such a +recluse philosopher. Leibnitz's name was more confined still. +Frederick was hated by more than half of Europe as much as Louis XIV +was and Napoleon is. Voltaire, whose name was more universal than any +of these before mentioned, was considered as a vain, profligate wit, +and not much esteemed or beloved by anybody, tho admired by all who +knew his works. But Franklin's fame was universal. His name was +familiar to governments and people, to kings, courtiers, nobility, +clergy and philosophers, as well as plebeians, to such a degree that +there was scarcely a peasant or citizen, a valet de chambre, coachman, +or footman, a lady's maid, or a scullion in a kitchen, who was not +familiar with it, and who did not consider him a friend to human kind. +When they spoke of him they seemed to think he was to restore the +Golden Age.... + +[Footnote 30: From a letter to the Boston _Patriot_ of May 15, 1811, +now given as an appendix to the "Works of John Adams." The differences +of Adams and Franklin form a striking incident in the biographies of +the two men. Colaborers as they were in a common cause, they had +constant disagreements as to methods while serving their country in +Europe. That they never openly quarreled Adams's biographer, John T. +Morse, attributes to "their sense of propriety and dignity, and to the +age and position of Dr. Franklin." The radical cause lay in the fact +that "they were utterly incompatible, both mentally and morally."] + +Nothing perhaps that ever occurred upon this earth was so well +calculated to give any man an extensive and universal celebrity as the +discovery of the efficacy of iron points and the invention of +lightning-rods. The idea was one of the most sublime that ever entered +a human imagination that a mortal should disarm the clouds of heaven +and almost "snatch from his hand the scepter and the rod." The +ancients would have enrolled him with Bacchus and Ceres, Hercules and +Minerva.... + +Franklin had a great genius, original, sagacious, and inventive, +capable of discoveries in science no less than of improvements in the +fine arts and the mechanic arts. He had a vast imagination, equal to +the comprehension of the greatest objects, and capable of a steady and +cool comprehension of them. He had wit at will. He had humor that, +when he pleased, was delicate and delightful. He had a satire that was +good-natured or caustic, Horace or Juvenal, Swift or Rabelais, at his +pleasure. He had talents for irony, allegory, and fable, that he +could adapt with great skill to the promotion of moral and political +truth. He was master of that infantine simplicity which the French +call _naïveté_, which never fails to charm, in Phædrus and La +Fontaine, from the cradle to the grave. + +Had he been blest with the same advantages of scholastic education in +his early youth, and pursued a course of studies as unembarrassed with +occupations of public and private life, as Sir Isaac Newton, he might +have emulated the first philosopher. Altho I am not ignorant that most +of his positions and hypotheses have been controverted, I can not but +think he has added much to the mass of natural knowledge, and +contributed largely to the progress of the human mind, both by his own +writings and by the controversies and experiments he has excited in +all parts of Europe. He had abilities for investigating statistical +questions, and in some parts of his life has written pamphlets and +essays upon public topics with great ingenuity and success; but after +my acquaintance with him, which commenced in Congress in 1775, his +excellence as a legislator, a politician, or a negotiator most +certainly never appeared. No sentiments more weak and superficial were +ever avowed by the most absurd philosopher than some of his, +particularly one that he procured to be inserted in the first +constitution of Pennsylvania, and for which he had such a fondness as +to insert it in his will. I call it weak, for so it must have been, or +hypocritical; unless he meant by one satiric touch to ridicule his own +republic, or throw it into everlasting contempt. + +I must acknowledge, after all, that nothing in life has mortified or +grieved me more than the necessity which compelled me to oppose him so +often as I have. He was a man with whom I always wished to live in +friendship, and for that purpose omitted no demonstration of respect, +esteem, and veneration in my power, until I had unequivocal proofs of +his hatred, for no other reason under the sun, but because I gave my +judgment in opposition to his, in many points which materially +affected the interests of our country, and in many more which +essentially concerned our happiness, safety, and well-being. I could +not and would not sacrifice the clearest dictates of my understanding +and the purest principles of morals and policy in compliance to Dr. +Franklin. + + + + +THOMAS PAINE + + Born in England in 1737, died in New York in 1809; came to + America in 1774; took a prominent part in the Revolution as + a writer; his "Common Sense," advocating independence, + published in 1776; published a periodical, _The Crisis_, in + 1776-83; went to Europe in 1787; in 1792 was outlawed from + England for publishing his "Rights of Man"; went to France + and elected to the National Convention in 1793; imprisoned + in France in 1794; published his "Age of Reason" in 1794; + returned to the United States in 1802. + + + + +IN FAVOR OF SEPARATION OF THE COLONIES FROM GREAT BRITAIN[31] + + +The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, "'tis time +to part." Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England +and America, is a strong and natural proof that the authority of the +one over the other was never the design of heaven. The time, likewise, +at which the continent was discovered, adds weight to the argument, +and the manner in which it was peopled, increases the force of it. The +Reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the +Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in +future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety. + +[Footnote 31: From "Common Sense," a pamphlet issued by Paine in +Philadelphia on January 1, 1776. In this work Paine advocated complete +separation from England. His arguments helped to consolidate and make +effective a sentiment which already was drifting in the same +direction. Washington said he effected "a powerful change in the minds +of many men."] + +The authority of Great Britain over this continent is a form of +government which sooner or later must have an end: and a serious mind +can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and +positive conviction that what he calls "the present constitution" is +merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy knowing that this +government is not sufficiently lasting to insure anything which we may +bequeath to posterity; and by a plain method of argument, as we are +running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, +otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the +line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and +fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will +present a prospect which a few present fears and prejudices conceal +from our sight. + +Tho I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I am +inclined to believe that all those who espouse the doctrine of +reconciliation may be included within the following descriptions: + +Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men, who can not see; +prejudiced men, who will not see; and a certain set of moderate men, +who think better of the European world than it deserves: and this last +class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more +calamities to this continent than all the other three. + +It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of +sorrow; the evil is not sufficiently brought to their doors to make +them feel the precariousness with which all American property is +possest. But let our imaginations transport us a few moments to +Boston; that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and instruct +us forever to renounce a power in whom we can have no trust. The +inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but a few months ago were in +ease and affluence, have now no other alternative than to stay and +starve, or turn out to beg. Endangered by the fire of their friends if +they continue within the city, and plundered by the soldiery if they +leave it. In their present situation they are prisoners without the +hope of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief they +would be exposed to the fury of both armies. + +Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of +Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, "Come, +come, we shall be friends again for all this." But examine the +passions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine of reconciliation +to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me whether you can +hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath +carried fire and sword into your land? If you can not do all these, +then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing +ruin upon your posterity. Your future connection with Britain, whom +you can neither love nor honor, will be forced and unnatural, and +being formed only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little +time fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But if you say +you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, hath your house +been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are +your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live +on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the +ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a +judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake hands +with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father, +friend, or lover, and, whatever may be your rank or title in life, you +have the heart of a coward and the spirit of a sycophant. + + + + +THOMAS JEFFERSON + + Born In 1743, died in 1826; Member of the Virginia House of + Burgesses in 1769-75, and again in 1776-78; Member of the + Continental Congress in 1775; drafted the Declaration of + Independence in 1776; Governor of Virginia in 1779; Member + of Congress in 1783; Minister to France in 1785; Secretary + of State in 1790; Vice-President in 1797; elected President + in 1801 and reelected in 1805. + + + + +I + +WHEN THE BASTILE FELL[32] + + +In the meantime these troops, to the number of twenty to thirty +thousand, had arrived and were posted in and between Paris and +Versailles. The bridges and passes were guarded. The King was now +completely in the hands of men the principal among whom had been +noted, through their lives, for the Turkish despotism of their +characters, and who were associated around the King as proper +instruments for what was to be executed. The news of this change began +to be known at Paris about one or two o'clock. In the afternoon a body +of about one hundred German cavalry were advanced, and drawn up in the +Place Louis XV, and about two hundred Swiss posted at a little +distance in their rear. This drew people to the spot, who thus +accidentally found themselves in front of the troops, merely at first +as spectators; but, as their numbers increased, their indignation +rose. They retired a few steps, and posted themselves on and behind +large piles of stones, large and small, collected in that place for a +bridge, which was to be built adjacent to it. + +[Footnote 32: From the "Autobiography," now printed in Volume I of the +"Writings of Jefferson," edited by Paul Leicester Ford.] + +In this position, happening to be in my carriage on a visit, I passed +through the lane they had formed without interruption. But the moment +after I had passed, the people attacked the cavalry with stones. They +charged, but the advantageous position of the people, and the showers +of stones, obliged the horse to retire, and quit the field altogether, +leaving one of their number on the ground, and the Swiss in the rear +not moving to their aid. This was the signal for universal +insurrection, and this body of cavalry, to avoid being massacred, +retired toward Versailles. The people now armed themselves with such +weapons as they could find in armorers' shops, and private houses, and +with bludgeons; and were roaming all night, through all parts of the +city, without any decided object. + +The next day (the 13th) the Assembly prest on the King to send away +the troops, to permit the bourgeoisie of Paris to arm for the +preservation of order in the city, and offered to send a deputation +from their body to tranquillize them; but their propositions were +refused. A committee of magistrates and electors of the city were +appointed by those bodies, to take upon them its government. The +people, now openly joined by the French guards, forced the prison of +St. Lazare, released all the prisoners, and took a great store of +corn, which they carried to the corn-market. Here they got some arms, +and the French guards began to form and train them. The city committee +determined to raise forty-eight thousand bourgeoisie, or rather to +restrain their numbers to forty-eight thousand. + +On the 14th, they sent one of their members (Monsieur de Corny) to the +Hotel des Invalides, to ask arms for their Garde Bourgeoisie. He was +followed by, and he found there, a great collection of people. The +Governor of the Invalids came out, and represented the impossibility +of his delivering arms without the orders of those from whom he +received them. De Corny advised the people then to retire, and retired +himself; but the people took possession of the arms. It was remarkable +that not only the Invalids themselves made no opposition, but that a +body of five thousand foreign troops, within four hundred yards, never +stirred. M. De Corny, and five others, were then sent to ask arms of +M. de Launay, Governor of the Bastile. They found a great collection +of people already before the place, and they immediately planted a +flag of truce, which was answered by a like flag hoisted on the +parapet. The deputation prevailed on the people to fall back a little, +advanced themselves to make their demand of the Governor, and in that +instant a discharge from the Bastile killed four persons of those +nearest to the deputies. The deputies retired. I happened to be at the +house of M. de Corny, when he returned to it, and received from him a +narrative of these transactions. + +On the retirement of the deputies the people rushed forward, and almost in +an instant were in possession of a fortification of infinite strength, +defended by one hundred men, which in other times had stood several regular +sieges, and had never been taken. How they forced their entrance has never +been explained. They took all the arms, discharged the prisoners, and such +of the garrison as were not killed in the first moment of fury; carried the +Governor and Lieutenant-Governor to the Place de Grève (the place of public +execution), cut off their heads, and sent them through the city, in +triumph, to the Palais royal. About the same instant a treacherous +correspondence having been discovered in M. de Flesseles, Prevôt des +Marchands, they seized him in the Hotel de Ville, where he was in the +execution of his office, and cut off his head. + +These events, carried imperfectly to Versailles, were the subject of +two successive deputations from the Assembly to the King, to both of +which he gave dry and hard answers; for nobody had as yet been +permitted to inform him, truly and fully, of what had passed at Paris. +But at night the Duke de Liancourt forced his way into the King's +bedchamber, and obliged him to hear a full and animated detail of the +disasters of the day in Paris. He went to bed fearfully imprest. The +decapitation of de Launay worked powerfully through the night on the +whole Aristocratic party; insomuch that in the morning those of the +greatest influence on the Count d'Artois represented to him the +absolute necessity that the King should give up everything to the +Assembly. This according with the dispositions of the King, he went +about eleven o'clock, accompanied only by his brothers, to the +Assembly, and there read to them a speech, in which he asked their +interposition to reestablish order. Altho couched in terms of some +caution, yet the manner in which it was delivered made it evident that +it was meant as a surrender at discretion. He returned to the Chateau +afoot, accompanied by the Assembly. + +They sent off a deputation to quiet Paris, at the head of which was +the Marquis de La Fayette, who had, the same morning, been named +Commandant en chef of the Milice Bourgeoise; and Monsieur Bailly, +former President of the States General, was called for as Prevôt des +Marchands. The demolition of the Bastile was now ordered and begun. A +body of the Swiss guards, of the regiment of Ventimille, and the city +horse guards joined the people. The alarm at Versailles increased. The +foreign troops were ordered off instantly. Every minister resigned. +The King confirmed Bailly as Prevôt des Marchands, wrote to M. Necker, +to recall him, sent his letter open to the Assembly, to be forwarded +by them, and invited them to go with him to Paris the next day, to +satisfy the city of his dispositions; and that night, and the next +morning, the Count d'Artois, and M. de Montesson, a deputy connected +with him, Madame de Polignac, Madame de Guiche, and the Count de +Vaudreuil, favorites of the Queen, the Abbe de Vermont, her confessor, +the Prince of Conde, and the Duke of Bourbon fled. + +The King came to Paris, leaving the Queen in consternation for his +return. Omitting the less important figures of the procession, the +King's carriage was in the center; on each side of it the Assembly, in +two ranks afoot; at their head the Marquis de La Fayette, as +Commander-in-chief, on horseback, and Bourgeois guards before and +behind. About sixty thousand citizens, of all forms and conditions, +armed with the conquests of the Bastile and Invalids, as far as they +would go, the rest with pistols, swords, pikes, pruning-hooks, +scythes, etc., lined all the streets through which the procession +passed, and with the crowds of people in the streets, doors, and +windows, saluted them everywhere with the cries of "vive la nation," +but not a single "vive le roi" was heard. The King stopt at the Hotel +de Ville. There M. Bailly presented, and put into his hat the popular +cockade, and addrest him. The King being unprepared, and unable to +answer, Bailly went to him, gathered from him some scraps of +sentences, and made out an answer, which he delivered to the audience +as from the King. On their return, the popular cries were "vive le Roi +et la nation." He was conducted by a Garde Bourgeoise to his palace at +Versailles, and thus concluded an "amende honorable," as no sovereign +ever made, and no people ever received. + +And here, again, was lost another precious occasion of sparing to +France the crimes and cruelties through which she has since passed, +and to Europe, and finally America, the evils which flowed on them +also from this mortal source. The King was now become a passive +machine in the hands of the National Assembly, and had he been left to +himself, he would have willingly acquiesced in whatever they should +devise as best for the nation. A wise constitution would have been +formed, hereditary in his line, himself placed at its head, with +powers so large as to enable him to do all the good of his station, +and so limited as to restrain him from its abuse. This he would have +faithfully administered, and more than this I do not believe he ever +wished. But he had a Queen of absolute sway over his weak mind and +timid virtue, and of a character the reverse of his in all points. +This angel, as gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of Burke,[33] with +some smartness of fancy, but no sound sense, was proud, disdainful of +restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will, eager in the +pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires, or perish +in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and dissipations, with those +of the Count d'Artois, and others of her _clique_, had been a sensible +item in the exhaustion of the treasury, which called into action the +reforming hand of the nation; and her opposition to it, her inflexible +perverseness, and dauntless spirit, led herself to the guillotine, +drew the King on with her, and plunged the world into crimes and +calamities which will forever stain the pages of modern history. + +[Footnote 33: See page 214 of Volume IV of this collection for this +tribute from Burke.] + +I have ever believed that had there been no Queen there would have +been no revolution. No force would have been provoked, nor exercised. +The King would have gone hand in hand with the wisdom of his sounder +counselors, who, guided by the increased lights of the age, wished +only, with the same pace, to advance the principles of their social +constitution. The deed which closed the mortal course of these +sovereigns I shall neither approve nor condemn. I am not prepared to +say that the first magistrate of a nation can not commit treason +against his country, or is unamenable to its punishment; nor yet that +where there is no written law, no regulated tribunal, there is not a +law in our hearts, and a power in our hands, given for righteous +employment in maintaining right and redressing wrong. Of those who +judged the King many thought him wilfully criminal; many, that his +existence would keep the nation in perpetual conflict with the horde +of kings who would war against a generation which might come home to +themselves, and that it were better that one should die than all. I +should not have voted with this portion of the Legislature. I should +have shut up the Queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power, +and placed the King in his station, investing him with limited powers, +which, I verily believe, he would have honestly exercised, according +to the measure of his understanding. In this way no void would have +been created, courting the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor +occasion given for those enormities which demoralized the nations of +the world, and destroyed, and are yet to destroy millions and millions +of its inhabitants. + + + + +II + +THE FUTILITY OF DISPUTES[34] + + +I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace +and tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so +well imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness that this also +becomes an acquisition of first-rate value. In truth, politeness is +artificial good humor; it covers the natural want of it, and ends by +rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. +It is the practise of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society all +the little conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and +deprive us of nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giving +a pleasing and flattering turn to our expressions, which will +conciliate others, and make them pleased with us as well as +themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another! When this +is in return for a rude thing said by another, it brings him to his +senses, it mortifies and corrects him in the most salutary way, and +places him at the feet of your good nature in the eyes of the company. + +[Footnote 34: From a letter to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, dated +Washington, Nov. 24, 1808.] + +But in stating prudential rules for our government in society I must +not omit the important one of never entering into dispute or argument +with another. I never saw an instance of one of two disputants +convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their getting +warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the +effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or +weighing within ourselves, dispassionately, what we hear from others, +standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was one of the rules +which, above all others, made Doctor Franklin the most amiable of men +in society "never to contradict anybody." If he was urged to announce +an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as if for +information, or by suggesting doubts. When I hear another express an +opinion which is not mine, I say to myself he has a right to his +opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error does me no +injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of +argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it is probable he is +gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of the +gratification. If he wants information, he will ask it, and then I +will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own +story, and shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him and +say nothing. It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. + +There are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with +among us. The first is of young students, just entered the threshold +of science, with a first view of its outlines, not yet filled up with +the details and modifications which a further progress would bring to +their knowledge. The other consists of the ill-tempered and rude men +in society, who have taken up a passion for politics. (Good humor and +politeness never introduce into mixt society a question on which they +foresee there will be a difference of opinion.) From both of those +classes of disputants, my dear Jefferson, keep aloof as you would from +the infected subjects of yellow fever or pestilence. Consider +yourself, when with them, as among the patients of Bedlam, needing +medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep within +yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of +silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country +no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery +zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as +to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will +act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not +for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal. + + + + +III + +OF BLACKS AND WHITES IN THE SOUTH[35] + + +It will probably be asked, Why not retain and incorporate the blacks +into the state, and thus save the expense of supplying by importation +of white settlers the vacancies they will leave? Deep-rooted +prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by +the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the +real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances +will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will +probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other +race. To these objections, which are political, may be added others, +which are physical and moral. + +[Footnote 35: From Query No. 14 of the "Notes on the State of +Virginia," which, says Jefferson in an "advertisement," "were written +in Virginia in the year 1781 and somewhat corrected and enlarged in +the winter of 1782, in answer to queries proposed to the author by a +foreigner of distinction then residing among us."] + +The first difference which strikes us is that of color. Whether the +black of the negro resides in the reticular membrane between the skin +and the scarf-skin, or in the scarf-skin itself; whether it proceeds +from the color of the blood, the color of the bile, or from that of +some other secretion, the difference is fixt in nature, and is as real +as if its seat and cause were better known to us. And is this +difference of no importance? Is it not the foundation of a greater or +less share of beauty in the two races? Are not the fine mixtures of +red and white, the expressions of every passion by greater or less +suffusions of color in the one, preferable to that eternal monotony +which reigns in the countenances, that immovable veil of black which +covers all the emotions of the other race? + +Add to these flowing hair, a more elegant symmetry of form, their own +judgment in favor of the whites, declared by their preference of them, +as uniformly as is the preference of the orangutan for the black women +over those of his own species. The circumstance of superior beauty is +thought worthy attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and +other domestic animals; why not in that of man? Besides those of +color, figure, and hair, there are other physical distinctions +proving a difference of race. They have less hair on the face and +body. They secrete less by the kidneys, and more by the glands of the +skin, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odor. This great +degree of transpiration renders them more tolerant of heat, and less +so of cold than the whites. + +Perhaps, too, a difference of structure in the pulmonary apparatus, +which a late ingenious experimentalist has discovered to be the +principal regulator of animal heat, may have disabled them from +extricating, in the act of inspiration, so much of that fluid from the +outer air, or obliged them in expiration to part with more of it. They +seem to require less sleep. A black, after hard labor through the day, +will be induced by the slightest amusement to sit up till midnight, or +later, tho knowing he must be out with the first dawn of the morning. +They are at least as brave, and more adventuresome. + +But this may perhaps proceed from a want of forethought, which +prevents their seeing a danger till it be present. When present, they +do not go through it with more coolness or steadiness than the whites. +They are more ardent after their female; but love seems with them to +be more an eager desire than a tender, delicate mixture of sentiment +and sensation. Their griefs are transient. Those numberless +afflictions, which render it doubtful whether heaven has given life to +us in mercy or in wrath, are less felt, and sooner forgotten with +them. In general, their existence appears to participate more of +sensation than reflection. To this must be ascribed their disposition +to sleep when abstracted from their diversions, and unemployed in +labor. An animal, whose body is at rest and who does not reflect, must +be disposed to sleep, of course. Comparing them by their faculties of +memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they +are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could +scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the +investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination they are dull, +tasteless, and anomalous. + +It would be unfair to follow them to Africa for this investigation. We +will consider them here, on the same stage with the whites, and where +the facts are not apocryphal on which a judgment is to be formed. It +will be right to make great allowances for the difference of +condition, of education, of conversation, of the sphere in which they +move. Many millions of them have been brought to, and born in America. +Most of them, indeed, have been confined to tillage, to their own +homes, and their own society; yet many have been so situated that they +might have availed themselves of the conversation of their masters; +many have been brought up to the handicraft arts, and from that +circumstance have always been associated with the white. Some have +been liberally educated, and all have lived in countries where the +arts and sciences are cultivated to a considerable degree, and have +had before their eyes samples of the best works from abroad. + +The Indians, with no advantages of their kind, will often carve +figures on their pipes not destitute of design and merit. They will +crayon out an animal, a plant, or a country, so as to prove the +existence of a germ in their minds which only wants cultivation. They +astonish you with strokes of the most sublime oratory; such as prove +their reason and sentiment strong, their imagination glowing and +elevated. But never yet could I find that a black had uttered a +thought above the level of plain narration; never saw even an +elementary trait of painting or sculpture. In music they are more +generally gifted than the whites with accurate ears for tune and time, +and they have been found capable of imagining a small catch. Whether +they will be equal to the composition of a more extensive run of +melody, or of complicated harmony is yet to be proved. Misery is often +the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. Among the blacks +is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry. Love is the peculiar +oestrum of the poet. Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses +only, not the imagination. + +There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our +people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole +commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most +boisterous passions--the most unremitting despotism on the one part +and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and +learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is +the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is +learning to do what he sees others do. If a parent could find no +motive either in his philanthropy or his self-love for restraining the +intemperance of passion toward his slave, it should always be a +sufficient one that his child is present. + +But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms; the child looks +on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs, in the +circle of smaller slaves gives a loose to the worst of passions, and +thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, can not but be +stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who +can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. +And with what execrations should the statesman be loaded who, +permitting one-half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the +other, transforms those into despots and these into enemies, destroys +the morals of the one part and the _amor patriæ_ of the other! For if +a slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in +preference to that in which he is born to live and labor for another; +in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as +far as depends on his individual endeavors to the evanishment of the +human race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endless +generations proceeding from him. With the morals of the people, their +industry is destroyed. For in a warm climate no man will labor for +himself who can make another labor for him. This is so true that of +the proprietors of slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen +to labor. + + + + +IV + +HIS ACCOUNT OF LOGAN'S FAMOUS SPEECH[36] + + +The principles of their society forbidding all compulsion, they are to +be led to duty and to enterprise by personal influence and persuasion. +Hence eloquence in council, bravery and success in war become the +foundations of all consequence with them. To these acquirements all +their faculties are directed. Of their bravery and address in war we +have multiplied proofs, because we have been the subjects on which +they were exercised. Of their eminence in oratory we have fewer +examples, because it is displayed chiefly in their own councils. Some, +however, we have of very superior luster. I may challenge the whole +orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, if +Europe has furnished any more eminent, to produce a single passage +superior to the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore, when +governor of this State. And, as a testimony of their talents in this +line, I beg leave to introduce it, first stating the incidents +necessary for understanding it. + +[Footnote 36: From Query VI of the "Notes on Virginia."] + +In the spring of the year 1774 a robbery was committed by some Indians +on certain land adventurers on the river Ohio. The whites in that +quarter, according to their custom, undertook to punish this outrage +in a summary way. Captain Michael Cresap, and a certain Daniel +Greathouse leading on these parties, surprized, at different times, +traveling and hunting parties of the Indians, having their women and +children with them, and murdered many. Among these were unfortunately +the family of Logan, a chief celebrated in peace and war, and long +distinguished as the friend of the whites. This unworthy return +provoked his vengeance. He accordingly signalized himself in the war +which ensued. In the autumn of the same year a decisive battle was +fought at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, between the collected forces +of the Shawanese, Mingoes and Delawares, and a detachment of the +Virginia militia. The Indians were defeated and sued for peace. Logan, +however, disdained to be seen among the suppliants. But lest the +sincerity of a treaty should be disturbed, from which so distinguished +a chief absented himself, he sent, by a messenger, the speech, to be +delivered to Lord Dunmore.[37]... + +[Footnote 37: For the text of Logan's speech see Volume VIII of "The +World's Famous Orations," William J. Bryan, editor-in-chief; Francis +W. Halsey, associate editor; Funk and Wagnalls Company, publishers.] + +The story of Logan is repeated precisely as it had been current for +more than a dozen years before it was published. When Lord Dunmore +returned from the expedition against the Indians, in 1774, he and his +officers brought the speech of Logan, and related the circumstances +connected with it. These were so affecting, and the speech itself so +fine a morsel of eloquence, that it became the theme of every +conversation, in Williamsburg particularly, and generally, indeed, +wheresoever any of the officers resided or resorted. I learned it in +Williamsburgh; I believe at Lord Dunmore's; and I find in my +pocket-book of that year (1774) an entry of the narrative, as taken +from the mouth of some person, whose name, however, is not noted, nor +recollected, precisely in the words stated in the "Notes on Virginia." +The speech was published in the _Virginia Gazette_ of that time (I +have it myself in the volume of gazettes of that year), and tho in a +style by no means elegant, yet it was so admired that it flew through +all the public papers of the continent, and through the magazines and +other periodical publications of Great Britain; and those who were +boys at that day will now attest that the speech of Logan used to be +given them as a school exercise for repetition. It was not till about +thirteen or fourteen years after the newspaper publications that the +"Notes on Virginia" were published in America. Combating in these the +contumelious theory of certain European writers, whose celebrity have +currency and weight to their opinions, that our country, from the +combined effects of soil and climate, degenerated animal nature, in +the general, and particularly the moral faculties of man, I considered +the speech of Logan as an apt proof of the contrary, and used it as +such; and I copied, verbatim, the narrative I had taken down in 1774 +and the speech as it had been given us in a better translation by Lord +Dunmore.[38] + +[Footnote 38: The above final paragraph is from the appendix to the +second edition of the "Notes on Virginia," and was called forth by +public criticism of the statements made in the text.] + + + + +GOUVERNEUR MORRIS + + Born in 1752, died in 1816; member of the First and Second + Continental Congresses; chairman of the committee which + conferred with the British peace commissioners in 1778; + drafted a scheme for a system of coinage which is the basis + of our present system; member of the Convention which + drafted the Constitution, taking a leading part in all the + debates; went to France in 1789 on private business, and + witnessed the outbreak of the Revolution; kept a diary and + wrote important letters; minister to France in 1792; United + States Senator from New York in 1800; active in promoting + the Erie Canal project until his death; his biography + written by Theodore Roosevelt; his "Diary and Letters" + published in 1888. + + + + +I + +THE OPENING OF THE FRENCH STATES-GENERAL[39] + + +I had the honor to be present on the fifth of this month at the +opening of the States-General; a spectacle more solemn to the mind +than gaudy to the eye. And yet, there was displayed everything of +noble and of royal in this titled country. A great number of fine +women, and a very great number of fine dresses, ranged round the hall. +On a kind of stage the throne; on the left of the King and a little +below him the Queen; a little behind him to the right, and on chairs, +the princes of the blood; on the right and left, at some distance +from the throne, the various princesses, with the gentlemen and ladies +of their retinue. Advanced on the stage, to the left of the throne, +the Keeper of the Seals. Several officers of the household, richly +caparisoned, strewed about in different places. Behind the throne a +cluster of guards, of the largest size, drest in ancient costumes, +taken from the times of chivalry. In front of the throne on the right, +below the stage, the ministers of state, with a long table before +them. On the opposite side of the hall some benches, on which sat the +maréchals of France, and other great officers. In front of the +ministers, on benches facing the opposite side of the hall, sat the +representatives of the clergy, being priests of all colors, scarlet, +crimson, black, white, and gray, to the number of three hundred. In +front of the maréchals of France, on benches facing the clergy, sat an +equal number of representatives of the nobility, drest in a robe of +black, waistcoats of cloth of gold, and over their shoulders, so as to +hang forward to their waists, a kind of lapels about a quarter of a +yard wide at top, and wider at bottom, made of cloth of gold. On +benches, which reached quite across the hall, and facing the stage, +sat the representatives of the people clothed in black. In the space +between the clergy and nobles, directly in front of the +representatives of the people, and facing the throne, stood the +heralds-at-arms, with their staves and in very rich dresses. + +[Footnote 39: From a letter written in 1789 and addrest to Mrs. Morris +of Philadelphia. Copyright, 1888, by Charles Scribner's Sons.] + +When the King entered, he was saluted with a shout of applause. Some +time after he had taken his seat, he put on a round beaver, +ornamented with white plumes, the part in front turned up, with a +large diamond button in the center. He read his speech well, and was +interrupted at a part which affected his audience by a loud shout of +_Vive le Roi_. After this had subsided, he finished his speech, and +received again an animated acclamation of applause. He then took off +his hat, and after a while put it on again, at which the nobles also +put on their hats, which resembled the King's, excepting the button. +The effect of this display of plumage was fine. + +The Keeper of the Seals then performed his genuflexions to the throne, +and mumbled out, in a very ungraceful manner, a speech of considerable +length, which nobody pretends to judge of, because nobody heard it. He +was succeeded by M. Necker,[40] who soon handed his speech to his +clerk, being unable to go through with it. The clerk delivered it much +better than the minister, and that is no great praise. It was three +hours long, contained many excellent things, but too much of +compliment, too much of repetition, and indeed too much of everything, +for it was too long by two hours, and yet fell short in some capital +points of great expectation. He received, however, very repeated +plaudits from the audience, some of which were merited, but more were +certainly paid to his character than to his composition. M. Necker's +long speech now comes to a close, and the King rises to depart. The +hall resounds with a long loud _Vive le Roi_. He passes the Queen, who +rises to follow him. At this moment some one, imbued with the milk of +human kindness, originates a faint _Vive la Reine_. She makes a humble +courtesy and presents the sinking of the high Austrian spirit; a +livelier acclamation in return, and to this her lowlier bending, which +is succeeded by a shout of loud applause. Here drops the curtain on +the first great act of this great drama, in which Bourbon gives +freedom. His courtiers seem to feel what he seems to be insensible of, +the pang of greatness going off. + +[Footnote 40: Jacques Necker, director of the Treasury in 1776; +resigned in 1781; recalled in 1788; convened the States-General in +1789; dismissed in the same year and again recalled, but finally +resigned in 1790. Married Mlle. Suzanne Curchod, Gibbon's early love, +and became the father of Madame de Staël.] + + + + +II + +OF THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI[41] + + +The late King of this country has been publicly executed. He died in a +manner becoming his dignity. Mounting the scaffold, he exprest anew +his forgiveness of those who persecuted him, and a prayer that his +deluded people might be benefited by his death. On the scaffold he +attempted to speak, but the commanding officer, Santerre, ordered the +drums to beat. The King made two unavailing efforts, but with the same +bad success. The executioners threw him down, and were in such haste +as to let fall the ax before his neck was properly placed, so that he +was mangled. + +[Footnote 41: From a letter to Thomas Jefferson, dated Paris, January +25, 1793, printed in Volume II, Chapter 28, of Morris's "Diary and +Letters." Copyright, 1888, by Charles Scribner's Sons.] + +It would be needless to give you an affecting narrative of +particulars. I proceed to what is more important, having but a few +minutes to write in by the present good opportunity. The greatest care +was taken to prevent a concourse of people. This proves a conviction +that the majority was not favorable to that severe measure. In fact, +the great mass of the people mourned the fate of their unhappy prince. +I have seen grief, such as for the untimely death of a beloved parent. +Everything wears an appearance of solemnity which is awfully +distressing. I have been told by a gentleman from the spot that +putting the King to death would be a signal for disbanding the army in +Flanders. I do not believe this, but incline to think it will have +some effect on the army, already perishing by want and moldering fast +away. The people of that country, if the French army retreats, will, I +am persuaded, take a severe vengeance for the injuries they have felt +and the insults they have been exposed to. Both are great. The war +against France is become popular in Austria, and is becoming so in +Germany. If my judgment be good, the testament of Louis the Sixteenth +will be more powerful against the present rulers of this country than +any army of a hundred thousand men. You will learn the effect it has +in England. I believe that the English will be wound up to a pitch of +enthusiastic horror against France, which their cool and steady temper +seems to be scarcely susceptible of. + +I enclose you a translation of a letter from Sweden, which I have +received from Denmark. You will see thereby that the Jacobin +principles are propagated with zeal in every quarter. Whether the +Regent of Sweden intends to make himself king is a moot point. All the +world knows that the young prince is not legitimate, altho born under +circumstances which render it, legally speaking, impossible to +question his legitimacy. I consider a war between Britain and France +is inevitable. I have not proof, but some very leading circumstances. +Britain will, I think, suspend her blow until she can strike very +hard, unless, indeed, they should think it advisable to seize the +moment of indignation against late events for a declaration of war. +This is not improbable, because it may be coupled with those general +declarations against all kings, under the name of tyrants, which +contain a determination to destroy them, and the threat that if the +ministers of England presume to declare war, an appeal shall be made +to the people at the head of an invading army. Of course, a design may +be exhibited of entering into the heart of Great Britain, to overrun +the Constitution, destroy the rights of property, and finally to +dethrone and murder the King--all which are things the English will +neither approve of nor submit to. + + + + +ALEXANDER HAMILTON + + Born in 1757, died in 1804; a pamphleteer in the agitation + preceding the Revolution; a captain of artillery in 1776; on + Washington's staff in 1777-81: won distinction at Yorktown + in 1781; member of the Continental Congress in 1782; member + of the Constitutional Convention of 1787; Secretary of the + Treasury in 1789; Commander-in-chief of the army in 1799; + killed in a duel by Aaron Burr in 1804. + + + + +I + +OF THE FAILURE OF CONFEDERATION[42] + + +In the course of the preceding papers, I have endeavored, my fellow +citizens, to place before you, in a clear and convincing light, the +importance of union to your political safety and happiness. I have +unfolded to you a complication of dangers to which you would be +exposed, should you permit that sacred knot, which binds the people of +America together, to be severed or dissolved by ambition or by +avarice, by jealousy or by misrepresentation. In the sequel of the +inquiry through which I propose to accompany you the truths intended +to be inculcated will receive further confirmation from facts and +arguments hitherto unnoticed. If the road over which you will still +have to pass should in some places appear to you tedious or irksome, +you will recollect that you are in quest of information on a subject +the most momentous which can engage the attention of a free people; +that the field through which you have to travel is in itself spacious, +and that the difficulties of the journey have been unnecessarily +increased by the mazes with which sophistry has beset the way. It will +be my aim to remove the obstacles to your progress in as compendious a +manner as it can be done without sacrificing utility to dispatch. + +[Footnote 42: From No. 15 of the "Federalist" Papers, now printed in +Volume IX of the "Works of Hamilton," edited by Henry Cabot Lodge.] + +In pursuance of the plan which I have laid down for the discussion of +the subject, the point next in order to be examined is the +"insufficiency of the present confederation to the preservation of the +Union." + +It may perhaps be asked what need there is of reasoning or proof to +illustrate a position which is neither controverted nor doubted; to +which the understandings and feelings of all classes of men assent; +and which in substance is admitted by the opponents as well as by the +friends of the new constitution? It must in truth be acknowledged +that, however these may differ in other respects, they in general +appear to harmonize in the opinion that there are material +imperfections in our national system, and that something is necessary +to be done to rescue us from impending anarchy. The facts that support +this opinion are no longer objects of speculation. They have forced +themselves upon the sensibility of the people at large, and have at +length extorted from those whose mistaken policy has had the principal +share in precipitating the extremity at which we are arrived, a +reluctant confession of the reality of many of those defects in the +scheme of our federal government which have been long pointed out and +regretted by the intelligent friends of the Union. + +We may, indeed, with propriety be said to have reached almost the last +stage of national humiliation. There is scarcely anything that can +wound the pride, or degrade the character of an independent people +which we do not experience. Are there engagements, to the performance +of which we are held by every tie respectable among men? These are the +subjects of constant and unblushing violation. Do we owe debts to +foreigners, and to our own citizens, contracted in a time of imminent +peril, for the preservation of our political existence? These remain +without any proper or satisfactory provision for their discharge. Have +we valuable territories and important posts in the possession of a +foreign power, which, by express stipulations, ought long since to +have been surrendered? These are still retained, to the prejudice of +our interests not less than of our rights. Are we in a condition to +resent or to repel the aggression? We have neither troops, nor +treasury, nor government. Are we even in a condition to remonstrate +with dignity? The just imputations on our own faith, in respect to the +same treaty, ought first to be removed. Are we entitled, by nature and +compact, to a free participation in the navigation of the Mississippi? +Spain excludes us from it. Is public credit an indispensable resource +in time of public danger? We seem to have abandoned its cause as +desperate and irretrievable. Is commerce of importance to national +wealth? Ours is at the lowest point of declension. Is respectability +in the eyes of foreign powers a safeguard against foreign +encroachments? The imbecility of our government even forbids them to +treat with us: our ambassadors abroad are the mere pageants of mimic +sovereignty. + +Is a violent and unnatural decrease in the value of land a symptom of +national distress? The price of improved land, in most parts of the +country, is much lower than can be accounted for by the quantity of +waste land at market, and can only be fully explained by that want of +private and public confidence which are so alarmingly prevalent among +all ranks, and which have a direct tendency to depreciate property of +every kind. Is private credit the friend and patron of industry? That +most useful kind which relates to borrowing and lending is reduced +within the narrowest limits, and this still more from an opinion of +insecurity than from a scarcity of money. To shorten an enumeration of +particulars which can afford neither pleasure nor instruction, it may +in general be demanded what indication is there of national disorder, +poverty, and insignificance that could befall a community so +peculiarly blest with natural advantages as we are, which does not +form a part of the dark catalog of our public misfortunes? + +This is the melancholy situation to which we have been brought by +those very maxims and counsels which would now deter us from adopting +the proposed constitution; and which, not content with having +conducted us to the brink of a precipice, seem resolved to plunge us +into the abyss that awaits us below. Here, my countrymen, impelled by +every motive that ought to influence an enlightened people, let us +make a firm stand for our safety, our tranquillity, our dignity, our +reputation. Let us at last break the fatal charm which has too long +seduced us from the paths of felicity and prosperity. + +It is true, as has been before observed, that facts too stubborn to be +resisted have produced a species of general assent to the abstract +proposition that there exist material defects in our national system; +but the usefulness of the concession, on the part of the old +adversaries of federal measures, is destroyed by a strenuous +opposition to a remedy, upon the only principles that can give it a +chance of success. While they admit that the government of the United +States is destitute of energy, they contend against conferring upon it +those powers which are requisite to supply that energy. They seem +still to aim at things repugnant and irreconcilable; at an +augmentation of federal authority, without a diminution of State +authority; at sovereignty in the Union, and complete independence in +the members. They still, in fine, seem to cherish with blind devotion +the political monster of an _imperium in imperio_. This renders a full +display of the principal defects of the confederation necessary in +order to show that the evils we experience do not proceed from minute +or partial imperfections, but from fundamental errors in the structure +of the building, which can not be amended otherwise than by an +alteration in the very elements and main pillars of the fabric. + +The great and radical vice in the construction of the existing +confederation is in the principle of legislation for states or +governments in their corporate or collective capacities, and as +contra-distinguished from the individuals of whom they consist. Tho +this principle does not run through all the powers delegated to the +Union; yet it pervades and governs those on which the efficacy of the +rest depends: except as to the rule of apportionment, the United +States have an indefinite discretion to make requisitions for men and +money; but they have no authority to raise either by regulations +extending to the individual citizens of America. The consequence of +this is that, tho in theory their resolutions concerning those objects +are laws constitutionally binding on the members of the Union, yet in +practise they are mere recommendations, which the States observe or +disregard at their option. + +It is a singular instance of the capriciousness of the human mind that +after all the admonitions we have had from experience on this head, +there should still be found men who object to the new constitution for +deviating from a principle which has been found the bane of the old; +and which is, in itself, evidently incompatible with the idea of a +government; a principle, in short, which, if it is to be executed at +all, must substitute the violent and sanguinary agency of the sword to +the mild influence of the magistracy. + + + + +II + +HIS REASONS FOR NOT DECLINING BURR'S CHALLENGE[43] + + +On my expected interview with Col. Burr, I think it proper to make +some remarks explanatory of my conduct, motives, and views. I was +certainly desirous of avoiding this interview for the most urgent +reasons: + +[Footnote 43: Written the day before the duel, which took place in +Weehawken, N. J., on July 11, 1804. Hamilton, wounded, was taken to +his house in the upper part of Manhattan Island and there died on the +following day. This statement is now printed in Volume VIII of the +"Works of Hamilton."] + +1. My religious and moral principles are strongly opposed to the +practise of duelling, and it would ever give me pain to be obliged to +shed the blood of a fellow creature in a private combat forbidden by +the law. + +2. My wife and children are extremely dear to me, and my life is of +the utmost importance to them in various views. + +3. I feel a sense of obligation toward my creditors, who, in case of +accident to me, by the forced sale of my property, may be in some +degree sufferers. I did not think myself at liberty, as a man of +probity, lightly to expose them to this hazard. + +4. I am conscious of no ill-will toward Col. Burr, distinct from +political opposition, which, as I trust, has proceeded from pure and +upright motives. + +Lastly, I shall hazard much and can probably gain nothing by the issue +of this interview. + +But it was, as I conceive, impossible to avoid it. There were +intrinsic difficulties in the thing, an artificial embarrassment from +the manner of proceeding on the part of Col. Burr. + +Intrinsic, because it is not to be denied that my animadversion on the +political principles, character and views of Col. Burr have been +extremely severe; and on different occasions I, in common with many +others, have made very unfavorable criticisms on particular instances +of the private conduct of this gentleman. In proportion as these +impressions were entertained with sincerity and uttered with motives +and for purposes which might appear to me commendable would be the +difficulty (until they could be removed by evidence of their being +erroneous) of explanation or apology. The disavowal required of me by +Col. Burr in a general and indefinite form was out of my power, if it +had really been proper for me to submit to be questioned, but I was +sincerely of the opinion that this could not be, and in this opinion I +was confirmed by a very moderate and judicious friend whom I +consulted. Besides that, Col. Burr appeared to me to assume, in the +first instance, a tone unnecessarily peremptory and menacing, and, in +the second, positively offensive. Yet I wished as far as might be +practicable to leave a door open to accommodation. This, I think, will +be inferred from the written communication made by me and by my +directions, and would be confirmed by the conversation between Mr. Van +Ness and myself which arose out of the subject. I am not sure whether, +under all the circumstances, I did not go further in the attempt to +accommodate than a punctilious delicacy will justify. If so, I hope +the motives I have stated will excuse me. It is not my design by what +I have said to affix any odium on the conduct of Col. Burr in this +case. He doubtless has heard of animadversions of mine which bore very +hard upon him, and it is probable that, as usual, they were +accompanied with some falsehoods. He may have supposed himself under +the necessity of acting as he has done. I hope the ground of his +proceeding is such as ought to satisfy his own conscience. I trust, at +the same time, that the world will do me the justice to believe that I +have not censured him on light grounds nor from unworthy motives. I +certainly have had strong reasons for what I have said, tho it is +possible in some particulars I may have been influenced by +misconstructions or misinformation. It is also my ardent wish that I +may have been more mistaken than I think I have been, and that he, by +his future conduct, may show himself worthy of all confidence and +esteem and prove an ornament and a blessing to the country as well, +because it is possible I may have injured Col. Burr, however convinced +myself that my opinions and declarations may have been well founded. + +As for my general principles and temper in relation to similar +affairs, I have resolved, if our interview is conducted in the usual +manner, and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to reserve and +throw away my first fire, and I have thoughts even of reserving my +second fire, and thus giving a double opportunity to Col. Burr to +pause and reflect. It is not, however, my intention to enter into any +explanation on the ground. Apology, from principle, I hope, rather +than pride, is out of the question. To those who, with me abhorring +the practise of duelling, may think that I ought on no account to have +added to the number of examples, I answer that my relative situation +as well in public as in private, enforcing all the considerations +which constitute what men of the world denominate honor, inspired in +me (as I thought) a peculiar necessity not to decline the call. The +ability to be useful in future, whether in resisting mischief or in +effecting good, in those crises of our public affairs which seem +lately to happen would probably be inseparable from a conformity with +public prejudice in this particular.[44] + +[Footnote 44: Among the Hamilton papers is a letter addrest as follows +to Mrs. Hamilton, dated the day before the duel: + +"This letter, my dear Eliza, will not be delivered to you unless I +shall first have terminated my earthly career, to begin, as I humbly +hope from redeeming grace and divine mercy, a happy immortality. If it +had been possible for me to have avoided the interview, my love for +you and my precious children would have been alone a decisive motive. +But it was not possible without sacrifice which would have rendered me +unworthy of your esteem. I need not tell you of the pangs I feel from +the idea of quitting you and exposing you to the anguish I know you +would feel. Nor could I dwell on the topic lest it should unman me. +The consolations of religion, my beloved, can alone support you; and +these you have a right to enjoy. Fly to the bosom of your God and be +comforted. With my last idea I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting +you in a better world. Adieu, best of wives, best of women. Embrace +all my darling children for me."] + + + + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS + + Born in Massachusetts in 1767, died in Washington in 1848; + son of John Adams; graduated from Harvard in 1787; admitted + to the bar in 1791; minister to the Netherlands in 1794-97; + minister to Prussia in 1797-1801; Senator from Massachusetts + in 1803-08; professor at Harvard in 1806-09; minister to + Russia in 1809-14; minister to England in 1815-17; Secretary + of State in 1817-25; elected President in 1824; defeated for + the Presidency by Jackson in 1828; Member of Congress in + 1831-48; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of + Massachusetts in 1834; his "Diary" published in 1874-77. + + + + +I + +OF HIS MOTHER[45] + + +There is not a virtue that can abide in the female heart but it was +the ornament of hers. She had been fifty-four years the delight of my +father's heart, the sweetener of all his toils, the comforter of all +his sorrows, the sharer and heightener of all his joys. It was but the +last time when I saw my father that he told me, with an ejaculation of +gratitude to the Giver of every good and every perfect gift, that in +all the vicissitudes of his fortunes, through all the good report and +evil report of the world, in all his struggles and in all his +sorrows, the affectionate participation and cheering encouragement of +his wife had been his never-failing support, without which he was sure +he should never have lived through them.... + +[Footnote 45: From the "Diary." Adams's mother was Abigail Smith +Adams, daughter of the Rev. William Smith of Weymouth, Mass. Her +letters, which have been much admired, have been published in a work +entitled "The Familiar Letters of John Adams and his Wife."] + +Never have I known another human being the perpetual object of whose +life was so unremittingly to do good. It was a necessity of her +nature. Yet so unostentatious, so unconscious even of her own +excellence that even the objects of her kindness often knew not whence +it came. She had seen the world--its glories without being dazzled; +its vices and follies without being infected by them. She had suffered +often and severely from fits of long and painful sickness, always with +calmness and resignation. She had a profound, but not an obtrusive +sensibility. She was always cheerful, never frivolous; she had neither +gall nor guile. + +Her attention to the domestic economy of her family was +unrivaled--rising with the dawn, and superintending the household +concerns with indefatigable and all-foreseeing care. She had a warm +and lively relish for literature, for social conversation, for +whatever was interesting in the occurrences of the time, and even in +political affairs. She had been, during the war of our Revolution, an +ardent patriot, and the earliest lesson of unbounded devotion to the +cause of their country that her children received was from her. She +had the most delicate sense of propriety of conduct, but nothing +uncharitable, nothing bitter. Her price was indeed above rubies. + + + + +II + +THE MORAL TAINT INHERENT IN SLAVERY[46] + + +After this meeting I walked home with Calhoun, who said that the +principles which I had avowed were just and noble; but that in the +Southern country, whenever they were mentioned, they were always +understood as applying only to white men. Domestic labor was confined +to the blacks, and such was the prejudice that if he, who was the most +popular man in his district, were to keep a white servant in his +house, his character and reputation would be irretrievably ruined. + +[Footnote 46: From the "Diary."] + +I said that this confounding of the ideas of servitude and labor was +one of the bad effects of slavery; but he thought it attended with +many excellent consequences. It did not apply to all kinds of +labor--not, for example, to farming. He himself had often held the +plow; so had his father. Manufacturing and mechanical labor was not +degrading. It was only manual labor--the proper work of slaves. No +white person could descend to that. And it was the best guarantee to +equality among the whites. It produced an unvarying level among them. +It not only did not excite, but did not even admit of inequalities by +which one white man could domineer over another. + +I told Calhoun I could not see things in the same light. It is, in +truth, all perverted sentiment--mistaking labor for slavery, and +dominion for freedom. The discussion of the Missouri question has +betrayed the secret of their souls. In the abstract they admit that +slavery is an evil, they disclaim all participation in the +introduction of it, and cast it all upon the shoulders of our old +granddam Britain. But when probed to the quick upon it, they show at +the bottom of their souls pride and vainglory in their condition of +masterdom. They fancy themselves more generous and noble-hearted than +the plain freemen who labor for subsistence. They look down upon the +simplicity of a Yankee's manners, because he has no habits of +overbearing like theirs and can not treat negroes like dogs. + +It is among the evils of slavery that it taints the very sources of +moral principle. It establishes false estimates of virtue and vice; +for what can be more false and heartless than this doctrine which +makes the first and holiest rights of humanity to depend upon the +color of the skin? It perverts human reason, and reduces man endowed +with logical powers to maintain that slavery is sanctioned by the +Christian religion, that slaves are happy and contented in their +condition, that between master and slave there are ties of mutual +attachment and affection, that the virtues of the master are refined +and exalted by the degradation of the slave; while at the same time +they vent execrations upon the slave-trade, curse Britain for having +given them slaves, burn at the stake negroes convicted of crimes for +the terror of the example, and writhe in agonies of fear at the very +mention of human rights as applicable to men of color. The impression +produced upon my mind by the progress of this discussion is that the +bargain between freedom and slavery contained in the Constitution of +the United States is morally and politically vicious, inconsistent +with the principles upon which alone our Revolution can be justified; +cruel and oppressive, by riveting the chains of slavery, by pledging +the faith of freedom to maintain and perpetuate the tyranny of the +master; and grossly unequal and impolitic, by admitting that slaves +are at once enemies to be kept in subjection, property to be secured +or restored to their owners, and persons not to be represented +themselves, but for whom their masters are privileged with nearly a +double share of representation. + +The consequence has been that this slave representation has governed +the Union. Benjamin portioned above his brethren has ravened as a +wolf. In the morning he has devoured the prey, and at night he has +divided the spoil. It would be no difficult matter to prove, by +reviewing the history of the Union under this Constitution, that +almost everything which has contributed to the honor and welfare of +the nation has been accomplished in despite of them or forced upon +them, and that everything unpropitious and dishonorable, including the +blunders and follies of their adversaries, may be traced to them. I +have favored this Missouri compromise, believing it to be all that +could be effected under the present Constitution, and from extreme +unwillingness to put the Union at hazard. But perhaps it would have +been a wiser as well as a bolder course to have persisted in the +restriction upon Missouri, till it should have terminated in a +convention of the States to amend and revise the Constitution. This +would have produced a new Union of thirteen or fourteen States +unpolluted with slavery, with a great and glorious object to effect, +namely, that of rallying to their standard the other States by the +universal emancipation of their slaves. If the Union must be +dissolved, slavery is precisely the question upon which it ought to +break. For the present, however, this contest is laid asleep. + + + + +WILLIAM E. CHANNING + + Born in Rhode Island in 1780, died in Vermont in 1842; + clergyman, author and philanthropist; one of the chief + founders of Unitarianism; pastor of the Federal Street + Church in Boston in 1803; his complete works published in + 1848. + + + + +OF GREATNESS IN NAPOLEON[47] + + +We close our view of Bonaparte's character by saying that his original +propensities, released from restraint, and pampered by indulgence to a +degree seldom allowed to mortals, grew up into a spirit of despotism +as stern and absolute as ever usurped the human heart. The love of +power and supremacy absorbed, consumed him. No other passion, no +domestic attachment, no private friendship, no love of pleasure, no +relish for letters or the arts, no human sympathy, no human weakness, +divided his mind with the passion for dominion and for dazzling +manifestations of his power. Before this, duty, honor, love, humanity +fell prostrate. Josephine, we are told, was dear to him; but the +devoted wife, who had stood firm and faithful in the day of his +doubtful fortunes, was cast off in his prosperity to make room for a +stranger, who might be more subservient to his power. He was +affectionate, we are told, to his brothers and mother; but his +brothers, the moment they ceased to be his tools, were disgraced; and +his mother, it is said, was not allowed to sit in the presence of her +imperial son. He was sometimes softened, we are told, by the sight of +the field of battle strewn with the wounded and dead. But, if the +Moloch of his ambition claimed new heaps of slain to-morrow, it was +never denied. With all his sensibility, he gave millions to the sword +with as little compunction as he would have brushed away so many +insects which had infested his march. To him all human will, desire, +power were to bend. His superiority none might question. He insulted +the fallen, who had contracted the guilt of opposing his progress; and +not even woman's loveliness, and the dignity of a queen could give +shelter from his contumely. His allies were his vassals, nor was their +vassalage concealed. Too lofty to use the arts of conciliation, +preferring command to persuasion, overbearing, and all-grasping, he +spread distrust, exasperation, fear, and revenge through Europe; and, +when the day of retribution came, the old antipathies and mutual +jealousies of nations were swallowed up in one burning purpose to +prostrate the common tyrant, the universal foe. + +[Footnote 47: From a review of Sir Walter Scott's "Life of Napoleon," +printed in the _Christian Examiner_ in 1827 and now included in Volume +I of the collected edition of Channing's writings.] + +Such was Napoleon Bonaparte. But some will say he was still a great +man. This we mean not to deny. But we would have it understood that +there are various kinds or orders of greatness, and that the highest +did not belong to Bonaparte. There are different orders of greatness. +Among these the first rank is unquestionably due to moral greatness, +or magnanimity; to that sublime energy by which the soul, smitten with +the love of virtue, binds itself indissolubly, for life and for death, +to truth and duty; espouses as its own the interests of human nature; +scorns all meanness and defies all peril; hears in its own conscience +a voice louder than threatenings and thunders; withstands all the +powers of the universe which would sever it from the cause of freedom +and religion; reposes an unfaltering trust in God in the darkest hour, +and is ever "ready to be offered up" on the altar of its country or of +mankind. + +Of this moral greatness, which throws all other forms of greatness +into obscurity, we see not a trace in Napoleon. Tho clothed with the +power of a god, the thought of consecrating himself to the +introduction of a new and higher era, to the exaltation of the +character and condition of his race, seems never to have dawned on his +mind. The spirit of disinterestedness and self-sacrifice seems not to +have waged a moment's war with self-will and ambition. His ruling +passions, indeed, were singularly at variance with magnanimity. Moral +greatness has too much simplicity, is too unostentatious, too +self-subsistent and enters into others' interests with too much +heartiness, to live an hour for what Napoleon always lived, to make +itself the theme, and gaze, and wonder of a dazzled world. Next to +moral, comes intellectual greatness, or genius in the highest sense of +that word; and by this we mean that sublime capacity of thought, +through which the soul, smitten with the love of the true and the +beautiful, essays to comprehend the universe, soars into the heavens, +penetrates the earth, penetrates itself, questions the past, +anticipates the future, traces out the general and all-comprehending +laws of nature, binds together by innumerable affinities and relations +all the objects of its knowledge, rises from the finite and transient +to the infinite and the everlasting, frames to itself from its own +fulness lovelier and sublimer forms than it beholds, discerns the +harmonies between the world within and the world without us, and finds +in every region of the universe types and interpreters of its own deep +mysteries and glorious inspirations. This is the greatness which +belongs to philosophers, and to the master-spirits in poetry and the +fine arts. + +Next comes the greatness of action; and by this we mean the sublime +power of conceiving bold and extensive plans; of constructing and +bringing to bear on a mighty object a complicated machinery of means, +energies, and arrangements, and of accomplishing great outward +effects. To this head belongs the greatness of Bonaparte, and that he +possest it we need not prove, and none will be hardy enough to deny. A +man who raised himself from obscurity to a throne, who changed the +face of the world, who made himself felt through powerful and +civilized nations, who sent the terror of his name across seas and +oceans, whose will was pronounced and feared as destiny, whose +donatives were crowns, whose antechamber was thronged by submissive +princes, who broke down the awful barrier of the Alps and made them a +highway, and whose fame was spread beyond the boundaries of +civilization to the steppes of the Cossack, and the deserts of the +Arab; a man who has left this record of himself in history, has taken +out of our hands the question whether he shall be called great. All +must concede to him a sublime power of action, an energy equal to +great effects. + + + + +JOHN JAMES AUDUBON + + Born in New Orleans In 1780, died in New York in 1857; + educated in France, where he was a pupil of David; failing + to establish himself in business in America, he devoted his + time to the study of birds, making long excursions on foot; + published his "Birds of America" in 1827-30, the price per + copy being $1,000; published his "Ornithological Biography" + in 5 volumes in 1831-39. + + + + +WHERE THE MOCKING-BIRD DWELLS[48] + + +It is where the great magnolia shoots up its majestic trunk, crowned +with evergreen leaves, and decorated with a thousand beautiful +flowers, that perfume the air around; where the forests and fields are +adorned with blossoms of every hue; where the golden orange ornaments +the gardens and groves; where bignonias of various kinds interlace +their climbing stems around the white-flowered stuartia, and, mounting +still higher, cover the summits of the lofty trees around, accompanied +with innumerable vines that here and there festoon the dense foliage +of the magnificent woods, lending to the vernal breeze a slight +portion of the perfume of their clustered flowers; where a genial +warmth seldom forsakes the atmosphere; where berries and fruits of all +descriptions are met with at every step--in a word, it is where Nature +seems to have paused, as she passed over the earth, and, opening her +stores, to have strewed with unsparing hand the diversified seeds from +which have sprung all the beautiful and splendid forms which I should +in vain attempt to describe, that the mocking-bird should have fixt +its abode--there only that its wondrous song should be heard. + +[Footnote 48: From Volume II, page 187, of the "Birds of America," +edition of 1841.] + +But where is that favored land? It is in that great continent to whose +distant shores Europe has sent forth her adventurous sons, to wrest +for themselves a habitation from the wild inhabitants of the forest, +and to convert the neglected soil into fields of exuberant fertility. +It is, reader, in Louisiana that these bounties of nature are in the +greatest perfection. It is there that you should listen to the love +song of the mocking-bird, as I at this moment do. See how he flies +round his mate, with motions as light as those of the butterfly! His +tail is widely expanded, he mounts in the air to a small distance, +describes a circle, and, again alighting, approaches his beloved one, +his eyes gleaming with delight, for she has already promised to be his +and his only. His beautiful wings are gently raised, he bows to his +love, and, again bouncing upward, opens his bill and pours forth his +melody, full of exultation at the conquest he has made. + +They are not the soft sounds of the flute or the hautboy that I hear, +but the sweeter notes of nature's own music. The mellowness of the +song, the varied modulations and gradations, the extent of its +compass, the great brilliancy of execution are unrivaled. There is +probably no bird in the world that possesses all the musical +qualifications of this king of song, who has derived all from Nature's +self. Yes, reader, all! + +No sooner has he again alighted, and the conjugal contract has been +sealed, than, as if his breast were about to be rent with delight, he +again pours forth his notes with more softness and richness than +before. He now soars higher, glancing around with a vigilant eye, to +assure himself that none has witnessed his bliss. When these love +scenes are over, he dances through the air, full of animation and +delight, and, as if to convince his lovely mate that to enrich her +hopes he has much more love in store, he that moment begins anew, and +imitates all the notes which nature has imparted to the other +songsters of the grove. + + + + +WASHINGTON IRVING + + Born in New York in 1783, died at Sunnyside in 1859; studied + law, but owing to ill health went abroad in 1804, remaining + two years; returning home, began to publish "Salmagundi" in + company with James K. Paulding; published in 1809 his + "History of New York," which established his literary + reputation; went abroad in 1815, remaining until 1832; + attached to the legation in Madrid in 1826; secretary of + legation in London in 1829; minister to Spain in 1842; + published the "Sketch Book" in 1819-20, "Bracebridge Hall" + in 1822, "Tales of a Traveler" in 1824, "Christopher + Columbus" in 1828, "Conquest of Granada" in 1829, "The + Alhambra" in 1832, "Life of Washington" in 1855-59; author + of many other books; his "Life and Letters" published in + 1861-67. + + + + +I + +THE LAST OF THE DUTCH GOVERNORS OF NEW YORK[49] + + +Peter Stuyvesant was the last, and, like the renowned Wouter Van +Twiller, the best of our ancient Dutch governors. Wouter having +surpassed all who preceded him, and Peter, or Piet, as he was sociably +called by the old Dutch burghers, who were ever prone to familiarize +names, having never been equaled by any successor. He was, in fact, +the very man fitted by nature to retrieve the desperate fortunes of +her beloved province, had not the Fates, those most potent and +unrelenting of all ancient spinsters, destined them to inextricable +confusion. + +[Footnote 49: From Book V, Chapter I, of "Knickerbocker's History of +New York."] + +To say merely that he was a hero would be doing him great +injustice--he was in truth a combination of heroes--for he was of a +sturdy, raw-boned make like Ajax Telamon, with a pair of round +shoulders that Hercules would have given his hide for (meaning his +lion's hide) when he undertook to ease old Atlas of his load. He was, +moreover, as Plutarch describes Coriolanus, not only terrible for the +force of his arm, but likewise of his voice, which sounded as tho it +came out of a barrel; and, like the self-same warrior, he possest a +sovereign contempt for the sovereign people, and an iron aspect, which +was enough of itself to make the very bowels of his adversaries quake +with terror and dismay. All this martial excellency of appearance was +inexpressibly heightened by an accidental advantage, with which I am +surprized that neither Homer nor Virgil have graced any of their +heroes. This was nothing less than a wooden leg,[50] which was the +only prize he had gained in bravely fighting the battles of his +country, but of which he was so proud that he was often heard to +declare he valued it more than all his other limbs put together; +indeed, so highly did he esteem it that he had it gallantly enchased +and relieved with silver devices, which caused it to be related in +divers histories and legends that he wore a silver leg. + +[Footnote 50: Stuyvesant lost his leg in the West Indies, where he was +serving in a Dutch command. In 1634 he became director of the colony +of Curaçao. In 1636 he was made director-general of the Dutch colony +in North America. He retained this office, in which he was notably +efficient, until the surrender of New Amsterdam to the English in +1664. Stuyvesant spent the remainder of his life in New York on a farm +called the Bowery, where he died in 1672. He was buried in grounds +where now stands St. Mark's Church.] + +Like that choleric warrior Achilles, he was somewhat subject to +extempore bursts of passion, which were rather unpleasant to his +favorites and attendants, whose perceptions he was apt to quicken, +after the manner of his illustrious imitator, Peter the Great, by +anointing their shoulders with his walking-staff. + +Tho I can not find that he had read Plato, or Aristotle, or Hobbes, or +Bacon, or Algernon Sydney, or Tom Paine, yet did he sometimes manifest +a shrewdness and sagacity in his measures that one would hardly expect +from a man who did not know Greek, and had never studied the ancients. +True it is, and I confess it with sorrow, that he had an unreasonable +aversion to experiments, and was fond of governing his province after +the simplest manner; but then he contrived to keep it in better order +than did the erudite Kieft,[51] tho he had all the philosophers, +ancient and modern, to assist and perplex him. I must likewise own +that he made but very few laws; but then again he took care that those +few were rigidly and impartially enforced: and I do not know but +justice on the whole was as well administered as if there had been +volumes of sage acts and statutes yearly made, and daily neglected and +forgotten. + +[Footnote 51: William Kieft, the predecessor of Stuyvesant in the +government of New Amsterdam, was a tyrannical, blundering +administrator, whose rule was marked by disastrous wars with the +Indians and dissension among his own people which nearly ruined the +province. He was recalled by the home government, and while on his way +to Holland was lost in the wreck, on the English coast, of the ship in +which he had sailed.] + +He was, in fact, the very reverse of his predecessors, being neither +tranquil and inert, like Walter the Doubter, nor restless and +fidgeting, like William the Testy; but a man, or rather a governor of +such uncommon activity and decision of mind that he never sought nor +accepted the advice of others; depending bravely upon his single head, +as would a hero of yore upon his single arm, to carry him through all +difficulties and dangers. To tell the simple truth, he wanted nothing +more to complete him as a statesman than to think always right; for no +one can say but that he always acted as he thought. He was never a man +to flinch when he found himself in a scrape; but to dash forward +through thick and thin, trusting, by hook or by crook, to make all +things straight in the end. In a word, he possest, in an eminent +degree, that great quality in a statesman, called perseverance by the +polite, but nicknamed obstinacy by the vulgar. A wonderful salve for +official blunders; since he who perseveres in error without flinching +gets the credit of boldness and consistency, while he who wavers in +seeking to do what is right gets stigmatized as a trimmer. This much +is certain; and it is a maxim well worthy the attention of all +legislators, great and small, who stand shaking in the wind, +irresolute which way to steer, that a ruler who follows his own will +pleases himself; while he who seeks to satisfy the wishes and whims of +others runs great risk of pleasing nobody. There is nothing, too, like +putting down one's foot resolutely, when in doubt, and letting things +take their course. The clock that stands still points right twice in +the four-and-twenty hours: while others may keep going continually and +be continually going wrong. + +Nor did this magnanimous quality escape the discernment of the good +people of Nieuw Nederlandts; on the contrary, so much were they struck +with the independent will and vigorous resolution displayed on all +occasions by their new governor, that they universally called him +Hard-Koppig Piet; or Peter the Headstrong--a great compliment to the +strength of his understanding. + +If, from all that I have said, thou dost not gather, worthy reader, +that Peter Stuyvesant was a tough, sturdy, valiant, weather-beaten, +mettlesome, obstinate, leather-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited +old governor, either I have written to but little purpose, or thou art +very dull at drawing conclusions. + + + + +II + +THE AWAKENING OF RIP VAN WINKLE[52] + + +On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had first +seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes--it was a bright +sunny morning. The birds were hopping and twittering among the +bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure +mountain breeze. "Surely," thought Rip, "I have not slept here all +night." He recalled the occurrences before he fell asleep. The strange +man with a keg of liquor--the mountain ravine--the wild retreat among +the rocks--the wo-begone party at nine-pins--the flagon--"Oh! that +flagon! that wicked flagon!" thought Rip--"what excuse shall I make to +Dame Van Winkle!" + +[Footnote 52: From the "Sketch Book," originally published in parts in +1819-20, "Rip Van Winkle" being included in the first number. Irving's +story has furnished the material for eight or ten plays, the most +successful of which was written by Dion Boucicault. Boucicault's work +was materially altered by Joseph Jefferson into the play now closely +associated with Jefferson's fame.] + +He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well-oiled +fowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel +incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten. +He now suspected that the grave roysterers of the mountain had put a +trick upon him, and, having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of +his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, but he might have strayed away +after a squirrel or partridge. He whistled after him and shouted his +name, but all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but +no dog was to be seen. + +He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's gambol, and +if he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun. As he rose +to walk, he found himself stiff in the joints, and wanting in his +usual activity. "These mountain beds do not agree with me," thought +Rip, "and if this frolic should lay me up with a fit of the +rheumatism, I shall have a blest time with Dame Van Winkle." With some +difficulty he got down into the glen: he found the gully up which he +and his companion had ascended the preceding evening; but to his +astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it, leaping from +rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling murmurs. He, however, +made shift to scramble up its sides, working his toilsome way through +thickets of birch, sassafras, and witch-hazel, and sometimes tript up +or entangled by the wild grape-vines that twisted their coils or +tendrils from tree to tree, and spread a kind of network in his path. + +At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs +to the amphitheater; but no traces of such opening remained. The rocks +presented a high impenetrable wall over which the torrent came +tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad deep +basin, black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, +poor Rip was brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after +his dog; he was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, +sporting high in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; +and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at +the poor man's perplexities. What was to be done? the morning was +passing away, and Rip felt famished for want of his breakfast. He +grieved to give up his dog and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but +it would not do to starve among the mountains. He shook his head, +shouldered the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and +anxiety, turned his steps homeward. + +As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none whom +he knew, which somewhat surprized him, for he had thought himself +acquainted with every one in the country round. Their dress, too, was +of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all +stared at him with equal marks of surprize, and whenever they cast +their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant +recurrence of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, +when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long! + +He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange +children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray +beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he recognized for an old +acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was +altered; it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses +which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar +haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors--strange +faces at the windows--everything was strange. His mind now misgave +him; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were +not bewitched. Surely this was his native village, which he had left +but the day before. There stood the Catskill Mountains--there ran the +silver Hudson at a distance--there was every hill and dale precisely +as it had always been--Rip was sorely perplexed--"That flagon last +night," thought he, "has addled my poor head sadly!" + +It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, +which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to bear +the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to +decay--the roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off +the hinges. A half-starved dog that looked like Wolf was skulking +about it. Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his +teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed--"My very dog," +sighed poor Rip, "has forgotten me!" + +He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had +always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently +abandoned. This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears--he +called loudly for his wife and children--the lonely chambers rang for +a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence. + +He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the village +inn--but it too was gone. A large rickety wooden building stood in its +place, with great gaping windows, some of them broken and mended with +old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, "The Union +Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." Instead of the great tree that used to +shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a +tall naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red +night-cap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular +assemblage of stars and stripes--all this was strange and +incomprehensible. He recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of +King George, under which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe; but +even this was singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was changed for +one of blue and buff, a sword was held in the hand instead of a +scepter, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was +painted in large characters, GENERAL WASHINGTON. + +There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but none that +Rip recollected. The very character of the people seemed changed. +There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the +accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked in vain for the +sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long +pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco-smoke instead of idle speeches; or +Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient +newspaper. In place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with his +pockets full of handbills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of +citizens--elections--members of Congress--liberty--Bunker Hill--heroes +of seventy-six--and other words, which were a perfect Babylonish +jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle. + +The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his rusty +fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at +his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians. +They crowded round him, eyeing him from head to foot with great +curiosity. The orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly +aside, inquired "on which side he voted?" Rip stared in vacant +stupidity. Another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, +and, rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear "whether he was Federal or +Democrat?" Rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when +a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made +his way through the crowd, putting them to right and left with his +elbows as he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with arms +akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat +penetrating, as it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere +tone "what brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and +a mob at his heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot in the +village?" "Alas! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I am a +poor quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the +King, God bless him!" + +Here a general shout burst from the bystanders--"A Tory! a Tory! a +spy! a refugee! hustle him! away with him!" It was with great +difficulty that the self-important man in the cocked hat restored +order; and, having assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again +of the unknown culprit what he came there for, and whom he was +seeking? The poor man humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but +merely came there in search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep +about the tavern. + +"Well--who are they?--name them." + +Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, "Where's Nicholas +Vedder?" + +There was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a +thin piping voice, "Nicholas Vedder! why, he is dead and gone these +eighteen years! There was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that +used to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone too." + +"Where's Brom Dutcher?" + +"Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he +was killed at the storming of Stony Point--others say he was drowned +in a squall at the foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know--he never came +back again." + +"Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?" + +"He went off to the wars too, was a great militia general, and is now +in Congress." + +Rip's heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and +friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer +puzzled him too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of +matters which he could not understand: war--Congress--Stony Point; he +had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in +despair, "Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?" + +"Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three--"oh, to be sure! that's +Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the tree." + +Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, as he went up +the mountain: apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor +fellow was now completely confounded. He doubted his own identity, and +whether he was himself or another man. In the midst of his +bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what +was his name? + +"God knows," exclaimed he, at his wit's end; "I'm not myself--I'm +somebody else--that's me yonder--no--that's somebody else got into my +shoes--I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and +they've changed my gun, and everything's changed, and I'm changed, and +I can't tell what's my name, or who I am!" + +The bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink +significantly, and tap their fingers against their foreheads. There +was a whisper, also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old +fellow from doing mischief, at the very suggestion of which the +self-important man in the cocked hat retired with some precipitation. +At this critical moment a fresh comely woman prest through the throng +to get a peep at the gray-bearded man. She had a chubby child in her +arms, which, frightened at his looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried +she, "hush, you little fool; the old man won't hurt you." The name of +the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened +a train of recollections in his mind. "What is your name, my good +woman," asked he. + +"Judith Gardenier." + +"And your father's name?" + +"Ah, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name, but it's twenty years +since he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of +since--his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself, or +was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a +little girl." + +Rip had but one question more to ask; but he put it with a faltering +voice: + +"Where's your mother?" + +"Oh, she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood-vessel +in a fit of passion at a New England peddler." + +There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. The +honest man could contain himself no longer. He caught his daughter and +her child in his arms. "I am your father!" cried he--"Young Rip Van +Winkle once--old Rip Van Winkle now!--Does nobody know poor Rip Van +Winkle?" + +All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the +crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under it in his face for +a moment, exclaimed, "Sure enough! it is Rip Van Winkle--it is +himself! Welcome home again, old neighbor--why, where have you been +these twenty long years?" + +Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him +but as one night. The neighbors stared when they heard it; some were +seen to wink at each other, and put their tongues in their cheeks: and +the self-important man in the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was +over, had returned to the field, screwed down the corners of his +mouth, and shook his head--upon which there was a general shaking of +the head throughout the assemblage. + +It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter +Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing up the road. He was a +descendant of the historian of that name, who wrote one of the +earliest accounts of the province. Peter was the most ancient +inhabitant of the village, and well versed in all the wonderful events +and traditions of the neighborhood. He recollected Rip at once, and +corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner. He assured the +company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the +historian, that the Catskill Mountains had always been haunted by +strange beings. That it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, +the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil +there every twenty years, with his crew of the _Half-moon_; being +permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and +keep a guardian eye upon the river, and the great city called by his +name. That his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses +playing at nine-pins in a hollow of the mountain; and that he himself +had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like +distant peals of thunder. + +To make a long story short, the company broke up, and returned to the +more important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him home +to live with her; she had a snug, well-furnished house, and a stout +cheery farmer for a husband, whom Rip recollected for one of the +urchins that used to climb upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir, +who was the ditto of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was +employed to work on the farm; but evinced an hereditary disposition to +attend to anything else but his business. + + + + +III + +AT ABBOTSFORD WITH SCOTT[53] + + +I had a letter of introduction to him from Thomas Campbell the poet, +and had reason to think, from the interest he had taken in some of my +earlier scribblings,[54] that a visit from me would not be deemed an +intrusion. + +[Footnote 53: From the collection of papers entitled "Crayon +Miscellany." Irving's visit was made in 1817. His account of it was +not published until nearly twenty years afterward--that is, after +Scott's death.] + +[Footnote 54: Irving at that time had published little more than the +"Salmagundi" papers and "Knickerbocker's History of New York."] + +On the following morning, after an early breakfast, I set off in a +post-chaise for the Abbey. + +On the way thither I stopt at the gate of Abbotsford, and sent the +postilion to the house with the letter of introduction and my card, on +which I had written that I was on my way to the ruins of Melrose +Abbey, and wished to know whether it would be agreeable to Mr. Scott +(he had not yet been made a baronet) to receive a visit from me in the +course of the morning.... + +In a little while the "lord of the castle" himself made his +appearance. I knew him at once by the descriptions I had read and +heard, and the likeness that had been published of him. He was tall, +and of a large and powerful frame. His dress was simple, and almost +rustic: an old green shooting-coat, with a dog-whistle at the +buttonhole, brown linen pantaloons, stout shoes that tied at the +ankles, and a white hat that had evidently seen service. He came +limping up the gravel-walk, aiding himself by a stout walking-staff, +but moving rapidly and with vigor. By his side jogged along a large +iron-gray stag-hound of most grave demeanor, who took no part in the +clamor of the canine rabble, but seemed to consider himself bound, for +the dignity of the house, to give me a courteous reception. + +Before Scott had reached the gate he called out in a hearty tone, +welcoming me to Abbotsford, and asking news of Campbell. Arrived at +the door of the chaise, he grasped me warmly by the hand: "Come, drive +down, drive down to the house," said he, "ye're just in time for +breakfast, and afterward ye shall see all the wonders of the Abbey." + +I would have excused myself, on the plea of having already made my +breakfast. "Hout, man," cried he, "a ride in the morning in the keen +air of the Scotch hills is warrant enough for a second breakfast." I +was accordingly whirled to the portal of the cottage, and in a few +moments found myself seated at the breakfast-table.... + +Scott proposed a ramble to show me something of the surrounding +country. As we sallied forth, every dog in the establishment turned +out to attend us. There was the old stag-hound Maida, a noble animal, +and a great favorite of Scott's; and Hamlet, the black greyhound, a +wild thoughtless youngster, not yet arrived to the years of +discretion; and Finette, a beautiful setter, with soft silken hair, +long pendent ears, and a mild eye, the parlor favorite. When in front +of the house, we were joined by a superannuated greyhound, who came +from the kitchen wagging his tail, and was cheered by Scott as an old +friend and comrade. + +In our walks, Scott would frequently pause in conversation to notice +his dogs and speak to them, as if rational companions; and, indeed, +there appears to be a vast deal of rationality in these faithful +attendants on man, derived from their close intimacy with him. Maida +deported himself with a gravity becoming his age and size, and seemed +to consider himself called upon to preserve a great degree of dignity +and decorum in our society. As he jogged along a little distance ahead +of us, the young dogs would gambol about him, leap on his neck, worry +at his ears, and endeavor to tease him into a frolic. The old dog +would keep on for a long time with imperturbable solemnity, now and +then seeming to rebuke the wantonness of his young companions.... + +We had not walked much further before we saw the two Miss Scotts +advancing along the hillside to meet us. The morning's studies being +over, they had set off to take a ramble on the hills, and gather +heather-blossoms with which to decorate their hair for dinner. As they +came bounding lightly, like young fawns, and their dresses fluttering +in the pure summer breeze, I was reminded of Scott's own description +of his children in his introduction to one of the cantos of "Marmion." + +As they approached, the dogs all sprang forward and gamboled around +them. They played with them for a time, and then joined us with +countenances full of health and glee. Sophia,[55] the eldest, was the +most lively and joyous, having much of her father's varied spirit in +conversation, and seeming to catch excitement from his words and +looks. Ann was of quieter mood, rather silent, owing, in some measure, +no doubt, to her being some years younger. + +[Footnote 55: Sophia three years later became the wife of John Gibson +Lockhart, the biographer of Scott.] + +At the dinner Scott had laid by his half-rustic dress, and appeared +clad in black. The girls, too, in completing their toilet, had twisted +in their hair the sprigs of purple heather which they had gathered on +the hillside, and looked all fresh and blooming from their breezy +walk. + +There was no guest at dinner but myself. Around the table were two or +three dogs in attendance. Maida, the old stag-hound, took his seat at +Scott's elbow, looking up wistfully in his master's eye, while +Finette, the pet spaniel, placed herself near Mrs. Scott, by whom, I +soon perceived, she was completely spoiled.... + +Among the other important and privileged members of the household who +figured in attendance at the dinner was a large gray cat, who, I +observed, was regaled from time to time with titbits from the table. +This sage grimalkin was a favorite of both master and mistress, and +slept at night in their room; and Scott laughingly observed that one +of the least wise parts of their establishment was that the window was +left open at night for puss to go in and out. The cat assumed a kind +of ascendency among the quadrupeds--sitting in state in Scott's +armchair, and occasionally stationing himself on a chair beside the +door, as if to review his subjects as they passed, giving each dog a +cuff beside the ears as he went by. This clapper-clawing was always +taken in good part; it appeared to be, in fact, a mere act of +sovereignty on the part of grimalkin, to remind the others of their +vassalage; which they acknowledged by the most perfect acquiescence. A +general harmony prevailed between sovereign and subjects, and they +would all sleep together in the sunshine.... + +After dinner we adjourned to the drawing-room, which served also for +study and library. Against the wall on one side was a long +writing-table, with drawers; surmounted by a small cabinet of polished +wood, with folding-drawers richly studded with brass ornaments, within +which Scott kept his most valuable papers. Above the cabinet, in a +kind of niche, was a complete corselet of glittering steel, with a +closed helmet, and flanked by gantlets and battle-axes. Around were +hung trophies and relics of various kinds; a simitar of Tipu Sahib; a +Highland broadsword from Flodden field; a pair of Rippon spurs from +Bannockburn, and above all, a gun which had belonged to Rob Roy, and +bore his initials, R. M. C.,[56] an object of peculiar interest to me +at the time, as it was understood Scott was actually engaged in +printing a novel founded on the story of that famous outlaw. + +[Footnote 56: Robert McGregor Campbell was the real name of Rob Roy.] + +On each side of the cabinet were bookcases, well stored with works of +romantic fiction in various languages, many of them rare and +antiquated. This, however, was merely his cottage library, the +principal part of his books being at Edinburgh. + +From this little cabinet of curiosities Scott drew forth a manuscript +picked up on the field at Waterloo, containing copies of several songs +popular at the time in France. The paper was dabbled with blood--"the +very life-blood, very possibly," said Scott, "of some gay young +officer who had cherished these songs as a keepsake from some +lady-love in Paris."... + +The evening passed away delightfully in this quaint-looking apartment, +half study, half drawing-room. Scott had read several passages from +the old romances of Arthur, with a fine deep sonorous voice, and a +gravity of tone that seemed to suit the antiquated black-letter +volume. It was a rich treat to hear such a work, read by such a +person, and in such a place; and his appearance as he sat reading, in +a large armed chair, with his favorite hound Maida at his feet and +surrounded by books and relics, and border trophies, would have formed +an admirable and most characteristic picture. + +While Scott was reading, the sage grimalkin already mentioned had +taken his seat in a chair beside the fire, and remained with fixt eye +and grave demeanor, as if listening to the reader. I observed to Scott +that his cat seemed to have a black-letter taste in literature. + +"Ah," said he, "these cats are a very mysterious kind of folk. There +is always more passing in their minds than we are aware of. It comes, +no doubt, from their being so familiar with witches and warlocks."... + +When I retired for the night, I found it almost impossible to sleep; +the idea of being under the roof of Scott, of being on the borders of +the Tweed in the very center of that region which had for some time +past been the favorite scene of romantic fiction, and above all, the +recollections of the ramble I had taken, the company in which I had +taken it, and the conversation which had passed, all fermented in my +mind, and nearly drove sleep from my pillow. + +On the following morning the sun darted his beams from over the hills +through the low lattice window. I rose at an early hour, and looked +out between the branches of eglantine which overhung the casement. To +my surprize Scott was already up and forth, seated on a fragment of +stone, and chatting with the workmen employed on the new building.[57] +I had supposed, after the time he had wasted upon me yesterday, he +would be closely occupied this morning; but he appeared like a man of +leisure, who had nothing to do but bask in the sunshine and amuse +himself. + +[Footnote 57: This "new building" became in time the mansion now known +as Abbotsford. At the time of Irving's visit Scott was living in a +small villa which he had built after settling at the place in 1812. +The present large castellated residence was produced by making +extensive additions to the original villa.] + +I soon drest myself and joined him. He talked about his proposed plans +of Abbotsford: happy would it have been for him could he have +contented himself with his delightful little vine-covered cottage, and +the simple yet hearty and hospitable style in which he lived at the +time of my visit. The great pile of Abbotsford, with the huge expense +it entailed upon him, of servants, retainers, guests, and baronial +style, was a drain upon his purse, a tax upon his exertions, and a +weight upon his mind, and finally crusht him.... + +After breakfast Scott was occupied for some time correcting +proof-sheets, which he had received by the mail. The novel of "Rob +Roy,"[58] as I have already observed, was at that time in the press, +and I supposed them to be the proof-sheets of that work. The +authorship of the Waverley novels was still a matter of conjecture and +uncertainty; tho few doubted their being principally written by Scott. +One proof to me of his being the author was that he never adverted to +them. A man so fond of anything Scottish, and anything relating to +national history or local legend, could not have been mute respecting +such productions, had they been written by another. He was fond of +quoting the works of his contemporaries; he was continually reciting +scraps of border songs, or relating anecdotes of border story. With +respect to his own poems and their merits, however, he was mute, and +while with him I observed a scrupulous silence on the subject. + +[Footnote 58: Of his novels Scott at this time had published only +"Waverley," "Guy Mannering," "The Antiquarii," "Old Mortality," and +the "Black Dwarf."] + + + + +JAMES FENIMORE COOPER + + Born In New Jersey in 1789, died in Cooperstown, N. Y., in + 1851; son of William Cooper, the pioneer who founded + Cooperstown; settled in Cooperstown in 1790; entered Yale + College in 1803, remaining three years; midshipman in the + navy in 1808; married in 1811 and resigned from the navy; + published "Precaution" and "The Spy," both in 1821; the + latter established his literary reputation; "The Pioneers" + in 1823, "The Pilot" in 1823, "The Last of the Mohicans" in + 1826; "The Prairie" in 1827, "The Pathfinder" in 1840, "The + Deerslayer" in 1841; author of many other books. + + + + +I + +HIS FATHER'S ARRIVAL AT OTSEGO LAKE[59] + + +Near the center of the State of New York lies an extensive district of +country whose surface is a succession of hills and dales, or, to speak +with greater deference to geographical definitions, of mountains and +valleys. It is among these hills that the Delaware takes its rise; +and, flowing from the limpid lakes and thousand springs of this +region, the numerous sources of the Susquehanna meander through the +valleys, until, uniting their streams, they form one of the proudest +rivers of the United States. The mountains are generally arable to the +tops, altho instances are not wanting where the sides are jutted with +rocks, that aid greatly in giving to the country that romantic and +picturesque character which it so eminently possesses. + +[Footnote 59: From Chapters I and III of "The Pioneers." Cooper's +father, Judge William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown, first +visited Otsego Lake in 1785, built a house there in 1787 and in 1790 +made it the permanent home of his family. In 1790 the place contained +35 other people. The selection here given pictures the circumstances +in which Judge Cooper, as well as Marmaduke Temple, visited Otsego +Lake. Fenimore Cooper was not two years old when his father settled +there. His native place was Burlington, N. J. Judge Cooper's settling +at Cooperstown was a consequence of his having acquired, through +foreclosure, extensive lands which George Croghan had failed in an +attempt to settle, near the lake. Except for this circumstance, it is +unlikely that his son ever would have acquired that intimate knowledge +of Indian and frontier life of which he has left such notable pictures +in his books.] + +The vales are narrow, rich and cultivated, with a stream uniformly +winding through each. Beautiful and thriving villages are found +interspersed along the margins of the small lakes, or situated at +those points of the stream which are favorable for manufacturing; and +neat and comfortable farms, with every indication of wealth about +them, are scattered profusely through the vales, and even to the +mountain tops. Roads diverge in every direction from the even and +graceful bottoms of the valleys to the most rugged and intricate +passes of the hills. Academies[60] and minor edifices of learning meet +the eye of the stranger at every few miles as he winds his way through +this uneven territory, and places for the worship of God abound with +that frequency which characterizes a moral and reflecting people, and +with that variety of exterior and canonical government which flows +from unfettered liberty of conscience.... + +[Footnote 60: An "academy" was a high school or seminary, of which an +example could be found as late as fifty years ago in almost every +prosperous village of Central New York.] + +It was near the setting of the sun, on a clear, cold day in December, +when a sleigh was moving slowly up one of the mountains in the +district we have described. The day had been fine for the season, and +but two or three large clouds, whose color seemed brightened by the +light reflected from the mass of snow that covered the earth, floated +in a sky of the purest blue. The road wound along the brow of a +precipice, and on one side was upheld by a foundation of logs, piled +one upon the other, while a narrow excavation in the mountain in the +opposite direction had made a passage of sufficient width for the +ordinary traveling of that day. But logs, excavation, and everything +that did not reach several feet above the earth lay alike buried +beneath the snow. A single track, barely wide enough to receive the +sleigh, denoted the route of the highway, and this was sunk nearly two +feet below the surrounding surface. + +In the vale, which lay at a distance of several hundred feet lower, +there was what, in the language of the country, was called a clearing, +and all the usual improvements of a new settlement; these even +extended up the hill to the point where the road turned short and ran +across the level land, which lay on the summit of the mountain; but +the summit itself remained in the forest. There was glittering in the +atmosphere, as if it was filled with innumerable shining particles; +and the noble bay horses that drew the sleigh were covered, in many +parts, with a coat of hoar-frost. The vapor from their nostrils was +seen to issue like smoke; and every object in the view, as well as +every arrangement of the travelers, denoted the depth of a winter in +the mountains. + +The harness, which was of a deep, dull black, differing from the +glossy varnishing of the present day, was ornamented with enormous +plates and buckles of brass, that shone like gold in those transient +beams of the sun which found their way obliquely through the tops of +the trees. Huge saddles, studded with nails and fitted with cloth that +served as blankets to the shoulders of the cattle, supported four +high, square-topped turrets, through which the stout reins led from +the mouths of the horses to the hands of the driver, who was a negro +of apparently twenty years of age. His face, which Nature had colored +with a glistening black, was now mottled with the cold, and his large +shining eyes filled with tears; a tribute to its power, that the keen +frosts of those regions always extracted from one of his African +origin. Still, there was a smiling expression of good humor in his +happy countenance, that was created by the thoughts of home, and a +Christmas fireside, with its Christmas frolics.... + +A dark spot of a few acres in extent at the southern extremity of this +beautiful flat, and immediately under the feet of our travelers, alone +showed by its rippling surface, and the vapors which exhaled from it, +that what at first might seem a plain was one of the mountain lakes, +locked in the frosts of winter. A narrow current rushed impetuously +from its bosom at the open place we mentioned and was to be traced for +miles as it wound its way toward the south through the real valley, by +its borders of hemlock and pine, and by the vapor which arose from its +warmer surface into the chill atmosphere of the hills. The banks of +this lovely basin, at its outlet,[61] or southern end, were steep, but +not high; and in that direction the land continued, far as the eye +could reach, a narrow but graceful valley, along which the settlers +had scattered their humble habitations, with a profusion that bespoke +the quality of the soil, and the comparative facilities of +intercourse. + +[Footnote 61: The outlet of this lake is the Susquehanna River.] + +Immediately on the bank of the lake and at its foot stood the village +of Templeton.[62] It consisted of some fifty buildings, including +those of every description, chiefly built of wood and which in their +architecture bore no great marks of taste, but which also, by the +unfinished appearance of most of the dwellings, indicated the hasty +manner of their construction. To the eye they presented a variety of +colors. A few were white in both front and rear, but more bore that +expensive color on their fronts only, while their economical but +ambitious owners had covered the remaining sides of the edifices with +a dingy red. One or two were slowly assuming the russet of age; while +the uncovered beams that were to be seen through the broken windows on +their second stories showed that either the taste or the vanity of +their proprietors had led them to undertake a task which they were +unable to accomplish. + +[Footnote 62: Templeton is another name for Cooperstown.] + +The whole were grouped in a manner that aped the streets of the city, +and were evidently so arranged by the directions of one who looked to +the wants of posterity rather than to the convenience of the present +incumbents. Some three or four of the better sort of buildings, in +addition to the uniformity of their color, were fitted with green +blinds, which, at that season at least, were rather strangely +contrasted to the chill aspect of the lake, the mountains, the +forests, and the wide fields of snow. Before the doors of these +pretentious dwellings were placed a few saplings, either without +branches, or possessing only the feeble shoots of one or two summers' +growth, that looked not unlike tall grenadiers on post near the +threshold of princes. In truth, the occupants of these favored +habitations were the nobles of Templeton, as Marmaduke was its king. +They were the dwellings of two young men who were cunning in the law; +an equal number of that class who chaffered to the wants of the +community under the title of storekeepers; and a disciple of +Æsculapius, who, for a novelty, brought more subjects into the world +than he sent out of it. + +In the midst of this incongruous group of dwellings rose the mansion +of the Judge, towering above all its neighbors. It stood in the center +of an enclosure of several acres, which was covered with fruit-trees. +Some of the latter had been left by the Indians, and began already to +assume the moss and inclination of age, therein forming a very marked +contrast to the infant plantations that peered over most of the +picketed fences of the village. In addition to this show of +cultivation were two rows of young Lombardy poplars, a tree but lately +introduced into America, formally lining either side of a pathway +which led from a gate that opened on the principal street to the front +door of the building. The house itself had been built entirely under +the superintendence of a certain Mr. Richard Jones, whom we have +already mentioned, and who, from his cleverness in small matters, and +an entire willingness to exert his talents, added to the circumstances +of their being sisters' children, ordinarily superintended all the +minor concerns of Marmaduke Temple. Richard was fond of saying that +this child of invention consisted of nothing more or less than what +should form the groundwork of every clergyman's discourse, viz., a +firstly and a lastly. He had commenced his labors, in the first year +of their residence, by erecting a tall, gaunt edifice of wood, with +its gable toward the highway. In this shelter, for it was little more, +the family resided three years. By the end of that period Richard had +completed his design. He had availed himself, in this heavy +undertaking, of the experience of a certain wandering Eastern +mechanic, who, by exhibiting a few soiled plates of English +architecture, and talking learnedly of friezes, entablatures, and +particularly of the composite order, had obtained a very undue +influence over Richard's taste in everything that pertained to that +branch of the fine arts. Not that Mr. Jones did not affect to consider +Hiram Doolittle a perfect empiric in his profession, being in the +constant habit of listening to his treatises on architecture with a +kind of indulgent smile; yet, either from an inability to oppose them +by anything plausible from his own stores of learning, or from secret +admiration, Richard generally submitted to the arguments of his +coadjutor. + +Together they had not only directed a dwelling for Marmaduke, but they +had given a fashion to the architecture of the whole country. The +composite order, Mr. Doolittle would contend, was an order composed of +many others, and was intended to be the most useful of all, for it +admitted into its construction such alterations as convenience or +circumstances might require. To this proposition Richard usually +assented; and when rival geniuses, who monopolize not only all the +reputation, but most of the money of the neighborhood, are of a mind, +it is not uncommon to see them lead the fashion, even in graver +matters. In the present instance, as we have already hinted, the +castle, as Judge Temple's dwelling was termed in common parlance, came +to be the model, in some one or other of its numerous excellences, for +every aspiring edifice within twenty miles of it.[63] + +[Footnote 63: Judge Cooper's new home was called Otsego Hall. It was +afterward improved by Fenimore Cooper and remained his home during the +many years he spent in Cooperstown. A few years after his death it was +destroyed by fire. Its site is now a village park.] + + + + +II + +RUNNING THE GANTLET[64] + + +Tho astonished at first by the uproar, Heyward was soon enabled to +find its solution by the scene that followed. There yet lingered +sufficient light in the heavens to exhibit those bright openings among +the tree-tops where different paths left the clearing to enter the +depths of the wilderness. Beneath one of them, a line of warriors +issued from the woods and advanced slowly toward the dwellings. One in +front bore a short pole, on which, as it afterward appeared, were +suspended several human scalps. The startling sounds that Duncan had +heard were what the whites have not inappropriately called the +"death-hallo"; and each repetition of the cry was intended to announce +to the tribe the fate of an enemy. Thus far the knowledge of Heyward +assisted him in the explanation; and as he knew that the interruption +was caused by the unlooked-for return of a successful war-party, every +disagreeable sensation was quieted in inward congratulations for the +opportune relief and insignificance it conferred on himself. + +[Footnote 64: From Chapter XXIII of "The Last of the Mohicans."] + +When at the distance of a few hundred feet from the lodges, the newly +arrived warriors halted. The plaintive and terrific cry which was +intended to represent equally the wailings of the dead and the triumph +of the victors, had entirely ceased. One of their number now called +aloud, in words that were far from appalling, tho not more +intelligible to those for whose ears they were intended than their +expressive yells. It would be difficult to convey a suitable idea of +the savage ecstasy with which the news thus imparted was received. The +whole encampment in a moment became a scene of the most violent bustle +and commotion. The warriors drew their knives, and flourishing them, +they arranged themselves in two lines, forming a lane that extended +from the war-party to the lodges. The squaws seized clubs, axes, or +whatever weapons of offense first offered itself to their hands, and +rushed eagerly to act their part in the cruel game that was at hand. +Even the children would not be excluded; but boys, little able to +wield the instruments, tore the tomahawks from the belts of their +fathers, and stole into the ranks, apt imitators of the savage traits +exhibited by their parents. + +Large piles of brush lay scattered about the clearing, and a wary and +aged squaw was occupied firing as many as might serve to light the +coming exhibition. As the flame arose, its power exceeded that of the +parting day, and assisted to render objects at the same time more +distinct and more hideous. The whole scene formed a striking picture, +whose frame was composed of the dark and tall border of pines. The +warriors just arrived were the most distant figures. A little in +advance stood two men, who were apparently selected from the rest as +the principal actors in what was to follow. The light was not strong +enough to render their features distinct, tho it was quite evident +that they were governed by very different emotions. While one stood +erect and firm, prepared to meet his fate like a hero, the other bowed +his head, as if palsied by terror or stricken with shame. + +The high-spirited Duncan felt a powerful impulse of admiration and +pity toward the former, tho no opportunity could offer to exhibit his +generous emotions. He watched his slightest movement, however, with +eager eyes; and as he traced the fine outline of his admirably +proportioned and active frame, he endeavored to persuade himself that +if the powers of man, seconded by such noble resolution, could bear +one harmless through so severe a trial, the youthful captive before +him might hope for success in the hazardous race he was about to run. +Insensibly the young man drew nigher to the swarthy lines of the +Hurons, and scarcely breathed, so intense became his interest in the +spectacle. Just then the signal yell was given, and the momentary +quiet which had preceded it was broken by a burst of cries that far +exceeded any before heard. The most abject of the two victims +continued motionless; but the other bounded from the place at the cry, +with the activity and the swiftness of a deer. Instead of rushing +through the hostile lines as had been expected, he just entered the +dangerous defile, and before time was given for a single blow, turned +short, and leaping the heads of a row of children, he gained at once +the exterior and safer side of the formidable array. The artifice was +answered by a hundred voices raised in imprecations, and the whole of +the excited multitude broke from their order and spread themselves +about the place in wild confusion. + +A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the place, +which resembled some unhallowed and supernatural arena in which +malicious demons had assembled to act their bloody and lawless rites. +The forms in the background looked like unearthly beings gliding +before the eye and cleaving the air with frantic and unmeaning +gestures; while the savage passions of such as passed the flames were +rendered fearfully distinct by the gleams that shot athwart their +inflamed visages. + +It will easily be understood that amid such a concourse of vindictive +enemies no breathing-time was allowed the fugitive. There was a single +moment when it seemed as if he would have reached the forest; but the +whole body of his captors threw themselves before him, and drove him +back into the center of his relentless persecutors. Turning like a +headed deer, he shot with the swiftness of an arrow through a pillar +of forked flame, and passing the whole multitude harmless he appeared +on the opposite side of the clearing. Here, too, he was met and turned +by a few of the older and more subtle of the Hurons. Once more he +tried the throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness; and then +several moments succeeded, during which Duncan believed the active and +courageous young stranger was lost. + +Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human forms tossed +and involved in inexplicable confusion. Arms, gleaming knives, and +formidable clubs appeared, above them, but the blows were evidently +given at random. The awful effect was heightened by the piercing +shrieks of the women and the fierce yells of the warriors. Now and +then Duncan caught a glimpse of a light form cleaving the air in some +desperate bound, and he rather hoped than believed that the captive +yet retained the command of his astonishing powers of activity. +Suddenly the multitude rolled backward, and approached the spot where +he himself stood. The heavy body in the rear prest upon the women and +children in front, and bore them to the earth. The stranger reappeared +in the confusion. Human power could not, however, much longer endure +so severe a trial.... + +There was no term of abuse known to the Huron vocabulary that the +disappointed women did not lavishly expend on the successful stranger. +They flouted at his efforts, and told him with bitter scoffs that his +feet were better than his hands, and that he merited wings, while he +knew not the use of an arrow or a knife. To all this the captive made +no reply, but was content to preserve an attitude in which dignity was +singularly blended with disdain. Exasperated as much by his composure +as by his good fortune, their words became unintelligible, and were +succeeded by shrill piercing yells. Just then the crafty squaw who had +taken the necessary precautions to fire the piles made her way through +the throng, and cleared a place for herself in front of the captive. +The squalid and withered person of this hag might well have obtained +for her the character of possessing more than human cunning. Throwing +back her light vestment, she Stretched forth her long skinny arm in +derision, and using the language of the Lenape, as more intelligible +to the subject of her gibes, she commenced aloud: + +"Look you, Delaware," she said, snapping her fingers in his face, +"your nation is a race of women, and the hoe is better fitted to your +hands than the gun. Your squaws are the mothers of deer; but if a bear +or a wild cat or a serpent were born among you, ye would flee. The +Huron girls shall make you petticoats, and we will find you a +husband." + +A burst of savage laughter succeeded this attack, during which the +soft and musical merriment of the younger females strangely chimed +with the cracked voice of their older and more malignant companion. +But the stranger was superior to all their efforts. His head was +immovable, nor did he betray the slightest consciousness that any were +present, except when his haughty eyes rolled toward the dusky forms of +the warriors who stalked in the background, silent and sullen +observers of the scene. + +Infuriated at the self-command of the captive, the woman placed her +arms akimbo, and throwing herself into a posture of defiance she broke +out anew, in a torrent of words that no art of ours could commit +successfully to paper. Her breath was, however, expended in vain; for, +altho distinguished in her nation as a proficient in the art of abuse, +she was permitted to work herself into such a fury as actually to foam +at the mouth, without causing a muscle to vibrate in the motionless +figure of the stranger. The effect of his indifference began to extend +itself to the other spectators, and a youngster who was just quitting +the condition of a boy to enter the state of manhood, attempted to +assist the termagant by flourishing his tomahawk before their victim +and adding his empty boasts to the taunts of the woman. Then, indeed, +the captive turned his face toward the light, and looked down on the +stripling with an expression that was superior to contempt. At the +next moment he resumed his quiet and reclining attitude against the +post. But the change of posture had permitted Duncan to exchange +glances with the firm and piercing eyes of Uncas. + +Breathless with amazement, and heavily opprest with the critical +situation of his friend, Heyward recoiled before the look, trembling +lest its meaning might in some unknown manner hasten the prisoner's +fate. There was not, however, any instant cause for such an +apprehension. Just then a warrior forced his way into the exasperated +crowd. Motioning the women and children aside with a stern gesture, he +took Uncas by the arm and led him toward the door of the council +lodge. Thither all the chiefs and most of the distinguished warriors +followed, among whom the anxious Heyward found means to enter without +attracting any dangerous attention to himself. + +A few minutes were consumed in disposing of those present in a manner +suitable to their rank and influence in the tribe. An order very +similar to that adopted in the preceding interview was observed, the +aged and superior chiefs occupying the area of the spacious apartment, +within the powerful light of a glaring torch, while their juniors and +inferiors were arranged in the background, presenting a dark outline +of swarthy and marked visages. In the very center of the lodge, +immediately under an opening that admitted the twinkling light of one +or two stars, stood Uncas, calm, elevated, and collected. His high and +haughty carriage was not lost on his captors, who often bent their +looks on his person with eyes which, while they lost none of their +inflexibility of purpose, plainly betrayed their admiration of the +stranger's daring. + + + + +III + +LEATHER-STOCKING'S FAREWELL[65] + + +Effingham and Elizabeth were surprized at the manner of the +Leather-Stocking, which was unusually impressive and solemn; but, +attributing it to the scene, the young man turned to the monument, and +read aloud: + +"Sacred to the memory of Oliver Effingham, Esquire, formerly a major +in his B. Majesty's 60th Foot; a soldier of tried valor; a subject of +chivalrous loyalty; and a man of honesty. To these virtues he added +the graces of a Christian. The morning of his life was spent in +honor, wealth, and power; but its evening was obscured by poverty, +neglect, and disease, which were alleviated only by the tender care of +his old, faithful, and upright friend and attendant, Nathaniel Bumppo. +His descendants rear this stone to the virtues of the master, and to +the enduring gratitude of the servant." + +[Footnote 65: From Chapter XLI of "The Pioneers." Leather-Stocking was +a name given by Cooper to his character Natty Bumppo, who, also, in +various works, bore the name of Hawkeye, Pathfinder and Deerslayer. +Leather-Stocking appears in five of Cooper's books, which are commonly +and collectively known as "the Leather-Stocking Tales." He has +generally been accepted as a type of the hardy frontiersman who, in +the years following the Revolution, carried civilization westward.] + +The Leather-Stocking stared at the sound of his own name, and a smile +of joy illumined his wrinkled features as he said: + +"And did ye say it, lad? have you then got the old man's name cut in +the stone by the side of his master's? God bless ye, children! 'twas a +kind thought, and kindness goes to the heart as life shortens." + +Elizabeth turned her back to the speakers. Effingham made a fruitless +effort before he succeeded in saying: + +"It is there cut in plain marble; but it should have been written in +letters of gold!" + +"Show me the name, boy," said Natty, with simple eagerness; "let me +see my own name placed in such honor. 'Tis a gin'rous gift to a man +who leaves none of his name and family behind him, in a country where +he has tarried so long." + +Effingham guided his finger to the spot, and Natty followed the +windings of the letters to the end with deep interest, when he raised +himself from the tomb, and said: + +"I suppose it's all right; and it's kindly thought, and kindly done! +But what have ye put over the redskin?" + +"You shall hear: + +"'This stone is raised to the memory of an Indian chief, of the +Delaware tribe, who was known by the several names of John Mohegan; +Mohican'"-- + +"Mo-hee-can, lad, they call theirselves! 'he-can." + +"Mohican; 'and Chingagook'"-- + +"'Gach, boy; 'gach-gook; Chingachgook, which, intarpreted, means Big +Sarpent. The name should be set down right, for an Indian's name has +always some meaning in it." + +"I will see it altered. 'He was the last of his people who continued +to inhabit this country; and it may be said of him that his faults +were those of an Indian, and his virtues those of a man.'" + +"You never said truer word, Mr. Oliver; ah's me! if you had knowed him +as I did, in his prime, in that very battle where the old gentleman, +who sleeps by his side, saved his life, when them thieves, the +Iroquois, had him at the stake, you'd have said all that, and more +too. I cut the thongs with this very hand, and gave him my own +tomahawk and knife, seeing that the rifle was always my fav'rite +weapon. He did lay about him like a man! I met him as I was coming +home from the trail, with eleven Mingo scalps on his pole. You needn't +shudder, Madam Effingham, for they was all from shaved heads and +warriors. When I look about me, at these hills, where I used to count +sometimes twenty smokes, curling over the tree-tops, from the Delaware +camps, it raises mournful thoughts, to think that not a redskin is +left of them all; unless it be a drunken vagabond from the Oneidas, or +them Yankee Indians, who, they say, be moving up from the sea-shore; +and who belong to none of God's creatures, to my seeming, being, as it +were, neither fish nor flesh--neither white man nor savage. Well, +well! the time has come at last, and I must go"-- + +"Go!" echoed Edwards, "whither do you go?" + +The Leather-Stocking, who had imbibed, unconsciously, many of the +Indian qualities, tho he always thought of himself as of a civilized +being, compared with even the Delawares, averted his face to conceal +the workings of his muscles, as he stooped to lift a large pack from +behind the tomb, which he placed deliberately on his shoulders. + +"Go!" exclaimed Elizabeth, approaching him with a hurried step; "you +should not venture so far in the woods alone, at your time of life, +Natty; indeed, it is imprudent. He is bent, Effingham, on some distant +hunting." + +"What Mrs. Effingham tells you is true, Leather-Stocking," said +Edwards; "there can be no necessity for your submitting to such +hardships now! So throw aside your pack, and confine your hunt to the +mountains near us, if you will go." + +"Hardship! 'tis a pleasure, children, and the greatest that is left me +on this side the grave." + +"No, no; you shall not go to such a distance," cried Elizabeth, laying +her white hand on his deerskin pack; "I am right! I feel his +camp-kettle, and a canister of powder! he must not be suffered to +wander so far from us, Oliver; remember how suddenly Mohegan dropt +away." + +"I knowed the parting would come hard, children; I knowed it would!" +said Natty, "and so I got aside to look at the graves by myself, and +thought if I left ye the keepsake which the Major gave me, when we +first parted in the woods, ye wouldn't take it unkind, but would know +that, let the old man's body go where it might, his feeling stayed +behind him." + +"This means something more than common!" exclaimed the youth; "where +is it, Natty, that you purpose going?" + +The hunter drew nigh him with a confident, reasoning air, as if what +he had to say would silence all objections, and replied: + +"Why, lad, they tell me that on the Big Lakes there's the best of +hunting, and a great range, without a white man on it, unless it may +be one like myself. I'm weary of living in clearings, and where the +hammer is sounding in my ears from sunrise to sundown. And tho I'm +much bound to ye both, children--I wouldn't say it if it was not +true--I crave to go into the woods ag'in, I do." + +"Woods!" echoed Elizabeth, trembling with her feelings; "do you not +call these endless forests woods?" + +"Ah! child, these be nothing to a man that's used to the wilderness. I +have took but little comfort sin' your father come on with his +settlers; but I wouldn't go far, while the life was in the body that +lies under the sod there. But now he's gone, and Chingachgook is gone; +and you be both young and happy. Yes! the big house has rung with +merriment this month past! And now, I thought, was the time to try to +get a little comfort in the close of my days. Woods! indeed! I +doesn't call these woods, Madam Effingham, where I lose myself every +day of my life in the clearings." + +"If there be anything wanting to your comfort, name it, +Leather-Stocking; if it be attainable it is yours." + +"You mean all for the best, lad; I know it; and so does Madam, too: +but your ways isn't my ways. 'Tis like the dead there, who thought, +when the breath was in them, that one went east, and one went west to +find their heavens; but they'll meet at last; and so shall we, +children. Yes, ind as you've begun, and we shall meet in the land of +the just at last." + +"This is so new! so unexpected!" said Elizabeth, in almost breathless +excitement; "I had thought you meant to live with us and die with us, +Natty." + +"Words are of no avail," exclaimed her husband; "the habits of forty +years are not to be dispossest by the ties of a day. I know you too +well to urge you further, Natty; unless you will let me build you a +hut on one of the distant hills, where we can sometimes see you, and +know that you are comfortable." + +"Don't fear for the Leather-Stocking, children; God will see that his +days be provided for, and his ind happy. I know you mean all for the +best, but our ways doesn't agree. I love the woods, and ye relish the +face of man; I eat when hungry, and drink when a-dry; and ye keep +stated hours and rules: nay, nay, you even overfeed the dogs, lad, +from pure kindness; and hounds should be gaunty to run well. The +meanest of God's creatures be made for some use, and I'm formed for +the wilderness; if ye love me, let me go where my soul craves to be +ag'in!" + +The appeal was decisive; and not another word of entreaty for him to +remain was then uttered; but Elizabeth bent her head to her bosom and +wept, while her husband dashed away the tears from his eyes; and, with +hands that almost refused to perform their office, he produced his +pocket-book, and extended a parcel of banknotes to the hunter. + +"Take these," he said, "at least take these; secure them about your +person, and in the hour of need they will do you good service." + +The old man took the notes, and examined them with a curious eye. + +"This, then, is some of the new-fashioned money that they've been +making at Albany, out of paper! It can't be worth much to they that +hasn't l'arning! No, no, lad--take back the stuff; it will do me no +sarvice. I took kear to get all the Frenchman's powder afore he broke +up, and they say lead grows where I'm going. It isn't even fit for +wads, seeing that I use none but leather! Madam Effingham, let an old +man kiss your hand, and wish God's choicest blessings on you and +your'n." + +"Once more let me beseech you, stay!" cried Elizabeth. "Do not, +Leather-Stocking, leave me to grieve for the man who has twice rescued +me from death, and who has served those I love so faithfully. For my +sake, if not for your own, stay. I shall see you in those frightful +dreams that still haunt my nights, dying in poverty and age, by the +side of those terrific beasts you slew. There will be no evil that +sickness, want, and solitude can inflict that my fancy will not +conjure as your fate. Stay with us, old man, if not for your own sake, +at least for ours." + +"Such thoughts and bitter dreams, Madam Effingham," returned the +hunter, solemnly, "will never haunt an innocent parson long. They'll +pass away with God's pleasure. And if the catamounts be yet brought to +your eyes in sleep, 'tis not for my sake, but to show you the power of +Him that led me there to save you. Trust in God, madam, and your +honorable husband, and the thoughts for an old man like me can never +be long nor bitter. I pray that the Lord will keep you in mind--the +Lord that lives in clearings as well as in the wilderness--and bless +you, and all that belong to you, from this time till the great day +when the whites shall meet the redskins in judgment, and justice shall +be the law, and not power." + +Elizabeth raised her head, and offered her colorless cheek to his +salute, when he lifted his cap and touched it respectfully. His hand +was grasped with convulsive fervor by the youth, who continued silent. +The hunter prepared himself for his journey, drawing his belt tighter, +and wasting his moments in the little reluctant movements of a +sorrowful departure. Once or twice he essayed to speak, but a rising +in his throat prevented it. At length he shouldered his rifle, and +cried with a clear huntsman's call that echoed through the woods: + +"He-e-e-re, he-e-e-re, pups--away, dogs, away; ye'll be footsore afore +ye see the ind of the journey!" + +The hounds leapt from the earth at this cry, and scenting around the +graves and the silent pair, as if conscious of their own destination, +they followed humbly at the heels of their master. A short pause +succeeded, during which even the youth concealed his face on his +grandfather's tomb. When the pride of manhood, however, had supprest +the feelings of nature, he turned to renew his entreaties, but saw +that the cemetery was occupied only by himself and his wife. + +"He is gone!" cried Effingham. + +Elizabeth raised her face, and saw the old hunter standing, looking +back for a moment, on the verge of the wood. As he caught their +glances, he drew his hard hand hastily across his eyes again, waved it +on high for an adieu, and uttering a forced cry to his dogs, who were +crouching at his feet, he entered the forest. + +This was the last that they ever saw of the Leather-Stocking, whose +rapid movements preceded the pursuit which Judge Temple both ordered +and conducted. He had gone far toward the setting sun--the foremost in +that band of pioneers who are opening the way for the march of the +nation across the continent. + + + + +WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT + + Born in Massachusetts in 1794, died in New York in 1878; + studied at Williams College in 1810-11; admitted to the bar + in 1815; published "Thanatopsis" in 1816; a volume of + "Poems" in 1821; joined the staff of the New York _Evening + Post_, becoming its chief editor in 1829; published another + volume of poems in 1832; opposed the extension of slavery; + published a translation of Homer in 1870-71; his "Prose + Writings" published after his death. + + + + +AN OCTOBER DAY IN FLORENCE[66] + + +Waked by the jangling of all the bells in Florence and by the noise of +carriages departing loaded with travelers for Rome and other places in +the south of Italy, I rise, dress myself, and take my place at the +window. I see crowds of men and women from the country, the former in +brown velvet jackets, and the latter in broad-brimmed straw hats, +driving donkeys loaded with panniers or trundling handcarts before +them, heaped with grapes, figs and all the fruits of the orchard, the +garden, and the field. They have hardly passed when large flocks of +sheep and goats make their appearance, attended by shepherds and their +families, driven by the approach of winter from the Apenines, and +seeking the pastures of the Maremma, a rich, but, in the summer, an +unhealthy tract on the coast. The men and boys are drest in +knee-breeches, the women in bodices, and both sexes wear capotes with +pointed hoods, and felt hats with conical crowns; they carry long +staves in their hands, and their arms are loaded with kids and lambs +too young to keep pace with their mothers. + +[Footnote 66: From the "Letters of a Traveler," first published in +book form in 1850. The selection here given was written in 1834. It +has been republished by Parke Godwin, Bryant's biographer and editor, +in one of his two volumes devoted to the "Prose Writings."] + +After the long procession of sheep and goats and dogs and men and +women and children, come horses loaded with cloths and poles for +tents, kitchen utensils, and the rest of the younglings of the flock. +A little after sunrise I see well-fed donkeys, in coverings of red +cloth, driven over the bridge to be milked for invalids. +Maid-servants, bareheaded, with huge, high-carved combs in their hair, +waiters of coffee-houses carrying the morning cup of coffee or +chocolate to their customers, bakers' boys with a dozen loaves on a +board balanced on their heads, milkmen with rush baskets filled with +flasks of milk are crossing the streets in all directions. A little +later the bell of the small chapel opposite to my window rings +furiously for a quarter of an hour, and then I hear mass chanted in a +deep strong nasal tone. As the day advances, the English, in white +hats and white pantaloons, come out of their lodgings, accompanied +sometimes by their hale and square-built spouses, and saunter stiffly +along the Arno, or take their way to the public galleries and museums. +Their massive, clean, and brightly polished carriages also begin to +rattle through the streets, setting out on excursions to some part of +the environs of Florence--to Fiesole, to the Pratolino, to the Bello +Sguardo, to the Poggio Imperiale. + +Sights of a different kind now present themselves. Sometimes it is a +troop of stout Franciscan friars, in sandals and brown robes, each +carrying his staff and wearing a brown, broad-brimmed hat with a +hemispherical crown. Sometimes it is a band of young theological +students, in purple cassocks with red collars and cuffs, let out on a +holiday, attended by their clerical instructors, to ramble in the +Cascine. There is a priest coming over the bridge, a man of venerable +age and great reputation for sanctity. The common people crowd around +him to kiss his hand, and obtain a kind word from him as he passes. +But what is that procession of men in black gowns, black gaiters, and +black masks moving swiftly along, and bearing on their shoulders a +litter covered with black cloth? These are the Brethren of Mercy, who +have assembled at the sound of the cathedral bell, and are conveying +some sick or wounded person to the hospital. + +As the day begins to decline, the number of carriages in the streets, +filled with gaily drest people attended by servants in livery, +increases. The Grand Duke's equipage, an elegant carriage drawn by six +horses, with coachmen, footmen, and outriders in drab-colored livery, +comes from the Pitti Palace, and crosses the Arno, either by the +bridge close to my lodgings, or by that called Alla Santa Trinita, +which is in full sight from the windows. The Florentine nobility, with +their families, and the English residents now throng to the Cascine, +to drive at a slow pace through its thickly planted walks of elms, +oaks and ilexes. As the sun is sinking I perceive the quay on the +other side of the Arno filled with a moving crowd of well-drest people +walking to and fro and enjoying the beauty of the evening. + +Travelers now arrive from all quarters, in cabriolets, in calashes, in +the shabby vettura, and in the elegant private carriage drawn by +post-horses, and driven by postilions in the tightest possible +deerskin breeches, the smallest red coats, and the hugest jack-boots. +The streets about the doors of the hotels resound with the crackling +of whips and the stamping of horses, and are encumbered with +carriages, heaps of baggage, porters, postilions, couriers, and +travelers. Night at length arrives--the time of spectacles and +funerals. The carriages rattle toward the opera-houses. Trains of +people, sometimes in white robes and sometimes in black, carrying +blazing torches and a cross elevated on a high pole before a coffin, +pass through the streets chanting the service for the dead. The +Brethren of Mercy may also be seen engaged in their office. The +rapidity of their pace, the flare of their torches, the gleam of their +eyes through their masks, and their sable garb, give them a kind of +supernatural appearance. I return to bed and fall asleep amidst the +shouts of people returning from the opera, singing as they go snatches +of the music with which they had been entertained during the evening. + + + + +WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT + + Born in Salem, Mass., in 1796; died in Boston in 1859; + studied at Harvard, where, through an accident to his eyes, + he became nearly blind; devoted himself to the study of + Spanish history, employing a reader and using a specially + constructed writing apparatus; published his "Ferdinand and + Isabella" in 1838; "Conquest of Mexico" in 1843, "Conquest + of Peru" in 1847, and "Philip II" in 1855-58. + + + + +I + +THE FATE OF EGMONT AND HOORNE[67] + + +On the second of June, 1568, a body of three thousand men was ordered +to Ghent to escort the Counts Egmont and Hoorne to Brussels. No +resistance was offered, altho the presence of the Spaniards caused a +great sensation among the inhabitants of the place, who too well +foreboded the fate of their beloved lord. + +[Footnote 67: From Book III, Chapter V, of the "History of the Reign +of Philip II, King of Spain."] + +The nobles, each accompanied by two officers, were put into separate +chariots. They were guarded by twenty companies of pikemen and +arquebusiers; and a detachment of lancers, among whom was a body of +the duke's own horse, rode in the van, while another of equal strength +protected the rear. Under this strong escort they moved slowly toward +Brussels. One night they halted at Dendermonde, and toward evening, on +the fourth of the month, entered the capital. As the martial array +defiled through its streets, there was no one, however stout-hearted +he might be, says an eye-witness, who could behold the funeral pomp of +the procession, and listen to the strains of melancholy music without +a feeling of sickness at his heart. + +The prisoners were at once conducted to the _Brod-huys_, or +"Bread-house," usually known as the _Maison du Roi_--that venerable +pile in the market-place of Brussels, still visited by every traveler +for its curious architecture, and yet more as the last resting-place +of the Flemish lords. Here they were lodged in separate rooms, small, +dark, and uncomfortable, and scantily provided with furniture. Nearly +the whole of the force which had escorted them to Brussels was +established in the great square, to defeat any attempt at a rescue. +But none was made; and the night passed away without disturbance, +except what was occasioned by the sound of busy workmen employed in +constructing a scaffold for the scene of execution on the following +day. + +On the afternoon of the fourth, the Duke of Alva[68] had sent for +Martin Rithovius, bishop of Ypres; and, communicating to him the +sentence of the nobles, he requested the prelate to visit the +prisoners, acquaint them with their fate, and prepare them for their +execution on the following day. The bishop, an excellent man, and the +personal friend of Egmont, was astounded by the tidings. He threw +himself at Alva's feet, imploring mercy for the prisoners, and if he +could not spare their lives, beseeching him at least to grant them +more time for preparation. But Alva sternly rebuked the prelate, +saying that he had been summoned not to thwart the execution of the +law, but to console the prisoners and enable them to die like +Christians. The bishop, finding his entreaties useless, rose and +addrest himself to his melancholy mission. + +[Footnote 68: The Duke of Alva was sent to the Netherlands as governor +in 1567 where, as an instrument of his cruelty, he established what is +known as "The Council of Blood," a court of inquiry and persecution +which, in the course of three months, put to death 1,600 persons.] + +It was near midnight when he entered Egmont's apartment, where he +found the poor nobleman, whose strength had been already reduced by +confinement, and who was wearied by the fatigue of the journey, buried +in slumber. It is said that the two lords, when summoned to Brussels, +had indulged the vain hope that it was to inform them of the +conclusion of their trial and their acquittal! However this may be, +Egmont seems to have been but ill prepared for the dreadful tidings he +received. He turned deadly pale as he listened to the bishop, and +exclaimed, with deep emotion, "It is a terrible sentence. Little did I +imagine that any offense I had committed against God or the king could +merit such punishment. It is not death that I fear. Death is the +common lot of all. But I shrink from dishonor. Yet I may hope that my +sufferings will so far expiate my offenses that my innocent family +will not be involved in my ruin by the confiscation of my property. +This much, at least, I think I may claim in consideration of my past +services." Then, after a pause, he added, "Since my death is the will +of God and his Majesty, I will try to meet it with patience." He +asked the bishop if there were no hope. On being answered, "None +whatever," he resolved to devote himself at once to preparing for the +solemn change. + +He rose from his couch, and hastily drest himself. He then made his +confession to the prelate, and desired that mass might be said, and +the sacrament administered to him. This was done with great solemnity, +and Egmont received the communion in the most devout manner, +manifesting the greatest contrition for his sins. He next inquired of +the bishop to what prayer he could best have recourse to sustain him +in this trying hour. The prelate recommended to him that prayer which +our Savior had commended to his disciples. The advice pleased the +count, who earnestly engaged in his devotions. But a host of tender +recollections crowded on his mind, and the images of his wife and +children drew his thoughts in another direction, till the kind +expostulations of the prelate again restored him to himself. + +Egmont asked whether it would be well to say anything on the scaffold +for the edification of the people. But the bishop discouraged him, +saying that he would be imperfectly heard, and that the people, in +their present excitement, would be apt to misinterpret what he said to +their own prejudice. + +Having attended to his spiritual concerns, Egmont called for writing +materials, and wrote a letter to his wife, whom he had not seen during +his long confinement; and to her he now bade a tender farewell. He +then addrest another letter, written in French, in a few brief and +touching sentences, to the King--which fortunately has been preserved +to us. "This morning," he says, "I have been made acquainted with the +sentence which it has pleased your majesty to pass upon me. And altho +it has never been my intent to do aught against the person or the +service of your majesty, or against our true, ancient, and Catholic +faith, yet I receive in patience what it has pleased God to send me. +If during these troubles I have counseled or permitted aught which +might seem otherwise, I have done so from a sincere regard for the +service of God and your majesty, and from what I believed the +necessity of the times. Wherefore I pray your majesty to pardon it, +and for the sake of my past services to take pity on my poor wife, my +children, and my servants. In this trust I commend myself to the mercy +of God." The letter is dated Brussels, "on the point of death," June +5th, 1568. + +Having time still left, the count made a fair copy of the two letters, +and gave them to the bishop, entreating him to deliver them according +to their destination. He accompanied that to Philip with a ring, to be +given at the same time to the monarch. It was of great value, and, as +it had been the gift of Philip himself during the count's late visit +to Madrid, it might soften the heart of the King by reminding him of +happier days, when he had looked with an eye of favor on his unhappy +vassal. + +Having completed all his arrangements, Egmont became impatient for the +hour of his departure; and he exprest the hope that there would be no +unnecessary delay. At ten in the morning the soldiers appeared who +were to conduct him to the scaffold. They brought with them cords, as +usual, to bind the prisoner's hands. But Egmont remonstrated, and +showed that he had himself cut off the collar of his doublet and +shirt, in order to facilitate the stroke of the executioner. This he +did to convince them that he meditated no resistance; and on his +promising that he would attempt none, they consented to his remaining +with his hands unbound. + +Egmont was drest in a crimson damask robe, over which was a Spanish +mantle fringed with gold. His breeches were of black silk, and his +hat, of the same material, was garnished with white and sable plumes. +In his hand, which, as we have seen, remained free, he held a white +handkerchief. On his way to the place of execution he was accompanied +by Julian de Romero, _maître de camp_, by the captain, Salinas, who +had charge of the fortress of Ghent, and by the bishop of Ypres. As +the procession moved slowly forward, the count repeated some portion +of the fifty-first Psalm--"Have mercy on me, O God!"--in which the +good prelate joined with him. In the center of the square, on the spot +where so much of the best blood of the Netherlands had been shed, +stood the scaffold, covered with black cloth. On it were two velvet +cushions with a small table, shrouded likewise in black, and +supporting a silver crucifix. At the corners of the platform were two +poles, pointed at the end with steel, intimating the purpose for which +they were intended. + +In front of the scaffold was the provost of the court, mounted on +horseback, and bearing the red wand of office in his hand. The +executioner remained, as usual, below the platform, screened from +view, that he might not, by his presence before it was necessary, +outrage the feelings of the prisoners. The troops, who had been under +arms all night, were drawn up around in order of battle; and strong +bodies of arquebusiers were posted in the great avenues which led to +the square. The space left open by the soldiery was speedily occupied +by a crowd of eager spectators. Others thronged the roofs and windows +of the buildings that surrounded the market-place, some of which, +still standing at the present day, show, by their quaint and venerable +architecture, that they must have looked down on the tragic scene we +are now depicting. + +It was indeed a gloomy day for Brussels--so long the residence of the +two nobles, where their forms were as familiar and where they were +held in as much love and honor as in any of their own provinces. All +business was suspended. The shops were closed. The bells tolled in all +the churches. An air of gloom, as of some impending calamity, settled +on the city. "It seemed," says one residing there at the time, "as if +the day of judgment were at hand!" + +As the procession slowly passed through the ranks of the soldiers, +Egmont saluted the officers--some of them his ancient companions--with +such a sweet and dignified composure in his manner as was long +remembered by those who saw it. And few even of the Spaniards could +refrain from tears as they took their last look at the gallant noble +who was to perish so miserably. + +With a steady step he mounted the scaffold, and, as he crossed it, +gave utterance to the vain wish that, instead of meeting such a fate, +he had been allowed to die in the service of his King and country. He +quickly, however, turned to other thoughts, and, kneeling on one of +the cushions, with the bishop beside him on the other, he was soon +engaged earnestly in prayer. With his eyes raised toward heaven with a +look of unutterable sadness, he prayed so fervently and loud as to be +distinctly heard by the spectators. The prelate, much affected, put +into his hands the silver crucifix, which Egmont repeatedly kissed; +after which, having received absolution for the last time, he rose and +made a sign to the bishop to retire. He then stript off his mantle and +robe; and, again kneeling, he drew a silk cap, which he had brought +for the purpose, over his eyes, and, repeating the words, "Into Thy +hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," he calmly awaited the stroke of +the executioner. + +The low sounds of lamentation which from time to time had been heard +among the populace were now hushed into silence as the minister of +justice, appearing on the platform, approached his victim and with a +single blow of the sword severed the head from the body. A cry of +horror rose from the multitude, and some, frantic with grief, broke +through the ranks of the soldiers and wildly dipped their +handkerchiefs in the blood that streamed from the scaffold, treasuring +them up, says the chronicler, as precious memorials of love and +incitements to vengeance. The head was then set on one of the poles at +the end of the platform, while a mantle thrown over the mutilated +trunk hid it from the public gaze. + +It was near noon when orders were sent to lead forth the remaining +prisoner to execution. It had been assigned to the curate of La +Chapelle to acquaint Count Hoorne with his fate. That nobleman +received the awful tidings with less patience than was shown by his +friend. He gave way to a burst of indignation at the cruelty and +injustice of the sentence. It was a poor requital, he said, for +eight-and-twenty years of faithful service to his sovereign. Yet, he +added, he was not sorry to be released from a life of such incessant +fatigue. For some time he refused to confess, saying he had done +enough in the way of confession. When urged not to throw away the few +precious moments that were left to him, he at length consented. + +The count was drest in a plain suit of black, and wore a Milanese cap +upon his head. He was, at this time, about fifty years of age. He was +tall, with handsome features, and altogether of a commanding presence. +His form was erect, and as he passed with a steady step through the +files of soldiers, on his way to the place of execution, he frankly +saluted those of his acquaintance whom he saw among the spectators. +His look had in it less of sorrow than of indignation, like that of +one conscious of enduring wrong. He was spared one pang, in his last +hour, which had filled Egmont's cup with bitterness; tho, like him, he +had a wife, he was to leave no orphan family to mourn him. + +As he trod the scaffold, the apparatus of death seemed to have no +power to move him. He still repeated the declaration that, "often as +he had offended his Maker, he had never, to his knowledge, committed +any offense against the King." When his eyes fell on the bloody shroud +that enveloped the remains of Egmont, he inquired if it were the body +of his friend. Being answered in the affirmative, he made some remark +in Castilian, not understood. He then prayed for a few moments, but in +so low a tone that the words were not caught by the bystanders, and, +rising, he asked pardon of those around if he had ever offended any of +them, and earnestly besought their prayers. Then, without further +delay, he knelt down, and, repeating the words, "_In manus tuas, +Domine_," he submitted himself to his fate. + +His bloody head was set up opposite to that of his fellow sufferer. +For three hours these ghastly trophies remained exposed to the gaze of +the multitude. They were then taken down, and, with the bodies, placed +in leaden coffins, which were straightway removed--that containing the +remains of Egmont to the convent of Santa Clara, and that of Hoorne to +the ancient church of Ste. Gudule. To these places, especially to +Santa Clara, the people now flocked as to the shrine of a martyr. They +threw themselves on the coffin, kissing it and bedewing it with their +tears, as if it had contained the relics of some murdered saint; while +many of them, taking little heed of the presence of informers, +breathed vows of vengeance, some even swearing not to trim either hair +or beard till these vows were executed. The government seems to have +thought it prudent to take no notice of this burst of popular feeling. +But a funeral hatchment, blazoned with the arms of Egmont, which, as +usual after the master's death, had been fixt by his domestics on the +gates of his mansion, was ordered to be instantly removed--no doubt, +as tending to keep alive the popular excitement. The bodies were not +allowed to remain long in their temporary places of deposit, but were +transported to the family residences of the two lords in the country, +and laid in the vaults of their ancestors. + +Thus by the hand of the common executioner perished these two +unfortunate noblemen, who, by their rank, possessions, and personal +characters, were the most illustrious victims that could have been +selected in the Netherlands. Both had early enjoyed the favor of +Charles the Fifth, and both had been entrusted by Philip with some of +the highest offices in the state. Philip de Montmorency, Count Hoorne, +the elder of the two, came of the ancient house of Montmorency in +France. Besides filling the high post of Admiral of the Low Countries, +he was made governor of the provinces of Guelders and Zutphen, was a +councilor of state, and was created by the Emperor a knight of the +Golden Fleece. His fortune was greatly inferior to that of Count +Egmont; yet its confiscation afforded a supply by no means unwelcome +to the needy exchequer of the Duke of Alva. + +However nearly on a footing they might be in many respects, Hoorne was +altogether eclipsed by his friend in military renown. + + + + +II + +THE GENESIS OF "DON QUIXOTE"[69] + + +The age of chivalry, as depicted in romances, could never, of course, +have had any real existence; but the sentiments which are described as +animating that age have been found more or less operative in different +countries and different periods of society. In Spain, especially, this +influence is to be discerned from a very early date. Its inhabitants +may be said to have lived in a romantic atmosphere, in which all the +extravagances of chivalry were nourished by their peculiar situation. +Their hostile relations with the Moslem kept alive the full glow of +religious and patriotic feeling. Their history is one interminable +crusade. An enemy always on the borders invited perpetual displays of +personal daring and adventure. The refinement and magnificence of the +Spanish Arabs throw a luster over these contests such as could not be +reflected from the rude skirmishes with their Christian neighbors. +Lofty sentiments, embellished by the softer refinements of courtesy, +were blended in the martial bosom of the Spaniard, and Spain became +emphatically the land of romantic chivalry. + +[Footnote 69: From the "Biographical and Critical Miscellanies," which +were collected by the author for publication in England in 1845. This +essay, and the others in the volume, with one exception, had been +published originally in _The North American Review_.] + +The very laws themselves, conceived in this spirit, contributed +greatly to foster it. The ancient code of Alfonso X, in the thirteenth +century, after many minute regulations for the deportment of the good +knight, enjoins on him to "invoke the name of his mistress in the +fight, that it may infuse new ardor into his soul and preserve him +from the commission of unknightly actions." Such laws were not a dead +letter. The history of Spain shows that the sentiment of romantic +gallantry penetrated the nation more deeply and continued longer than +in any other quarter of Christendom.... + +The taste for these romantic extravagances naturally fostered a +corresponding taste for the perusal of tales of chivalry. Indeed, they +acted reciprocally on each other. These chimerical legends had once, +also, beguiled the long evenings of our Norman ancestors, but, in the +progress of civilization, had gradually given way to other and more +natural forms of composition. They still maintained their ground in +Italy, whither they had passed later, and where they were consecrated +by the hand of genius. But Italy was not the true soil of chivalry, +and the inimitable fictions of Bojardo, Pulci, and Ariosto were +composed with that lurking smile of half-supprest mirth which, far +from a serious tone, could raise only a corresponding smile of +incredulity in the reader. + +In Spain, however, the marvels of romance were all taken in perfect +good faith. Not that they were received as literally true; but the +reader surrendered himself up to the illusion, and was moved to +admiration by the recital of deeds which, viewed in any other light +than as a wild frolic of imagination, would be supremely ridiculous; +for these tales had not the merit of a seductive style and melodious +versification to relieve them. They were, for the most part, an +ill-digested mass of incongruities, in which there was as little +keeping and probability in the characters as in the incidents, while +the whole was told in that stilted "Hercles' vein" and with that +licentiousness of allusion and imagery which could not fail to debauch +both the taste and the morals of the youthful reader. The mind, +familiarized with these monstrous, over-colored pictures, lost all +relish for the chaste and sober productions of art. The love of the +gigantic and the marvelous indisposed the reader for the simple +delineations of truth in real history.... + +Cervantes brought forward a personage, in whom were embodied all those +generous virtues which belong to chivalry; disinterestedness, contempt +of danger, unblemished honor, knightly courtesy, and those aspirations +after ideal excellence which, if empty dreams, are the dreams of a +magnanimous spirit. They are, indeed, represented by Cervantes as too +ethereal for this world, and are successively dispelled as they come +in contact with the coarse realities of life. It is this view of the +subject which has led Sismondi, among other critics, to consider that +the principal end of the author was "the ridicule of enthusiasm--the +contrast of the heroic with the vulgar"--and he sees something +profoundly sad in the conclusions to which it leads. This sort of +criticism appears to be over-refined. It resembles the efforts of some +commentators to allegorize the great epics of Homer and Virgil, +throwing a disagreeable mistiness over the story by converting mere +shadows into substances, and substances into shadows. + +The great purpose of Cervantes was, doubtless, that expressly avowed +by himself, namely, to correct the popular taste for romances of +chivalry. It is unnecessary to look for any other in so plain a tale, +altho, it is true, the conduct of the story produces impressions on +the reader, to a certain extent, like those suggested by Sismondi. The +melancholy tendency, however, is in a great degree counteracted by the +exquisitely ludicrous character of the incidents. Perhaps, after all, +if we are to hunt for a moral as the key of the fiction, we may with +more reason pronounce it to be the necessity of proportioning our +undertakings to our capacities. + +The mind of the hero, Don Quixote, is an ideal world into which +Cervantes has poured all the rich stores of his own imagination, the +poet's golden dreams, high romantic exploit, and the sweet visions of +pastoral happiness; the gorgeous chimeras of the fancied age of +chivalry, which had so long entranced the world; splendid illusions, +which, floating before us like the airy bubbles which the child throws +off from his pipe, reflect, in a thousand variegated tints, the rude +objects around, until, brought into collision with these, they are +dashed in pieces and melt into air. These splendid images derive +tenfold beauty from the rich antique coloring of the author's +language, skilfully imitated from the old romances, but which +necessarily escapes in the translation into a foreign tongue. Don +Quixote's insanity operates both in mistaking the ideal for the real, +and the real for the ideal. Whatever he has found in romances he +believes to exist in the world; and he converts all he meets with in +the world into the visions of his romances. It is difficult to say +which of the two produces the most ludicrous results. + +For the better exposure of these mad fancies Cervantes has not only +put them into action in real life, but contrasted them with another +character which may be said to form the reverse side of his hero's. +Honest Sancho represents the material principle as perfectly as his +master does the intellectual or ideal. He is of the earth, earthy. +Sly, selfish, sensual, his dreams are not of glory, but of good +feeding. His only concern is for his carcass. His notions of honor +appear to be much the same with those of his jovial contemporary +Falstaff, as conveyed in his memorable soliloquy. In the sublime +night-piece which ends with the fulling-mills--truly sublime until we +reach the dénouement--Sancho asks his master: "Why need you go about +this adventure? It is main dark, and there is never a living soul sees +us; we have nothing to do but to sheer off and get out of harm's way. +Who is there to take notice of our flinching?" Can anything be +imagined more exquisitely opposed to the true spirit of chivalry? The +whole compass of fiction nowhere displays the power of contrast so +forcibly as in these two characters; perfectly opposed to each other, +not only in their minds and general habits, but in the minutest +details of personal appearance. + +It was a great effort of art for Cervantes to maintain the dignity of +his hero's character in the midst of the whimsical and ridiculous +distresses in which he has perpetually involved him. His infirmity +leads us to distinguish between his character and his conduct, and to +absolve him from all responsibility for the latter. The author's art +is no less shown in regard to the other principal figure in the piece, +Sancho Panza, who, with the most contemptible qualities, contrives to +keep a strong hold on our interest by the kindness of his nature and +his shrewd understanding. He is far too shrewd a person, indeed, to +make it natural for him to have followed so crack-brained a master +unless bribed by the promise of a substantial recompense. He is a +personification, as it were, of the popular wisdom--a "bundle of +proverbs," as his master somewhere styles him; and proverbs are the +most compact form in which the wisdom of a people is digested. They +have been collected into several distinct works in Spain, where they +exceed in number those of any other, if not every other country in +Europe. As many of them are of great antiquity, they are of +inestimable price with the Castilian jurists, as affording rich +samples of obsolete idioms and the various mutations of the language. + +"Don Quixote" may be said to form an epoch in the history of letters, +as the original of that kind of composition, the novel of character, +which is one of the distinguishing peculiarities of modern literature. +When well executed, this sort of writing rises to the dignity of +history itself, and may be said to perform no insignificant part of +the functions of the latter. History describes men less as they are +than as they appear, as they are playing a part on the great +political theater--men in masquerade. It rests on state documents, +which too often cloak real purposes under an artful veil of policy, or +on the accounts of contemporaries blinded by passion or interest. Even +without these deductions, the revolutions of states, their wars, and +their intrigues do not present the only aspect, nor, perhaps, the most +interesting, under which human nature can be studied. It is man in his +domestic relations, around his own fireside, where alone his real +character can be truly disclosed; in his ordinary occupations in +society, whether for purposes of profit or pleasure; in his every-day +manner of living, his tastes and opinions, as drawn out in social +intercourse; it is, in short, under all those forms which make up the +interior of society that man is to be studied, if we would get the +true form and pressure of the age--if, in short, we would obtain clear +and correct ideas of the actual progress of civilization. + +But these topics do not fall within the scope of the historian. He can +not find authentic materials for them. They belong to the novelist, +who, indeed, contrives his incidents and creates his characters, but +who, if true to his art, animates them with the same tastes, +sentiments, and motives of action which belong to the period of his +fiction. His portrait is not the less true because no individual has +sat for it. He has seized the physiognomy of the times. Who is there +that does not derive a more distinct idea of the state of society and +manners in Scotland from the "Waverley Novels" than from the best of +its historians? Of the condition of the Middle Ages from the single +romance of "Ivanhoe" than from the volumes of Hume or Hallam? In like +manner, the pencil of Cervantes has given a far more distinct and a +richer portraiture of life in Spain in the sixteenth century than can +be gathered from a library of monkish chronicles. + + + + +GEORGE BANCROFT + + Born in Massachusetts in 1800; died in Washington in 1891; + graduated from Harvard in 1817; studied in Germany; taught + Greek in Harvard; established a private school at + Northampton in 1823; collector of the Port of Boston in + 1838; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts + in 1844; Secretary of the Navy in 1845; established the + Naval Academy at Annapolis; minister to England in 1846; + minister to Berlin in 1867; published his "History of the + United States" in 10 volumes in 1834-74. + + + + +THE FATE OF EVANGELINE'S COUNTRYMEN[70] + +(1755) + + +They [the French inhabitants of Acadia] still counted in their +villages "eight thousand" souls, and the English not more than "three +thousand"; they stood in the way of "the progress of the settlement"; +"by their non-compliance with the conditions of the treaty of Utrecht +they had forfeited their possessions to the crown"; after the +departure "of the fleet and troops, the province would not be in a +condition to drive them out." "Such a juncture as the present might +never occur"; so he [the chief justice, Belcher] advised "against +receiving any of the French inhabitants to take the oath," and for the +removal of "all" of them from the province. + +[Footnote 70: From Volume IV, Chapter VIII, of "The History of the +United States," as published in 1862. Acadia was the name of the +original French colony in the eastern part of Canada, including Nova +Scotia, New Brunswick and adjacent islands. It was first colonized by +the French in 1604. It is more particularly of the French settlers in +Nova Scotia that Bancroft writes. These were deported by the British +in 1755. Longfellow's poem "Evangeline" is founded on an incident in +this deportation, by which two lovers were hopelessly parted. +Hawthorne is said first to have heard this story and considered it as +the theme for a novel, but, unable to use it satisfactorily to +himself, he passed it on to Longfellow.] + +That the cruelty might have no palliation, letters arrived leaving no +doubt that the shores of the Bay of Fundy were entirely in the +possession of the British; and yet at a council, at which Vice-Admiral +Boscawen and Rear-Admiral Mostyn were present by invitation, it was +unanimously determined to send the French inhabitants out of the +province; and, after mature consideration, it was further unanimously +agreed that, to prevent their attempting to return and molest the +settlers that were to be set down on their lands, it would be most +proper to distribute them among the several colonies on the continent. + +To hunt them into the net was impracticable; artifice was therefore +resorted to. By a general proclamation, on one and the same day, the +scarcely conscious victims, "both old men and young men, as well as +all the lads of ten years of age," were peremptorily ordered to +assemble at their respective posts. On the appointed fifth of +September they obeyed. At Grand Pré, for example, four hundred and +eighteen unarmed men came together. They were marched into the church +and its avenues were closed, when Winslow, the American commander, +placed himself in their center, and spoke: + +"You are convened together to manifest to you his majesty's final +resolution to the French inhabitants of this his province. Your lands +and tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, are +forfeited to the crown, and you yourselves are to be removed from this +his province. I am, through his majesty's goodness, directed to allow +you liberty to carry off your money and household goods, as many as +you can, without discommoding the vessels you go in." + +And he then declared them the King's prisoners. Their wives and +families shared their lot; their sons, five hundred and twenty-seven +in number; their daughters, five hundred and seventy-six; in the +whole, women and babes and old men and children all included, nineteen +hundred and twenty-three souls. The blow was sudden; they had left +home but for the morning, and they never were to return. Their cattle +were to stay unfed in the stalls, their fires to die out on their +hearths. They had for that first day even no food for themselves or +their children, and were compelled to beg for bread. + +The tenth of September was the day for the embarkation of a part of +the exiles. They were drawn up six deep; and the young men, one +hundred and sixty-one in number, were ordered to march first on board +the vessel. They could leave their farms and cottages, the shady rocks +on which they had reclined, their herds, and their garners; but nature +yearned within them, and they would not be separated from their +parents. Yet of what avail was the frenzied despair of the unarmed +youth? They had not one weapon; the bayonet drove them to obey; and +they marched slowly and heavily from the chapel to the shore, between +women and children, who, kneeling, prayed for blessings on their +heads, they themselves weeping and praying and singing hymns. The +seniors went next; the wives and children must wait till other +transport vessels arrive. The delay had its horrors. The wretched +people left behind were kept together near the sea, without proper +food, or raiment, or shelter, till other ships came to take them away; +and December, with its appalling cold, had struck the shivering, +half-clad, broken-hearted sufferers, before the last of them were +removed. + +"The embarkation of the inhabitants goes on but slowly," wrote +Monckton, from Fort Cumberland, near which he had burned three +hamlets; "the most part of the wives of the men we have prisoners are +gone off with their children, in hopes I would not send off their +husbands without them." Their hope was vain. Near Annapolis a hundred +heads of families fled to the woods, and a party was detached on the +hunt to bring them in. "Our soldiers hate them," wrote an officer on +this occasion; "and, if they can but find a pretext to kill them, they +will." Did a prisoner seek to escape, he was shot down by the +sentinel. Yet some fled to Quebec; more than three thousand had +withdrawn to Miramachi and the region south of the Restigouche; some +found rest on the banks of the St. John's and its branches; some found +a lair in their native forests; some were charitably sheltered from +the English in the wigwams of the savages. But seven thousand of these +banished people were driven on board ships, and scattered among the +British colonies, from New Hampshire to Georgia--one thousand and +twenty to South Carolina alone. They were cast ashore without +resources, hating the poorhouse as a shelter for their offspring, and +abhorring the thought of selling themselves as laborers. Households, +too, were separated; the colonial newspapers contained advertisements +of members of families seeking their companions, of sons anxious to +reach and relieve their parents, of mothers moaning for their +children. + +The wanderers sighed for their native country; but, to prevent their +return, their villages, from Annapolis to the isthmus, were laid +waste. Their old homes were but ruins. In the district of Minas, for +instance, two hundred and fifty of their houses, and more than as many +barns, were consumed. The live stock which belonged to them, +consisting of great numbers of horned cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses, +were seized as spoils and disposed of by the English officials. A +beautiful and fertile tract of country was reduced to a solitude. +There was none left round the ashes of the cottages of the Acadians +but the faithful watch-dog, vainly seeking the hands that fed him. +Thickets of forest-trees choked their orchards; the ocean broke over +their neglected dikes, and desolated their meadows. + +Relentless misfortune pursued the exiles wherever they fled. Those +sent to Georgia, drawn by a love for the spot where they were born, as +strong as that of the captive Jews who wept by the rivers of Babylon +for their own temple and land, escaped to sea in boats, and went +coasting from harbor to harbor; but when they had reached New +England, just as they would have set sail for their native fields, +they were stopt by orders from Nova Scotia. Those who dwelt on the St. +John's were torn from their new homes. When Canada surrendered, hatred +with its worst venom pursued the fifteen hundred who remained south of +the Restigouche. Once those who dwelt in Pennsylvania presented a +humble petition to the Earl of Loudoun, then the British +commander-in-chief in America; and the cold-hearted peer, offended +that the prayer was made in French, seized their five principal men, +who in their own land had been persons of dignity and substance, and +shipped them to England, with the request that they might be kept from +ever again becoming troublesome by being consigned to service as +common sailors on board ships-of-war. No doubt existed of the King's +approbation. The lords of trade, more merciless than the savages and +than the wilderness in winter, wished very much that every one of the +Acadians should be driven out; and, when it seemed that the work was +done, congratulated the King that "the zealous endeavors of Lawrence +had been crowned with an entire success." + + + + +RALPH WALDO EMERSON + + Born in 1803, died In 1882, a Unitarian clergyman in Boston + in 1829-32; began a long career as lecturer in 1833; settled + in Concord in 1834; editor of _The Dial_ in 1842-44; + published "Nature" in 1836; "Essays," two series, in + 1841-44; "Poems" in 1846; "Representative Men" in 1850; + "English Traits" in 1856; "Conduct of Life" in 1860; + "Society and Solitude" in 1870; "Letters and Social Aims" in + 1876. + + + + +I + +THOREAU'S BROKEN TASK[71] + + +His robust common sense, armed with stout hands, keen perceptions, and +strong will, can not yet account for the superiority which shone in +his simple and hidden life. I must add the cardinal fact that there +was an excellent wisdom in him, proper to a rare class of men, which +showed him the material world as a means and symbol. This discovery, +which sometimes yields to poets a certain casual and interrupted +light, serving for the ornament of their writing, was in him an +unsleeping insight; and whatever faults or obstructions of temperament +might cloud it, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. In his +youth he said one day, "The other world is all my art: my pencils +will draw no other; my jack-knife will cut nothing else; I do not use +it as a means." This was the muse and genius that ruled his opinions, +conversation, studies, work and course of life. This made him a +searching judge of men. At first glance he measured his companion, +and, tho insensible to some fine traits of culture, could very well +report his weight and caliber. And this made the impression of genius +which his conversation often gave. + +[Footnote 71: From Emerson's address at the funeral of Thoreau, as +expanded for the _Atlantic Monthly_ of August, 1862; usually printed +since as an introduction to Thoreau's volume entitled "Excursions," +published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.] + +I think his fancy for referring everything to the meridian of Concord +did not grow out of any ignorance or depreciation of other longitudes +or latitudes, but was rather a playful expression of his conviction of +the indifferency of all places, and that the best place for each is +where he stands. He exprest it once in this wise: "I think nothing is +to be hoped from you, if this bit of mold under your feet is not +sweeter to you to eat than any other in this world, or in any world." + +The other weapon with which he conquered all obstacles in science was +patience. He knew how to sit immovable, a part of the rock he rested +on, until the bird, the reptile, the fish, which had retired from him, +should come back, and resume his habits, nay, moved by curiosity, +should come to him and watch him. + +It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the +country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths +of his own. He knew every track in the snow or on the ground, and what +creature had taken this path before him. One must submit abjectly to +such a guide, and the reward was great. Under his arm he carried an +old music-book to press plants; in his pocket his diary and pencil, a +spyglass for birds, microscope, jack-knife, and twine. He wore straw +hat, stout shoes, strong gray trousers, to brave shrub-oaks and +smilax, and to climb a tree for a hawk's or a squirrel's nest. He +waded into the pool for the water-plants, and his strong legs were no +insignificant part of his armor. + +No college ever offered him a diploma, or a professor's chair; no +academy made him its corresponding secretary, its discoverer, or even +its member. Perhaps these learned bodies feared the satire of his +presence. Yet so much knowledge of Nature's secret and genius few +others possest, none in a more large and religious synthesis. For not +a particle of respect had he to the opinions of any man or body of +men, but homage solely to the truth itself; and as he discovered +everywhere among doctors some leaning of courtesy, it discredited +them. He grew to be revered and admired by his townsmen, who had at +first known him only as an oddity. The farmers who employed him as a +surveyor soon discovered his rare accuracy and skill, his knowledge of +their lands, of trees, of birds, of Indian remains, and the like, +which enabled him to tell every farmer more than he knew before of his +own farm; so that he began to feel as if Mr. Thoreau had better rights +in his land than he. They felt, too, the superiority of character +which addrest all men with a native authority. + +His virtues, of course, sometimes ran into extremes. It was easy to +trace to the inexorable demand on all for exact truth that austerity +which made this willing hermit more solitary even than he wished. +Himself of a perfect probity, he required not less of others. He had a +disgust for crime, and no worldly success could cover it. He detected +paltering as readily in dignified and prosperous persons as in +beggars, and with equal scorn. Such dangerous frankness was in his +dealing that his admirers called him "that terrible Thoreau," as if he +spoke when silent, and was still present when he had departed. I think +the severity of his ideal interfered to deprive him of a healthy +sufficiency of human society. + +The habit of a realist to find things the reverse of their appearance +inclined him to put every statement in a paradox. A certain habit of +antagonism defaced his earlier writings--a trick of rhetoric not quite +outgrown in his later, of substituting for the obvious word and +thought its diametrical opposite. He praised wild mountains and winter +forests for their domestic air, in snow and ice he would find +sultriness, and commended the wilderness for resembling Rome and +Paris. "It was so dry that you might call it wet." + +The tendency to magnify the moment, to read all the laws of Nature in +the one object or one combination under your eye, is of course comic +to those who do not share the philosopher's perception of identity. To +him there was no such thing as size. The pond was a small ocean; the +Atlantic a large Walden Pond. He referred every minute fact to +cosmical laws. Tho he meant to be just, he seemed haunted by a certain +chronic assumption that the science of the day pretended +completeness, and he had just found out that the savants had neglected +to discriminate a particular botanical variety, had failed to describe +the seeds or count the sepals. "That is to say," we replied, "the +blockheads were not born in Concord; but who said they were? It was +their unspeakable misfortune to be born in London, or Paris, or Rome; +but, poor fellows, they did what they could, considering that they +never saw Bateman's Pond, or Nine-acre Corner, or Becky Stow's Swamp. +Besides, what were you sent into the world for but to add this +observation?" + +Had this genius been only contemplative, he had been fitted to his +life, but with his energy and practical ability he seemed born for +great enterprise and for command; and I so much regret the loss of his +rare powers of action that I can not help counting it a fault in him +that he had no ambition. Wanting this, instead of engineering for all +America, he was the captain of a huckleberry party. Pounding beans is +good to the end of pounding empires one of these days; but if, at the +end of years, it is still only beans! + +But these foibles, real or apparent, were fast vanishing in the +incessant growth of a spirit so robust and wise, and which effaced its +defeats with new triumphs. His study of nature was a perpetual +ornament to him, and inspired his friends with curiosity to see the +world through his eyes, and to hear his adventures. They possest every +kind of interest. + +He had many elegances of his own, while he scoffed at conventional +elegance. Thus, he could not bear to hear the sound of his own steps, the +grit of gravel; and therefore never willingly walked in the road, but in +the grass, on mountains and in woods. His senses were acute, and he +remarked that by night every dwelling-house gives out bad air, like a +slaughter-house. He liked the pure fragrance of melilot. He honored certain +plants with special regard, and, over all, the pond lily, then the gentian, +and the _Mikania scandens_, and "life-everlasting," and a bass-tree which +he visited every year when it bloomed, in the middle of July. He thought +the scent a more oracular inquisition than the sight--more oracular and +trustworthy. The scent, of course, reveals what it concealed from the other +senses. By it he detected earthiness. He delighted in echoes, and said they +were almost the only kind of kindred voices that he heard. He loved Nature +so well, was so happy in her solitude, that he became very jealous of +cities, and the sad work which their refinements and artifices made with +man and his dwelling. The ax was always destroying his forest. "Thank God," +he said, "they can not cut down the clouds!".... + +The scale on which his studies proceeded was so large as to require +longevity, and we were the less prepared for his sudden disappearance. +The country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a son it +has lost. It seems an injury that he should leave in the midst his +broken task, which none else can finish--a kind of indignity to so +noble a soul, that it should depart out of Nature before yet he has +been really shown to his peers for what he is. But he, at least, is +content. His soul was made for the noblest society; he had in a short +life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is +knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will +find a home. + + + + +II + +THE INTELLECTUAL HONESTY OF MONTAIGNE[72] + + +A single odd volume of Cotton's translation of the Essays remained to +me from my father's library, when a boy. It lay long neglected, until, +after many years, when I was newly escaped from college, I read the +book, and procured the remaining volumes. I remember the delight and +wonder in which I lived with it. It seemed to me as if I had myself +written the book, in some former life, so sincerely it spoke to my +thought and experience. It happened, when in Paris, in 1833, that, in +the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, I came to a tomb of August Collignon, +who died in 1830, aged sixty-eight years, and who, said the monument, +"lived to do right, and had formed himself to virtue on the Essays of +Montaigne." Some years later, I became acquainted with an accomplished +English poet, John Sterling; and, in prosecuting my correspondence, I +found that, from a love of Montaigne, he had made a pilgrimage to his +chateau, still standing near Castellan, in Perigord, and, after two +hundred and fifty years, had copied from the walls of his library the +inscriptions which Montaigne had written there. That Journal of Mr +Sterling's, published in the _Westminster Review_, Mr. Hazlitt has +reprinted in the Prolegomena to his edition of the Essays. I heard +with pleasure that one of the newly-discovered autographs of William +Shakespeare was in a copy of Florio's translation of Montaigne. It is +the only book which we certainly know to have been in the poet's +library. And, oddly enough, the duplicate copy of Florio, which the +British Museum purchased with a view of protecting the Shakespeare +autograph (as I was informed in the Museum), turned out to have the +autograph of Ben Jonson in the fly-leaf. Leigh Hunt relates of Lord +Byron that Montaigne was the only great writer of past times whom he +read with avowed satisfaction. Other coincidences, not needful to be +mentioned here, concurred to make this old Gascon still new and +immortal for me. + +[Footnote 72: From "Montaigne; or The Skeptic," in "Representative +Men." Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.] + +In 1571, on the death of his father, Montaigne, then thirty-eight +years old, retired from the practise of law at Bordeaux, and settled +himself on his estate. Tho he had been a man of pleasure, and +sometimes a courtier, his studious habits now grew on him, and he +loved the compass, staidness, and independence of the country +gentleman's life. He took up his economy in good earnest, and made his +farms yield the most. Downright and plain-dealing, and abhorring to be +deceived or to deceive, he was esteemed in the country for his sense +and probity. In the civil wars of the League, which converted every +house into a fort, Montaigne kept his gates open, and his house +without defense. All parties freely came and went, his courage and +honor being universally esteemed. The neighboring lords and gentry +brought jewels and papers to him for safe-keeping. Gibbon reckons, in +these bigoted times, but two men of liberality in France--Henry IV and +Montaigne. + + + + +III + +HIS VISIT TO CARLYLE AT CRAIGEN-PUTTOCK[73] + +(1833) + + +From Edinburgh I went to the Highlands. On my return I came from +Glasgow to Dumfries, and being intent on delivering a letter which I +had brought from Rome, inquired for Craigen-puttock. It was a farm in +Nithsdale, in the parish of Dunscore, sixteen miles distant. No public +coach passed near it, so I took a private carriage from the inn. I +found the house amid desolate heathery hills, where the lonely scholar +nourished his mighty heart. Carlyle was a man from his youth, an +author who did not need to hide from his readers, and as absolute a +man of the world, unknown and exiled on that hill-farm, as if holding +on his own terms what is best in London. He was tall and gaunt, with +cliff-like brow, self-possest, and holding his extraordinary powers of +conversation in easy command; clinging to his northern accent with +evident relish; full of lively anecdote, and with a streaming humor, +which floated everything he looked upon. His talk playfully exalting +the familiar objects, put the companion at once into an acquaintance +with his Lars and Lemurs, and it was very pleasant to learn what was +predestined to be a pretty mythology. Few were the objects and lonely +the man, "not a person to speak to within sixteen miles except the +minister of Dunscore"; so that books inevitably made his topics. + +[Footnote 73: From Chapter I of "English Traits," published by +Houghton, Mifflin Company. At the time of this visit, Emerson had +published none of his books, but Carlyle was known as the author of +many of the "Essays" now included among his collected writings, and +had published the "Life of Schiller" and his translation of Goethe's +"Wilhelm Meister." "Sartor Resartus" in that year was beginning its +course through the monthly numbers of _Fraser's Magazine_.] + +He had names of his own for all the matters familiar to his discourse. +_Blackwood's_ was the "sand magazine"; _Fraser's_ nearer approach to +possibility of life was the "mud magazine"; a piece of road near by +that marked some failed enterprise was the "grave of the last +sixpence." When too much praise of any genius annoyed him, he profest +hugely to admire the talent shown by his pig. He had spent much time +and contrivance in confining the poor beast to one enclosure in his +pen, but pig, by great strokes of judgment, had found out how to let a +board down, and had foiled him. For all that, he still thought man the +most plastic little fellow in the planet, and he liked Nero's death, +"_Qualis artifex pereo!_" better than most history. He worships a man +that will manifest any truth to him. At one time he had inquired and +read a good deal about America. Landor's principle was mere rebellion, +and _that_ he feared was the American principle. The best thing he +knew of that country was that in it a man can have meat for his +labor. He had read in Stewart's book that, when he inquired in a New +York hotel for the Boots, he had been shown across the street and had +found Mungo in his own house dining on roast turkey. + +We talked of books. Plato he does not read, and he disparaged +Socrates; and, when prest, persisted in making Mirabeau a hero. Gibbon +he called the splendid bridge from the old world to the new. His own +reading had been multifarious. "Tristram Shandy" was one of his first +books after "Robinson Crusoe," and Robertson's "America" an early +favorite. Rousseau's "Confessions" had discovered to him that he was +not a dunce; and it was now ten years since he had learned German, by +the advice of a man who told him he would find in that language what +he wanted. + +He took despairing or satirical views of literature at this moment; +recounted the incredible sums paid in one year by the great +booksellers for puffing. Hence it comes that no newspaper is trusted +now, no books are bought, and the booksellers are on the eve of +bankruptcy. + +He still returned to English pauperism, the crowded country, the +selfish abdication by public men of all that public persons should +perform. "Government should direct poor men what to do. Poor Irish +folk come wandering over these moors. My dame makes it a rule to give +to every son of Adam bread to eat, and supplies his wants to the next +house. But here are thousands of acres which might give them all meat, +and nobody to bid these poor Irish go to the moor and till it. They +burned the stacks, and so found a way to force the rich people to +attend to them." + +We went out to walk over long hills, and looked at Criffel, then +without his cap, and down into Wordsworth's country. There we sat +down, and talked of the immortality of the soul. It was not Carlyle's +fault that we talked on that topic, for he had the natural +disinclination of every nimble spirit to bruise itself against walls, +and did not like to place himself where no step can be taken. But he +was honest and true, and cognizant of the subtile links that bind ages +together, and saw how every event affects all the future. "Christ died +on the tree: that built Dunscore kirk yonder: that brought you and me +together. Time had only a relative existence." + +He was already turning his eyes toward London with a scholar's +appreciation. London is the heart of the world, he said, wonderful +only from the mass of human beings. He liked the huge machine. Each +keeps its own round. The baker's boy brings muffins to the window at a +fixt hour every day, and that is all the Londoner knows or wishes to +know on the subject. But it turned out good men. He named certain +individuals, especially one man of letters, his friend, the best mind +he knew, whom London had well served. + + + + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE + + Born in Salem, Mass., in 1804; died in 1864; graduated from + Bowdoin College in 1825; served in the Custom House in + Boston; joined the Brook Farm community in 1841; surveyor of + the port of Salem in 1846-49; consul at Liverpool in + 1853-57; published "Fanshawe" at his own expense in 1826, + "Twice Told Tales" in 1837-42; "Mosses from an Old Manse" in + 1846, "The Scarlet Letter" in 1850, "House of the Seven + Gables" in 1851, "The Marble Faun" in 1860, "Our Old Home" + in 1863. + + + + +I + +OCCUPANTS OF AN OLD MANSE[74] + + +Between two tall gate-posts of rough-hewn stone (the gate itself +having fallen from its hinges at some unknown epoch) we beheld the +gray front of the old parsonage terminating the vista of an avenue of +black-ash trees. It was now a twelvemonth since the funeral procession +of the venerable clergyman, its last inhabitant, had turned from that +gateway toward the village burying-ground. The wheel track leading to +the door, as well as the whole breadth of the avenue, was almost +overgrown with grass, affording dainty mouthfuls to two or three +vagrant cows and an old white horse who had his own living to pick up +along the roadside. The glimmering shadows that lay half asleep +between the door of the house and the public highway were a kind of +spiritual medium, seen through which the edifice had not quite the +aspect of belonging to the material world. Certainly, it had little in +common with those ordinary abodes which stand so imminent upon the +road that every passer-by can thrust his head, as it were, into the +domestic circle. From these quiet windows the figures of passing +travelers look too remote and dim to disturb the sense of privacy. In +its near retirement and accessible seclusion, it was the very spot for +the residence of a clergyman--a man not estranged from human life, yet +enveloped, in the midst of it, with a veil woven of intermingled gloom +and brightness. It was worthy to have been one of the time-honored +parsonages of England, in which through many generations a succession +of holy occupants pass from youth to age, and bequeath each an +inheritance of sanctity to pervade the house and hover over it as with +an atmosphere. + +[Footnote 74: From the introductory chapter of "Mosses from an Old +Manse," published by Houghton, Mifflin Company. This house, built in +1765, is still standing in Concord. Emerson lived there while writing +his "Nature." Hawthorne made it his home soon after his marriage in +1842.] + +Nor, in truth, had the Old Manse ever been profaned by a lay occupant +until that memorable summer afternoon when I entered it as my home. A +priest had built it; a priest had succeeded to it; other priestly men +from time to time had dwelt in it; and children born in its chambers +had grown up to assume the priestly character. It was awful to reflect +how many sermons must have been written there. The latest inhabitant +alone--he by whose translation to paradise the dwelling was left +vacant--had penned nearly three thousand discourses, besides the +better if not the greater number that gushed living from his lips. How +often, no doubt, had he paced to and fro along the avenue, attuning +his meditations to the sighs and gentle murmurs and deep and solemn +peals of the wind among the tops of the lofty trees! In that variety +of natural utterances he could find something accordant with every +passage of his sermon, were it of tenderness or reverential fear. The +boughs over my head seemed shadowy with solemn thoughts, as well as +with rustling leaves. + +I took shame to myself for having been so long a writer of idle +stories, and ventured to hope that wisdom would descend upon me with +the falling leaves of the avenue, and that I should light upon an +intellectual treasure in the Old Manse well worth those hoards of +long-hidden gold which people seek for in moss-grown houses. Profound +treatises of morality, a layman's unprofessional and therefore +unprejudiced views of religion, histories (such as Bancroft might have +written had he taken up his abode here, as he once proposed) bright +with picture, gleaming over a depth of philosophic thought--these were +the works that might fitly have flowed from such a retirement. In the +humblest event, I resolved at least to achieve a novel that should +evolve some deep lesson, and should possess physical substance enough +to stand alone.... + +The study had three windows set with little old-fashioned panes of +glass, each with a crack across it. The two on the western side looked +or rather peeped between the willow branches down into the orchard, +with glimpses of the river through the trees. The third, facing +northward, commanded a broader view of the river at a spot where its +hitherto obscure waters gleam forth into the light of history. It was +at this window that the clergyman who then dwelt in the manse stood +watching the outbreak of a long and deadly struggle between two +nations.[75] He saw the irregular array of his parishioners on the +farther side of the river, and the glittering line of the British on +the hither bank; he awaited in an agony of suspense the rattle of the +musketry. It came; and there needed but a gentle wind to sweep the +battle smoke around this quiet house.... + +[Footnote 75: The bridge at Concord, where the battle of April, 1775, +was fought, stands only a short distance from the old manse.] + +When summer was dead and buried, the Old Manse became as lonely as a +hermitage. Not that ever--in my time at least--it had been thronged +with company; but at no rare intervals we welcomed some friend out of +the dusty glare and tumult of the world, and rejoiced to share with +him the transparent obscurity that was floating over us. In one +respect our precincts were like the Enchanted Ground through which the +pilgrim traveled on his way to the Celestial City. The guests, each +and all, felt a slumbrous influence upon them; they fell asleep in +chairs, or took a more deliberate siesta on the sofa, or were seen +stretched among the shadows of the orchard, looking up dreamily +through the boughs. They could not have paid a more acceptable +compliment to my abode, nor to my own qualities as a host. I held it +as a proof that they left their cares behind them as they passed +between the stone gate-posts at the entrance of our avenue, and that +the so powerful opiate was the abundance of peace and quiet within and +all around us.... + +Hobgoblins of flesh and blood were attracted thither by the +wide-spreading influence of a great original thinker, who had his +earthly abode at the opposite extremity of our village. His mind acted +upon other minds of a certain constitution with wonderful magnetism, +and drew many men upon long pilgrimages to speak with him face to +face. Young visionaries, to whom just so much of insight had been +imparted as to make life all a labyrinth around them, came to seek the +clue that should guide them out of their self-involved bewilderment. +Gray-headed theorists, whose systems, at first air, had finally +imprisoned them in an iron framework, traveled painfully to his door, +not to ask deliverance, but to invite the free spirit into their own +thraldom. People that had lighted on a new thought, or a thought that +they fancied new, came to Emerson, as the finder of a glittering gem +hastens to a lapidary to ascertain its quality and value. Uncertain, +troubled, earnest wanderers through the midnight of a moral world +beheld its intellectual fire as a beacon burning on a hill-top, and +climbing the difficult ascent, looked forth into the surrounding +obscurity more hopefully than hitherto. The light revealed objects +unseen before--mountains, gleaming lakes, glimpses of a creation among +the chaos; but also, as was unavoidable, it attracted bats and owls +and the whole host of night birds, which flapped their dusky wings +against the gazer's eyes, and sometimes were mistaken for fowls of +angelic feather. Such delusions always hover nigh whenever a +beacon-fire of truth is kindled. + +For myself, there had been epochs of my life when I too might have +asked of this prophet the master word that should solve me the riddle +of the universe; but now, being happy, I felt as if there were no +question to be put, and therefore admired Emerson as a poet of deep +beauty and austere tenderness, but sought nothing from him as a +philosopher. It was good nevertheless to meet him in the wood paths, +or sometimes in our avenue, with that pure intellectual gleam diffused +about his presence like the garment of a Shining One; and he so quiet, +so simple, so without pretension, encountering each man alike as if +expecting to receive more than he could impart. And in truth, the +heart of many an ordinary man had, perchance, inscriptions which he +could not read. + +But it was impossible to dwell in his vicinity without inhaling more +or less the mountain atmosphere of his lofty thought, which in the +brains of some people wrought a singular giddiness--new truth being as +heady as new wine. Never was a poor little country village infested +with such a variety of queer, strangely drest, oddly behaved mortals, +most of whom took upon themselves to be important agents of the +world's destiny, yet were simply bores of a very intense water. Such, +I imagine, is the invariable character of persons who crowd so closely +about an original thinker as to draw in his unuttered breath, and thus +to become imbued with a false originality. This triteness of novelty +is enough to make any man of common sense blaspheme at all ideas of +less than a century's standing, and pray that the world may be +petrified and rendered immovable in precisely the worst moral and +physical state that it ever yet arrived at, rather than be benefited +by such schemes of such philosophers.... + +Glancing back over what I have written, it seems but the scattered +reminiscences of a single summer. In fairyland there is no measurement +of time; and in a spot so sheltered from the turmoil of life's ocean, +three years hasten away with a noiseless flight, as the breezy +sunshine chases the cloud shadows across the depths of a still valley. +Now came hints, growing more and more distinct, that the owner of the +old house was pining for his native air. Carpenters next appeared, +making a tremendous racket among the outbuildings, strewing the green +grass with pine shavings and chips of chestnut joists, and vexing the +whole antiquity of the place with their discordant renovations. Soon, +moreover, they divested our abode of the veil of woodbine which had +crept over a large portion of its southern face. All the aged mosses +were cleared unsparingly away, and there were horrible whispers about +brushing up the external walls with a coat of paint--a purpose as +little to my taste as might be that of rouging the venerable cheeks of +one's grandmother. But the hand that renovates is always more +sacrilegious than that which destroys. In fine, we gathered up our +household goods, drank a farewell cup of tea in our pleasant little +breakfast-room--delicately fragrant tea, an unpurchasable luxury, one +of the many angel gifts that had fallen like dew upon us--and passed +forth between the tall stone gate-posts, as uncertain as the wandering +Arabs where our tent might next be pitched. Providence took me by the +hand, and--an oddity of dispensation which, I trust, there is no +irreverence in smiling at--has led me, as the newspapers announce, +while I am writing from the Old Manse, into a custom-house.[76] As a +story-teller I have often contrived strange vicissitudes for my +imaginary personages, but none like this. + +[Footnote 76: A reference to his appointment to a position in the +Boston Custom-house.] + + + + +II + +ARTHUR DIMMESDALE ON THE SCAFFOLD[77] + + +The crowd was in a tumult. The men of rank and dignity, who stood more +immediately around the clergyman, were so taken by surprize, and so +perplexed as to the purport of what they saw--unable to receive the +explanation which most readily presented itself, or to imagine any +other--that they remained silent and inactive spectators of the +judgment which Providence seemed about to work. They beheld the +minister, leaning on Hester's shoulder, and supported by her arm +around him, approach the scaffold, and ascend its steps; while still +the little hand of the sin-born child was clasped in his. Old Roger +Chillingworth followed, as one intimately connected with the drama of +guilt and sorrow in which they had all been actors, and well entitled, +therefore, to be present at its closing scene. + +[Footnote 77: From Chapters XIII and XIV of "The Scarlet Letter," +published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.] + +"Hadst thou sought the whole earth over," said he, looking darkly at +the clergyman, "there was no one place so secret--no high place nor +lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me--save on this very +scaffold!" + +"Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" answered the minister. + +Yet he trembled, and turned to Hester with an expression of doubt and +anxiety in his eyes, not the less evidently betrayed that there was a +feeble smile upon his lips. + +"Is not this better," murmured he, "than what we dreamed of in the +forest?" + +"I know not! I know not!" she hurriedly replied. "Better? Yea; so we +may both die, and little Pearl die with us!" + +"For thee and Pearl, be it as God shall order," said the minister; +"and God is merciful! Let me now do the will which He hath made plain +before my sight. For, Hester, I am a dying man. So let me make haste +to take my shame upon me!" + +Partly supported by Hester Prynne, and holding one hand of little +Pearl's, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale turned to the dignified and +venerable rulers; to the holy ministers, who were his brethren; to the +people, whose great heart was thoroughly appalled, yet overflowing +with tearful sympathy, as knowing that some deep life-matter--which, +if full of sin, was full of anguish and repentance likewise--was now +to be laid open to them. The sun, but little past its meridian, shone +down upon the clergyman, and gave a distinctness to his figure as he +stood out from all the earth to put in his plea of guilty at the bar +of Eternal Justice. + +"People of New England!" cried he, with a voice that rose over them, +high, solemn, and majestic--yet had always a tremor through it, and +sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of a fathomless depth of remorse +and wo--"ye that have loved me!--ye that have deemed me holy!--behold +me here, the one sinner of the world! At last!--at last!--I stand upon +the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with +this woman, whose arm, more than the little strength wherewith I have +crept hitherward, sustains me, at this dreadful moment, from groveling +down upon my face! Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have +all shuddered at it! Wherever her walk hath been--wherever, so +miserably burdened, she may have hoped to find repose--it hath cast a +lurid gleam of awe and horrible repugnance round about her. But there +stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye +have not shuddered!" + +It seemed, at this point, as if the minister must leave the remainder +of his secret undisclosed. But he fought back the bodily +weakness--and, still more, the faintness of heart--that was striving +for the mastery with him. He threw off all assistance, and stept +passionately forward a pace before the woman and the child. + +"It was on him!" he continued, with a kind of fierceness--so +determined was he to speak out the whole. "God's eye beheld it! The +angels were forever pointing at it! The devil knew it well, and +fretted it continually with the touch of his burning finger! But he +hid it cunningly from men, and walked among you with the mien of a +spirit, mournful, because so pure in a sinful world--and sad, because +he missed his heavenly kindred! Now, at the death-hour, he stands up +before you! He bids you look again at Hester's scarlet letter! He +tells you that, with all its mysterious horror, it is but the shadow +of what he bears on his own breast, and that even this, his own red +stigma, is no more than the type of what has seared his inmost heart! +Stand any here that question God's judgment on a sinner? Behold! +Behold a dreadful witness of it!" + +With a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band from his +breast. It was revealed! But it were irreverent to describe that +revelation. For an instant the gaze of the horror-stricken multitude +was concentrated on the ghastly miracle; while the minister stood, +with a flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of +acutest pain, had won a victory. Then, down he sank upon the scaffold! +Hester partly raised him, and supported his head against her bosom. +Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him, with a blank, dull +countenance, out of which the life seemed to have departed. + +"Thou hast escaped me!" he repeated more than once. "Thou hast escaped +me!" + +"May God forgive thee!" said the minister. "Thou, too, hast deeply +sinned!" + +He withdrew his dying eyes from the old man, and fixt them on the +woman and the child. + +"My little Pearl," said he, feebly--and there was a sweet and gentle +smile over his face, as of a spirit sinking into deep repose; nay, now +that the burden was removed, it seemed almost as if he would be +sportive with the child--"dear little Pearl, wilt thou kiss me now? +Thou wouldst not yonder, in the forest! But now thou wilt?" + +Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, +in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her +sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were +the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor +forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it. Toward her +mother, too, Pearl's errand as a messenger of anguish was all +fulfilled. + +"Hester," said the clergyman, "farewell!" + +"Shall we not meet again?" whispered she, bending her face down close +to his. "Shall we not spend our immortal life together? Surely, +surely, we have ransomed one another with all this wo! Thou lookest +far into eternity, with those bright dying eyes! Then tell me what +thou seest?" + +"Hush, Hester, hush!" said he, with tremulous solemnity. "The law we +broke!--the sin here so awfully revealed!--let these be in thy +thoughts! I fear! I fear! It may be that, when we forgot our God--when +we violated our reverence each for the other's soul--it was +thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an +everlasting and pure reunion. God knows; and He is merciful! He hath +proved His mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this +burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and +terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red heat! By bringing +me hither to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! +Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost forever! +Praised be His name! His will be done! Farewell!" + +That final word came forth with the minister's expiring breath. The +multitude, silent till then, broke out in a strange, deep voice of awe +and wonder, which could not as yet find utterance save in this murmur +that rolled so heavily after the departed spirit. + +After many days, when time sufficed for the people to arrange their +thoughts in reference to the foregoing scene, there was more than one +account of what had been witnessed on the scaffold. + +Most of the spectators testified to having seen on the breast of the +unhappy minister a SCARLET LETTER--the very semblance of that worn by +Hester Prynne--imprinted in the flesh. As regarded its origin, there +were various explanations, all of which must necessarily have been +conjectural. Some affirmed that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the +very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had +begun a course of penance--which he afterward, in so many futile +methods, followed out--by inflicting a hideous torture on himself. +Others contended that the stigma had not been produced until a long +time subsequent, when old Roger Chillingworth, being a potent +necromancer, had caused it to appear, through the agency of magic and +poisonous drugs. Others, again--and those best able to appreciate the +minister's peculiar sensibility, and the wonderful operation of his +spirit upon the body--whispered their belief that the awful symbol was +the effect of the ever-active tooth of remorse, gnawing from the +inmost heart outwardly, and at last manifesting Heaven's dreadful +judgment by the visible presence of the letter. The reader may choose +among these theories. We have thrown all the light we could acquire +upon the portent, and would gladly, now that it has done its office, +erase its deep print out of our own brain, where long meditation has +fixt it in very undesirable distinctness. + + + + +III + +OF LIFE AT BROOK FARM[78] + + +We had very young people with us, it is true--downy lads, rosy girls +in their first teens, and children of all heights above one's knee; +but these had chiefly been sent hither for education, which it was one +of the objects and methods of our institution to supply. Then we had +boarders from town and elsewhere, who lived with us in a familiar way, +sympathized more or less in our theories, and sometimes shared in our +labors. + +[Footnote 78: From "The Blithedale Romance," published by Houghton, +Mifflin Company. Hawthorne was a member of the Brook Farm Community of +Roxbury, Mass., and from it derived at least suggestions for the scene +and action of this story.] + +On the whole, it was a society such as has seldom met together; nor, +perhaps, could it reasonably be expected to hold together long. +Persons of marked individuality--crooked sticks, as some of us might +be called--are not exactly the easiest to bind up into a fagot. But, +so long as our union should subsist, a man of intellect and feeling, +with a free nature in him, might have sought far and near without +finding so many points of attraction as would allure him hitherward. +We were of all creeds and opinions, and generally tolerant of all, on +every imaginable subject. Our bond, it seems to me, was not +affirmative, but negative. We had individually found one thing or +another to quarrel with in our past life, and were pretty well agreed +as to the inexpediency of lumbering along with the old system any +further. As to what should be substituted there was much less +unanimity. We did not greatly care--at least, I never did--for the +written constitution under which our millennium had commenced. My hope +was that, between theory and practise, a true and available mode of +life might be struck out; and that, even should we ultimately fail, +the months or years spent in the trial would not have been wasted, +either as regarded passing enjoyment, or the experience which makes +men wise. + +Arcadians tho we were, our costume bore no resemblance to the +beribboned doublets, silk breeches and stockings, and slippers +fastened with artificial roses, that distinguish the pastoral people +of poetry and the stage. In outward show, I humbly conceive, we looked +rather like a gang of beggars, or banditti, than either a company of +honest laboring-men, or a conclave of philosophers. Whatever might be +our points of difference, we all of us seemed to have come to +Blithedale with the one thrifty and laudable idea of wearing out our +old clothes. Such garments as had an airing whenever we strode afield! +Coats with high collars and with no collars, broad-skirted or +swallow-tailed, and with the waist at every point between the hip and +the armpit; pantaloons of a dozen successive epochs, and greatly +defaced at the knees by the humiliations of the wearer before his +lady-love--in short, we were a living epitome of defunct fashions, and +the very raggedest presentment of men who had seen better days. It was +gentility in tatters. Often retaining a scholarlike or clerical air, +you might have taken us for the denizens of Grub street, intent on +getting a comfortable livelihood by agricultural labor; or, +Coleridge's projected Pantisocracy in full experiment; or Candide and +his motley associates, at work in their cabbage-garden; or anything +else that was miserably out at elbows, and most clumsily patched in +the rear. We might have been sworn comrades to Falstaff's ragged +regiment. Little skill as we boasted in other points of husbandry, +every mother's son of us would have served admirably to stick up for a +scarecrow. And the worst of the matter was that the first energetic +movement essential to one downright stroke of real labor was sure to +put a finish to these poor habiliments. So we gradually flung them all +aside, and took to honest homespun and linsey-woolsey, as preferable, +on the whole, to the plan recommended, I think, by Virgil--"_Ara +nudus; sere nudus_,"--which, as Silas Foster remarked, when I +translated the maxim, would be apt to astonish the women-folks. + +After a reasonable training, the yeoman life throve well with us. Our +faces took the sunburn kindly; our chests gained in compass, and our +shoulders in breadth and squareness; our great brown fists looked as +if they had never been capable of kid gloves. The plow, the hoe, the +scythe, and the hay-fork grew familiar to our grasp. The oxen +responded to our voices. We could do almost as fair a day's work as +Silas Foster himself, sleep dreamlessly after it, and awake at +daybreak with only a little stiffness of the joints, which was usually +quite gone by breakfast-time. + +To be sure, our next neighbors pretended to be incredulous as to our +real proficiency in the business which we had taken in hand. They told +slanderous fables about our inability to yoke our own oxen, or to +drive them afield when yoked, or to release the poor brutes from their +conjugal bond at nightfall. They had the face to say, too, that the +cows laughed at our awkwardness at milking-time, and invariably kicked +over the pails; partly in consequence of our putting the stool on the +wrong side, and partly because, taking offense at the whisking of +their tails, we were in the habit of holding these natural +fly-flappers with one hand, and milking with the other. They further +averred that we hoed up whole acres of Indian corn and other crops, +and drew the earth carefully about the weeds; and that we raised five +hundred tufts of burdock, mistaking them for cabbages; and that, by +dint of unskilful planting, few of our seeds ever came up at all, or, +if they did come up, it was stern-foremost; and that we spent the +better part of the month of June in reversing a field of beans, which +had thrust themselves out of the ground in this unseemly way. They +quoted it as nothing more than an ordinary occurrence for one or other +of us to crop off two or three fingers, of a morning, by our clumsy +use of the hay-cutter. Finally, and as an ultimate catastrophe, these +mendacious rogues circulated a report that we communitarians were +exterminated, to the last man, by severing ourselves asunder with the +sweep of our own scythes!--and that the world had lost nothing by this +little accident. + + + + +IV + +THE DEATH OF JUDGE PYNCHEON[79] + + +Meanwhile the twilight is glooming upward out of the corners of the +room. The shadows of the tall furniture grow deeper, and at first +become more definite; then, spreading wider, they lose their +distinctness of outline in the dark gray tide of oblivion, as it were, +that creeps slowly over the various objects, and the one human figure +sitting in the midst of them. The gloom has not entered from without; +it has brooded here all day, and now, taking its own inevitable time, +will possess itself of everything. The Judge's face, indeed, rigid, +and singularly white, refuses to melt into this universal solvent. +Fainter and fainter grows the light. It is as if another +double-handful of darkness had been scattered through the air. Now it +is no longer gray, but sable. There is still a faint appearance at +the window; neither a glow, nor a gleam, nor a glimmer--any phrase of +light would express something far brighter than this doubtful +perception, or sense, rather, that there is a window there. Has it yet +vanished? No!--yes!--not quite! And there is still the swarthy +whiteness--we shall venture to marry these ill-agreeing words--the +swarthy whiteness of Judge Pyncheon's face. The features are all gone: +there is only the paleness of them left. And how looks it now? There +is no window! There is no face! An infinite, inscrutable blackness has +annihilated sight! Where is our universe? All crumbled away from us; +and we, adrift in chaos, may harken to the gusts of homeless wind, +that go sighing and murmuring about, in quest of what was once a +world! + +[Footnote 79: From Chapter XVIII of "The House of the Seven Gables." +Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.] + +Is there no other sound? One other, and a fearful one. It is the +ticking of the Judge's watch, which, ever since Hepzibah left the room +in search of Clifford, he has been holding in his hand. Be the cause +what it may, this little, quiet, never-ceasing throb of Time's pulse, +repeating its small strokes with such busy regularity, in Judge +Pyncheon's motionless hand, has an effect of terror, which we do not +find in any other accompaniment of the scene. + +But, listen! That puff of the breeze was louder; it had a tone unlike +the dreary and sullen one which has bemoaned itself, and afflicted all +mankind with miserable sympathy, for five days past. The wind has +veered about! It now comes boisterously from the northwest, and, +taking hold of the aged framework of the Seven Gables, gives it a +shake, like a wrestler that would try strength with his antagonist. +Another and another sturdy tussle with the blast! The old house creaks +again, and makes a vociferous but somewhat unintelligible bellowing in +its sooty throat (the big flue, we mean, of its wide chimney), partly +in complaint at the rude wind, but rather, as befits their century and +a half of hostile intimacy, in tough defiance. A rumbling kind of a +bluster roars behind the fireboard. A door has slammed above stairs. A +window, perhaps, has been left open, or else is driven in by an unruly +gust. It is not to be conceived, beforehand, what wonderful +wind-instruments are these old timber mansions, and how haunted with +the strangest noises, which immediately begin to sing, and sigh, and +sob, and shriek--and to smite with sledge-hammers, airy but ponderous, +in some distant chamber--and to tread along the entries as with +stately footsteps, and rustle up and down the staircase, as with silks +miraculously stiff--whenever the gale catches the house with a window +open, and gets fairly into it. Would that we were not an attendant +spirit here! It is too awful! This clamor of the wind through the +lonely house; the Judge's quietude, as he sits invisible; and that +pertinacious ticking of his watch!... + +Yonder leaden Judge sits immovably upon our soul. Will he never stir +again? We shall go mad unless he stirs! You may the better estimate +his quietude by the fearlessness of a little mouse, which sits on its +hind legs, in a streak of moonlight, close by Judge Pyncheon's foot, +and seems to meditate a journey of exploration over this great black +bulk. Ha! what has startled the nimble little mouse? It is the visage +of grimalkin, outside of the window, where he appears to have posted +himself for a deliberate watch. This grimalkin has a very ugly look. +Is it a cat watching for a mouse, or the devil for a human soul? Would +we could scare him from the window! + +Thank heaven, the night is well-nigh past! The moonbeams have no +longer so silvery a gleam, nor contrast so strongly with the blackness +of the shadows among which they fall. They are paler, now; the shadows +look gray, not black. The boisterous wind is hushed. What is the hour? +Ah! the watch has at last ceased to tick; for the Judge's forgetful +fingers neglected to wind it up, as usual, at ten o'clock, being half +an hour or so before his ordinary bedtime--and it has run down, for +the first time in five years. But the great world-clock of Time still +keeps its beat. The dreary night--for, oh, how dreary seems its +haunted waste, behind us--gives place to a fresh, transparent +cloudless morn. Blest, blest radiance! The day-beam--even what little +of it finds its way into this always dusky parlor--seems part of the +universal benediction, annulling evil, and rendering all goodness +possible and happiness attainable. Will Judge Pyncheon now rise up +from his chair? Will he go forth, and receive the early sunbeams on +his brow? Will he begin this new day--which God has smiled upon, and +blest, and given to mankind--will he begin it with better purposes +than the many that have been spent amiss? Or are all the deep-laid +schemes of yesterday as stubborn in his heart, and as busy in his +brain, as ever?... + +The morning sunshine glimmers through the foliage, and, beautiful and +holy as it is, shuns not to kindle up your face. Rise up, thou subtle, +worldly, selfish, iron-hearted hypocrite, and make thy choice whether +still to be subtle, worldly, selfish, iron-hearted, and hypocritical, +or to tear these sins out of thy nature, tho they bring the life-blood +with them! The Avenger is upon thee! Rise up, before it be too late! + +What! Thou art not stirred by this last appeal? No, not a jot! And +there we see a fly--one of your common house-flies, such as are always +buzzing on the window-pane--which has smelt out Governor Pyncheon, and +alights, now on his forehead, now on his chin, and now, heaven help +us! is creeping over the bridge of his nose, toward the would-be chief +magistrate's wide-open eyes! Canst thou not brush the fly away? Art +thou too sluggish? Thou man, that hadst so many busy projects +yesterday! Art thou too weak, that wast so powerful? Not brush away a +fly? Nay, then, we give thee up! + +And hark! the shop-bell rings. After hours like these latter ones, +through which we have borne our heavy tale, it is good to be made +sensible that there is a living world, and that even this old, lonely +mansion retains some manner of connection with it. We breathe more +freely, emerging from Judge Pyncheon's presence into the street before +the Seven Gables. + + +END OF VOLUME IX + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best of the World's Classics, +Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEST OF THE WORLD'S CLASSICS *** + +***** This file should be named 28653-8.txt or 28653-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/5/28653/ + +Produced by Joseph R. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I + +Author: Various + +Editor: Henry Cabot Lodge + Francis W. Halsey + +Release Date: May 1, 2009 [EBook #28653] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEST OF THE WORLD'S CLASSICS *** + + + + +Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"><img class="img1" src="images/image_01.jpg" alt="TAINE, DANTE, GOETHE, CERVANTES" width="500" height="752" /><br /> +<span class="caption">EMERSON, IRVING, COOPER, HAWTHORNE</span></div> + + +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/image_02.jpg" alt="Title Page" width="500" height="800" /></div> +<p> </p> + +<h1>THE BEST</h1> +<h3><i>of the</i></h3> +<h1><span class="smcap">World's Classics</span></h1> + +<h4>RESTRICTED TO PROSE</h4> +<div class="center"><img src="images/image_03.jpg" alt="Decorative Image" width="400" height="102" /></div> + + +<p> </p> +<h2>HENRY CABOT LODGE</h2> +<h4><i>Editor-in-Chief</i></h4> + +<h2>FRANCIS W. HALSEY</h2> +<h4><i>Associate Editor</i></h4> +<p> </p> +<h3>With an Introduction, Biographical and<br /> +Explanatory Notes, etc.</h3> + +<h3>IN TEN VOLUMES</h3> +<p> </p> +<h3>Vol. IX</h3> +<h1>AMERICA—I</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY</h3> +<h4>NEW YORK AND LONDON</h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h5><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1909, <span class="smcap">by</span></h5> +<h4>FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>The Best of the World's Classics</h2> + +<h2>VOL. IX</h2> + +<h2>AMERICA—I</h2> + +<h3>1579-1891</h3> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<h3>VOL. IX—AMERICA—I</h3> +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td><td colspan="2"> </td> +<td class="tocch"><i>Page</i></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#JOHN_SMITH">John Smith</a>—(Born in 1579, died in 1631.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#HIS_STORY_OF_POCAHONTAS">His Story of Pocahontas.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "General History of Virginia")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#WILLIAM_BRADFORD">William Bradford</a>—(Born in 1590, died in 1657.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_PILGRIMS_LAND_AND_MEET_THE_INDIANS">The Pilgrims Land and Meet the Indians.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "History of Plymouth")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#SAMUEL_SEWALL">Samuel Sewall</a>—(Born in 1652, died in 1730.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#HOW_HE_COURTED_MADAM_WINTHROP">How He Courted Madam Winthrop.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From his "Diary")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#COTTON_MATHER">Cotton Mather</a>—(Born in 1663, died in 1728.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#IN_PRAISE_OF_JOHN_ELIOT">In Praise of John Eliot.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Magnalia Christi Americana")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#WILLIAM_BYRD">William Byrd</a>—(Born in 1674, died in 1744.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#AT_THE_HOME_OF_COLONEL_SPOTSWOOD">At the Home of Colonel Spotswood.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "A Visit to the Mines")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#JONATHAN_EDWARDS">Jonathan Edwards</a>—(Born in 1703, died in 1758.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#OF_LIBERTY_AND_MORAL_AGENCIES">Of Liberty and Moral Agencies.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Freedom of the Will")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#BENJAMIN_FRANKLIN">Benjamin Franklin</a>—(Born in 1706, died in 1790.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#HIS_FIRST_ENTRY_INTO_PHILADELPHIA">His First Entry into Philadelphia.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Autobiography")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#WARNINGS_BRADDOCK_DID_NOT_HEED">Warnings Braddock Did Not Heed.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Autobiography")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>III</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#HOW_TO_DRAW_LIGHTNING_FROM_THE_CLOUDS">How to Draw Lightning from the Clouds.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From a letter to Peter Collinson)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>IV</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_WAY_TO_WEALTH">The Way to Wealth.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "Poor Richard's Almanac")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>V</td> +<td colspan="2"><a href="#A_DIALOG_WITH_THE_GOUT">Dialog with the Gout</a></td> +<td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>VI</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#A_PROPOSAL_TO_MADAME_HELVETIUS">A Proposal to Madame Helvetius.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(A letter to Madame Helvetius)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#GEORGE_WASHINGTON">George Washington</a>—(Born in 1732, died in 1799.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#TO_HIS_WIFE_ON_TAKING_COMMAND_OF_THE_ARMY">To His Wife on Taking Command of the Army.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(A letter written on June 18, 1775)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#OF_HIS_ARMY_IN_CAMBRIDGE">Of His Army in Cambridge.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(A letter to Joseph Reed)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>III</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#TO_THE_MARQUIS_DE_CHASTELLUX_ON_HIS_MARRIAGE">To the Marquis Chastellux on His Marriage.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(A letter of April 25, 1788)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#JOHN_ADAMS">John Adams</a>—(Born in 1735, died in 1826.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#ON_HIS_NOMINATION_OF_WASHINGTON_TO_BE_COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF">On His Nomination of Washington to Be Commander-in-Chief.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From his "Diary")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#AN_ESTIMATE_OF_FRANKLIN">An Estimate of Franklin.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From a letter to the Boston <i>Patriot</i>)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#THOMAS_PAINE">Thomas Paine</a>—(Born in 1737, died in 1809.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#IN_FAVOR_OF_SEPARATION_OF_THE_COLONIES_FROM_GREAT_BRITAIN">In Favor of the Separation of the Colonies from Great Britain.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "Common Sense")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#THOMAS_JEFFERSON">Thomas Jefferson</a>—(Born in 1743, died in 1826.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#WHEN_THE_BASTILE_FELL">When the Bastile Fell.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From his "Autobiography")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_FUTILITY_OF_DISPUTES">The Futility of Disputes.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From a letter to his nephew)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>III</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#OF_BLACKS_AND_WHITES_IN_THE_SOUTH">Of Blacks and Whites in the South.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Notes on the State of Virginia")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>IV</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#HIS_ACCOUNT_OF_LOGANS_FAMOUS_SPEECH">His Account of Logan's Famous Speech.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Notes on Virginia")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#GOUVERNEUR_MORRIS">Gouverneur Morris</a>—(Born in 1752, died in 1816.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_OPENING_OF_THE_FRENCH_STATES-GENERAL">The Opening of the French States-General.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From a letter to Mrs. Morris)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#OF_THE_EXECUTION_OF_LOUIS_XVI">Of the Execution of Louis XVI.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From a letter to Thomas Jefferson)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#ALEXANDER_HAMILTON">Alexander Hamilton</a>—(Born in 1757, died in 1804.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#OF_THE_FAILURE_OF_CONFEDERATION">Of the Failure of Confederation.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From <i>The Federalist</i>)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#HIS_REASONS_FOR_NOT_DECLINING_BURRS_CHALLENGE">His Reasons for not Declining Burr's Challenge.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From a statement written before the day of the duel)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#JOHN_QUINCY_ADAMS">John Quincy Adams</a>—(Born in 1767, died in 1848.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#OF_HIS_MOTHER">Of His Mother.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Diary")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_MORAL_TAINT_INHERENT_IN_SLAVERY">The Moral Taint Inherent in Slavery.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Diary")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#WILLIAM_E_CHANNING">William E. Channing</a>—(Born in 1780, died in 1842.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#OF_GREATNESS_IN_NAPOLEON">Of Greatness in Napoleon.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From a review of Scott's "Life of Napoleon")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#JOHN_JAMES_AUDUBON">John James Audubon</a>—(Born in 1780, died in 1857.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#WHERE_THE_MOCKING-BIRD_DWELLS">Where the Mocking Bird Dwells.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Birds of America")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#WASHINGTON_IRVING">Washington Irving</a>—(Born in 1783, died in 1859.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_LAST_OF_THE_DUTCH_GOVERNORS_OF_NEW_YORK">The Last of the Dutch Governors of New York.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "Knickerbocker's History of New York")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_AWAKENING_OF_RIP_VAN_WINKLE">The Awakening of Rip Van Winkle.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Sketch Book")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>III</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#AT_ABBOTSFORD_WITH_SCOTT">At Abbotsford with Scott.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Crayon Miscellany")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#JAMES_FENIMORE_COOPER">Fenimore Cooper</a>—(Born in 1789, died in 1851.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#HIS_FATHERS_ARRIVAL_AT_OTSEGO_LAKE">His Father's Arrival at Otsego Lake.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "The Pioneers")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_170">170</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#RUNNING_THE_GANTLET">Running the Gantlet.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "The Last of the Mohicans")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_178">178</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>III</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#LEATHER-STOCKINGS_FAREWELL">Leather-Stocking's Farewell.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "The Pioneers")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#WILLIAM_CULLEN_BRYANT">William Cullen Bryant</a>—(Born in 1794, died in 1878.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#AN_OCTOBER_DAY_IN_FLORENCE">An October Day in Florence.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From a letter)</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#WILLIAM_H_PRESCOTT">William H. Prescott</a>—(Born in 1796, died in 1859.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_FATE_OF_EGMONT_AND_HOORNE">The Fate of Egmont and Hoorne.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "Philip II")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_GENESIS_OF_DON_QUIXOTE">The Genesis of Don Quixote.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Miscellanies")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#GEORGE_BANCROFT">George Bancroft</a>—(Born in 1800, died in 1891.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_FATE_OF_EVANGELINES_COUNTRYMEN">The Fate of Evangeline's Countrymen.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "History of the United States")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#RALPH_WALDO_EMERSON">Ralph Waldo Emerson</a>—(Born in 1803, died in 1882.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THOREAUS_BROKEN_TASK">Thoreau's Broken Task.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From the "Funeral Address")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_INTELLECTUAL_HONESTY_OF_MONTAIGNE">The Intellectual Honesty of Montaigne.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "Representative Men")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>III</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#HIS_VISIT_TO_CARLYLE_AT_CRAIGEN-PUTTOCK">His Visit to Carlyle at Craigen-puttock.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "English Traits")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="5"><span class="smcap"><a href="#NATHANIEL_HAWTHORNE">Nathaniel Hawthorne</a>—(Born in 1804, died in 1864.)</span></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>I</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#OCCUPANTS_OF_AN_OLD_MANSE">Occupants of an Old Manse.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "Mosses from an Old Manse")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>II</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#ARTHUR_DIMMESDALE_ON_THE_SCAFFOLD">Arthur Dimmesdale on the Scaffold.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "The Scarlet Letter")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>III</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#OF_LIFE_AT_BROOK_FARM">Of Life at Brook Farm.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "The Blithedale Romance")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td></tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td>IV</td> +<td colspan="3"><a href="#THE_DEATH_OF_JUDGE_PYNCHEON">The Death of Judge Pyncheon.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr><td></td> +<td> </td> +<td colspan="2">(From "The House of the Seven Gables")</td><td class="tocpg"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>AMERICA—I</h2> +<h3>1579-1891</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="JOHN_SMITH" id="JOHN_SMITH"></a>JOHN SMITH</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in England in 1579, died in 1631; served against the +Turks, captured, but escaped and returned to England in +1605; sailed for Virginia in 1606, and helped to found +Jamestown; captured by Indians and his life saved by +Pocahontas the same year; explored the Chesapeake to its +head; president of the Colony in 1608; returned to London in +1609; in 1614 explored the coast of New England; captured by +the French in 1615 and escaped the same year; received the +title of Admiral of New England in 1617; published his "True +Relation" in 1608, "Map of Virginia" in 1612, "A Description +of New England" in 1616, "New England's Trials" in 1620, and +his "General History" in 1624.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HIS_STORY_OF_POCAHONTAS" id="HIS_STORY_OF_POCAHONTAS"></a>HIS STORY OF POCAHONTAS<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2> + + +<p>Here more than two hundred of those grim Courtiers stood wondering at +him [John Smith], as he had beene a monster; till Powhatan<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and his +train had put themselves in their greatest braveries. Before a fire +upon a seat like a bedsted, he sat covered with a great robe, made of +Rarowcun skinnes, and all the tayles hanging by. On either hand did +sit a young wench of 16 or 18 years, and along on each side the house, +two rowes of men, and behind them as many women, with all their heads +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>and shoulders painted red; many of their heads bedecked with the +white downe of Birds; but every one with something: and a great chain +of white beads about their necks.</p> + +<p>At his entrance before the King, all the people gave a great shout. +The Queene of Appamatuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his +hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel +to dry them. Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they +could, a long consultation was held, but the conclusion was, two great +stones were brought before Powhatan: then as many as could laid hands +on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being +ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines, Pocahontas the +King's dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head +in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death: +whereat the Emperour was contented he should live to make him +hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper; for they thought him as +well of all occupations as themselves. For the King himselfe will make +his owne robes, shooes, bowes, arrowes, pots; plant, hunt, or doe any +thing so well as the rest....</p> + +<p>To conclude our peace, thus it happened. Captaine Argall<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> having +entered into a great acquaintance with Japazaws, an old friend of +Captaine Smith's, and so to all our Nation, ever since hee discovered +the Countrie: hard by him <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>there was Pocahontas, whom Captaine Smith's +Relations intituleth the Numparell of Virginia, and tho she had beene +many times a preserver of him and the whole Colonie, yet till this +accident shee was never seene at James towne since his departure, +being at Patawomeke, as it seemes, thinking her selfe unknown, was +easily by her friend Japazaws perswaded to goe abroad with him and his +wife to see the ship, for Captaine Argall had promised him a Copper +Kettle to bring her but to him, promising no way to hurt her, but +keepe her till they could conclude a peace with her father. The +Salvage for this Copper Kettle would have done any thing, it seemed by +the Relation; for tho she had seene and beene in many ships, yet he +caused his wife to faine how desirous she was to see one, and that he +offered to beat her for her importunitie, till she wept.</p> + +<p>But at last he told her, if Pocahontas would goe with her, he was +content: and thus they betrayed the poore innocent Pocahontas aboord, +where they were all kindly feasted in the cabin. Japazaws treading oft +on the Captaine's foot, to remember he had done his part, the Captaine +when he saw his time, perswaded Pocahontas to the gun-roome, faining +to have some conference with Japazaws, which was only that she should +not perceive he was any way guiltie of her captivitie: so sending for +her againe, he told her before her friends, she must goe with him, and +compound peace betwixt her Countrie and us, before she ever should see +Powhatan, whereat the old Jew and his wife began to howle and crie as +fast as Pocahontas, that upon the Captaine's fair perswasions, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +degrees pacifying her selfe, and Japazaws and his wife, with the +Kettle and other toys, went merrily on shore, and she to James towne. +A messenger forthwith was sent to her father, that his daughter +Pocahontas he loved so dearly, he must ransome with our men, swords, +pieces, tooles, etc., he trecherously had stolne....</p> + +<p>Long before this, Master John Rolfe, an honest Gentleman, and of good +behaviour, had beene in love with Pocahontas, and she with him, which +thing at that instant I made knowne to Sir Thomas Dale by a letter +from him, wherein hee intreated his advice, and she acquainted her +brother with it, which resolution Sir Thomas Dale<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> well approved. +The bruit of this mariage came soone to the knowledge of Powhatan, a +thing acceptable to him, as appeared by his sudden consent, for within +ten days he sent Opachisco, an old Uncle of hers, and two of his sons, +to see the manner of the mariage, and to doe in that behalfe what they +requested, for the confirmation thereof, as his deputie; which was +accordingly done about the first of Aprill. And ever since we have had +friendly trade and commerce, as well with Powhatan himself, as all his +subjects....</p> + +<p>The Lady Rebecca,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> alias Pocahontas, daughter to Powhattan, by the +diligent care of Master John Rolfe her husband and his friends, as +taught to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>speake such English as might well bee understood, well +instructed in Christianitie, and was become very formal and civil +after our English manner; she had also by him a childe which she loved +most dearely and the Treasurer and Company tooke order both for the +maintenance of her and it, besides there were divers persons of great +ranke and qualitie had beene very kinde to her; and before she arrived +at London, Captaine Smith to deserve her former courtesies, made her +qualities knowne to the Queene's most excellent Majestie and her +Court, and writ a little booke to this effect to the Queene: An +abstract whereof followeth.</p> + +<p>"<i>To the most high and vertuous Princesse Queene Anne of Great +Brittanie.</i></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Most Admired Queene</span>,</p> + +<p>"The love I beare my God, my King, and Countrie hath so oft emboldened +me in the worst of extreme dangers, that now honestie doth constraine +mee presume thus far beyond my selfe, to present your Majestie this +short discourse: If ingratitude be a deadly poyson to all honest +vertues, I must bee guiltie of that crime if I should omit any meanes +to bee thankful. So it is, that some ten yeers agoe being in Virginia, +and taken prisoner by the power of Powhatan their chiefe King, I +received from this great Salvage exceeding great courtesie, especially +from his son Nantaquaus, the most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit, +I ever saw in a Salvage, and his sister Pocahontas, the King's most +deare and well-beloved daughter, being but a childe of twelve or +thirteene yeers of age, whose compassionate pitiful heart, of +desperate estate, gave<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> me much cause to respect her: I being the +first Christian this proud King and his grim attendants ever saw: and +thus inthralled in their barbarous power, I cannot say I felt the +least occasion of want that was in the power of those my mortal foes +to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some six weeks +fatting among those Salvage Courtiers, at the minute of my execution, +she hazarded the beating out of her owne braines to save mine, and not +only that, but so prevaild with her father, that I was safely +conducted to James towne, where I found about eight and thirtie +miserable poore and sicke creatures, to keepe possession of all those +large territories of Virginia. Such was the weaknesse of this poore +Commonwealth, as had the Salvages not fed us, we directly had starved.</p> + +<p>"And this reliefe, most gracious Queene, was commonly brought us by +this Lady Pocahontas, notwithstanding all these passages when +inconstant Fortune turned our peace to war, this tender Virgin would +still not spare to dare to visit us, and by her our jars have beene +oft appeased, and our wants still supplyed; were it the policie of her +father thus to imploy her, or the ordinance of God thus to make her +His instrument, or her extraordinary affection to our Nation, I know +not: but of this I am sure:—when her father with the utmost of his +policie and power, sought to surprize mee, having but eighteene with +mee, the darke night could not affright her from comming through the +irkesome woods, and with watered eyes gave me intelligence, with her +best advice to escape his furie; which had hee knowne, hee had surely +slaine her. James towne with her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> wild traine she as freely +frequented, as her father's habitation; and during the time of two or +three yeeres, she next under God, was still the Instrument to preserve +this Colonie from death, famine and utter confusion, which if in those +times had once beene dissolved, Virginia might have line as it was at +our first arrival to this day. Since then, this businesse having beene +turned and varied by many accidents from that I left it at: it is most +certaine, after a long and troublesome war after my departure, betwixt +her father and our Colonie, all which time shee was not heard of, +about two yeeres after she her selfe was taken prisoner, being so +detained neere two yeeres longer, the Colonie by that meanes was +relieved, peace concluded, and at last rejecting her barbarous +condition, was maried to an English Gentleman, with whom at this +present she is in England; the first Christian ever of that Nation, +the first Virginian ever spake English, or had a childe in mariage by +an Englishman, a matter surely, if my meaning bee truly considered and +well understood, worthy a Prince's understanding....</p> + +<p>"The small time I staid in London, divers Courtiers and others, my +acquaintances, hath gone with mee to see her, that generally +concluded, they did thinke God had a great hand in her conversion, and +they have seen many English Ladies worse favored, proportioned and +behaviored, and as since I have heard, it pleased both the King and +Queene's Majestie honorably to esteeme her, accompanied with that +honorable Lady the Lady De la Warre, and that honorable Lord her +husband, and divers other persons of good qualities,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> both publikely +at the maskes and otherwise, to her great satisfaction and content, +which doubtlesse she would have deserved had she lived to arrive in +Virginia."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> From Smith's "Generall Historie of Virginia."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Powhatan was chief of a confederacy of Indians known as +the Powhatans, which he had raised from one comprizing only seven +tribes to one of thirty. The word Powhatan means "falls in a stream," +and was originally applied to the falls in the James river at +Richmond.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Argall, through intimidation or bribery, had made +Pocahontas a captive in 1612, when she was the wife of an Indian +attached to her father as a subordinate chief or leader.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Dale was colonial governor of Virginia in 1611 and again +in 1614-16. In the latter year he returned to England, taking with him +Captain Rolfe and Pocahontas.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Under that name Pocahontas had been baptized in the +original Jamestown church. A legend has survived that an old font, now +preserved in the church at Williamsburg, is the one from which she was +baptized.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Pocahontas in England gave birth to a son. She died at +Gravesend in the following year, in 1617. The parish records of +Gravesend describe her as "a Virginia lady borne, here was buried in +ye chauncell." In London a well-known street preserves a memorial of +her in its name—La Belle Sauvage. Her son, Thomas Rolfe, after living +many years in England, settled in Virginia. Several families in that +State have traced their descent from him. One of these was the famous +John Randolph of Roanoke.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_BRADFORD" id="WILLIAM_BRADFORD"></a>WILLIAM BRADFORD</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in England in 1590, died at Plymouth, Mass., in 1657; +governor of Plymouth Colony from 1627, except for five +years, to 1657; wrote a "History of the Plymouth Plantation" +for the period 1602-47, the manuscript of which was lost in +England, but after the lapse of about seventy-five years it +was found in a library in 1855, and in the following year +published.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_PILGRIMS_LAND_AND_MEET_THE_INDIANS" id="THE_PILGRIMS_LAND_AND_MEET_THE_INDIANS"></a>THE PILGRIMS LAND AND MEET THE INDIANS<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></h2> + +<h3>(1620)</h3> +<p>Having the wind good, we sailed all that day along the coast about +fifteen leagues; but saw neither river nor creek to put into. After we +had sailed an hour or two, it began to snow and rain, and to be bad +weather. About the midst of the afternoon the wind increased, and the +seas began to be very rough; and the hinges of the rudder broke, so +that we could steer no longer with it, but two men, with much ado, +were fain to serve with a couple of oars. The seas were grown so great +that we were much troubled and in great danger; and night grew on. +Anon, Master Coppin bade us be of good cheer; he saw the harbor. As we +drew near, the gale being <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>stiff, and we bearing great sail to get in, +split our mast in three pieces, and were like to have cast away our +shallop. Yet, by God's mercy, recovering ourselves, we had the flood +with us, and struck into the harbor.</p> + +<p>Now he that thought that had been the place, was deceived, it being a +place where not any of us had been before; and coming into the harbor, +he that was our pilot, did bear up northward, which if he had +continued, we had been cast away. Yet still the Lord kept us and we +bare up for an island before us, and recovering of that island, being +compassed about with many rocks, and dark night growing upon us, it +pleased the Divine Providence that we fell upon a place of sandy +ground, where our shallop did ride safe and secure all that night; and +coming upon a strange island, kept our watch all night in the rain +upon that island. And in the morning we marched about it, and found no +inhabitants at all; and here we made our rendezvous all that day, +being Saturday, 10th of December. On the Sabbath day we rested; and on +Monday we sounded the harbor, and found it a very good harbor for our +shipping. We marched also into the land, and found divers cornfields, +and little running brooks, a place very good for situation. So we +returned to our ship again with good news to the rest of our people, +which did much comfort their hearts....</p> + +<p>Some of us, having a good mind, for safety, to plant in the greater +isle, we crossed the bay, which is there five or six miles over, and +found the isle about a mile and half or two miles about, all wooded, +and no fresh water but two or three<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> pits, that we doubted of fresh +water in summer, and so full of wood as we could hardly clear so much +as to serve us for corn. Besides, we judged it cold for our corn, and +some part very rocky; yet divers thought of it as a place defensible, +and of great security. That night we returned again a shipboard, with +resolution the next morning to settle on some of those places.</p> + +<p>So in the morning, after we had called on God for direction, we came +to this resolution, to go presently ashore again, and to take a better +view of two places which we thought most fitting for us; for we could +not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals +being much spent, especially our beer, and it being now the 19th of +December. After our landing and viewing of the places, so well as we +could, we came to a conclusion, by most voices, to set on the main +land, on the first place, on a high ground, where there is a great +deal of land cleared, and hath been planted with corn three or four +years ago; and there is a very sweet brook runs under the hill side, +and many delicate springs of as good water as can be drunk, and where +we may harbor our shallops and boats exceeding well; and in this brook +much good fish in their seasons; on the further side of the river also +much corn-ground cleared. In one field is a great hill, on which we +point to make a platform, and plant our ordnance, which will command +all round about. From thence we may see into the bay, and far into the +sea; and we may see thence Cape Cod. Our greatest labor will be +fetching of our wood, which is half a quarter of an English mile; but +there is enough so far off. What people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> inhabit here we yet know not, +for as yet we have seen none. So there we made our rendezvous, and a +place for some of our people, about twenty, resolving in the morning +to come all ashore and to build houses.</p> + +<p>But the next morning, being Thursday, the 21st of December, it was +stormy and wet, that we could not go ashore; and those that remained +there all night could do nothing, but were wet, not having daylight +enough to make them a sufficient court of guard, to keep them dry. All +that night it blew and rained extremely. It was so tempestuous that +the shallop could not go on land so soon as was meet, for they had no +victuals on land. About eleven o'clock the shallop went off with much +ado with provision, but could not return, it blew so strong; and was +such foul weather that we were forced to let fall our anchor, and ride +with three anchors ahead.</p> + +<p>Friday, the 22d, the storm still continued, that we could not get a +land, nor they come to us aboard....</p> + +<p>Saturday, the 23d, so many of us as could went on shore, felled and +carried timber, to provide themselves stuff for building.</p> + +<p>Sunday, the 24th, our people on shore heard a cry of some savages, as +they thought, which caused an alarm and to stand on their guard, +expecting an assault; but all was quiet.</p> + +<p>Friday, the 16th, a fair warm day toward. This morning we determined +to conclude of the military orders, which we had begun to consider of +before, but were interrupted by the savages, as we mentioned formerly. +And while we were busied, hereabout, we were interrupted again;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> for +there presented himself a savage, which caused an alarm. He very +boldly came all alone, and along the houses, straight to the +rendezvous; where we intercepted him, not suffering him to go in, as +undoubtedly he would out of his boldness. He saluted us in English, +and bade us "Welcome!" for he had learned some broken English among +the Englishmen that came to fish at Monhiggon, and knew by name the +most of the captains, commanders and masters, that usually come. He +was a man free in speech, so far as he could express his mind, and of +a seemly carriage. We questioned him of many things; he was the first +savage we could meet withal. He said he was not of these parts, but of +Morattiggon, and one of the sagamores or lords thereof; and had been +eight months in these parts, it lying hence a day's sail with a great +wind, and five days by land. He discoursed of the whole country, and +of every province, and of their sagamores, and their number of men and +strength. The wind beginning to rise a little, we cast a horseman's +coat about him; for he was stark naked, only a leather about his +waist, with a fringe about a span long or little more. He had a bow +and two arrows, the one headed, and the other unheaded. He was a tall, +straight man, the hair of his head black, long behind, only short +before, none on his face at all. He asked some beer, but we gave him +strong water, and biscuit, and butter, and cheese, and pudding, and a +piece of mallard; all which he liked well, and had been acquainted +with such amongst the English. He told us the place where we now live +is called Patuxet, and that about four years ago<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> all the inhabitants +died of an extraordinary plague, and there is neither man, woman, nor +child remaining, as indeed we have found none; so as there is none to +hinder our possession, or to lay claim unto it. All the afternoon we +spent in communication with him. We would gladly have been rid of him +at night, but he was not willing to go this night. Then we thought to +carry him on shipboard, wherewith he was well content, and went into +the shallop; but the wind was high and the water scant, that it could +not return back. We lodged him that night at Steven Hopkin's house, +and watched him.</p> + +<p>The next day he went away back to the Masasoits, from whence he said +he came, who are our next bordering neighbors. They are sixty strong, +as he saith. The Nausites are as near, southeast of them, and are a +hundred strong; and those were they of whom our people were +encountered, as we before related. They are much incensed and provoked +against the English; and about eight months ago slew three Englishmen, +and two more hardly escaped by flight to Monhiggon. They were Sir +Ferdinando Gorge's<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> men, as this savage told us; as he did likewise +of the <i>huggery</i>, that is, fight, that our discoverers had with the +Nausites, and of our tools that were taken out of the woods, which we +willed him, should be brought again; otherwise we would <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>right +ourselves. These people are ill affected toward the English by reason +of one Hunt, a master of a ship, who deceived the people and got them +under color of trucking with them, twenty out of this very place where +we inhabit, and seven men from the Nausites, and carried them away, +and sold them for slaves, like a wretched man (for twenty pound a man) +that cares not what mischief he doth for his profit.</p> + +<p>Saturday, in the morning, we dismissed the savage, and gave him a +knife, a bracelet, and a ring. He promised within a night or two to +come again and to bring with him some of the Masasoits, our neighbors, +with such beavers' skins as they had to truck with us.</p> + +<p>Saturday and Sunday reasonable fair days. On this day came again the +savage, and brought with him five other tall, proper men. They had +every man a deer's skin on him, and the principal of them had a wild +cat's skin, or such like, on the one arm. They had most of them long +hosen up to their groins, close made, and above their groins to their +waist another leather; they were altogether like the Irish trousers. +They are of complexion like our English gipseys; no hair or very +little on their faces; on their heads long hair to their shoulders, +only cut before; some trussed up before with a feather, broad-wise, +like a fan; another a fox-tail, hanging out. These left (according to +our charge given him before) their bows and arrows a quarter of a mile +from our town. We gave them entertainment as we thought was fitting +them. They did eat liberally of our English victuals. They made +semblance unto us of friendship and amity. They sang and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> danced after +their manner, like antics. They brought with them in a thing like a +bow-case (which the principal of them had about his waist) a little of +their corn pounded to powder, which, put to a little water, they eat. +He had a little tobacco in a bag; but none of them drank but when he +liked. Some of them had their faces painted black, from the forehead +to the chin, four or five fingers broad; others after other fashions, +as they liked. They brought three or four skins; but we would not +truck with them at all that day, but wished them to bring more, and we +would truck for all; which they promised within a night or two, and +would leave these behind them, tho we were not willing they should; +and they brought us all our tools again, which were taken in the +woods, in our men's absence. So, because of the day, we dismissed them +so soon as we could. But Samoset,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> our first acquaintance, either +was sick or feigned himself so, and would not go with them, and stayed +with us till Wednesday morning. Then we sent him to them to know the +reason they came not according to their words; and we gave him a hat, +a pair of stockings and shoes, a shirt, and a piece of cloth to tie +about his waist.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> From what was long known as "Mourt's Relation," published +in London in 1622, but more properly, and now generally, called the +"Journal," or diary, of Bradford and Edward Winslow. This important +historical document covers the first year of the Plymouth colony.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Gorge was an English naval and military commander who +came of an ancient family in Somersetshire. He had undertaken several +schemes of discovery and settlement in America, but with small +success. His pioneer work, however, was of such importance that he has +sometimes been called "the father of English colonization in +America."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Samoset is still famous as an Indian who remained firm in +his friendship with the Plymouth colonists.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="SAMUEL_SEWALL" id="SAMUEL_SEWALL"></a>SAMUEL SEWALL</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in England in 1652, died in Boston in 1730; served in +the Bay Colony as judge and in other public stations; one of +the judges at trials for witchcraft in 1692; chief justice +in 1718; a philanthropist, and in 1700 wrote a pamphlet +against slavery; his other works: "Queries Respecting +America," published in 1690; "The Kennebec Indians" in 1721, +and his "Diary" covering the period 1664-1729 in 1882.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="HOW_HE_COURTED_MADAM_WINTHROP" id="HOW_HE_COURTED_MADAM_WINTHROP"></a>HOW HE COURTED MADAM WINTHROP<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></h2> + +<h3>(1720)</h3> +<p>September 5, 1720. Mary Hirst goes to Board with Madam Oliver and her +Mother Loyd. Going to Son Sewall's I there meet with Madam Winthrop, +told her I was glad to meet her there, had not seen her a great while; +gave her Mr. Homes's Sermon....</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> +<p>September 30. Mr. Colman's Lecture: Daughter Sewall acquaints Madam +Winthrop that if she pleas'd to be within at 3 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> I would wait on +her. She answer'd she would be at home.</p> + +<p>October 1. Satterday, I dine at Mr. Stoddard's: from thence I went to +Madam Winthrop's just at 3. Spake to her, saying, my loving wife died +so soon and suddenly, 'twas hardly convenient for me to think of +marrying again; however I came to this Resolution, that I would not +make my Court to any person without first Consulting with her. Had a +pleasant discourse about 7 [seven] Single persons sitting in the +Fore-seat. She propounded one and another for me; but none would do, +said Mrs. Loyd was about her Age.</p> + +<p>October 3. 2. Waited on Madam Winthrop again; 'twas a little while +before she came in. Her daughter Noyes being there alone with me, I +said, I hoped my Waiting on her Mother would not be disagreeable to +her. She answer'd she should not be against that that might be for her +Comfort. I Saluted her, and told her I perceived I must shortly wish +her a good Time; (her mother had told me, she was with Child, and +within a Moneth or two of her Time). By and by in came Mr. Airs, +Chaplain of the Castle, and hang'd up his Hat, which I was a little +startled at, it seeming as if he was to lodge there. At last Madam +Winthrop came too. After a considerable time, I went up to her and +said, if it might not be inconvenient I desired to speak with her. She +assented, and spake of going into another Room; but Mr. Airs and Mrs. +Noyes presently rose up, and went out, leaving us there alone.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> Then I +usher'd in Discourse from the names in the Fore-seat; at last I pray'd +that Katharine [Mrs. Winthrop] might be the person assign'd for me. +She instantly took it up in the way of Denyal, as if she had catch'd +at an Opportunity to do it, saying she could not do it before she was +asked. Said that was her mind unless she should Change it, which she +believed she should not; could not leave her Children. I express'd my +Sorrow that she should do it so Speedily, pray'd her Consideration, +and ask'd her when I should wait on her agen. She setting no time, I +mentioned that day Sennight. Gave her Mr. Willard's Fountain open'd +with the little print and verses; saying, I hop'd if we did well read +that book, we should meet together hereafter, if we did not now. She +took the Book, and put it in her Pocket. Took Leave.</p> + +<p>October 5. Midweek, I din'ed with the Court; from thence went and +visited Cousin Jonathan's wife, Lying in with her little Betty. Gave +the Nurse 2s. Altho I had appointed to wait upon her, Madam Winthrop, +next Monday, yet I went from my Cousin Sewall's thither about 3 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> +The Nurse told me Madam dined abroad at her daughter Noyes's, they +were to go out together. I ask'd for the Maid, who was not within. +Gave Katee a penny and a Kiss, and came away. Accompanyed my Son and +daughter Cooper in their Remove to their New House.</p> + +<p>October 6. A little after 6 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> I went to Madam Winthrop's. She was +not within. I gave Sarah Chickering the Maid 2s., Juno, who brought in +wood, 1s. Afterward the Nurse came in, I gave her 18d., having no +other small Bill.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> After awhile Dr. Noyes came in with his Mother; and +quickly after his wife came in: They sat talking, I think, till eight +a-clock. I said I fear'd I might be some Interruption to their +Business: Dr. Noyes reply'd pleasantly: He fear'd they might be an +Interruption to me, and went away. Madam seem'd to harp upon the same +string. Must take care of her Children; could not leave that House and +Neighborhood where she had dwelt so long. I told her she might doe her +children as much or more good by bestowing what she laid out in +Hous-keeping, upon them. Said her Son would be of age the 7th of +August. I said it might be inconvenient for her to dwell with her +Daughter-in-Law, who must be Mistress of the House. I gave her a piece +of Mr. Belcher's Cake and Ginger-Bread wrapped up in a clean sheet of +Paper; told her of her Father's kindness to me when Treasurer, and I +Constable. My Daughter Judith was gon from me and I was more +lonesom—might help to forward one another in our Journey to +Canaan.—Mr. Eyre<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> came within the door; I saluted him, ask'd how +Mr. Clark did, and he went away. I took leave about 9 a-clock. I told +[her] I came now to refresh her Memory as to Monday night; said she +had not forgot it. In discourse with her, I ask'd leave to speak with +her Sister; I meant to gain Madam Mico's favour to persuade her +Sister. She seem'd surpris'd and displeas'd, and said she was in the +same condition!...</p> + +<p>October 10. In the Evening I visited Madam Winthrop, who treated me +with a great deal of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>Curtesy; Wine, Marmalade. I gave her a +News-Letter about the Thanksgiving; Proposals, for sake of the Verses +for David Jeffries. She tells me Dr. Increase Mather visited her this +day, in Mr. Hutchinson's Coach.</p> + +<p>October 11. I writ a few Lines to Madam Winthrop to this purpose: +"Madam, These wait on you with Mr. Mayhew's Sermon, and Account of the +state of the Indians on Martha's Vinyard. I thank you for your +Unmerited Favors of yesterday; and hope to have the Happiness of +Waiting on you to-morrow before Eight a-clock after Noon. I pray <span class="smcap">God</span> +to keep you, and give you a joyfull entrance upon the Two Hundred and +twenty-ninth year of Christopher Columbus his Discovery; and take +Leave, who am, Madam, your humble Servant. S. S."</p> + +<p>Sent this by Deacon Green, who deliver'd it to Sarah Chickering, her +Mistress not being at home.</p> + +<p>October 12. At Madam Winthrop's Steps I took leave of Capt Hill, &c. +Mrs. Anne Cotton came to door (twas before 8.) said Madam Winthrop was +within, directed me into the little Room, where she was full of work +behind a Stand Mrs. Cotton came in and stood. Madam Winthrop pointed +to her to set me a Chair. Madam Winthrop's Countenance was much +changed from what 'twas on Monday, look'd dark and lowering. At last, +the work, (black stuff or Silk) was taken away, I got my Chair in +place, had some Converse, but very Cold and indifferent to what 'twas +before. Ask'd her to acquit me of Rudeness if I drew off her Glove. +Enquiring the reason, I told her twas great odds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> between handling a +dead Goat, and a living Lady. Got it off. I told her I had one +Petition to ask of her, that was, that she would take off the Negative +she laid on me the third of October; She readily answer'd she could +not, and enlarg'd upon it; She told me of it so soon as she could; +could not leave her house, children, neighbours, business. I told her +she might do som Good to help and support me. Mentioning Mrs. Gookin, +Nath, the widow Weld was spoken of; said I had visited Mrs. Denison. I +told her Yes! Afterward I said, If after a first and second Vagary she +would Accept of me returning, Her Victorious Kindness and Good Will +would be very Obliging. She thank'd me for my Book, (Mr. Mayhew's +Sermon), But said not a word of the Letter. When she insisted on the +Negative, I pray'd there might be no more Thunder and Lightening, I +should not sleep all night. I gave her Dr. Preston, The Church's +Marriage and the Church's Carriage, which cost me 6s. at the Sale. The +door standing open, Mr. Airs came in, hung up His hat, and sat down. +After awhile, Madam Winthrop moving, he went out. Jno. Eyre look'd in, +I said How do ye, or your servant Mr. Eyre: but heard no word from +him. Sarah fill'd a Glass of Wine, she drank to me, I to her, She sent +Juno home with me with a good Lantern, I gave her 6d. and bid her +thank her Mistress. In some of our Discourse, I told her I had rather +go the Stone-House adjoining to her, than to come to her against her +mind. Told her the reason why I came every other night was lest I +should drink too deep draughts of Pleasure. She had talk'd of Canary, +her Kisses were to me better than the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> best Canary. Explain'd the +expression Concerning Columbus.</p> + +<p>October 13. I tell my Son and daughter Sewall, that the Weather was +not so fair as I apprehended.</p> + +<p>October 17. In the Evening I visited Madam Winthrop, who Treated me +Courteously, but not in Clean Linen as somtimes. She said, she did not +know whether I would come again, or no. I ask'd her how she could so +impute inconstancy to me. (I had not visited her since Wednesday night +being unable to get over the Indisposition received by the Treatment +received that night, and <i>I must</i> in it seem'd to sound like a made +piece of Formality.) Gave her this day's Gazett. Heard David Jeffries +say the Lord's Prayer, and some other portions of the Scriptures. He +came to the door, and ask'd me to go into Chamber, where his +Grandmother was tending Little Katee, to whom she had given Physick; +but I chose to sit below. Dr. Noyes and his wife came in, and sat a +considerable time; had been visiting Son and daughter Cooper. Juno +came home with me.</p> + +<p>October 18. Visited Madam Mico, who came to me in a splendid Dress. I +said, It may be you have heard of my Visiting Madam Winthrop, her +Sister. She answered, Her Sister had told her of it. I ask'd her good +Will in the Affair. She answer'd, If her Sister were for it, she +should not hinder it. I gave her Mr. Homes's Sermon. She gave me a +Glass of Canary, entertain'd me with good Discourse, and a Respectfull +Remembrance of my first Wife. I took Leave.</p> + +<p>October 19. Midweek, Visited Madam Winthrop; Sarah told me she was at +Mr. Walley's,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> would not come home till late. I gave her Hannah 3 +oranges with her Duty, not knowing whether I should find her or no. +Was ready to go home: but said if I knew she was there, I would go +thither. Sarah seem'd to speak with pretty good Courage, She would be +there. I went and found her there, with Mr. Walley and his wife in the +little Room below. At 7 a-clock I mentioned going home; at 8. I put on +my Coat, and quickly waited on her home. She found occasion to speak +loud to the servant, as if she had a mind to be known. Was Courteous +to me; but took occasion to speak pretty earnestly about my keeping a +Coach: I said 'twould cost £100. per annum: she said twould cost but +£40. Spake much against John Winthrop, his false-heartedness. Mr. Eyre +came in and sat awhile; I offer'd him Dr. Incr. Mather's Sermons, +whereof Mr. Appleton's Ordination Sermon was one; said he had them +already. I said I would give him another. Exit. Came away somewhat +late.</p> + +<p>October 20. Promis'd to wait on the Governor about 7. Madam Winthrop +not being at Lecture, I went thither first; found her very Serene with +her daughter Noyes, Mrs. Dering, and the widow Shipreev sitting at a +little Table, she in her arm'd Chair. She drank to me, and I to Mrs. +Noyes. After awhile pray'd the favor to speak with her. She took one +of the Candles, and went into the best Room, clos'd the shutters, sat +down upon the Couch. She told me Madam Usher had been there, and said +the Coach must be set on Wheels, and not by Rusting. She spake +something of my needing a Wigg. Ask'd me what her Sister said to me. I +told her, She said, If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> her Sister were for it, She would not hinder +it. But I told her, she did not say she would be glad to have me for +her Brother. Said, I shall keep you in the Cold, and asked her if she +would be within to morrow night, for we had had but a running Feat. +She said she could not tell whether she should, or no. I took Leave. +As were drinking at the Governour's, he said: In England the Ladies +minded little more than that they might have Money, and Coaches to +ride in. I said, And New-England brooks its Name. At which Mr. Dudley +smiled. Governour said they were not quite so bad here.</p> + +<p>October 21. Friday, My Son, the Minister, came to me <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> by +appointment and we pray one for another in the Old Chamber; more +especially respecting my Courtship. About 6. a-clock I go to Madam +Winthrop's; Sarah told me her Mistress was gon out, but did not tell +me whither she went. She presently order'd me a Fire; so I went in, +having Dr. Sibb's Bowels with me to read. I read the two first +Sermons, still no body came in: at last about 9. a-clock Mr. Jno. Eyre +came in; I took the opportunity to say to him as I had done to Mrs. +Noyes before, that I hoped my Visiting his Mother would not be +disagreeable to him; He answered me with much Respect. When twas after +9. a-clock He of himself said he would go and call her, she was but at +one of his Brothers: A while after I heard Madam Winthrop's voice, +enquiring somthing about John. After a good while and Clapping the +Garden door twice or thrice, she came in. I mention'd somthing of the +lateness; she banter'd me, and said I was later. She receiv'd me +Courteously. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> ask'd when our proceedings should be made publick: She +said They were like to be no more publick than they were already. +Offer'd me no Wine that I remember. I rose up at 11 a-clock to come +away, saying I would put on my Coat, She offer'd not to help me. I +pray'd her that Juno might light me home, she open'd the Shutter, and +said twas pretty light abroad; Juno was weary and gon to bed. So I +came home by Star-light as well as I could. At my first coming in, I +gave Sarah five Shillings. I writ Mr. Eyre his name in his book with +the date October 21, 1720. It cost me 8s. Jehovah jireh! Madam told me +she had visited M. Mico, Wendell, and Wm. Clark of the South [Church].</p> + +<p>October 22. Daughter Cooper visited me before my going out of Town, +staid till about Sun set. I brought her going near as far as the +Orange Tree. Coming back, near Leg's Corner, Little David Jeffries saw +me, and looking upon me very lovingly, ask'd me if I was going to see +his Grandmother? I said, Not to-night. Gave him a peny, and bid him +present my Service to his Grandmother.</p> + +<p>October 24. I went in the Hackny Coach through the Common, stop'd at +Madam Winthrop's (had told her I would take my departure from thence). +Sarah came to the door with Katee in her Arms: but I did not think to +take notice of the Child. Call'd her Mistress. I told her, being +encourag'd by David Jeffries loving eyes, and sweet Words, I was come +to enquire whether she could find in her heart to leave that House and +Neighbourhood, and go and dwell with me at the South-end; I think she +said softly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> Not yet. I told her It did not ly in my Lands to keep a +Coach. If I should, I should be in danger to be brought to keep +company with her Neighbour Brooker, (he was a little before sent to +prison for Debt). Told her I had an Antipathy against those who would +pretend to give themselves; but nothing of their Estate. I would a +proportion of my Estate with my self. And I supposed she would do so. +As to a Perriwig, My best and greatest Friend, I could not possibly +have a greater, began to find me with Hair before I was born, and had +continued to do so ever since; and I could not find in my heart to go +to another. She commended the book I gave her, Dr. Preston, the Church +Marriage; quoted him saying 'twas inconvenient keeping out of a +Fashion commonly used. I said the Time and Tide did circumscribe my +Visit. She gave me a Dram of Black-Cherry Brandy, and gave me a lump +of the Sugar that was in it. She wish'd me a good Journy. I pray'd God +to keep her, and came away. Had a very pleasant Journy to Salem.</p> + +<p>November 1. I was so taken up that I could not go if I would.</p> + +<p>November 2. Midweek, went again, and found Mrs. Alden there, who +quickly went out. Gave her about 1/2 pound of Sugar Almonds, cost 3s. +per £. Carried them on Monday. She seem'd pleas'd with them, ask'd +what they cost. Spake of giving her a Hundred pounds per annum if I +dy'd before her. Ask'd her what sum she would give me, if she should +dy first? Said I would give her time to Consider of it. She said she +heard as if I had given all to my Children<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> by Deeds of Gift. I told +her 'twas a mistake, Point-Judith was mine &c. That in England I +own'd, my Father's desire was that it should go to my eldest Son; +'twas 20£ per annum; she thought 'twas forty. I think when I seem'd to +excuse pressing this, she seemed to think twas best to speak of it; a +long winter was coming on. Gave me a Glass or two of Canary.</p> + +<p>November 4. Friday, Went again, about 7. a-clock; found there Mr. John +Walley and his wife: sat discoursing pleasantly. I shew'd them Isaac +Moses's [an Indian] Writing. Madam W. serv'd Comfeits to us. After +awhile a Table was spread, and Supper was set. I urg'd Mr. Walley to +Crave a Blessing; but he put it upon me. About 9. they went away. I +ask'd Madam what fashioned Neck-lace I should present her with, She +said, None at all. I ask'd her Whereabout we left off last time; +mention'd what I had offer'd to give her; Ask'd her what she would +give me; She said she could not Change her Condition: She had said so +from the beginning; could not be so far from her Children, the +Lecture. Quoted the Apostle Paul affirming that a single Life was +better than a Married. I answered That was for the present Distress. +Said she had not pleasure in things of that nature as formerly: I +said, you are the fitter to make me a Wife. If she held in that mind, +I must go home and bewail my Rashness in making more haste than good +Speed. However, considering the Supper, I desired her to be within +next Monday night, if we liv'd so long. Assented. She charg'd me with +saying, that she must put away Juno, if she came to me: I utterly +deny'd it, it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> never came in my heart; yet she insisted upon it; +saying it came in upon discourse about the Indian woman that obtained +her Freedom this Court. About 10. I said I would not disturb the good +orders of her House, and came away. She not seeming pleas'd with my +Coming away. Spake to her about David Jeffries, had not seen him.</p> + +<p>Monday, November 7. My Son pray'd in the Old Chamber. Our time had +been taken up by Son and Daughter Cooper's Visit; so that I only read +the 130th and 143. Psalm. Twas on the Account of my Courtship. I went +to Mad. Winthrop; found her rocking her little Katee in the Cradle. I +excus'd my Coming so late (near Eight). She set me an arm'd Chair and +Cusheon; and so the Cradle was between her arm'd Chair and mine. Gave +her the remnant of my Almonds; She did not eat of them as before; but +laid them away; I said I came to enquire whether she had alter'd her +mind since Friday, or remained of the same mind still. She said, +Thereabouts. I told her I loved her, and was so fond as to think that +she loved me: she said had a great respect for me. I told her, I had +made her an offer, without asking any advice; she had so many to +advise with, that 'twas an hindrance. The Fire was come to one short +Brand besides the Block, which Brand was set up in end; at last it +fell to pieces, and no Recruit was made: She gave me a glass of Wine. +I think I repeated again that I would go home and bewail my Rashness +in making more haste than good Speed. I would endeavor to contain +myself, and not go on to sollicit her to do that which she could not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +Consent to. Took leave of her. As came down the steps she bid me have +a care. Treated me Courteously. Told her she had enter'd the 4th year +of her Widowhood. I had given her the News-Letter before: I did not +bid her draw off her Glove as sometime I had done. Her Dress was not +so clean as somtime it had been. Jehovah Jireh.</p> + +<p>Midweek, November 9th. Dine at Brother Stoddard's: were so kind as to +enquire of me if they should invite Madam Winthrop; I answer'd No. +Thank'd my Sister Stoddard for her Courtesie. Had a noble Treat. At +night our Meeting was at the Widow Belknap's. Gave each one of the +Meeting One of Mr. Holmes's Sermons, 12 in all; She sent her servant +home with me with a Lantern. Madam Winthrop's Shutters were open as I +pass'd by.</p> + +<p>November 11th. Went not to Madam Winthrop's. This is the 2d +Withdraw....</p> + +<p>About the middle of December Madam Winthrop made a Treat for her +Children; Mr. Sewall, Prince, Willoughby: I knew nothing of it; but +the same day abode in the Council Chamber for fear of the Rain, and +din'd alone upon Kilby's Pyes and good Beer.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> From Sewall's "Diary," as published by the Massachusetts +Historical Society in 1882. +</p><p> +Mrs. Winthrop was the widow of General Waite Still Winthrop, a son of +John Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut, who was a son of John +Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her maiden name +was Katharine Brattle. She had first married John Eyre, with whom she +lived about twenty years, and by whom she had twelve children. She was +born in 1664, and at the time of Sewall's courtship of her was +fifty-six and he sixty-nine. General Winthrop and Mrs. Sewall had died +a few years before within a month of each other. Madam Winthrop did +not marry Judge Sewall, nor any one else. She died five years after +the date of this courtship.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> A son of Madam Winthrop by her first marriage.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> In the following summer Judge Sewall made his addresses +to an old friend of his, then a widow, Mrs. Ruggles, by whom he was +rejected. In March of the next year he married Mrs. Mary Gibbs.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="COTTON_MATHER" id="COTTON_MATHER"></a>COTTON MATHER</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in Boston in 1663, died in 1728; son of Increase +Mather; colleague of his father in the North Church of +Boston in 1684, remaining in that pulpit until his death; +active in the suppression of witchcraft; published his +"Magnalia" in 1702, his "Wonders of the Invisible World" in +1692.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IN_PRAISE_OF_JOHN_ELIOT" id="IN_PRAISE_OF_JOHN_ELIOT"></a>IN PRAISE OF JOHN ELIOT<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></h2> + + +<p>He that will write of Eliot must write of charity, or say nothing. His +charity was a star of the first magnitude in the bright constellation +of his vertues, and the rays of it were wonderfully various and +extensive. His liberality to pious uses, whether publick or private, +went much beyond the proportions of his little estate in the world. +Many hundreds of pounds did he freely bestow upon the poor; and he +would, with a very forcible importunity, press his neighbors to join +with him in such beneficences. It was a marvelous alacrity with which +he imbraced all opportunities of relieving any that were miserable; +and the good people of Roxbury doubtless cannot remember (but the +righteous God will!) how <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>often, and with what ardors, with what +arguments, he became a beggar to them for collections in their +assemblies, to support such needy objects as had fallen under his +observation. The poor counted him their father, and repaired still +unto him with a filial confidence in their necessities; and they were +more than seven or eight, or indeed than so many scores, who received +their portions of his bounty. Like that worthy and famous English +general, he could not perswade himself "that he had anything but what +he gave away," but he drove a mighty trade at such exercises as he +thought would furnish him with bills of exchange, which he hoped +"after many days" to find the comfort of; and yet, after all, he would +say, like one of the most charitable souls that ever lived in the +world, "that looking over his accounts he could nowhere find the God +of heaven charged a debtor there." He did not put off his charity to +be put in his last will, as many who therein shew that their charity +is against their will; but he was his own administrator; he made his +own hands his executors, and his own eyes his overseers. It has been +remarked that liberal men are often long-lived men; so do they after +many days find the bread with which they have been willing to keep +other men alive. The great age of our Eliot was but agreeable to this +remark; and when his age had unfitted him for almost all employments, +and bereaved him of those gifts and parts which once he had been +accomplished with, being asked, "How he did?" he would sometimes +answer, "Alas, I have lost everything; my understanding leaves me, my +memory fails me, my utterance fails me; but, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> thank God, my charity +holds out still; I find that rather grows than fails!" And I make no +question, that at his death his happy soul was received and welcomed +into the "everlasting habitations," by many scores got thither before +him, of such as his charity had been liberal unto.</p> + +<p>But besides these more substantial expressions of his charity, he made +the odors of that grace yet more fragrant unto all that were about +him, by that pitifulness and that peaceableness which rendered him yet +further amiable. If any of his neighborhood were in distress, he was +like a "brother born for their adversity," he would visit them, and +comfort them with a most fraternal sympathy; yea, 'tis not easy to +recount how many whole days of prayer and fasting he has got his +neighbors to keep with him, on the behalf of those whose calamities he +found himself touched withal. It was an extreme satisfaction to him +that his wife had attained unto a considerable skill in physick and +chirurgery, which enabled her to dispense many safe, good and useful +medicines unto the poor that had occasion for them; and some hundreds +of sick and weak and maimed people owed praises to God for the benefit +which therein they freely received of her. The good gentleman her +husband would still be casting oil into the flame of that charity, +wherein she was of her own accord abundantly forward thus to be doing +of good unto all; and he would urge her to be serviceable unto the +worst enemies that he had in the world. Never had any man fewer +enemies than he! but once having delivered something in his ministry +which displeased one of his hearers, the man did passionately abuse +him for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> it, and this both with speeches and with writings that +reviled him. Yet it happening not long after that this man gave +himself a very dangerous wound, Mr. Eliot immediately sends his wife +to cure him; who did accordingly. When the man was well, he came to +thank her, but she took no rewards; and this good man made him stay +and eat with him, taking no notice of all the calumnies with which he +had loaded him; but by this carriage he mollified and conquered the +stomach of his reviler.</p> + +<p>He was also a great enemy to all contention, and would ring aloud +courfeu bell wherever he saw the fires of animosity. When he heard any +ministers complain that such and such in their flocks were too +difficult for them, the strain of his answer still was, "Brother, +compass them!" and "Brother, learn the meaning of those three little +words, bear, forbear, forgive." Yea, his inclinations for peace, +indeed, sometimes almost made him to sacrifice right itself. When +there was laid before an assembly of ministers a bundle of papers +which contained certain matters of difference and contention between +some people which our Eliot thought should rather unite, with an +amnesty upon all their former quarrels, he (with some imitation of +what Constantine did upon the like occasion) hastily threw the papers +into the fire before them all, and, with a zeal for peace as hot as +that fire, said immediately, "Brethren, wonder not at what I have +done; I did it on my knees this morning before I came among you." Such +an excess (if it were one) flowed from his charitable inclinations to +be found among those peace-makers which, by following the example of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +that Man who is our peace, come to be called "the children of God." +Very worthily might he be called an Irenæus as being all for peace; +and the commendation which Epiphanius gives unto the ancient of that +name, did belong unto our Eliot; he was "a most blessed and a most +holy man." He disliked all sorts of bravery; but yet with an ingenious +note upon the Greek word in Col. iii. 15, he propounded, "that peace +might brave it among us." In short, wherever he came, it was like +another old John, with solemn and earnest persuasives to love; and +when he could say little else he would give that charge, "My children, +love one another!"</p> + +<p>Finally, 'twas his charity which disposed him to continual +applications for, and benedictions on those that he met withal; he had +an heart full of good wishes and a mouth full of kind blessings for +them. And he often made his expressions very wittily agreeable to the +circumstances which he saw the persons in. Sometimes when he came into +a family, he would call for all the young people in it, that so he +might very distinctly lay his holy hands upon every one of them, and +bespeak the mercies of heaven for them all.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> From the "Magnalia Christi Americana." This work +comprizes an ecclesiastical history of early New England, and has been +in much favor with collectors. John Eliot has commonly been called +"The Apostle of the Indians." He labored among them many years and +translated into their language the Bible. Copies of the "Eliot Bible" +are now among the most valuable of early American books.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_BYRD" id="WILLIAM_BYRD"></a>WILLIAM BYRD</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in Virginia in 1674, died, in 1744; educated in England +and the Netherlands; visited the court of France; chosen a +Fellow of the Royal Society; receiver-general of the revenue +in Virginia and three times colonial agent for Virginia in +England; for thirty-seven years member, and finally +president, of the Council of Virginia; his home in Virginia +the famous ancestral seat called Westover.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AT_THE_HOME_OF_COLONEL_SPOTSWOOD" id="AT_THE_HOME_OF_COLONEL_SPOTSWOOD"></a>AT THE HOME OF COLONEL SPOTSWOOD<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></h2> + + +<p>Sept., 1732. Colonel Spotswood's enchanted castle is on one side of +the street, and a baker's dozen of ruinous tenements on the other, +where so many German families had dwelt some years ago; but are now +removed ten miles higher, in the Fork of Rappahannock, to land of +their own. There had also been a chapel about a bow-shot from the +colonel's house, at the end of an avenue of cherry trees, but some +pious people had lately burned it down, with intent to get another +built <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>nearer to their own homes. Here I arrived about three o'clock, +and found only Mrs. Spotswood at home, who received her old +acquaintance with many a gracious smile. I was carried into a room +elegantly set off with pier glasses, the largest of which came soon +after to an odd misfortune. Amongst other favorite animals that +cheered this lady's solitude, a brace of tame deer ran familiarly +about the house, and one of them came to stare at me as a stranger. +But unluckily spying his own figure in the glass, he made a spring +over the tea-table that stood under it, and shattered the glass to +pieces, and falling back upon the tea-table made a terrible fracas +among the china.</p> + +<p>This exploit was so sudden, and accompanied with such a noise, that it +surprized me, and perfectly frightened Mrs. Spotswood. But 'twas worth +all the damage to show the moderation and good humor with which she +bore this disaster. In the evening the noble colonel came home from +his mines, who saluted me very civilly, and Mrs. Spotswood's sister, +Miss Theky, who had been to meet him <i>en cavalier</i>, was so kind too as +to bid me welcome. We talked over a legend of old stories, supped +about 9, and then prattled with the ladies, till it was time for a +traveler to retire. In the mean time I observed my old friend to be +very uxorious, and exceedingly fond of his children. This was so +opposite to the maxims he used to preach up before he was married, +that I could not forbear rubbing up the memory of them. But he gave a +very good-natured turn to his change of sentiments by alleging that +whoever brings a poor gentlewoman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> into so solitary a place, from all +her friends and acquaintance, would be ungrateful not to use her and +all that belongs to her with all possible tenderness.</p> + +<p>We all kept snug in our several apartments till nine, except Miss +Theky, who was the housewife of the family. At that hour we met over a +pot of coffee, which was not quite strong enough to give us the palsy. +After breakfast the colonel and I left the ladies to their domestic +affairs, and took a turn in the garden, which has nothing beautiful +but three terrace walks that fall in slopes one below another. I let +him understand that, besides the pleasure of paying him a visit, I +came to be instructed by so great a master in the mystery of making of +iron, wherein he had led the way, and was the Tubal Cain of Virginia. +He corrected me a little there, by assuring me he was not only the +first in this country, but the first in North America who had erected +a regular furnace. That they ran altogether upon bloomeries in New +England and Pennsylvania till his example had made them attempt +greater works. But in this last colony they have so few ships to carry +their iron to Great Britain that they must be content to make it only +for their own use, and must be obliged to manufacture it when they +have done. That he hoped he had done the country very great service by +setting so good an example....</p> + +<p>Our conversation on this subject continued till dinner, which was both +elegant and plentiful. The afternoon was devoted to the ladies, who +showed me one of their most beautiful walks. They conducted me through +a shady lane to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> landing, and by the way made me drink some very +fine water that issued from a marble fountain, and ran incessantly. +Just behind it was a covered bench, where Miss Theky often sat and +bewailed her virginity. Then we proceeded to the river, which is the +south branch of Rappahannock, about fifty yards wide, and so rapid +that the ferry boat is drawn over by a chain, and therefore called the +Rapidan. At night we drank prosperity to all the colonel's projects in +a bowl of rack punch, and then retired to our devotions.</p> + +<p>Having employed about two hours in retirement, I sallied out at the +first summons to breakfast, where our conversation with the ladies, +like whip syllabub, was very pretty, but had nothing in it. This, it +seems, was Miss Theky's birthday, upon which I made her my +compliments, and wished she might live twice as long a married woman +as she had lived a maid. I did not presume to pry into the secret of +her age, nor was she forward to disclose it, for this humble reason, +lest I should think her wisdom fell short of her years....</p> + +<p>We had a Michaelmas goose for dinner, of Miss Theky's own raising, who +was now good-natured enough to forget the jeopardy of her dog. In the +afternoon we walked in a meadow by the river side, which winds in the +form of a horseshoe about Germanna, making it a peninsula containing +about four hundred acres. Rappahannock forks about fourteen miles +below this place, the northern branch being the larger, and +consequently must be the river that bounds my Lord Fairfax's grant of +the northern neck.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> + +<p>The sun rose clear this morning, and so did I, and finished all my +little affairs by breakfast. It was then resolved to wait on the +ladies on horseback, since the bright sun, the fine air, and the +wholesome exercise, all invited us to it. We forded the river a little +above the ferry, and rode six miles up the neck to a fine level piece +of rich land, where we found about twenty plants of ginseng, with the +scarlet berries growing on the top of the middle stalk. The root of +this is of wonderful virtue in many cases, particularly to raise the +spirits and promote perspiration, which makes it a specific in colds +and coughs. The colonel complimented me with all we found, in return +for my telling him the virtues of it. We were all pleased to find so +much of this king of plants so near the colonel's habitation, and +growing, too, upon his own land; but were, however surprized to find +it upon level ground, after we had been told it grew only upon the +north side of Stony Mountains. I carried home this treasure with as +much joy as if every root had been a graft of the Tree of Life, and +washed and dried it carefully. This airing made us as hungry as so +many hawks, so that between appetite and a very good dinner, 'twas +difficult to eat like a philosopher. In the afternoon the ladies +walked me about amongst all their little animals, with which they +amuse themselves, and furnish the table; the worst of it is, they are +so tenderhearted they shed a silent tear every time any of them are +killed. At night the colonel and I quitted the threadbare subject of +iron, and changed the scene to politics. He told me the ministry had +receded from their demand upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> New England, to raise a standing +salary for all succeeding governors, for fear some curious members of +the House of Commons should inquire how the money was disposed of that +had been raised in the other American colonies for the support of +their governors....</p> + +<p>Our conversation was interrupted by a summons to supper, for the +ladies, to show their power, had by this time brought us tamely to go +to bed with our bellies full, tho we both at first declared positively +against it. So very pliable a thing is frail man, when women have the +bending of him.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> From "A Progress to the Mines," the date of the visit +being 1732, which was the year in which Washington was born. Byrd's +work is one of several admired writings by Byrd, now known +collectively as the "Westover Manuscripts." Colonel Spotswood, of whom +Byrd here writes, in early life had been a soldier under Marlborough, +and in 1710 Governor of Virginia. In 1714, on his appointment to +command a British expedition to the West Indies, he was made a +major-general, but he died before embarking. He maintained fine +establishments at Yorktown and on the Rapidan.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="JONATHAN_EDWARDS" id="JONATHAN_EDWARDS"></a>JONATHAN EDWARDS</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born In Connecticut in 1703, died in Princeton in 1758; +pastor at Northampton, Mass., in 1727-50; missionary to the +Indians at Stockbridge in 1751-58; president of Princeton in +1758; his "Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections" +published in 1746; "Qualifications for Full Communion" in +1749; "The Freedom of the Will," his most famous book, in +1754; "Doctrine of Original Sin Defended" in 1758, and +"History of the Redemption" in 1772.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="OF_LIBERTY_AND_MORAL_AGENCIES" id="OF_LIBERTY_AND_MORAL_AGENCIES"></a>OF LIBERTY AND MORAL AGENCIES<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></h2> + + +<p>The plain and obvious meaning of the words freedom and liberty, in +common speech, is power, opportunity, or advantage, that any one has, +to do as he pleases. Or, in other words, his being free from hindrance +or impediment in the way of doing, or conducting in any respect, as he +wills. (I say not only doing, but conducting; because a voluntary +forbearing to do, sitting still, keeping silence, etc., are instances +of persons' conduct, about which liberty is exercised; tho they are +not so properly called <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>doing.) And the contrary to Liberty, whatever +name we call that by, is a person's being hindered or unable to +conduct as he will, or being necessitated to do otherwise.</p> + +<p>If this which I have mentioned be the meaning of the word liberty, in +the ordinary use of language; as I trust that none that has ever +learned to talk, and is unprejudiced, will deny: then it will follow +that in propriety of speech neither liberty, nor its contrary, can +properly be ascribed to any being or thing but that which has such a +faculty, power or property as is called will. For that which is +possest of no such thing as will, can not have any power or +opportunity of doing according to its will, nor be necessitated to act +contrary to its will, nor be restrained from acting agreeably to it. +And therefore to talk of liberty, or the contrary, as belonging to the +very will itself is not to speak good sense; if we judge of sense and +nonsense by the original and proper signification of words. For the +will itself is not an agent that has a will: the power of choosing +itself has not a power of choosing. That which has the power of +volition or choice is the man or the soul, and not the power of +volition itself. And he that has the liberty of doing according to his +will, is the agent or doer who is possest of the will; and not the +will which he is possest of. We say with propriety that a bird let +loose has power and liberty to fly; but not that the bird's power of +flying has a power and liberty of flying. To be free is the property +of an agent, who is possest of powers and faculties, as much as to be +cunning, valiant, bountiful, or zealous. But these qualities are the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +properties of men or persons and not the properties of properties.</p> + +<p>There are two things that are contrary to this which is called liberty +in common speech. One is constraint; the same is otherwise called +force, compulsion, and coaction; which is a person's being +necessitated to do a thing contrary to his will. The other is +restraint; which is his being hindered, and not having power to do +according to his will. But that which has no will, can not be the +subject of these things. I need say the less on this head, Mr. Locke +having set the same thing forth, with so great clearness, in his +"Essay on the Human Understanding."</p> + +<p>But one thing more I would observe concerning what is vulgarly called +liberty; namely, that power and opportunity for one to do and conduct +as he will, or according to his choice, is all that is meant by it; +without taking into the meaning of the word anything of the cause or +original of that choice; or at all considering how the person came to +have such a volition; whether it was caused by some external motive or +internal habitual bias; whether it was determined by some internal +antecedent volition, or whether it happened without a cause; whether +it was necessarily connected with something foregoing, or not +connected. Let the person come by his volition or choice how he will, +yet, if he is able, and there is nothing in the way to hinder his +pursuing and executing his will, the man is fully and perfectly free, +according to the primary and common notion of freedom.</p> + +<p>What has been said may be sufficient to show what is meant by liberty, +according to the com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>mon notions of mankind, and in the usual and +primary acceptation of the word: but the word, as used by Arminians, +Pelagians and others, who oppose the Calvinists, has an entirely +different signification. These several things belong to their notion +of liberty. 1. That it consists in a self-determining power in the +will, or a certain sovereignty the will has over itself, and its own +acts, whereby it determines its own volitions; so as not to be +dependent, in its determinations, on any cause without itself, nor +determined by anything prior to its own acts. 2. Indifference belongs +to liberty in their notion of it, or that the mind, previous to the +act of volition, be in equilibrio. 3. Contingence is another thing +that belongs and is essential to it; not in the common acceptation of +the word, as that has been already explained, but as opposed to all +necessity, or any fixt and certain connection with some previous +ground or reason of its existence. They suppose the essence of liberty +so much to consist in these things that unless the will of man be free +in this sense, he has no real freedom, how much soever he may be at +liberty to act according to his will.</p> + +<p>A moral agent is a being that is capable of those actions that have a +moral quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a +moral sense, virtuous or vicious, commendable or faulty. To moral +agency belongs a moral faculty, or sense of moral good and evil, or of +such a thing as desert or worthiness, of praise or blame, reward or +punishment; and a capacity which an agent has of being influenced in +his actions by moral inducements or motives, ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>hibited to the view of +understanding and reason, to engage to a conduct agreeable to the +moral faculty.</p> + +<p>The sun is very excellent and beneficial in its action and influence +on the earth, in warming it, and causing it to bring forth its fruits; +but it is not a moral agent. Its action, tho good, is not virtuous or +meritorious. Fire that breaks out in a city, and consumes great part +of it, is very mischievous in its operation; but is not a moral agent. +What it does is not faulty or sinful, or deserving of any punishment. +The brute creatures are not moral agents. The actions of some of them +are very profitable and pleasant; others are very hurtful; yet, seeing +they have no moral faculty, or sense of desert, and do not act from +choice guided by understanding, or with a capacity of reasoning and +reflecting, but only from instinct, and are not capable of being +influenced by moral inducements, their actions are not properly sinful +or virtuous; nor are they properly the subjects of any such moral +treatment for what they do, as moral agents are for their faults or +good deeds.</p> + +<p>Here it may be noted that there is a circumstantial difference between +the moral agency of a ruler and a subject. I call it circumstantial, +because it lies only in the difference of moral inducements they are +capable of being influenced by, arising from the difference of +circumstances. A ruler, acting in that capacity only, is not capable +of being influenced by a moral law, and its sanctions of threatenings +and promises, rewards and punishments as the subject is; tho both may +be influenced by a knowledge of moral<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> good and evil. And therefore +the moral agency of the Supreme Being, who acts only in the capacity +of a ruler toward His creatures, and never as a subject, differs in +that respect from the moral agency of created intelligent beings. +God's actions, and particularly those which are to be attributed to +Him as moral governor, are morally good in the highest degree. They +are most perfectly holy and righteous; and we must conceive of Him as +influenced in the highest degree by that which, above all others, is +properly a moral inducement, viz., the moral good which He sees in +such and such things: and therefore He is, in the most proper sense, a +moral agent, the source of all moral ability and agency, the fountain +and rule of all virtue and moral good; tho by reason of His being +supreme over all, it is not possible He should be under the influence +of law or command, promises or threatenings, rewards or punishments, +counsels or warnings. The essential qualities of a moral agent are in +God, in the greatest possible perfection; such as understanding, to +perceive the difference between moral good and evil; a capacity of +discerning that moral worthiness and demerit, by which some things are +praiseworthy, others deserving of blame and punishment; and also a +capacity of choice, and choice guided by understanding, and a power of +acting according to his choice or pleasure, and being capable of doing +those things which are in the highest sense praiseworthy. And herein +does very much consist that image of God wherein He made man (which we +read of Gen. i. 26, 27, and chapter ix. 6), by which God distinguishes +man from the beasts,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> viz., in those faculties and principles of +nature, whereby he is capable of moral agency. Herein very much +consists the natural image of God; as His spiritual and moral image, +wherein man was made at first, consisted in that moral excellency, +that he was endowed with.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> From "The Freedom of the Will." It is not alone as a +contribution to theology that this work has been much admired. It is +probably the most famous theological treatise yet produced in America; +one writer has called it "one of the most famous philosophical works +in the world." But as an intellectual achievement solely, and for the +perfection of its style, it has been quite as generally praised.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="BENJAMIN_FRANKLIN" id="BENJAMIN_FRANKLIN"></a>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in Boston in 1706, died in 1790; settled in +Philadelphia in 1729; Postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737; +discovered the identity of lightning with electricity in +1753; proposed a "Plan of Union" at Albany in 1754; Colonial +Agent for Pennsylvania in England in 1757-62 and 1764-75; +Member of the Second Continental Congress in 1775; Member of +the Committee which drew up the Declaration of Independence +in 1776; Ambassador to France in 1776; helped to negotiate +the treaty of peace with England in 1783; President of +Pennsylvania in 1785-88; Member of the Constitutional +Convention in 1787.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="HIS_FIRST_ENTRY_INTO_PHILADELPHIA" id="HIS_FIRST_ENTRY_INTO_PHILADELPHIA"></a>HIS FIRST ENTRY INTO PHILADELPHIA<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></h2> + + +<h3>(1729)</h3> +<p>I have been the more particular in this description of my journey, and +shall be so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your +mind compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since +made there. I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come +round by sea. I was dirty from my journey; my pockets were stuffed out +with shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul nor where to look for +lodging. I was fatigued with traveling, rowing and want of rest, I was +very hungry; and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar, +and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>the people of the +boat for my passage, who at first refused it, on account of my rowing; +but I insisted on their taking it. A man being sometimes more generous +when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps +through fear of being thought to have but little.</p> + +<p>Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the market-house I +met a boy with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and, inquiring +where he got it, I went immediately to the baker's he directed me to, +in Second street, and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had in +Boston; but they, it seems, were not made in Philadelphia. Then I +asked for a three-penny loaf, and was told they had none such. So, not +considering or knowing the difference of money, and the greater +cheapness nor the names of his bread, I had him give me three +pennyworth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great puffy +rolls. I was surprized at the quantity, but took it, and, having no +room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm, and eating +the other. Thus I went up Market street as far as Fourth street, +passing by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife's father;<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> when +she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly +did, a most awkward, ridiculous <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>appearance. Then I turned and went +down Chestnut street and part of Walnut street, eating my roll all the +way, and, coming round, found myself again at Market street wharf, +near the boat I came in, to which I went for a draft of the river +water; and, being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other two to a +woman and her child that came down the river in the boat with us, and +were waiting to go farther.</p> + +<p>Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by this time had +many clean-drest people in it, who were all walking the same way. I +joined them, and thereby was led into the great meeting-house of the +Quakers near the market. I sat down among them, and, after looking +round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy through labor +and want of rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and +continued so till the meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to +rouse me. This was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, +in Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>Walking down again toward the river, and, looking in the faces of +people, I met a young Quaker man, whose countenance I liked, and, +accosting him, requested he would tell me where a stranger could get +lodging. We were then near the sign of the Three Mariners. "Here," +says he, "is one place that entertains strangers, but <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>it is not a +reputable house; if thee wilt walk with me, I'll show thee a better." +He brought me to the Crooked Billet in Water street. Here I got a +dinner; and, while I was eating it, several sly questions were asked +me, as it seemed to be suspected, from my youth and appearance, that I +might be some runaway.</p> + +<p>After dinner, my host having shown me to a bed, I laid myself on +without undressing, and slept till six in the evening, when I was +called to supper. I went to bed again very early, and slept very +soundly till next morning. Then I drest myself as neat as I could, and +went to Andrew Bradford the printer's. I found in the shop the old man +his father, whom I had seen at New York, and who, traveling on +horseback, had got to Philadelphia before me. He introduced me to his +son, who received me civilly, gave me a breakfast, but told me he did +not at present want a hand, being lately supplied with one; but there +was another printer in town, lately set up, one Keimer, who, perhaps, +might employ me; if not, I should be welcome to lodge at his house, +and he would give me a little work to do now and then till fuller +business should offer.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> From Chapters I and II of the "Autobiography."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Deborah was Mr. Read's daughter's name. Her grave, +alongside Franklin's, in Philadelphia, has been a place of much +pilgrimage these many years. One of the letters of Mrs. Franklin that +has survived may be given here in illustration of her limited +education. It was addrest to Franklin while he was in England, being +dated "October ye 11, 1770": +</p><p> +"My dear Child:—the bairer of this is the Son of Dr. Phinis Bond his +only son and a worthey young man he is going to studey the Law he +desired a line to you I believe you have such a number of worthey +young Jentelmen as ever wonte to gather I hope to give you pleshner to +see such a number of fine youthes from your one country which will be +an Honour to thar parentes and Countrey. +</p> + +<p class="f1">"I am my dear Child your</p> +<p class="f2">ffeckshonot</p> +<p class="f3">Wife D. Franklin."</p> +</div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="WARNINGS_BRADDOCK_DID_NOT_HEED" id="WARNINGS_BRADDOCK_DID_NOT_HEED"></a>WARNINGS BRADDOCK DID NOT HEED<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></h2> + + +<p>This general [Braddock] was, I think, a brave man, and might probably +have made a figure as a good officer in some European war. But he had +too much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of +regular troops, and too mean a one of both Americans and Indians. +George Croghan,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> our Indian interpreter, joined him on his march +with one hundred of those people, who might have been of great use to +his army as guides, scouts, etc., if he had treated them kindly; but +he slighted and neglected them, and they gradually left him.</p> + +<p>In conversation with him one day he was giving me some account of his +intended progress. "After taking Fort Duquesne,"<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> says he, "I am to +proceed to Niagara; and, having taken that, to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>Frontenac,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> if the +season will allow time; and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can hardly +detain me above three or four days; and then I see nothing that can +obstruct my march to Niagara." Having before revolved in my mind the +long line his army must make in their march by a very narrow road, to +be cut for them through the woods and bushes, and also what I had read +of a former defeat of fifteen hundred French, who invaded the Iroquois +country, I had conceived some doubts and some fears for the event of +the campaign. But I ventured only to say, "To be sure, sir, if you +arrive well before Duquesne, with these fine troops, so well provided +with artillery, that place, not yet completely fortified and as we +hear with no very strong garrison, can probably make but a short +resistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march +is from ambuscades of Indians, who, by constant practise, are dextrous +in laying and executing them; and the slender line, near four miles +long, which your army must make, may expose it to be attacked by +surprize in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several +pieces, which, from their distance, can not come up in time to support +each other."</p> + +<p>He smiled at my ignorance, and replied, "These savages may, indeed, be +a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the King's +regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make +any impression." I was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>conscious of an impropriety in my disputing +with a military man in matters of his profession, and said no more. +The enemy, however, did not take advantage of his army which I +apprehended its long line of march exposed it to, but let it advance +without interruption till within nine miles of the place; and then, +when more in a body (for it had just passed a river, where the front +had halted till all were come over), and in a more open part of the +woods than any it had passed, attacked its advanced guard by a heavy +fire from behind trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence +the general had of an enemy's being near him. This guard being +disordered, the general hurried the troops up to their assistance, +which was done in great confusion, through wagons, baggage, and +cattle; and presently the fire came upon their flank: the officers, +being on horseback, were more easily distinguished, picked out as +marks, and fell very fast; and the soldiers were crowded together in a +huddle, having or hearing no orders, and standing to be shot at till +two-thirds of them were killed; and then, being seized with a panic, +the whole fled with precipitation.</p> + +<p>The wagoners took each a horse out of his team and scampered; their +example was immediately followed by others; so that all the wagons, +provisions, artillery, and stores were left to the enemy. The general, +being wounded, was brought off with difficulty; his secretary, Mr. +Shirley, was killed by his side; and out of eighty-six officers, +sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven hundred and fourteen men +killed out of eleven hundred. These eleven hundred had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> been picked +men from the whole army; the rest had been left behind with Colonel +Dunbar, who was to follow with the heavier part of the stores, +provisions, and baggage. The flyers, not being pursued, arrived at +Dunbar's camp, and the panic they brought with them instantly seized +him and all his people; and, tho he had now above one thousand men, +and the enemy who had beaten Braddock did not at most exceed four +hundred Indians and French together, instead of proceeding, and +endeavoring to recover some of the lost honor, he ordered all the +stores, ammunition, etc., to be destroyed, that he might have more +horses to assist his flight toward the settlements, and less lumber to +remove. He was there met with requests from the governors of Virginia, +Maryland and Pennsylvania that he would post his troops on the +frontiers, so as to afford some protection to the inhabitants; but he +continued his hasty march through all the country, not thinking +himself safe till he arrived at Philadelphia, where the inhabitants +could protect him. This whole transaction gave us Americans the first +suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess of British regulars +had not been well founded.</p> + +<p>In their first march, too, from their landing till they got beyond the +settlements, they had plundered and stript the inhabitants, totally +ruining some poor families, besides insulting, abusing, and confining +the people if they remonstrated. This was enough to put us out of +conceit of such defenders, if we had really wanted any. How different +was the conduct of our French friends in 1781, who, during a march +through the most inhabited part of our country, from Rhode Island to +Virginia, near seven hundred miles, occasioned not the smallest +complaint for the loss of a pig, a chicken, or even an apple.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> From Chapter X of the "Autobiography."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Croghan afterward became associated closely with Sir +William Johnson in the Mohawk and Upper Susquehanna Valleys. He +acquired title to a large tract of land at the foot of Otsego Lake, +but, while settling it, mortgaged the land heavily, and eventually +lost it through foreclosure. William Cooper, father of the novelist, +subsequently obtained title to these lands and went into the country +to settle them. In the course of his labors, he founded the village of +Cooperstown, and made it his home. It was this circumstance which led +to Fenimore Cooper's knowledge of Indian and frontier life as depicted +in his writings. The home of William Cooper had previously been in +Burlington, N. J.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Now Pittsburg.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> In early times commonly called Fort Frontenac, but now +Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The name was changed to Kingston by +Loyalists who settled at the fort after the American Revolution.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<h2>III</h2> +<h2><a name="HOW_TO_DRAW_LIGHTNING_FROM_THE_CLOUDS" id="HOW_TO_DRAW_LIGHTNING_FROM_THE_CLOUDS"></a>HOW TO DRAW LIGHTNING FROM THE CLOUDS<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></h2> + + +<p>As frequent mention is made in public papers from Europe of the +success of the Philadelphia experiment for drawing the electric fire +from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron erected on high +buildings, etc., it may be agreeable to the curious to be informed +that the same experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia, tho made in a +different and more easy manner, which is as follows.</p> + +<p>Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so long as +to reach to the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief when +extended; tie the corners of the handkerchief to the extremities of +the cross, so you have the body of a kite; which, being properly +accommodated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air, like +those made of paper; but this being of silk is fitter to bear the wet +and wind of a thunder-gust without tearing. To the top of the upright +stick of the cross is to be fixt a very sharp pointed wire, rising a +foot or more above the wood. To <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>the end of the twine, next the hand, +is to be tied a silk ribbon, and where the silk and twine join, a key +may be fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thunder-gust appears +to be coming on, and the person who holds the string must stand within +a door or window, or under some cover, so that the silk ribbon may not +be wet; and care must be taken that the twine does not touch the frame +of the door or window. As soon as any of the thunder-clouds come over +the kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and +the kite, with all the twine, will be electrified, and the loose +filaments of the twine will stand out every way, and be attracted by +an approaching finger. And when the rain has wetted the kite and +twine, so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find +it stream out plentifully from the key on the approach of your +knuckle. At this key the vial may be charged; and from electric fire +thus obtained, spirits may be kindled, and all the other electric +experiments be performed, which are usually done by the help of a +rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the sameness of the electric +matter with that of lightning completely demonstrated.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> From a letter to Peter Collinson, dated October 19, +1752, and read before the Royal Society of London in December of the +same year.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<h2>IV</h2> +<h2><a name="THE_WAY_TO_WEALTH" id="THE_WAY_TO_WEALTH"></a>THE WAY TO WEALTH<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Courteous</span> reader:</p> + +<p>I have heard that nothing gives an author so great pleasure as to find +his works respectfully quoted by others. Judge, then, how much I must +have been gratified by an incident I am going to relate to you. I +stopt my horse lately, where a great number of people were collected +at an auction of merchants' goods. The hour of the sale not being +come, they were conversing on the badness of the times; and one of the +company called to a plain, clean old man, with white locks, "Pray, +Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Will not these heavy +taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we ever be able to pay them? +What would you advise us to do?" Father Abraham stood up and replied, +"If you would have my advice, I will give it you in short; for 'A word +to the wise is enough,' as Poor Richard says." They joined in desiring +him to speak his mind, and gathering round him he proceeded as +follows.</p> + +<p>"Friends," said he, "the taxes are indeed very <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>heavy, and, if those +laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might +more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more +grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, +three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; +and from these taxes the commissioners can not ease or deliver us by +allowing an abatement. However, let us harken to good advice, and +something may be done for us; 'God helps them that help themselves,' +as Poor Richard says.</p> + +<p>"I. It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people +one-tenth part of their time, to be employed in its service; but +idleness taxes many of us much more; sloth, by bringing on diseases, +absolutely shortens life. 'Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than +labor wears; while the used key is always bright,' as Poor Richard +says. 'But dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that is +the stuff life is made of,' as Poor Richard says. How much more than +is necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that 'The sleeping fox +catches no poultry,' and that 'There will be sleeping enough in the +grave,' as Poor Richard says.</p> + +<p>"'If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be,' +as Poor Richard says, 'the greatest prodigality'; since, as he +elsewhere tells us, 'Lost time is never found again; and what we call +time enough, always proves little enough.' Let us, then, up and be +doing, and doing to the purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with +less perplexity. 'Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all +easy'; and 'He that riseth late<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> must trot all day, and shall scarce +overtake his business at night'; while 'Laziness travels so slowly +that Poverty soon overtakes him. Drive thy business, let not that +drive thee'; and 'Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man +healthy, wealthy, and wise,' as Poor Richard says....</p> + +<p>"Methinks I hear some of you say, 'Must a man afford himself no +leisure?' I will tell thee, my friend, what Poor Richard says, 'Employ +thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure; and, since thou art +not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.' Leisure is time for +doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but +the lazy man never; for 'A life of leisure and a life of laziness are +two things. Many, without labor, would live by their wits only, but +they break for want of stock'; whereas industry gives comfort, and +plenty, and respect. 'Fly pleasures, and they will follow you. The +diligent spinner has a large shift; and now I have a sheep and a cow, +everybody bids me good morrow.'</p> + +<p>"II. But with our industry we must likewise be steady, settled, and +careful, and oversee our own affairs with our own eye, and not trust +too much to others; for, as Poor Richard says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'I never saw an oft-removed tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet an oft-removed family,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That throve so well as those that settled be.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And again, 'Three removes are as bad as a fire'; and again, 'Keep thy +shop, and thy shop will keep thee'; and again, 'If you would have your +business done, go; if not, send.' And again,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'He that by the plough would thrive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Himself must either hold or drive.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And again, 'The eye of a master will do more work than both his +hands'; and again, 'Want of care does us more damage than want of +knowledge'; and again, 'Not to oversee workmen, is to leave them your +purse open.' Trusting too much to others' care is the ruin of many; +for 'In the affairs of this world men are saved not by faith, but by +the want of it'; but a man's own care is profitable; for 'If you would +have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself. A +little neglect may breed great mischief; for want of a nail the shoe +was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a +horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy; all +for want of a little care about a horseshoe nail.'</p> + +<p>"III. So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own +business; but to these we must add frugality, if we would make our +industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to +save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die +not worth a groat at last. 'A fat kitchen makes a lean will'; and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Many estates are spent in the getting,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>'If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as of getting. The +Indies have not made Spain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> rich, because her outgoes are greater than +her incomes.'</p> + +<p>"Away, then, with your expensive follies, and you will not then have +so much cause to complain of hard times, heavy taxes, and chargeable +families; for</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Women and wine, game and deceit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make the wealth small and the want great.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"And further, 'What maintains one vice would bring up two children.' +You may think, perhaps, that a little tea, or a little punch now and +then, diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer, and a little +entertainment now and then can be no great matter; but remember, 'Many +a little makes a mickle.' Beware of little expenses; 'A small leak +will sink a great ship,' as Poor Richard says; and again, 'Who +dainties love, shall beggars prove'; and moreover, 'Fools makes +feasts, and wise men eat them.... If you would know the value of +money, go and try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes +a-sorrowing,' as Poor Richard says; and, indeed, so does he that lends +to such people, when he goes to get it in again. Poor Dick further +advises, and says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And again, 'Pride is as loud a beggar as Want, and a great deal more +saucy.' When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, +that your appearance may be all of a piece; but Poor Dick says, 'It is +easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow +it.' And it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> is as truly folly for the poor to ape the rich as for the +frog to swell in order to equal the ox.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Vessels large may venture more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But little boats should keep near shore.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is, however, a folly soon punished; for, as Poor Richard says, +'Pride that dines on vanity sups on contempt. Pride breakfasted with +Plenty, dined with Poverty, and supped with Infamy.' And, after all, +of what use is this pride of appearance, for which so much is risked, +so much is suffered? It can not promote health, nor ease pain; it +makes no increase of merit in the person; it creates envy; it hastens +misfortune.</p> + +<p>"But what madness must it be to run in debt for these +superfluities.... When you have got your bargain, you may, perhaps, +think little of payment; but, as Poor Richard says, 'Creditors have +better memories than debtors; creditors are a superstitious sect, +great observers of set days and times.' The day comes round before you +are aware, and the demand is made before you are prepared to satisfy +it; or, if you bear your debt in mind, the term, which at first seemed +so long, will, as it lessens, appear extremely short. Time will seem +to have added wings to his heels as well as his shoulders. 'Those have +a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter.' At present, perhaps, +you may think yourselves in thriving circumstances, and that you can +bear a little extravagance without injury; but</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'For age and want save while you may;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No morning sun lasts a whole day.'<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>Gain may be temporary and uncertain, but ever, while you live, expense +is constant and certain; and 'It is easier to build two chimneys than +to keep one in fuel,' as Poor Richard says; so, 'Rather go to bed +supperless than rise in debt.'</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Get what you can, and what you get hold;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And when you have got the philosopher's stone, sure you will no longer +complain of bad times, or the difficulty of paying taxes.</p> + +<p>"IV. This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wisdom; but, after all, +do not depend too much upon your own industry, and frugality, and +prudence, tho excellent things; for they may all be blasted without +the blessing of Heaven; and, therefore, ask that blessing humbly, and +be not uncharitable to those that at present seem to want it, but +comfort and help them. Remember, Job suffered, and was afterward +prosperous.</p> + +<p>"And now, to conclude, 'Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will +learn in no other,' as Poor Richard says, and scarce in that; for, it +is true, 'We may give advice, but we can not give conduct.' However, +remember this, 'They that will not be counseled, can not be helped;' +and further, that 'If you will not hear Reason, she will surely rap +your knuckles' as Poor Richard says."</p> + +<p>Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue. The people heard it and +approved the doctrine; and immediately practised the contrary, just as +if it had been a common sermon; for the auction opened, and they began +to buy extravagantly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> I found the good man had thoroughly studied my +Almanacs, and digested all I had dropt on these topics during the +course of twenty-five years. The frequent mention he made of me must +have tired any one else; but my vanity was wonderfully delighted with +it, tho I was conscious that not a tenth part of the wisdom was my +own, which he ascribed to me, but rather the gleanings that I had made +of the sense of all ages and nations. However, I resolved to be the +better for the echo of it; and tho I had at first determined to buy +stuff for a new coat, I went away resolved to wear my old one a little +longer. Reader, if thou wilt do the same, thy profit will be as great +as mine.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> From "Poor Richard's Almanac" for 1757, where it was +printed as a preface signed "Richard Saunders." Franklin began this +Almanac in 1732. John Bigelow, Franklin's biographer and editor, says +it "attained an astonishing popularity." For twenty-five years it had +an average circulation of 10,000 copies. Sometimes it was sent to +press as early as October in order to supply remote colonists in time +for the new year. Translations of it have been printed in nearly all +written languages.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>V</h2> +<h2><a name="A_DIALOG_WITH_THE_GOUT" id="A_DIALOG_WITH_THE_GOUT"></a>A DIALOG WITH THE GOUT</h2> + + + +<p class="center">[<i>Dated at midnight, 22 October,1780.</i>]</p> + + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Eh! Oh! Eh! What have I done to merit these cruel +sufferings?</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> Many things; you have ate and drank too freely, and too much +indulged those legs of yours in their indolence.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Who is it that accuses me?</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> It is I, even I, the Gout.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> What! my enemy in person?</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> No, not your enemy.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> I repeat it; my enemy; for you would not only torment my +body to death, but ruin my good name; you reproach me as a glutton +and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> a tippler; now all the world that knows me will allow that I am +neither the one nor the other.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> The world may think as it pleases; it is always very +complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends; but I very well +know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man who takes a +reasonable degree of exercise, would be too much for another, who +never takes any.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> I take—Eh! Oh!—as much exercise—Eh!—as I can, Madam +Gout. You know my sedentary state, and on that account, it would seem, +Madam Gout, as if you might spare me a little, seeing it is not +altogether my own fault.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> Not a jot; your rhetoric and your politeness are thrown away; +your apology avails nothing. If your situation in life is a sedentary +one, your amusements, your recreations, at least, should be active. +You ought to walk or ride; or, if the weather prevents that, play at +billiards. But let us examine your course of life. While the mornings +are long, and you have leisure to go abroad, what do you do? Why, +instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast, by salutary exercise, +you amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or newspapers, which +commonly are not worth the reading. Yet you eat an inordinate +breakfast, four dishes of tea, with cream, and one or two buttered +toasts, with slices of hung beef, which I fancy are not things the +most easily digested. Immediately afterward you sit down to write at +your desk, or converse with persons who apply to you on business. Thus +the time passes till one, without any kind of bodily exercise.</p> + +<p>But all this I could pardon, in regard, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> you say, to your sedentary +condition. But what is your practise after dinner? Walking in the +beautiful gardens of those friends with whom you have dined would be +the choice of men of sense; yours is to be fixt down to chess, where +you are found engaged for two or three hours! This is your perpetual +recreation, which is the least eligible of any for a sedentary man, +because, instead of accelerating the motion of the fluids, the rigid +attention it requires helps to retard the circulation and obstruct +internal secretions. Wrapt in the speculations of this wretched game, +you destroy your constitution. What can be expected from such a course +of living but a body replete with stagnant humors, ready to fall a +prey to all kinds of dangerous maladies, if I, the Gout, did not +occasionally bring you relief by agitating those humors, and so +purifying or dissipating them? If it was in some nook or alley in +Paris, deprived of walks, that you played awhile at chess after +dinner, this might be excusable; but the same taste prevails with you +in Passy, Auteuil, Montmartre, or Sanoy, places where there are the +finest gardens and walks, a pure air, beautiful women, and most +agreeable and instructive conversation; all which you might enjoy by +frequenting the walks. But these are rejected for this abominable game +of chess. Fie, then, Mr. Franklin! But amidst my instructions, I had +almost forgot to administer my wholesome corrections; so take that +twinge—and that.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Oh! Eh! Oh! Ohhh! As much instruction as you please, Madam +Gout, and as many reproaches; but pray, Madam, a truce with your +corrections!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> No, Sir, no—I will not abate a particle of what is so much +for your good—therefore—</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Oh! Ehhh!—It is not fair to say I take no exercise, when +I do very often, going out to dine and returning in my carriage.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> That, of all imaginable exercises, is the most slight and +insignificant, if you allude to the motion of a carriage suspended on +springs. By observing the degree of heat obtained by different kinds +of motion we may form an estimate of the quantity of exercise given by +each. Thus, for example, if you turn out to walk in winter with cold +feet, in an hour's time you will be in a glow all over; ride on +horseback, the same effect will scarcely be perceived by four hours' +round trotting; but if you loll in a carriage, such as you have +mentioned, you may travel all day, and gladly enter the last inn to +warm your feet by a fire. Flatter yourself then no longer that half an +hour's airing in your carriage deserves the name of exercise. +Providence has appointed few to roll in carriages, while he has given +to all a pair of legs, which are machines infinitely more commodious +and serviceable. Be grateful, then, and make a proper use of yours. +Would you know how they forward the circulation of your fluids, in the +very action of transporting you from place to place; observe when you +walk that all your weight is alternately thrown from one leg to the +other; this occasions a great pressure on the vessels of the foot, and +repels their contents; when relieved, by the weight being thrown on +the other foot, the vessels of the first are allowed to replenish, +and, by a return of this weight, this repulsion again succeeds, thus +ac<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>celerating the circulation of the blood. The heat produced in any +given time depends on the degree of this acceleration; the fluids are +shaken, the humors attenuated, the secretions facilitated, and all +goes well; the cheeks are ruddy, and health is established. Behold +your fair friend at Auteuil;<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> a lady who received from bounteous +nature more really useful science than half a dozen of such pretenders +to philosophy as you have been able to extract from all your books. +When she honors you with a visit, it is on foot. She walks all hours +of the day, and leaves indolence, and its concomitant maladies, to be +endured by her horses. In this see at once the preservative of her +health and personal charms. But when you go to Auteuil, you must have +your carriage, tho it is no farther from Passy to Auteuil than from +Auteuil to Passy.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Your reasonings grow very tiresome.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> I stand corrected. I will be silent and continue my office; +take that, and that.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Oh! Ohh! Talk on, I pray you.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> No, no; I have a good number of twinges for you to-night, and +you may be sure of some more to-morrow.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> What, with such a fever! I shall go distracted. Oh! Eh! +Can no one bear it for me?</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> +<p><i>Gout.</i> Ask that of your horses; they have served you faithfully.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> How can you so cruelly sport with my torments?</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> Sport! I am very serious. I have here a list of offenses +against your own health distinctly written, and can justify every +stroke inflicted on you.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Read it then.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> It is too long a detail; but I will briefly mention some +particulars.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Proceed. I am all attention.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> Do you remember how often you have promised yourself, the +following morning, a walk in the grove of Boulogne, in the garden de +la Muette, or in your own garden, and have violated your promise, +alleging at one time it was too cold, at another too warm, too windy, +too moist, or what else you pleased; when in truth it was too nothing +but your insuperable love of ease?</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> That I confess may have happened occasionally, probably +ten times in a year.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> Your confession is very far short of the truth; the gross +amount is one hundred and ninety-nine times.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Is it possible?</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> So possible that it is fact; you may rely on the accuracy of +my statement. You know Mr. Brillon's gardens, and what fine walks they +contain; you know the handsome flight of a hundred steps, which lead +from the terrace above to the lawn below. You have been in the +practise of visiting this amiable family twice a week, after dinner, +and it is a maxim of your own, that "a man may take as much exercise +in walking a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> mile up and down-stairs as in ten on level ground." What +an opportunity was here for you to have had exercise in both these +ways! Did you embrace it, and how often?</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> I can not immediately answer that question.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> I will do it for you; not once.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Not once?</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> Even so. During the summer you went there at six o'clock. You +found the charming lady, with her lovely children and friends, eager +to walk with you, and entertain you with their agreeable conversation; +and what has been your choice? Why, to sit on the terrace, satisfying +yourself with the fine prospect, and passing your eye over the +beauties of the garden below, without taking one step to descend and +walk about in them.</p> + +<p>On the contrary, dear sir, you call for tea and the chess-board; and +lo! you are occupied in your seat till nine o'clock, and that besides +two hours' play after dinner; and then, instead of walking home, which +would have bestirred you a little, you step into your carriage. How +absurd to suppose that all this carelessness can be reconcilable with +health, without my interposition!</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> I am convinced now of the justness of Poor Richard's +remark that "Our debts and our sins are always greater than we think +for."</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> So it is. You philosophers are sages in your maxims, and fools +in your conduct.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> But do you charge, among my crimes, that I return in a +carriage from Mr. Brillon's?</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> Certainly; for having been seated all the while, you can not +object the fatigue of the day,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> and can not want, therefore, the +relief of a carriage.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> What, then, would you have me do with my carriage?</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> Burn it, if you choose; you would at least get heat out of it +once in this way, or, if you dislike that proposal, here's another for +you; observe the poor peasants, who work in the vineyards and grounds +about the villages of Passy, Auteuil, Chaillot, etc.; you may find +every day, among these deserving creatures, four or five old men and +women, bent and perhaps crippled by weight of years and too long and +too great labor. After a most fatiguing day, these people have to +trudge a mile or two to their smoky huts. Order your coachman to set +them down. This is an act that will be good for your soul; and, at the +same time, after your visit to the Brillons, if you return on foot, +that will be good for your body.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Ah! how tiresome you are!</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> Well, then, to my office; it should not be forgotten that I am +your physician. There.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Ohhh! what a devil of a physician!</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> How ungrateful you are to say so! Is it not I who, in the +character of your physician, have saved you from the palsy, dropsy and +apoplexy? one or other of which would have done for you long ago but +for me.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> I submit, and thank you for the past, but entreat the +discontinuance of your visits for the future; for, in my mind, one had +better die than be cured so dolefully. Permit me just to hint that I +have also not been unfriendly to you. I never feed physician or quack +of any kind, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> enter the list against you; if, then, you do not +leave me to my repose, it may be said you are ungrateful too.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> I can scarcely acknowledge that as any objection. As to +quacks, I despise them; they may kill you, indeed, but can not injure +me. And as to regular physicians, they are at last convinced that the +gout, in such a subject as you are, is no disease, but a remedy; and +wherefore cure a remedy?—but to our business—there.</p> + +<p><i>Franklin.</i> Oh! Oh!—for Heaven's sake leave me; and I promise +faithfully never more to play at chess, but to take exercise daily, +and live temperately.</p> + +<p><i>Gout.</i> I know you too well. You promise fair; after a few months of +good health you will return to your old habits; your fine promises +will be forgotten like the forms of the last year's clouds. Let us +then finish the account, and I will go. But leave you with an +assurance of visiting you again at a proper time and place; for my +object is your good, and you are sensible now that I am your real +friend.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The reference is to Madame Helvetius, whom Franklin knew +as the widow of the writer Claude Adrien Helvetius. Her home was long +a center of literary society in France. The friendship with Franklin +was a notable incident in his career as American Ambassador to France. +See his letter to her printed here as the sixth of these selections +from Franklin.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VI</h2> +<h2><a name="A_PROPOSAL_TO_MADAME_HELVETIUS" id="A_PROPOSAL_TO_MADAME_HELVETIUS"></a>A PROPOSAL TO MADAME HELVETIUS<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></h2> + + +<p>Mortified at the barbarous resolution pronounced by you so positively +yesterday evening, that you would remain single for the rest of your +life as a compliment due to the memory of your <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>husband, I retired to +my chamber. Throwing myself upon my bed I dreamt that I was dead, and +was transported to the Elysian fields.</p> + +<p>I was asked whether I wished to see any persons in particular; to +which I replied that I wished to see the philosophers. "There are two +who live here at hand in this garden; they are good neighbors and very +friendly toward one another." "Who are they?" "Socrates and +Helvetius." "I esteem them both highly; but let me see Helvetius +first, because I understand a little French but not a word of Greek." +I was conducted to him; he received me with much courtesy, having +known me, he said, by character some time past. He asked me a thousand +questions relative to the war, the present state of religion, of +liberty, of the government in France. "You do not inquire, then," said +I, "after your dear friend, Madame Helvetius; yet she loves you +exceedingly. I was in her company not more than an hour ago." "Ah," +said he, "you make me recur to my past happiness, which ought to be +forgotten in order to be happy here. For many years I could think of +nothing but her, tho at length I am consoled. I have taken another +wife, the most like her that I could find; she is not, indeed, +altogether so handsome, but she has a great fund of wit and good +sense, and her whole study is to please me. She is at this moment gone +to fetch the nectar and ambrosia to regale me; stay here awhile and +you will see her." "I perceive," said I, "that your former friend is +more faithful to you than you are to her; she has had several good +offers, but has refused them all. I will confess to you that I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> love +her extremely, but she was cruel to me and rejected me peremptorily +for your sake." "I pity you sincerely," said he, "for she is an +excellent woman, handsome and amiable. But do not the Abbe de la R—— +and the Abbe M—— visit her?" "Certainly they do; not one of your +friends has dropt her acquaintance." "If you had gained the Abbe M—— +with a bribe of good coffee and cream perhaps you would have +succeeded; for he is as deep a reasoner as Dun Scotus or St. Thomas; +he arranges and methodizes his arguments in such a manner that they +are almost irresistible. Or if by a fine edition of some old classic +you had gained the Abbe de la R—— to speak against you, that would +have been still better, as I always observed that when he recommended +anything to her, she had a great inclination to do exactly the +contrary."</p> + +<p>As he finished these words the new Madame Helvetius entered with the +nectar and I recognized her immediately as my former American friend, +Mrs. Franklin! I reclaimed her, but she answered me coldly, "I was a +good wife to you for forty-nine years and four months, nearly half a +century; let that content you. I have formed a new condition here, +which will last to eternity."</p> + +<p>Indignant at this refusal of my Eurydice, I immediately resolved to +quit those ungraceful shades and return to this good world again, to +behold the sun and you. Here am I; let us <i>avenge ourselves</i>.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> A letter now printed in Volume VI of the "Works of +Franklin," edited by John Bigelow.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="GEORGE_WASHINGTON" id="GEORGE_WASHINGTON"></a>GEORGE WASHINGTON</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in 1732, died in 1799; adjutant of Virginia troops in +1751; sent on a mission to the French beyond the Alleghany +River in 1753; defended Fort Necessity in 1754; with +Braddock at his defeat in 1755; led the advance guard to +Fort Duquesne in 1758; Member of the Continental Congress in +1774-75; made Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in +1775; resigned his commission in 1783; President of the +Constitutional Convention in 1787; elected President of the +United States in 1789; reelected President in 1793; +Commander-in-chief of the Army in 1798.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="TO_HIS_WIFE_ON_TAKING_COMMAND_OF_THE_ARMY" id="TO_HIS_WIFE_ON_TAKING_COMMAND_OF_THE_ARMY"></a>TO HIS WIFE ON TAKING COMMAND OF THE ARMY<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></h2> + + +<p>My Dearest: I am now set down to write to you on a subject which fills +me with inexpressible concern, and this concern is greatly aggravated +and increased when I reflect upon the uneasiness I know it will give +you. It has been determined in Congress that the whole army raised for +the defense of the American cause shall be put under my care, and that +it is necessary for me to proceed immediately to Boston to take upon +me the command of it.</p> + +<p>You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure you, in the most +solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment, I have used +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my +unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a +consciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity, and that +I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than +I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to +be seven times seven years. But as it has been a kind of destiny that +has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it +is designed to answer some good purpose.</p> + +<p>You might, and I suppose did perceive, from the tenor of my letters, +that I was apprehensive I could not avoid this appointment, as I did +not pretend to intimate when I should return. That was the case. It +was utterly out of my power to refuse this appointment without +exposing my character to such censures as would have reflected +dishonor upon myself, and given pain to my friends. This, I am sure, +could not, and ought not, to be pleasing to you, and must have +lessened me considerably in my own esteem. I shall rely, therefore, +confidently on that Providence which has heretofore preserved and been +bountiful to me, not doubting but that I shall return safe to you in +the fall. I shall feel no pain from the toil or the danger of the +campaign; my unhappiness will flow from the uneasiness I know you will +feel from being left alone. I therefore beg that you will summon your +whole fortitude, and pass your time as agreeably as possible. Nothing +will give me so much sincere satisfaction as to hear this, and to hear +it from your own pen. My earnest and ardent desire is that you would +pursue any plan that is most likely to produce con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>tent, and a +tolerable degree of tranquillity; as it must add greatly to my uneasy +feelings to hear that you are dissatisfied or complaining at what I +really could not avoid.</p> + +<p>As life is always uncertain, and common prudence dictates to every man +the necessity of settling his temporal concerns, while it is in his +power, and while the mind is calm and undisturbed, I have, since I +came to this place (for I had not time to do it before I left home) +got Colonel Pendleton to draft a will for me, by the directions I gave +him, which will I now enclose. The provision made for you in case of +my death will, I hope, be agreeable.</p> + +<p>I shall add nothing more, as I have several letters to write, but to +desire that you will remember me to your friends, and to assure you +that I am with the most unfeigned regard, my dear Patsy, your +affectionate, etc.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> A letter written in Philadelphia on June 18, 1775, three +days after his appointment.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="OF_HIS_ARMY_IN_CAMBRIDGE" id="OF_HIS_ARMY_IN_CAMBRIDGE"></a>OF HIS ARMY IN CAMBRIDGE<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></h2> + + +<p>Nothing would give me more real satisfaction than to know the +sentiments which are entertained of me by the public, whether they be +favorable or otherwise; and I urged as a reason <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>that the man who +wished to steer clear of shelves and rocks must know where they lie. I +know the integrity of my own heart, but to declare it, unless to a +friend, may be an argument of vanity; I know the unhappy predicament I +stand in: I know that much is expected of me; I know that without men, +without arms, without ammunition, without anything fit for the +accommodation of a soldier, little is to be done; and, what is +mortifying, I know that I can not stand justified to the world without +exposing my own weakness, and injuring the cause by declaring my +wants, which I am determined not to do, further than unavoidable +necessity brings every man acquainted with them.</p> + +<p>If, under these disadvantages, I am able to keep above water, in the +esteem of mankind, I shall feel myself happy; but if, from the unknown +peculiarity of my circumstances, I suffer in the opinion of the world, +I shall not think you take the freedom of a friend, if you conceal the +reflections that may be cast upon my conduct. My own situation is so +irksome to me at times that, if I did not consult the public good more +than my own tranquillity, I should long ere this have put everything +on the cast of a die. So far from my having an army of twenty thousand +men well armed, I have been here with less than one-half of that +number, including sick, furloughed, and on command, and those neither +armed nor clothed, as they should be. In short, my situation has been +such, that I have been obliged to use art to conceal it from my own +officers.</p> + +<p>The party sent to Bunker Hill had some good and some bad men engaged +in it. One or two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> courts have been held on the conduct of part of +them. To be plain, these people are not to be depended upon if +exposed; and any man will fight well if he thinks himself in no +danger. I do not apply this only to these people. I suppose it to be +the case with all raw and undisciplined troops. Yon may rely upon it +that transports left Boston six weeks ago with troops; where they are +gone, unless driven to the West Indies, I know not. You may also rely +upon General Clinton's sailing from Boston about three weeks ago, with +about four or five hundred men; his destination I am also a stranger +to. I am sorry to hear of the failures you speak of from France. But +why will not Congress forward part of the powder made in your +province? They seem to look upon this as the season for action, but +will not furnish the means. I will not blame them. I dare say the +demands upon them are greater than they can supply. The cause must be +starved till our resources are greater, or more certain within +ourselves.</p> + +<p>With respect to myself, I have never entertained an idea of an +accommodation since I heard of the measures which were adopted in +consequence of the Bunker Hill fight. The King's speech has confirmed +the sentiments I entertained upon the news of that affair; and, if +every man was of my mind, the ministers of Great Britain should know, +in a few words, upon what issue the cause should be put. I would not +be deceived by artful declarations, nor specious pretenses; nor would +I be amused by unmeaning propositions; but in open, undisguised, and +manly terms proclaim our wrongs, and our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> resolution to be redressed. +I would tell them, that we had borne much, that we had long and +ardently sought for reconciliation upon honorable terms, that it had +been denied us, that all our attempts after peace had proved abortive, +and had been grossly misrepresented, that we had done everything which +could be expected from the best of subjects, that the spirit of +freedom rises too high in us to submit to slavery, and that, if +nothing else would satisfy a tyrant and his diabolical ministry, we +are determined to shake off all connections with a state so unjust and +unnatural. This I would tell them, not under covert, but in words as +clear as the sun in its meridian brightness.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> From the letter addrest to Joseph Reed, and dated +February 10, 1776. Washington had assumed command in Cambridge on July +3d of the previous year. Joseph Reed was President of the Pennsylvania +Provincial Congress in 1775, and afterward became Washington's +secretary and aide-de-camp. This letter was in reply to two letters +from Reed containing "early and regular communication of what is +passing in your quarter."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>III</h2> +<h2><a name="TO_THE_MARQUIS_DE_CHASTELLUX_ON_HIS_MARRIAGE" id="TO_THE_MARQUIS_DE_CHASTELLUX_ON_HIS_MARRIAGE"></a>TO THE MARQUIS DE CHASTELLUX ON HIS MARRIAGE<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></h2> + + +<p>My Dear Marquis: In reading your very friendly and acceptable letter, +which came to hand by the last mail, I was, as you may well suppose, +not less delighted than surprized to meet the plain American words, +"my wife." A wife! Well, my dear Marquis, I can hardly refrain from +smiling to find you are caught at last. I saw by the eulogium you +often made on the happiness of domestic life in America, that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>you had +swallowed the bait, and that you would as surely be taken, one day or +another, as that you were a philosopher and a soldier.</p> + +<p>So your day has at length come. I am glad of it, with all my heart and +soul. It is quite good enough for you. Now you are well served for +coming to fight in favor of the American rebels, all the way across +the Atlantic Ocean, by catching that terrible contagion, domestic +felicity, which, like the smallpox or the plague, a man can have only +once in his life, because it commonly lasts him (at least with us in +America; I know not how you manage these matters in France), for his +whole lifetime. And yet, after all, the worst wish which I can find in +my heart to make against Madame de Chastellux and yourself is that you +may neither of you ever get the better of this same domestic felicity, +during the entire course of your mortal existence.</p> + +<p>If so wonderful an event should have occasioned me, my dear Marquis, +to write in a strange style, you will understand me as clearly as if I +had said, what in plain English is the simple truth, "Do me the +justice to believe that I take a heartfelt interest in whatsoever +concerns your happiness." And, in this view, I sincerely congratulate +you on your auspicious matrimonial connection. I am happy to find that +Madame de Chastellux is so intimately connected with the Duchess of +Orleans; as I have always understood that this noble lady was an +illustrious example of connubial love, as well as an excellent pattern +of virtue in general.</p> + +<p>While you have been making love under the banner of Hymen, the great +personages in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> north have been making war under the inspiration, +or rather under the infatuation, of Mars. Now, for my part, I humbly +conceive that you have acted much the best and wisest part; for +certainly it is more consonant to all the principles of reason and +religion, natural and revealed, to replenish the earth with +inhabitants than to depopulate it by killing those already in +existence. Besides, it is time for the age of knight-errantry and mad +heroism to be at an end. Your young military men, who want to reap the +harvest of laurels, do not care, I suppose, how many seeds of war are +sown; but for the sake of humanity it is devoutly to be wished, that +the manly employment of agriculture, and the humanizing benefits of +commerce, would supersede the waste of war and the rage of conquest; +that the swords might be turned into plowshares, the spears into +pruning-hooks, and, as the Scriptures express it, the "nations learn +war no more."</p> + +<p>Now I will give you a little news from this side of the water, and +then finish. As for us, we are plodding on in the dull road of peace +and politics. We, who live in these ends of the earth, only hear of +the rumors of war like the roar of distant thunder. It is to be hoped +that our remote local situation will prevent us from being swept into +its vortex.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> From a letter, written at Mount Vernon on April 25, +1788, and addrest to the Marquis de Chastellux, author of "Travels in +North America," and a major-general in the army of Rochambeau, who +served under Washington in the American Revolution.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="JOHN_ADAMS" id="JOHN_ADAMS"></a>JOHN ADAMS</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in 1735, died in 1826; second President of the United +States; graduated from Harvard in 1755; active in opposing +the Stamp Act; elected to the Revolutionary Congress of +Massachusetts in 1774; delegate to the first and second +Continental Congresses; proposed Washington as +commander-in-chief; signed the Declaration of Independence; +commissioner to France in 1777; to the Netherlands in 1782, +to Great Britain in 1782-83, and to Prussia; minister to +England in 1785; vice-president in 1789; elected President +in 1796; unsuccessful candidate for President in 1800; his +"Life and Works" in ten volumes published in 1850-56.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="ON_HIS_NOMINATION_OF_WASHINGTON_TO_BE_COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF" id="ON_HIS_NOMINATION_OF_WASHINGTON_TO_BE_COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF"></a>ON HIS NOMINATION OF WASHINGTON TO BE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></h2> + + +<p>When Congress had assembled, I rose in my place, and in as short a +speech as the subject would admit, represented the state of the +colonies, the uncertainty in the minds of the people, their great +expectation and anxiety, the distresses of the army, the danger of its +dissolution, the difficulty of collecting another, and the probability +that the British army would take advantage <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>of our delays, march out +of Boston, and spread desolation as far as they could go. I concluded +with a motion, in form, that Congress would adopt the army at +Cambridge, and appoint a general; that tho this was not the proper +time to nominate a general, yet, as I had reason to believe, this was +a point of the greatest difficulty. I had no hesitation to declare +that I had but one gentleman in my mind for that important command, +and that was a gentleman from Virginia who was among us and very well +known to all of us, a gentleman whose skill and experience as an +officer, whose independent fortune, great talents, and excellent +universal character, would command the approbation of all America, and +unite the cordial exertions of all the colonies better than any other +person in the Union. Mr. Washington, who happened to sit near the +door, as soon as he heard me allude to him, from his usual modesty, +darted into the library-room. Mr. Hancock—who was our President, +which gave me an opportunity to observe his countenance while I was +speaking on the state of the colonies, the army at Cambridge, and the +enemy—heard me with visible pleasure; but when I came to describe +Washington for the commander, I never remarked a more sudden and +striking change of countenance. Mortification and resentment were +exprest as forcibly as his face could exhibit them. Mr. Samuel Adams +seconded the motion, and that did not soften the President's +physiognomy at all.</p> + +<p>The subject came under debate, and several gentlemen declared +themselves against the appointment of Mr. Washington, not on account +of any personal objection against him, but be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>cause the army were all +from New England, had a general of their own, appeared to be satisfied +with him, and had proved themselves able to imprison the British army +in Boston, which was all they expected or desired at that time. Mr. +Pendleton, of Virginia, Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, were very +explicit in declaring this opinion; Mr. Cushing and several others +more faintly exprest their opposition, and their fears of discontents +in the army and in New England. Mr. Paine exprest a great opinion of +General Ward and a strong friendship for him, having been his +classmate at college, or at least his contemporary; but gave no +opinion upon the question. The subject was postponed to a future day. +In the mean time, pains were taken out-of-doors to obtain a unanimity, +and the voices were generally so clearly in favor of Washington, that +the dissentient members were persuaded to withdraw their opposition, +and Mr. Washington was nominated, I believe by Mr. Thomas Johnson of +Maryland, unanimously elected, and the army adopted.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> From the "Diary," printed in the "Works of John Adams," +as edited by Charles Francis Adams. In his speech naming Washington, +Adams referred to him as "one who could unite the cordial exertions of +all the colonies better than any other person." Two days later he +wrote to his wife that Congress had chosen "the modest and virtuous, +the amiable, generous and brave George Washington, Esq., to be chief +of the American army."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="AN_ESTIMATE_OF_FRANKLIN" id="AN_ESTIMATE_OF_FRANKLIN"></a>AN ESTIMATE OF FRANKLIN<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></h2> + + +<p>His reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, +Frederick or Voltaire, and his character more beloved and esteemed +than any or all of them. Newton had astonished perhaps forty or fifty +men in Europe, for not more than that number probably at any one time +had read him and understood him, by his discoveries and +demonstrations. And these being held in admiration in their respective +countries, as at the head of the philosophers, had spread among +scientific people a mysterious wonder at the genius of this, perhaps, +the greatest man that ever lived. But this fame was confined to men of +letters. The common people knew little and cared nothing about such a +recluse philosopher. Leibnitz's name was more confined still. +Frederick was hated by more than half of Europe as much as Louis XIV +was and Napoleon is. Voltaire, whose name was more universal than any +of these before mentioned, was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>considered as a vain, profligate wit, +and not much esteemed or beloved by anybody, tho admired by all who +knew his works. But Franklin's fame was universal. His name was +familiar to governments and people, to kings, courtiers, nobility, +clergy and philosophers, as well as plebeians, to such a degree that +there was scarcely a peasant or citizen, a valet de chambre, coachman, +or footman, a lady's maid, or a scullion in a kitchen, who was not +familiar with it, and who did not consider him a friend to human kind. +When they spoke of him they seemed to think he was to restore the +Golden Age....</p> + +<p>Nothing perhaps that ever occurred upon this earth was so well +calculated to give any man an extensive and universal celebrity as the +discovery of the efficacy of iron points and the invention of +lightning-rods. The idea was one of the most sublime that ever entered +a human imagination that a mortal should disarm the clouds of heaven +and almost "snatch from his hand the scepter and the rod." The +ancients would have enrolled him with Bacchus and Ceres, Hercules and +Minerva....</p> + +<p>Franklin had a great genius, original, sagacious, and inventive, +capable of discoveries in science no less than of improvements in the +fine arts and the mechanic arts. He had a vast imagination, equal to +the comprehension of the greatest objects, and capable of a steady and +cool comprehension of them. He had wit at will. He had humor that, +when he pleased, was delicate and delightful. He had a satire that was +good-natured or caustic, Horace or Juvenal, Swift or Rabelais, at his +pleasure. He had talents for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> irony, allegory, and fable, that he +could adapt with great skill to the promotion of moral and political +truth. He was master of that infantine simplicity which the French +call <i>naïveté</i>, which never fails to charm, in Phædrus and La +Fontaine, from the cradle to the grave.</p> + +<p>Had he been blest with the same advantages of scholastic education in +his early youth, and pursued a course of studies as unembarrassed with +occupations of public and private life, as Sir Isaac Newton, he might +have emulated the first philosopher. Altho I am not ignorant that most +of his positions and hypotheses have been controverted, I can not but +think he has added much to the mass of natural knowledge, and +contributed largely to the progress of the human mind, both by his own +writings and by the controversies and experiments he has excited in +all parts of Europe. He had abilities for investigating statistical +questions, and in some parts of his life has written pamphlets and +essays upon public topics with great ingenuity and success; but after +my acquaintance with him, which commenced in Congress in 1775, his +excellence as a legislator, a politician, or a negotiator most +certainly never appeared. No sentiments more weak and superficial were +ever avowed by the most absurd philosopher than some of his, +particularly one that he procured to be inserted in the first +constitution of Pennsylvania, and for which he had such a fondness as +to insert it in his will. I call it weak, for so it must have been, or +hypocritical; unless he meant by one satiric touch to ridicule his own +republic, or throw it into everlasting contempt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + +<p>I must acknowledge, after all, that nothing in life has mortified or +grieved me more than the necessity which compelled me to oppose him so +often as I have. He was a man with whom I always wished to live in +friendship, and for that purpose omitted no demonstration of respect, +esteem, and veneration in my power, until I had unequivocal proofs of +his hatred, for no other reason under the sun, but because I gave my +judgment in opposition to his, in many points which materially +affected the interests of our country, and in many more which +essentially concerned our happiness, safety, and well-being. I could +not and would not sacrifice the clearest dictates of my understanding +and the purest principles of morals and policy in compliance to Dr. +Franklin.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> From a letter to the Boston <i>Patriot</i> of May 15, 1811, +now given as an appendix to the "Works of John Adams." The differences +of Adams and Franklin form a striking incident in the biographies of +the two men. Colaborers as they were in a common cause, they had +constant disagreements as to methods while serving their country in +Europe. That they never openly quarreled Adams's biographer, John T. +Morse, attributes to "their sense of propriety and dignity, and to the +age and position of Dr. Franklin." The radical cause lay in the fact +that "they were utterly incompatible, both mentally and morally."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THOMAS_PAINE" id="THOMAS_PAINE"></a>THOMAS PAINE</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in England in 1737, died in New York in 1809; came to +America in 1774; took a prominent part in the Revolution as +a writer; his "Common Sense," advocating independence, +published in 1776; published a periodical, <i>The Crisis</i>, in +1776-83; went to Europe in 1787; in 1792 was outlawed from +England for publishing his "Rights of Man"; went to France +and elected to the National Convention in 1793; imprisoned +in France in 1794; published his "Age of Reason" in 1794; +returned to the United States in 1802.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IN_FAVOR_OF_SEPARATION_OF_THE_COLONIES_FROM_GREAT_BRITAIN" id="IN_FAVOR_OF_SEPARATION_OF_THE_COLONIES_FROM_GREAT_BRITAIN"></a>IN FAVOR OF SEPARATION OF THE COLONIES FROM GREAT BRITAIN<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></h2> + + +<p>The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, "'tis time +to part." Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England +and America, is a strong and natural proof that the authority of the +one over the other was never the design of heaven. The time, likewise, +at which the continent was discovered, adds weight to the argument, +and the manner in which it was peopled, increases the force of it. The +Reformation was preceded by the discovery of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>America, as if the +Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in +future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.</p> + +<p>The authority of Great Britain over this continent is a form of +government which sooner or later must have an end: and a serious mind +can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and +positive conviction that what he calls "the present constitution" is +merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy knowing that this +government is not sufficiently lasting to insure anything which we may +bequeath to posterity; and by a plain method of argument, as we are +running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, +otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the +line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and +fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will +present a prospect which a few present fears and prejudices conceal +from our sight.</p> + +<p>Tho I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I am +inclined to believe that all those who espouse the doctrine of +reconciliation may be included within the following descriptions:</p> + +<p>Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men, who can not see; +prejudiced men, who will not see; and a certain set of moderate men, +who think better of the European world than it deserves: and this last +class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more +calamities to this continent than all the other three.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of +sorrow; the evil is not sufficiently brought to their doors to make +them feel the precariousness with which all American property is +possest. But let our imaginations transport us a few moments to +Boston; that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and instruct +us forever to renounce a power in whom we can have no trust. The +inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but a few months ago were in +ease and affluence, have now no other alternative than to stay and +starve, or turn out to beg. Endangered by the fire of their friends if +they continue within the city, and plundered by the soldiery if they +leave it. In their present situation they are prisoners without the +hope of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief they +would be exposed to the fury of both armies.</p> + +<p>Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of +Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, "Come, +come, we shall be friends again for all this." But examine the +passions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine of reconciliation +to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me whether you can +hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath +carried fire and sword into your land? If you can not do all these, +then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing +ruin upon your posterity. Your future connection with Britain, whom +you can neither love nor honor, will be forced and unnatural, and +being formed only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little +time fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But if you say<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, hath your house +been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are +your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live +on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the +ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a +judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake hands +with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father, +friend, or lover, and, whatever may be your rank or title in life, you +have the heart of a coward and the spirit of a sycophant.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> From "Common Sense," a pamphlet issued by Paine in +Philadelphia on January 1, 1776. In this work Paine advocated complete +separation from England. His arguments helped to consolidate and make +effective a sentiment which already was drifting in the same +direction. Washington said he effected "a powerful change in the minds +of many men."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THOMAS_JEFFERSON" id="THOMAS_JEFFERSON"></a>THOMAS JEFFERSON</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born In 1743, died in 1826; Member of the Virginia House of +Burgesses in 1769-75, and again in 1776-78; Member of the +Continental Congress in 1775; drafted the Declaration of +Independence in 1776; Governor of Virginia in 1779; Member +of Congress in 1783; Minister to France in 1785; Secretary +of State in 1790; Vice-President in 1797; elected President +in 1801 and reelected in 1805.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="WHEN_THE_BASTILE_FELL" id="WHEN_THE_BASTILE_FELL"></a>WHEN THE BASTILE FELL<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></h2> + + +<p>In the meantime these troops, to the number of twenty to thirty +thousand, had arrived and were posted in and between Paris and +Versailles. The bridges and passes were guarded. The King was now +completely in the hands of men the principal among whom had been +noted, through their lives, for the Turkish despotism of their +characters, and who were associated around the King as proper +instruments for what was to be executed. The news of this change began +to be known at Paris about one or two o'clock. In the afternoon a body +of about one hundred German cavalry were advanced, and drawn up in the +Place Louis XV, and about two hundred Swiss posted at a little +distance in their rear. This drew people to the spot, who thus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>accidentally found themselves in front of the troops, merely at first +as spectators; but, as their numbers increased, their indignation +rose. They retired a few steps, and posted themselves on and behind +large piles of stones, large and small, collected in that place for a +bridge, which was to be built adjacent to it.</p> + +<p>In this position, happening to be in my carriage on a visit, I passed +through the lane they had formed without interruption. But the moment +after I had passed, the people attacked the cavalry with stones. They +charged, but the advantageous position of the people, and the showers +of stones, obliged the horse to retire, and quit the field altogether, +leaving one of their number on the ground, and the Swiss in the rear +not moving to their aid. This was the signal for universal +insurrection, and this body of cavalry, to avoid being massacred, +retired toward Versailles. The people now armed themselves with such +weapons as they could find in armorers' shops, and private houses, and +with bludgeons; and were roaming all night, through all parts of the +city, without any decided object.</p> + +<p>The next day (the 13th) the Assembly prest on the King to send away +the troops, to permit the bourgeoisie of Paris to arm for the +preservation of order in the city, and offered to send a deputation +from their body to tranquillize them; but their propositions were +refused. A committee of magistrates and electors of the city were +appointed by those bodies, to take upon them its government. The +people, now openly joined by the French guards, forced the prison of +St. Lazare, released all the prisoners, and took a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> great store of +corn, which they carried to the corn-market. Here they got some arms, +and the French guards began to form and train them. The city committee +determined to raise forty-eight thousand bourgeoisie, or rather to +restrain their numbers to forty-eight thousand.</p> + +<p>On the 14th, they sent one of their members (Monsieur de Corny) to the +Hotel des Invalides, to ask arms for their Garde Bourgeoisie. He was +followed by, and he found there, a great collection of people. The +Governor of the Invalids came out, and represented the impossibility +of his delivering arms without the orders of those from whom he +received them. De Corny advised the people then to retire, and retired +himself; but the people took possession of the arms. It was remarkable +that not only the Invalids themselves made no opposition, but that a +body of five thousand foreign troops, within four hundred yards, never +stirred. M. De Corny, and five others, were then sent to ask arms of +M. de Launay, Governor of the Bastile. They found a great collection +of people already before the place, and they immediately planted a +flag of truce, which was answered by a like flag hoisted on the +parapet. The deputation prevailed on the people to fall back a little, +advanced themselves to make their demand of the Governor, and in that +instant a discharge from the Bastile killed four persons of those +nearest to the deputies. The deputies retired. I happened to be at the +house of M. de Corny, when he returned to it, and received from him a +narrative of these transactions.</p> + +<p>On the retirement of the deputies the people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> rushed forward, and almost in +an instant were in possession of a fortification of infinite strength, +defended by one hundred men, which in other times had stood several regular +sieges, and had never been taken. How they forced their entrance has never +been explained. They took all the arms, discharged the prisoners, and such +of the garrison as were not killed in the first moment of fury; carried the +Governor and Lieutenant-Governor to the Place de Grève (the place of public +execution), cut off their heads, and sent them through the city, in +triumph, to the Palais royal. About the same instant a treacherous +correspondence having been discovered in M. de Flesseles, Prevôt des +Marchands, they seized him in the Hotel de Ville, where he was in the +execution of his office, and cut off his head.</p> + +<p>These events, carried imperfectly to Versailles, were the subject of +two successive deputations from the Assembly to the King, to both of +which he gave dry and hard answers; for nobody had as yet been +permitted to inform him, truly and fully, of what had passed at Paris. +But at night the Duke de Liancourt forced his way into the King's +bedchamber, and obliged him to hear a full and animated detail of the +disasters of the day in Paris. He went to bed fearfully imprest. The +decapitation of de Launay worked powerfully through the night on the +whole Aristocratic party; insomuch that in the morning those of the +greatest influence on the Count d'Artois represented to him the +absolute necessity that the King should give up everything to the +Assembly. This according with the dispositions of the King, he went +about eleven o'clock, accompanied only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> by his brothers, to the +Assembly, and there read to them a speech, in which he asked their +interposition to reestablish order. Altho couched in terms of some +caution, yet the manner in which it was delivered made it evident that +it was meant as a surrender at discretion. He returned to the Chateau +afoot, accompanied by the Assembly.</p> + +<p>They sent off a deputation to quiet Paris, at the head of which was +the Marquis de La Fayette, who had, the same morning, been named +Commandant en chef of the Milice Bourgeoise; and Monsieur Bailly, +former President of the States General, was called for as Prevôt des +Marchands. The demolition of the Bastile was now ordered and begun. A +body of the Swiss guards, of the regiment of Ventimille, and the city +horse guards joined the people. The alarm at Versailles increased. The +foreign troops were ordered off instantly. Every minister resigned. +The King confirmed Bailly as Prevôt des Marchands, wrote to M. Necker, +to recall him, sent his letter open to the Assembly, to be forwarded +by them, and invited them to go with him to Paris the next day, to +satisfy the city of his dispositions; and that night, and the next +morning, the Count d'Artois, and M. de Montesson, a deputy connected +with him, Madame de Polignac, Madame de Guiche, and the Count de +Vaudreuil, favorites of the Queen, the Abbe de Vermont, her confessor, +the Prince of Conde, and the Duke of Bourbon fled.</p> + +<p>The King came to Paris, leaving the Queen in consternation for his +return. Omitting the less important figures of the procession, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +King's carriage was in the center; on each side of it the Assembly, in +two ranks afoot; at their head the Marquis de La Fayette, as +Commander-in-chief, on horseback, and Bourgeois guards before and +behind. About sixty thousand citizens, of all forms and conditions, +armed with the conquests of the Bastile and Invalids, as far as they +would go, the rest with pistols, swords, pikes, pruning-hooks, +scythes, etc., lined all the streets through which the procession +passed, and with the crowds of people in the streets, doors, and +windows, saluted them everywhere with the cries of "vive la nation," +but not a single "vive le roi" was heard. The King stopt at the Hotel +de Ville. There M. Bailly presented, and put into his hat the popular +cockade, and addrest him. The King being unprepared, and unable to +answer, Bailly went to him, gathered from him some scraps of +sentences, and made out an answer, which he delivered to the audience +as from the King. On their return, the popular cries were "vive le Roi +et la nation." He was conducted by a Garde Bourgeoise to his palace at +Versailles, and thus concluded an "amende honorable," as no sovereign +ever made, and no people ever received.</p> + +<p>And here, again, was lost another precious occasion of sparing to +France the crimes and cruelties through which she has since passed, +and to Europe, and finally America, the evils which flowed on them +also from this mortal source. The King was now become a passive +machine in the hands of the National Assembly, and had he been left to +himself, he would have willingly acquiesced in whatever they should +devise as best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> for the nation. A wise constitution would have been +formed, hereditary in his line, himself placed at its head, with +powers so large as to enable him to do all the good of his station, +and so limited as to restrain him from its abuse. This he would have +faithfully administered, and more than this I do not believe he ever +wished. But he had a Queen of absolute sway over his weak mind and +timid virtue, and of a character the reverse of his in all points. +This angel, as gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of Burke,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> with +some smartness of fancy, but no sound sense, was proud, disdainful of +restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will, eager in the +pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires, or perish +in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and dissipations, with those +of the Count d'Artois, and others of her <i>clique</i>, had been a sensible +item in the exhaustion of the treasury, which called into action the +reforming hand of the nation; and her opposition to it, her inflexible +perverseness, and dauntless spirit, led herself to the guillotine, +drew the King on with her, and plunged the world into crimes and +calamities which will forever stain the pages of modern history.</p> + +<p>I have ever believed that had there been no Queen there would have +been no revolution. No force would have been provoked, nor exercised. +The King would have gone hand in hand with the wisdom of his sounder +counselors, who, guided by the increased lights of the age, wished +only, with the same pace, to advance the principles <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>of their social +constitution. The deed which closed the mortal course of these +sovereigns I shall neither approve nor condemn. I am not prepared to +say that the first magistrate of a nation can not commit treason +against his country, or is unamenable to its punishment; nor yet that +where there is no written law, no regulated tribunal, there is not a +law in our hearts, and a power in our hands, given for righteous +employment in maintaining right and redressing wrong. Of those who +judged the King many thought him wilfully criminal; many, that his +existence would keep the nation in perpetual conflict with the horde +of kings who would war against a generation which might come home to +themselves, and that it were better that one should die than all. I +should not have voted with this portion of the Legislature. I should +have shut up the Queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power, +and placed the King in his station, investing him with limited powers, +which, I verily believe, he would have honestly exercised, according +to the measure of his understanding. In this way no void would have +been created, courting the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor +occasion given for those enormities which demoralized the nations of +the world, and destroyed, and are yet to destroy millions and millions +of its inhabitants.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> From the "Autobiography," now printed in Volume I of the +"Writings of Jefferson," edited by Paul Leicester Ford.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> See page 214 of Volume IV of this collection for this +tribute from Burke.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="THE_FUTILITY_OF_DISPUTES" id="THE_FUTILITY_OF_DISPUTES"></a>THE FUTILITY OF DISPUTES<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></h2> + + +<p>I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace +and tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so +well imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness that this also +becomes an acquisition of first-rate value. In truth, politeness is +artificial good humor; it covers the natural want of it, and ends by +rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. +It is the practise of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society all +the little conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and +deprive us of nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giving +a pleasing and flattering turn to our expressions, which will +conciliate others, and make them pleased with us as well as +themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another! When this +is in return for a rude thing said by another, it brings him to his +senses, it mortifies and corrects him in the most salutary way, and +places him at the feet of your good nature in the eyes of the company.</p> + +<p>But in stating prudential rules for our government in society I must +not omit the important one of never entering into dispute or argument +with another. I never saw an instance of one of two disputants +convincing the other by argument. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>I have seen many, on their getting +warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the +effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or +weighing within ourselves, dispassionately, what we hear from others, +standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was one of the rules +which, above all others, made Doctor Franklin the most amiable of men +in society "never to contradict anybody." If he was urged to announce +an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as if for +information, or by suggesting doubts. When I hear another express an +opinion which is not mine, I say to myself he has a right to his +opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error does me no +injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of +argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it is probable he is +gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of the +gratification. If he wants information, he will ask it, and then I +will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own +story, and shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him and +say nothing. It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error.</p> + +<p>There are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with +among us. The first is of young students, just entered the threshold +of science, with a first view of its outlines, not yet filled up with +the details and modifications which a further progress would bring to +their knowledge. The other consists of the ill-tempered and rude men +in society, who have taken up a passion for politics. (Good humor and +politeness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> never introduce into mixt society a question on which they +foresee there will be a difference of opinion.) From both of those +classes of disputants, my dear Jefferson, keep aloof as you would from +the infected subjects of yellow fever or pestilence. Consider +yourself, when with them, as among the patients of Bedlam, needing +medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep within +yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of +silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country +no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery +zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as +to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will +act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not +for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> From a letter to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, dated +Washington, Nov. 24, 1808.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>III</h2> +<h2><a name="OF_BLACKS_AND_WHITES_IN_THE_SOUTH" id="OF_BLACKS_AND_WHITES_IN_THE_SOUTH"></a>OF BLACKS AND WHITES IN THE SOUTH<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></h2> + + +<p>It will probably be asked, Why not retain and incorporate the blacks +into the state, and thus save the expense of supplying by importation +of white settlers the vacancies they will leave? Deep-rooted +prejudices entertained by the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>whites; ten thousand recollections, by +the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the +real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances +will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will +probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other +race. To these objections, which are political, may be added others, +which are physical and moral.</p> + +<p>The first difference which strikes us is that of color. Whether the +black of the negro resides in the reticular membrane between the skin +and the scarf-skin, or in the scarf-skin itself; whether it proceeds +from the color of the blood, the color of the bile, or from that of +some other secretion, the difference is fixt in nature, and is as real +as if its seat and cause were better known to us. And is this +difference of no importance? Is it not the foundation of a greater or +less share of beauty in the two races? Are not the fine mixtures of +red and white, the expressions of every passion by greater or less +suffusions of color in the one, preferable to that eternal monotony +which reigns in the countenances, that immovable veil of black which +covers all the emotions of the other race?</p> + +<p>Add to these flowing hair, a more elegant symmetry of form, their own +judgment in favor of the whites, declared by their preference of them, +as uniformly as is the preference of the orangutan for the black women +over those of his own species. The circumstance of superior beauty is +thought worthy attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and +other domestic animals; why not in that of man? Besides those of +color,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> figure, and hair, there are other physical distinctions +proving a difference of race. They have less hair on the face and +body. They secrete less by the kidneys, and more by the glands of the +skin, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odor. This great +degree of transpiration renders them more tolerant of heat, and less +so of cold than the whites.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, too, a difference of structure in the pulmonary apparatus, +which a late ingenious experimentalist has discovered to be the +principal regulator of animal heat, may have disabled them from +extricating, in the act of inspiration, so much of that fluid from the +outer air, or obliged them in expiration to part with more of it. They +seem to require less sleep. A black, after hard labor through the day, +will be induced by the slightest amusement to sit up till midnight, or +later, tho knowing he must be out with the first dawn of the morning. +They are at least as brave, and more adventuresome.</p> + +<p>But this may perhaps proceed from a want of forethought, which +prevents their seeing a danger till it be present. When present, they +do not go through it with more coolness or steadiness than the whites. +They are more ardent after their female; but love seems with them to +be more an eager desire than a tender, delicate mixture of sentiment +and sensation. Their griefs are transient. Those numberless +afflictions, which render it doubtful whether heaven has given life to +us in mercy or in wrath, are less felt, and sooner forgotten with +them. In general, their existence appears to participate more of +sensation than reflection. To this must be ascribed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> their disposition +to sleep when abstracted from their diversions, and unemployed in +labor. An animal, whose body is at rest and who does not reflect, must +be disposed to sleep, of course. Comparing them by their faculties of +memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they +are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could +scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the +investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination they are dull, +tasteless, and anomalous.</p> + +<p>It would be unfair to follow them to Africa for this investigation. We +will consider them here, on the same stage with the whites, and where +the facts are not apocryphal on which a judgment is to be formed. It +will be right to make great allowances for the difference of +condition, of education, of conversation, of the sphere in which they +move. Many millions of them have been brought to, and born in America. +Most of them, indeed, have been confined to tillage, to their own +homes, and their own society; yet many have been so situated that they +might have availed themselves of the conversation of their masters; +many have been brought up to the handicraft arts, and from that +circumstance have always been associated with the white. Some have +been liberally educated, and all have lived in countries where the +arts and sciences are cultivated to a considerable degree, and have +had before their eyes samples of the best works from abroad.</p> + +<p>The Indians, with no advantages of their kind, will often carve +figures on their pipes not destitute of design and merit. They will +crayon out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> an animal, a plant, or a country, so as to prove the +existence of a germ in their minds which only wants cultivation. They +astonish you with strokes of the most sublime oratory; such as prove +their reason and sentiment strong, their imagination glowing and +elevated. But never yet could I find that a black had uttered a +thought above the level of plain narration; never saw even an +elementary trait of painting or sculpture. In music they are more +generally gifted than the whites with accurate ears for tune and time, +and they have been found capable of imagining a small catch. Whether +they will be equal to the composition of a more extensive run of +melody, or of complicated harmony is yet to be proved. Misery is often +the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. Among the blacks +is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry. Love is the peculiar +œstrum of the poet. Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses +only, not the imagination.</p> + +<p>There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our +people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole +commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most +boisterous passions—the most unremitting despotism on the one part +and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and +learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is +the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is +learning to do what he sees others do. If a parent could find no +motive either in his philanthropy or his self-love for restraining the +intemperance of passion toward his slave,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> it should always be a +sufficient one that his child is present.</p> + +<p>But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms; the child looks +on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs, in the +circle of smaller slaves gives a loose to the worst of passions, and +thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, can not but be +stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who +can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. +And with what execrations should the statesman be loaded who, +permitting one-half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the +other, transforms those into despots and these into enemies, destroys +the morals of the one part and the <i>amor patriæ</i> of the other! For if +a slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in +preference to that in which he is born to live and labor for another; +in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as +far as depends on his individual endeavors to the evanishment of the +human race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endless +generations proceeding from him. With the morals of the people, their +industry is destroyed. For in a warm climate no man will labor for +himself who can make another labor for him. This is so true that of +the proprietors of slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen +to labor.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> From Query No. 14 of the "Notes on the State of +Virginia," which, says Jefferson in an "advertisement," "were written +in Virginia in the year 1781 and somewhat corrected and enlarged in +the winter of 1782, in answer to queries proposed to the author by a +foreigner of distinction then residing among us."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> +<h2>IV</h2> +<h2><a name="HIS_ACCOUNT_OF_LOGANS_FAMOUS_SPEECH" id="HIS_ACCOUNT_OF_LOGANS_FAMOUS_SPEECH"></a>HIS ACCOUNT OF LOGAN'S FAMOUS SPEECH<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></h2> + + +<p>The principles of their society forbidding all compulsion, they are to +be led to duty and to enterprise by personal influence and persuasion. +Hence eloquence in council, bravery and success in war become the +foundations of all consequence with them. To these acquirements all +their faculties are directed. Of their bravery and address in war we +have multiplied proofs, because we have been the subjects on which +they were exercised. Of their eminence in oratory we have fewer +examples, because it is displayed chiefly in their own councils. Some, +however, we have of very superior luster. I may challenge the whole +orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, if +Europe has furnished any more eminent, to produce a single passage +superior to the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore, when +governor of this State. And, as a testimony of their talents in this +line, I beg leave to introduce it, first stating the incidents +necessary for understanding it.</p> + +<p>In the spring of the year 1774 a robbery was committed by some Indians +on certain land adventurers on the river Ohio. The whites in that +quarter, according to their custom, undertook to punish this outrage +in a summary way. Captain Michael Cresap, and a certain Daniel +Greathouse <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>leading on these parties, surprized, at different times, +traveling and hunting parties of the Indians, having their women and +children with them, and murdered many. Among these were unfortunately +the family of Logan, a chief celebrated in peace and war, and long +distinguished as the friend of the whites. This unworthy return +provoked his vengeance. He accordingly signalized himself in the war +which ensued. In the autumn of the same year a decisive battle was +fought at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, between the collected forces +of the Shawanese, Mingoes and Delawares, and a detachment of the +Virginia militia. The Indians were defeated and sued for peace. Logan, +however, disdained to be seen among the suppliants. But lest the +sincerity of a treaty should be disturbed, from which so distinguished +a chief absented himself, he sent, by a messenger, the speech, to be +delivered to Lord Dunmore.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>...</p> + +<p>The story of Logan is repeated precisely as it had been current for +more than a dozen years before it was published. When Lord Dunmore +returned from the expedition against the Indians, in 1774, he and his +officers brought the speech of Logan, and related the circumstances +connected with it. These were so affecting, and the speech itself so +fine a morsel of eloquence, that it became the theme of every +conversation, in Williamsburg particularly, and generally, indeed, +wheresoever any of the officers resided or <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>resorted. I learned it in +Williamsburgh; I believe at Lord Dunmore's; and I find in my +pocket-book of that year (1774) an entry of the narrative, as taken +from the mouth of some person, whose name, however, is not noted, nor +recollected, precisely in the words stated in the "Notes on Virginia." +The speech was published in the <i>Virginia Gazette</i> of that time (I +have it myself in the volume of gazettes of that year), and tho in a +style by no means elegant, yet it was so admired that it flew through +all the public papers of the continent, and through the magazines and +other periodical publications of Great Britain; and those who were +boys at that day will now attest that the speech of Logan used to be +given them as a school exercise for repetition. It was not till about +thirteen or fourteen years after the newspaper publications that the +"Notes on Virginia" were published in America. Combating in these the +contumelious theory of certain European writers, whose celebrity have +currency and weight to their opinions, that our country, from the +combined effects of soil and climate, degenerated animal nature, in +the general, and particularly the moral faculties of man, I considered +the speech of Logan as an apt proof of the contrary, and used it as +such; and I copied, verbatim, the narrative I had taken down in 1774 +and the speech as it had been given us in a better translation by Lord +Dunmore.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> From Query VI of the "Notes on Virginia."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> For the text of Logan's speech see Volume VIII of "The +World's Famous Orations," William J. Bryan, editor-in-chief; Francis +W. Halsey, associate editor; Funk and Wagnalls Company, publishers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> The above final paragraph is from the appendix to the +second edition of the "Notes on Virginia," and was called forth by +public criticism of the statements made in the text.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="GOUVERNEUR_MORRIS" id="GOUVERNEUR_MORRIS"></a>GOUVERNEUR MORRIS</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in 1752, died in 1816; member of the First and Second +Continental Congresses; chairman of the committee which +conferred with the British peace commissioners in 1778; +drafted a scheme for a system of coinage which is the basis +of our present system; member of the Convention which +drafted the Constitution, taking a leading part in all the +debates; went to France in 1789 on private business, and +witnessed the outbreak of the Revolution; kept a diary and +wrote important letters; minister to France in 1792; United +States Senator from New York in 1800; active in promoting +the Erie Canal project until his death; his biography +written by Theodore Roosevelt; his "Diary and Letters" +published in 1888.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="THE_OPENING_OF_THE_FRENCH_STATES-GENERAL" id="THE_OPENING_OF_THE_FRENCH_STATES-GENERAL"></a>THE OPENING OF THE FRENCH STATES-GENERAL<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></h2> + + +<p>I had the honor to be present on the fifth of this month at the +opening of the States-General; a spectacle more solemn to the mind +than gaudy to the eye. And yet, there was displayed everything of +noble and of royal in this titled country. A great number of fine +women, and a very great number of fine dresses, ranged round the hall. +On a kind of stage the throne; on the left of the King and a little +below him the Queen; a little behind him to the right, and on chairs, +the princes <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>of the blood; on the right and left, at some distance +from the throne, the various princesses, with the gentlemen and ladies +of their retinue. Advanced on the stage, to the left of the throne, +the Keeper of the Seals. Several officers of the household, richly +caparisoned, strewed about in different places. Behind the throne a +cluster of guards, of the largest size, drest in ancient costumes, +taken from the times of chivalry. In front of the throne on the right, +below the stage, the ministers of state, with a long table before +them. On the opposite side of the hall some benches, on which sat the +maréchals of France, and other great officers. In front of the +ministers, on benches facing the opposite side of the hall, sat the +representatives of the clergy, being priests of all colors, scarlet, +crimson, black, white, and gray, to the number of three hundred. In +front of the maréchals of France, on benches facing the clergy, sat an +equal number of representatives of the nobility, drest in a robe of +black, waistcoats of cloth of gold, and over their shoulders, so as to +hang forward to their waists, a kind of lapels about a quarter of a +yard wide at top, and wider at bottom, made of cloth of gold. On +benches, which reached quite across the hall, and facing the stage, +sat the representatives of the people clothed in black. In the space +between the clergy and nobles, directly in front of the +representatives of the people, and facing the throne, stood the +heralds-at-arms, with their staves and in very rich dresses.</p> + +<p>When the King entered, he was saluted with a shout of applause. Some +time after he had taken his seat, he put on a round beaver, +or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>namented with white plumes, the part in front turned up, with a +large diamond button in the center. He read his speech well, and was +interrupted at a part which affected his audience by a loud shout of +<i>Vive le Roi</i>. After this had subsided, he finished his speech, and +received again an animated acclamation of applause. He then took off +his hat, and after a while put it on again, at which the nobles also +put on their hats, which resembled the King's, excepting the button. +The effect of this display of plumage was fine.</p> + +<p>The Keeper of the Seals then performed his genuflexions to the throne, +and mumbled out, in a very ungraceful manner, a speech of considerable +length, which nobody pretends to judge of, because nobody heard it. He +was succeeded by M. Necker,<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> who soon handed his speech to his +clerk, being unable to go through with it. The clerk delivered it much +better than the minister, and that is no great praise. It was three +hours long, contained many excellent things, but too much of +compliment, too much of repetition, and indeed too much of everything, +for it was too long by two hours, and yet fell short in some capital +points of great expectation. He received, however, very repeated +plaudits from the audience, some of which were merited, but more were +certainly paid to his character than to his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>composition. M. Necker's +long speech now comes to a close, and the King rises to depart. The +hall resounds with a long loud <i>Vive le Roi</i>. He passes the Queen, who +rises to follow him. At this moment some one, imbued with the milk of +human kindness, originates a faint <i>Vive la Reine</i>. She makes a humble +courtesy and presents the sinking of the high Austrian spirit; a +livelier acclamation in return, and to this her lowlier bending, which +is succeeded by a shout of loud applause. Here drops the curtain on +the first great act of this great drama, in which Bourbon gives +freedom. His courtiers seem to feel what he seems to be insensible of, +the pang of greatness going off.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> From a letter written in 1789 and addrest to Mrs. Morris +of Philadelphia. Copyright, 1888, by Charles Scribner's Sons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Jacques Necker, director of the Treasury in 1776; +resigned in 1781; recalled in 1788; convened the States-General in +1789; dismissed in the same year and again recalled, but finally +resigned in 1790. Married Mlle. Suzanne Curchod, Gibbon's early love, +and became the father of Madame de Staël.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="OF_THE_EXECUTION_OF_LOUIS_XVI" id="OF_THE_EXECUTION_OF_LOUIS_XVI"></a>OF THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></h2> + + +<p>The late King of this country has been publicly executed. He died in a +manner becoming his dignity. Mounting the scaffold, he exprest anew +his forgiveness of those who persecuted him, and a prayer that his +deluded people might be benefited by his death. On the scaffold he +attempted to speak, but the commanding officer, Santerre, ordered the +drums to beat. The King made two unavailing efforts, but with the same +bad success. The executioners threw him down, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>and were in such haste +as to let fall the ax before his neck was properly placed, so that he +was mangled.</p> + +<p>It would be needless to give you an affecting narrative of +particulars. I proceed to what is more important, having but a few +minutes to write in by the present good opportunity. The greatest care +was taken to prevent a concourse of people. This proves a conviction +that the majority was not favorable to that severe measure. In fact, +the great mass of the people mourned the fate of their unhappy prince. +I have seen grief, such as for the untimely death of a beloved parent. +Everything wears an appearance of solemnity which is awfully +distressing. I have been told by a gentleman from the spot that +putting the King to death would be a signal for disbanding the army in +Flanders. I do not believe this, but incline to think it will have +some effect on the army, already perishing by want and moldering fast +away. The people of that country, if the French army retreats, will, I +am persuaded, take a severe vengeance for the injuries they have felt +and the insults they have been exposed to. Both are great. The war +against France is become popular in Austria, and is becoming so in +Germany. If my judgment be good, the testament of Louis the Sixteenth +will be more powerful against the present rulers of this country than +any army of a hundred thousand men. You will learn the effect it has +in England. I believe that the English will be wound up to a pitch of +enthusiastic horror against France, which their cool and steady temper +seems to be scarcely susceptible of.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> + +<p>I enclose you a translation of a letter from Sweden, which I have +received from Denmark. You will see thereby that the Jacobin +principles are propagated with zeal in every quarter. Whether the +Regent of Sweden intends to make himself king is a moot point. All the +world knows that the young prince is not legitimate, altho born under +circumstances which render it, legally speaking, impossible to +question his legitimacy. I consider a war between Britain and France +is inevitable. I have not proof, but some very leading circumstances. +Britain will, I think, suspend her blow until she can strike very +hard, unless, indeed, they should think it advisable to seize the +moment of indignation against late events for a declaration of war. +This is not improbable, because it may be coupled with those general +declarations against all kings, under the name of tyrants, which +contain a determination to destroy them, and the threat that if the +ministers of England presume to declare war, an appeal shall be made +to the people at the head of an invading army. Of course, a design may +be exhibited of entering into the heart of Great Britain, to overrun +the Constitution, destroy the rights of property, and finally to +dethrone and murder the King—all which are things the English will +neither approve of nor submit to.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> From a letter to Thomas Jefferson, dated Paris, January +25, 1793, printed in Volume II, Chapter 28, of Morris's "Diary and +Letters." Copyright, 1888, by Charles Scribner's Sons.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="ALEXANDER_HAMILTON" id="ALEXANDER_HAMILTON"></a>ALEXANDER HAMILTON</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in 1757, died in 1804; a pamphleteer in the agitation +preceding the Revolution; a captain of artillery in 1776; on +Washington's staff in 1777-81: won distinction at Yorktown +in 1781; member of the Continental Congress in 1782; member +of the Constitutional Convention of 1787; Secretary of the +Treasury in 1789; Commander-in-chief of the army in 1799; +killed in a duel by Aaron Burr in 1804.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="OF_THE_FAILURE_OF_CONFEDERATION" id="OF_THE_FAILURE_OF_CONFEDERATION"></a>OF THE FAILURE OF CONFEDERATION<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></h2> + + +<p>In the course of the preceding papers, I have endeavored, my fellow +citizens, to place before you, in a clear and convincing light, the +importance of union to your political safety and happiness. I have +unfolded to you a complication of dangers to which you would be +exposed, should you permit that sacred knot, which binds the people of +America together, to be severed or dissolved by ambition or by +avarice, by jealousy or by misrepresentation. In the sequel of the +inquiry through which I propose to accompany you the truths intended +to be inculcated will receive further confirmation from facts and +arguments hitherto unnoticed. If the road over which you will still +have to pass should in some places appear to you tedious or irksome, +you will recollect <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>that you are in quest of information on a subject +the most momentous which can engage the attention of a free people; +that the field through which you have to travel is in itself spacious, +and that the difficulties of the journey have been unnecessarily +increased by the mazes with which sophistry has beset the way. It will +be my aim to remove the obstacles to your progress in as compendious a +manner as it can be done without sacrificing utility to dispatch.</p> + +<p>In pursuance of the plan which I have laid down for the discussion of +the subject, the point next in order to be examined is the +"insufficiency of the present confederation to the preservation of the +Union."</p> + +<p>It may perhaps be asked what need there is of reasoning or proof to +illustrate a position which is neither controverted nor doubted; to +which the understandings and feelings of all classes of men assent; +and which in substance is admitted by the opponents as well as by the +friends of the new constitution? It must in truth be acknowledged +that, however these may differ in other respects, they in general +appear to harmonize in the opinion that there are material +imperfections in our national system, and that something is necessary +to be done to rescue us from impending anarchy. The facts that support +this opinion are no longer objects of speculation. They have forced +themselves upon the sensibility of the people at large, and have at +length extorted from those whose mistaken policy has had the principal +share in precipitating the extremity at which we are arrived, a +reluctant confession of the reality of many of those defects<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> in the +scheme of our federal government which have been long pointed out and +regretted by the intelligent friends of the Union.</p> + +<p>We may, indeed, with propriety be said to have reached almost the last +stage of national humiliation. There is scarcely anything that can +wound the pride, or degrade the character of an independent people +which we do not experience. Are there engagements, to the performance +of which we are held by every tie respectable among men? These are the +subjects of constant and unblushing violation. Do we owe debts to +foreigners, and to our own citizens, contracted in a time of imminent +peril, for the preservation of our political existence? These remain +without any proper or satisfactory provision for their discharge. Have +we valuable territories and important posts in the possession of a +foreign power, which, by express stipulations, ought long since to +have been surrendered? These are still retained, to the prejudice of +our interests not less than of our rights. Are we in a condition to +resent or to repel the aggression? We have neither troops, nor +treasury, nor government. Are we even in a condition to remonstrate +with dignity? The just imputations on our own faith, in respect to the +same treaty, ought first to be removed. Are we entitled, by nature and +compact, to a free participation in the navigation of the Mississippi? +Spain excludes us from it. Is public credit an indispensable resource +in time of public danger? We seem to have abandoned its cause as +desperate and irretrievable. Is commerce of importance to national +wealth? Ours is at the lowest point of declension. Is respectability +in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> the eyes of foreign powers a safeguard against foreign +encroachments? The imbecility of our government even forbids them to +treat with us: our ambassadors abroad are the mere pageants of mimic +sovereignty.</p> + +<p>Is a violent and unnatural decrease in the value of land a symptom of +national distress? The price of improved land, in most parts of the +country, is much lower than can be accounted for by the quantity of +waste land at market, and can only be fully explained by that want of +private and public confidence which are so alarmingly prevalent among +all ranks, and which have a direct tendency to depreciate property of +every kind. Is private credit the friend and patron of industry? That +most useful kind which relates to borrowing and lending is reduced +within the narrowest limits, and this still more from an opinion of +insecurity than from a scarcity of money. To shorten an enumeration of +particulars which can afford neither pleasure nor instruction, it may +in general be demanded what indication is there of national disorder, +poverty, and insignificance that could befall a community so +peculiarly blest with natural advantages as we are, which does not +form a part of the dark catalog of our public misfortunes?</p> + +<p>This is the melancholy situation to which we have been brought by +those very maxims and counsels which would now deter us from adopting +the proposed constitution; and which, not content with having +conducted us to the brink of a precipice, seem resolved to plunge us +into the abyss that awaits us below. Here, my countrymen, impelled by +every motive that ought to influence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> an enlightened people, let us +make a firm stand for our safety, our tranquillity, our dignity, our +reputation. Let us at last break the fatal charm which has too long +seduced us from the paths of felicity and prosperity.</p> + +<p>It is true, as has been before observed, that facts too stubborn to be +resisted have produced a species of general assent to the abstract +proposition that there exist material defects in our national system; +but the usefulness of the concession, on the part of the old +adversaries of federal measures, is destroyed by a strenuous +opposition to a remedy, upon the only principles that can give it a +chance of success. While they admit that the government of the United +States is destitute of energy, they contend against conferring upon it +those powers which are requisite to supply that energy. They seem +still to aim at things repugnant and irreconcilable; at an +augmentation of federal authority, without a diminution of State +authority; at sovereignty in the Union, and complete independence in +the members. They still, in fine, seem to cherish with blind devotion +the political monster of an <i>imperium in imperio</i>. This renders a full +display of the principal defects of the confederation necessary in +order to show that the evils we experience do not proceed from minute +or partial imperfections, but from fundamental errors in the structure +of the building, which can not be amended otherwise than by an +alteration in the very elements and main pillars of the fabric.</p> + +<p>The great and radical vice in the construction of the existing +confederation is in the principle of legislation for states or +governments in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> corporate or collective capacities, and as +contra-distinguished from the individuals of whom they consist. Tho +this principle does not run through all the powers delegated to the +Union; yet it pervades and governs those on which the efficacy of the +rest depends: except as to the rule of apportionment, the United +States have an indefinite discretion to make requisitions for men and +money; but they have no authority to raise either by regulations +extending to the individual citizens of America. The consequence of +this is that, tho in theory their resolutions concerning those objects +are laws constitutionally binding on the members of the Union, yet in +practise they are mere recommendations, which the States observe or +disregard at their option.</p> + +<p>It is a singular instance of the capriciousness of the human mind that +after all the admonitions we have had from experience on this head, +there should still be found men who object to the new constitution for +deviating from a principle which has been found the bane of the old; +and which is, in itself, evidently incompatible with the idea of a +government; a principle, in short, which, if it is to be executed at +all, must substitute the violent and sanguinary agency of the sword to +the mild influence of the magistracy.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> From No. 15 of the "Federalist" Papers, now printed in +Volume IX of the "Works of Hamilton," edited by Henry Cabot Lodge.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="HIS_REASONS_FOR_NOT_DECLINING_BURRS_CHALLENGE" id="HIS_REASONS_FOR_NOT_DECLINING_BURRS_CHALLENGE"></a>HIS REASONS FOR NOT DECLINING BURR'S CHALLENGE<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></h2> + + +<p>On my expected interview with Col. Burr, I think it proper to make +some remarks explanatory of my conduct, motives, and views. I was +certainly desirous of avoiding this interview for the most urgent +reasons:</p> + +<p>1. My religious and moral principles are strongly opposed to the +practise of duelling, and it would ever give me pain to be obliged to +shed the blood of a fellow creature in a private combat forbidden by +the law.</p> + +<p>2. My wife and children are extremely dear to me, and my life is of +the utmost importance to them in various views.</p> + +<p>3. I feel a sense of obligation toward my creditors, who, in case of +accident to me, by the forced sale of my property, may be in some +degree sufferers. I did not think myself at liberty, as a man of +probity, lightly to expose them to this hazard.</p> + +<p>4. I am conscious of no ill-will toward Col. Burr, distinct from +political opposition, which, as I trust, has proceeded from pure and +upright motives.</p> + +<p>Lastly, I shall hazard much and can probably gain nothing by the issue +of this interview.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p> +<p>But it was, as I conceive, impossible to avoid it. There were +intrinsic difficulties in the thing, an artificial embarrassment from +the manner of proceeding on the part of Col. Burr.</p> + +<p>Intrinsic, because it is not to be denied that my animadversion on the +political principles, character and views of Col. Burr have been +extremely severe; and on different occasions I, in common with many +others, have made very unfavorable criticisms on particular instances +of the private conduct of this gentleman. In proportion as these +impressions were entertained with sincerity and uttered with motives +and for purposes which might appear to me commendable would be the +difficulty (until they could be removed by evidence of their being +erroneous) of explanation or apology. The disavowal required of me by +Col. Burr in a general and indefinite form was out of my power, if it +had really been proper for me to submit to be questioned, but I was +sincerely of the opinion that this could not be, and in this opinion I +was confirmed by a very moderate and judicious friend whom I +consulted. Besides that, Col. Burr appeared to me to assume, in the +first instance, a tone unnecessarily peremptory and menacing, and, in +the second, positively offensive. Yet I wished as far as might be +practicable to leave a door open to accommodation. This, I think, will +be inferred from the written communication made by me and by my +directions, and would be confirmed by the conversation between Mr. Van +Ness and myself which arose out of the subject. I am not sure whether, +under all the circumstances, I did not go further in the attempt to +accom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>modate than a punctilious delicacy will justify. If so, I hope +the motives I have stated will excuse me. It is not my design by what +I have said to affix any odium on the conduct of Col. Burr in this +case. He doubtless has heard of animadversions of mine which bore very +hard upon him, and it is probable that, as usual, they were +accompanied with some falsehoods. He may have supposed himself under +the necessity of acting as he has done. I hope the ground of his +proceeding is such as ought to satisfy his own conscience. I trust, at +the same time, that the world will do me the justice to believe that I +have not censured him on light grounds nor from unworthy motives. I +certainly have had strong reasons for what I have said, tho it is +possible in some particulars I may have been influenced by +misconstructions or misinformation. It is also my ardent wish that I +may have been more mistaken than I think I have been, and that he, by +his future conduct, may show himself worthy of all confidence and +esteem and prove an ornament and a blessing to the country as well, +because it is possible I may have injured Col. Burr, however convinced +myself that my opinions and declarations may have been well founded.</p> + +<p>As for my general principles and temper in relation to similar +affairs, I have resolved, if our interview is conducted in the usual +manner, and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to reserve and +throw away my first fire, and I have thoughts even of reserving my +second fire, and thus giving a double opportunity to Col. Burr to +pause and reflect. It is not, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> my intention to enter into any +explanation on the ground. Apology, from principle, I hope, rather +than pride, is out of the question. To those who, with me abhorring +the practise of duelling, may think that I ought on no account to have +added to the number of examples, I answer that my relative situation +as well in public as in private, enforcing all the considerations +which constitute what men of the world denominate honor, inspired in +me (as I thought) a peculiar necessity not to decline the call. The +ability to be useful in future, whether in resisting mischief or in +effecting good, in those crises of our public affairs which seem +lately to happen would probably be inseparable from a conformity with +public prejudice in this particular.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Written the day before the duel, which took place in +Weehawken, N. J., on July 11, 1804. Hamilton, wounded, was taken to +his house in the upper part of Manhattan Island and there died on the +following day. This statement is now printed in Volume VIII of the +"Works of Hamilton."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Among the Hamilton papers is a letter addrest as follows +to Mrs. Hamilton, dated the day before the duel: +</p><p> +"This letter, my dear Eliza, will not be delivered to you unless I +shall first have terminated my earthly career, to begin, as I humbly +hope from redeeming grace and divine mercy, a happy immortality. If it +had been possible for me to have avoided the interview, my love for +you and my precious children would have been alone a decisive motive. +But it was not possible without sacrifice which would have rendered me +unworthy of your esteem. I need not tell you of the pangs I feel from +the idea of quitting you and exposing you to the anguish I know you +would feel. Nor could I dwell on the topic lest it should unman me. +The consolations of religion, my beloved, can alone support you; and +these you have a right to enjoy. Fly to the bosom of your God and be +comforted. With my last idea I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting +you in a better world. Adieu, best of wives, best of women. Embrace +all my darling children for me."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="JOHN_QUINCY_ADAMS" id="JOHN_QUINCY_ADAMS"></a>JOHN QUINCY ADAMS</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in Massachusetts in 1767, died in Washington in 1848; +son of John Adams; graduated from Harvard in 1787; admitted +to the bar in 1791; minister to the Netherlands in 1794-97; +minister to Prussia in 1797-1801; Senator from Massachusetts +in 1803-08; professor at Harvard in 1806-09; minister to +Russia in 1809-14; minister to England in 1815-17; Secretary +of State in 1817-25; elected President in 1824; defeated for +the Presidency by Jackson in 1828; Member of Congress in +1831-48; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of +Massachusetts in 1834; his "Diary" published in 1874-77.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="OF_HIS_MOTHER" id="OF_HIS_MOTHER"></a>OF HIS MOTHER<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></h2> + + +<p>There is not a virtue that can abide in the female heart but it was +the ornament of hers. She had been fifty-four years the delight of my +father's heart, the sweetener of all his toils, the comforter of all +his sorrows, the sharer and heightener of all his joys. It was but the +last time when I saw my father that he told me, with an ejaculation of +gratitude to the Giver of every good and every perfect gift, that in +all the vicissitudes of his fortunes, through all the good report and +evil report of the world, in all his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>struggles and in all his +sorrows, the affectionate participation and cheering encouragement of +his wife had been his never-failing support, without which he was sure +he should never have lived through them....</p> + +<p>Never have I known another human being the perpetual object of whose +life was so unremittingly to do good. It was a necessity of her +nature. Yet so unostentatious, so unconscious even of her own +excellence that even the objects of her kindness often knew not whence +it came. She had seen the world—its glories without being dazzled; +its vices and follies without being infected by them. She had suffered +often and severely from fits of long and painful sickness, always with +calmness and resignation. She had a profound, but not an obtrusive +sensibility. She was always cheerful, never frivolous; she had neither +gall nor guile.</p> + +<p>Her attention to the domestic economy of her family was +unrivaled—rising with the dawn, and superintending the household +concerns with indefatigable and all-foreseeing care. She had a warm +and lively relish for literature, for social conversation, for +whatever was interesting in the occurrences of the time, and even in +political affairs. She had been, during the war of our Revolution, an +ardent patriot, and the earliest lesson of unbounded devotion to the +cause of their country that her children received was from her. She +had the most delicate sense of propriety of conduct, but nothing +uncharitable, nothing bitter. Her price was indeed above rubies.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> From the "Diary." Adams's mother was Abigail Smith +Adams, daughter of the Rev. William Smith of Weymouth, Mass. Her +letters, which have been much admired, have been published in a work +entitled "The Familiar Letters of John Adams and his Wife."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="THE_MORAL_TAINT_INHERENT_IN_SLAVERY" id="THE_MORAL_TAINT_INHERENT_IN_SLAVERY"></a>THE MORAL TAINT INHERENT IN SLAVERY<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></h2> + + +<p>After this meeting I walked home with Calhoun, who said that the +principles which I had avowed were just and noble; but that in the +Southern country, whenever they were mentioned, they were always +understood as applying only to white men. Domestic labor was confined +to the blacks, and such was the prejudice that if he, who was the most +popular man in his district, were to keep a white servant in his +house, his character and reputation would be irretrievably ruined.</p> + +<p>I said that this confounding of the ideas of servitude and labor was +one of the bad effects of slavery; but he thought it attended with +many excellent consequences. It did not apply to all kinds of +labor—not, for example, to farming. He himself had often held the +plow; so had his father. Manufacturing and mechanical labor was not +degrading. It was only manual labor—the proper work of slaves. No +white person could descend to that. And it was the best guarantee to +equality among the whites. It produced an unvarying level among them. +It not only did not excite, but did not even admit of inequalities by +which one white man could domineer over another.</p> + +<p>I told Calhoun I could not see things in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>same light. It is, in +truth, all perverted sentiment—mistaking labor for slavery, and +dominion for freedom. The discussion of the Missouri question has +betrayed the secret of their souls. In the abstract they admit that +slavery is an evil, they disclaim all participation in the +introduction of it, and cast it all upon the shoulders of our old +granddam Britain. But when probed to the quick upon it, they show at +the bottom of their souls pride and vainglory in their condition of +masterdom. They fancy themselves more generous and noble-hearted than +the plain freemen who labor for subsistence. They look down upon the +simplicity of a Yankee's manners, because he has no habits of +overbearing like theirs and can not treat negroes like dogs.</p> + +<p>It is among the evils of slavery that it taints the very sources of +moral principle. It establishes false estimates of virtue and vice; +for what can be more false and heartless than this doctrine which +makes the first and holiest rights of humanity to depend upon the +color of the skin? It perverts human reason, and reduces man endowed +with logical powers to maintain that slavery is sanctioned by the +Christian religion, that slaves are happy and contented in their +condition, that between master and slave there are ties of mutual +attachment and affection, that the virtues of the master are refined +and exalted by the degradation of the slave; while at the same time +they vent execrations upon the slave-trade, curse Britain for having +given them slaves, burn at the stake negroes convicted of crimes for +the terror of the example, and writhe in agonies of fear at the very +mention of human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> rights as applicable to men of color. The impression +produced upon my mind by the progress of this discussion is that the +bargain between freedom and slavery contained in the Constitution of +the United States is morally and politically vicious, inconsistent +with the principles upon which alone our Revolution can be justified; +cruel and oppressive, by riveting the chains of slavery, by pledging +the faith of freedom to maintain and perpetuate the tyranny of the +master; and grossly unequal and impolitic, by admitting that slaves +are at once enemies to be kept in subjection, property to be secured +or restored to their owners, and persons not to be represented +themselves, but for whom their masters are privileged with nearly a +double share of representation.</p> + +<p>The consequence has been that this slave representation has governed +the Union. Benjamin portioned above his brethren has ravened as a +wolf. In the morning he has devoured the prey, and at night he has +divided the spoil. It would be no difficult matter to prove, by +reviewing the history of the Union under this Constitution, that +almost everything which has contributed to the honor and welfare of +the nation has been accomplished in despite of them or forced upon +them, and that everything unpropitious and dishonorable, including the +blunders and follies of their adversaries, may be traced to them. I +have favored this Missouri compromise, believing it to be all that +could be effected under the present Constitution, and from extreme +unwillingness to put the Union at hazard. But perhaps it would have +been a wiser as well as a bolder course to have persisted in the +restriction upon Missouri,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> till it should have terminated in a +convention of the States to amend and revise the Constitution. This +would have produced a new Union of thirteen or fourteen States +unpolluted with slavery, with a great and glorious object to effect, +namely, that of rallying to their standard the other States by the +universal emancipation of their slaves. If the Union must be +dissolved, slavery is precisely the question upon which it ought to +break. For the present, however, this contest is laid asleep.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> From the "Diary."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_E_CHANNING" id="WILLIAM_E_CHANNING"></a>WILLIAM E. CHANNING</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in Rhode Island in 1780, died in Vermont in 1842; +clergyman, author and philanthropist; one of the chief +founders of Unitarianism; pastor of the Federal Street +Church in Boston in 1803; his complete works published in +1848.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="OF_GREATNESS_IN_NAPOLEON" id="OF_GREATNESS_IN_NAPOLEON"></a>OF GREATNESS IN NAPOLEON<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></h2> + + +<p>We close our view of Bonaparte's character by saying that his original +propensities, released from restraint, and pampered by indulgence to a +degree seldom allowed to mortals, grew up into a spirit of despotism +as stern and absolute as ever usurped the human heart. The love of +power and supremacy absorbed, consumed him. No other passion, no +domestic attachment, no private friendship, no love of pleasure, no +relish for letters or the arts, no human sympathy, no human weakness, +divided his mind with the passion for dominion and for dazzling +manifestations of his power. Before this, duty, honor, love, humanity +fell prostrate. Josephine, we are told, was dear to him; but the +devoted wife, who had stood firm and faithful in the day of his +doubtful fortunes, was cast off in his prosperity to make room for a +stranger, who might be more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>subservient to his power. He was +affectionate, we are told, to his brothers and mother; but his +brothers, the moment they ceased to be his tools, were disgraced; and +his mother, it is said, was not allowed to sit in the presence of her +imperial son. He was sometimes softened, we are told, by the sight of +the field of battle strewn with the wounded and dead. But, if the +Moloch of his ambition claimed new heaps of slain to-morrow, it was +never denied. With all his sensibility, he gave millions to the sword +with as little compunction as he would have brushed away so many +insects which had infested his march. To him all human will, desire, +power were to bend. His superiority none might question. He insulted +the fallen, who had contracted the guilt of opposing his progress; and +not even woman's loveliness, and the dignity of a queen could give +shelter from his contumely. His allies were his vassals, nor was their +vassalage concealed. Too lofty to use the arts of conciliation, +preferring command to persuasion, overbearing, and all-grasping, he +spread distrust, exasperation, fear, and revenge through Europe; and, +when the day of retribution came, the old antipathies and mutual +jealousies of nations were swallowed up in one burning purpose to +prostrate the common tyrant, the universal foe.</p> + +<p>Such was Napoleon Bonaparte. But some will say he was still a great +man. This we mean not to deny. But we would have it understood that +there are various kinds or orders of greatness, and that the highest +did not belong to Bonaparte. There are different orders of greatness. +Among these the first rank is unquestionably due to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> moral greatness, +or magnanimity; to that sublime energy by which the soul, smitten with +the love of virtue, binds itself indissolubly, for life and for death, +to truth and duty; espouses as its own the interests of human nature; +scorns all meanness and defies all peril; hears in its own conscience +a voice louder than threatenings and thunders; withstands all the +powers of the universe which would sever it from the cause of freedom +and religion; reposes an unfaltering trust in God in the darkest hour, +and is ever "ready to be offered up" on the altar of its country or of +mankind.</p> + +<p>Of this moral greatness, which throws all other forms of greatness +into obscurity, we see not a trace in Napoleon. Tho clothed with the +power of a god, the thought of consecrating himself to the +introduction of a new and higher era, to the exaltation of the +character and condition of his race, seems never to have dawned on his +mind. The spirit of disinterestedness and self-sacrifice seems not to +have waged a moment's war with self-will and ambition. His ruling +passions, indeed, were singularly at variance with magnanimity. Moral +greatness has too much simplicity, is too unostentatious, too +self-subsistent and enters into others' interests with too much +heartiness, to live an hour for what Napoleon always lived, to make +itself the theme, and gaze, and wonder of a dazzled world. Next to +moral, comes intellectual greatness, or genius in the highest sense of +that word; and by this we mean that sublime capacity of thought, +through which the soul, smitten with the love of the true and the +beautiful, essays to comprehend the universe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> soars into the heavens, +penetrates the earth, penetrates itself, questions the past, +anticipates the future, traces out the general and all-comprehending +laws of nature, binds together by innumerable affinities and relations +all the objects of its knowledge, rises from the finite and transient +to the infinite and the everlasting, frames to itself from its own +fulness lovelier and sublimer forms than it beholds, discerns the +harmonies between the world within and the world without us, and finds +in every region of the universe types and interpreters of its own deep +mysteries and glorious inspirations. This is the greatness which +belongs to philosophers, and to the master-spirits in poetry and the +fine arts.</p> + +<p>Next comes the greatness of action; and by this we mean the sublime +power of conceiving bold and extensive plans; of constructing and +bringing to bear on a mighty object a complicated machinery of means, +energies, and arrangements, and of accomplishing great outward +effects. To this head belongs the greatness of Bonaparte, and that he +possest it we need not prove, and none will be hardy enough to deny. A +man who raised himself from obscurity to a throne, who changed the +face of the world, who made himself felt through powerful and +civilized nations, who sent the terror of his name across seas and +oceans, whose will was pronounced and feared as destiny, whose +donatives were crowns, whose antechamber was thronged by submissive +princes, who broke down the awful barrier of the Alps and made them a +highway, and whose fame was spread beyond the boundaries of +civilization to the steppes of the Cossack, and the deserts of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +Arab; a man who has left this record of himself in history, has taken +out of our hands the question whether he shall be called great. All +must concede to him a sublime power of action, an energy equal to +great effects.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> From a review of Sir Walter Scott's "Life of Napoleon," +printed in the <i>Christian Examiner</i> in 1827 and now included in Volume +I of the collected edition of Channing's writings.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="JOHN_JAMES_AUDUBON" id="JOHN_JAMES_AUDUBON"></a>JOHN JAMES AUDUBON</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in New Orleans In 1780, died in New York in 1857; +educated in France, where he was a pupil of David; failing +to establish himself in business in America, he devoted his +time to the study of birds, making long excursions on foot; +published his "Birds of America" in 1827-30, the price per +copy being $1,000; published his "Ornithological Biography" +in 5 volumes in 1831-39.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WHERE_THE_MOCKING-BIRD_DWELLS" id="WHERE_THE_MOCKING-BIRD_DWELLS"></a>WHERE THE MOCKING-BIRD DWELLS<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></h2> + + +<p>It is where the great magnolia shoots up its majestic trunk, crowned +with evergreen leaves, and decorated with a thousand beautiful +flowers, that perfume the air around; where the forests and fields are +adorned with blossoms of every hue; where the golden orange ornaments +the gardens and groves; where bignonias of various kinds interlace +their climbing stems around the white-flowered stuartia, and, mounting +still higher, cover the summits of the lofty trees around, accompanied +with innumerable vines that here and there festoon the dense foliage +of the magnificent woods, lending to the vernal breeze a slight +portion of the perfume of their clustered flowers; where a genial +warmth seldom forsakes the atmosphere; where berries and fruits of all +descriptions are met with at every step—in a word, it is where Nature +seems to have paused, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>as she passed over the earth, and, opening her +stores, to have strewed with unsparing hand the diversified seeds from +which have sprung all the beautiful and splendid forms which I should +in vain attempt to describe, that the mocking-bird should have fixt +its abode—there only that its wondrous song should be heard.</p> + +<p>But where is that favored land? It is in that great continent to whose +distant shores Europe has sent forth her adventurous sons, to wrest +for themselves a habitation from the wild inhabitants of the forest, +and to convert the neglected soil into fields of exuberant fertility. +It is, reader, in Louisiana that these bounties of nature are in the +greatest perfection. It is there that you should listen to the love +song of the mocking-bird, as I at this moment do. See how he flies +round his mate, with motions as light as those of the butterfly! His +tail is widely expanded, he mounts in the air to a small distance, +describes a circle, and, again alighting, approaches his beloved one, +his eyes gleaming with delight, for she has already promised to be his +and his only. His beautiful wings are gently raised, he bows to his +love, and, again bouncing upward, opens his bill and pours forth his +melody, full of exultation at the conquest he has made.</p> + +<p>They are not the soft sounds of the flute or the hautboy that I hear, +but the sweeter notes of nature's own music. The mellowness of the +song, the varied modulations and gradations, the extent of its +compass, the great brilliancy of execution are unrivaled. There is +probably no bird in the world that possesses all the musical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +qualifications of this king of song, who has derived all from Nature's +self. Yes, reader, all!</p> + +<p>No sooner has he again alighted, and the conjugal contract has been +sealed, than, as if his breast were about to be rent with delight, he +again pours forth his notes with more softness and richness than +before. He now soars higher, glancing around with a vigilant eye, to +assure himself that none has witnessed his bliss. When these love +scenes are over, he dances through the air, full of animation and +delight, and, as if to convince his lovely mate that to enrich her +hopes he has much more love in store, he that moment begins anew, and +imitates all the notes which nature has imparted to the other +songsters of the grove.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> From Volume II, page 187, of the "Birds of America," +edition of 1841.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="WASHINGTON_IRVING" id="WASHINGTON_IRVING"></a>WASHINGTON IRVING</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in New York in 1783, died at Sunnyside in 1859; studied +law, but owing to ill health went abroad in 1804, remaining +two years; returning home, began to publish "Salmagundi" in +company with James K. Paulding; published in 1809 his +"History of New York," which established his literary +reputation; went abroad in 1815, remaining until 1832; +attached to the legation in Madrid in 1826; secretary of +legation in London in 1829; minister to Spain in 1842; +published the "Sketch Book" in 1819-20, "Bracebridge Hall" +in 1822, "Tales of a Traveler" in 1824, "Christopher +Columbus" in 1828, "Conquest of Granada" in 1829, "The +Alhambra" in 1832, "Life of Washington" in 1855-59; author +of many other books; his "Life and Letters" published in +1861-67.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="THE_LAST_OF_THE_DUTCH_GOVERNORS_OF_NEW_YORK" id="THE_LAST_OF_THE_DUTCH_GOVERNORS_OF_NEW_YORK"></a>THE LAST OF THE DUTCH GOVERNORS OF NEW YORK<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></h2> + +<p>Peter Stuyvesant was the last, and, like the renowned Wouter Van +Twiller, the best of our ancient Dutch governors. Wouter having +surpassed all who preceded him, and Peter, or Piet, as he was sociably +called by the old Dutch burghers, who were ever prone to familiarize +names, having never been equaled by any successor. He was, in fact, +the very man fitted by nature to retrieve the desperate fortunes of +her beloved province, had not the Fates, those most potent <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>and +unrelenting of all ancient spinsters, destined them to inextricable +confusion.</p> + +<p>To say merely that he was a hero would be doing him great +injustice—he was in truth a combination of heroes—for he was of a +sturdy, raw-boned make like Ajax Telamon, with a pair of round +shoulders that Hercules would have given his hide for (meaning his +lion's hide) when he undertook to ease old Atlas of his load. He was, +moreover, as Plutarch describes Coriolanus, not only terrible for the +force of his arm, but likewise of his voice, which sounded as tho it +came out of a barrel; and, like the self-same warrior, he possest a +sovereign contempt for the sovereign people, and an iron aspect, which +was enough of itself to make the very bowels of his adversaries quake +with terror and dismay. All this martial excellency of appearance was +inexpressibly heightened by an accidental advantage, with which I am +surprized that neither Homer nor Virgil have graced any of their +heroes. This was nothing less than a wooden leg,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> which was the +only prize he had gained in bravely fighting the battles of his +country, but of which he was so proud that he was often heard to +declare he valued it more than all his other limbs put together; +indeed, so highly did he <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>esteem it that he had it gallantly enchased +and relieved with silver devices, which caused it to be related in +divers histories and legends that he wore a silver leg.</p> + +<p>Like that choleric warrior Achilles, he was somewhat subject to +extempore bursts of passion, which were rather unpleasant to his +favorites and attendants, whose perceptions he was apt to quicken, +after the manner of his illustrious imitator, Peter the Great, by +anointing their shoulders with his walking-staff.</p> + +<p>Tho I can not find that he had read Plato, or Aristotle, or Hobbes, or +Bacon, or Algernon Sydney, or Tom Paine, yet did he sometimes manifest +a shrewdness and sagacity in his measures that one would hardly expect +from a man who did not know Greek, and had never studied the ancients. +True it is, and I confess it with sorrow, that he had an unreasonable +aversion to experiments, and was fond of governing his province after +the simplest manner; but then he contrived to keep it in better order +than did the erudite Kieft,<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> tho he had all the philosophers, +ancient and modern, to assist and perplex him. I must likewise own +that he made but very few laws; but then again he took care that those +few were rigidly and impartially enforced: and I do not know but +justice on the whole was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>as well administered as if there had been +volumes of sage acts and statutes yearly made, and daily neglected and +forgotten.</p> + +<p>He was, in fact, the very reverse of his predecessors, being neither +tranquil and inert, like Walter the Doubter, nor restless and +fidgeting, like William the Testy; but a man, or rather a governor of +such uncommon activity and decision of mind that he never sought nor +accepted the advice of others; depending bravely upon his single head, +as would a hero of yore upon his single arm, to carry him through all +difficulties and dangers. To tell the simple truth, he wanted nothing +more to complete him as a statesman than to think always right; for no +one can say but that he always acted as he thought. He was never a man +to flinch when he found himself in a scrape; but to dash forward +through thick and thin, trusting, by hook or by crook, to make all +things straight in the end. In a word, he possest, in an eminent +degree, that great quality in a statesman, called perseverance by the +polite, but nicknamed obstinacy by the vulgar. A wonderful salve for +official blunders; since he who perseveres in error without flinching +gets the credit of boldness and consistency, while he who wavers in +seeking to do what is right gets stigmatized as a trimmer. This much +is certain; and it is a maxim well worthy the attention of all +legislators, great and small, who stand shaking in the wind, +irresolute which way to steer, that a ruler who follows his own will +pleases himself; while he who seeks to satisfy the wishes and whims of +others runs great risk of pleasing nobody. There is nothing, too, like +putting down one's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> foot resolutely, when in doubt, and letting things +take their course. The clock that stands still points right twice in +the four-and-twenty hours: while others may keep going continually and +be continually going wrong.</p> + +<p>Nor did this magnanimous quality escape the discernment of the good +people of Nieuw Nederlandts; on the contrary, so much were they struck +with the independent will and vigorous resolution displayed on all +occasions by their new governor, that they universally called him +Hard-Koppig Piet; or Peter the Headstrong—a great compliment to the +strength of his understanding.</p> + +<p>If, from all that I have said, thou dost not gather, worthy reader, +that Peter Stuyvesant was a tough, sturdy, valiant, weather-beaten, +mettlesome, obstinate, leather-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited +old governor, either I have written to but little purpose, or thou art +very dull at drawing conclusions.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> From Book V, Chapter I, of "Knickerbocker's History of +New York."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Stuyvesant lost his leg in the West Indies, where he was +serving in a Dutch command. In 1634 he became director of the colony +of Curaçao. In 1636 he was made director-general of the Dutch colony +in North America. He retained this office, in which he was notably +efficient, until the surrender of New Amsterdam to the English in +1664. Stuyvesant spent the remainder of his life in New York on a farm +called the Bowery, where he died in 1672. He was buried in grounds +where now stands St. Mark's Church.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> William Kieft, the predecessor of Stuyvesant in the +government of New Amsterdam, was a tyrannical, blundering +administrator, whose rule was marked by disastrous wars with the +Indians and dissension among his own people which nearly ruined the +province. He was recalled by the home government, and while on his way +to Holland was lost in the wreck, on the English coast, of the ship in +which he had sailed.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="THE_AWAKENING_OF_RIP_VAN_WINKLE" id="THE_AWAKENING_OF_RIP_VAN_WINKLE"></a>THE AWAKENING OF RIP VAN WINKLE<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></h2> + +<p>On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had first +seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes—it was a bright +sunny morning. The birds were hopping and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>twittering among the +bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure +mountain breeze. "Surely," thought Rip, "I have not slept here all +night." He recalled the occurrences before he fell asleep. The strange +man with a keg of liquor—the mountain ravine—the wild retreat among +the rocks—the wo-begone party at nine-pins—the flagon—"Oh! that +flagon! that wicked flagon!" thought Rip—"what excuse shall I make to +Dame Van Winkle!"</p> + +<p>He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well-oiled +fowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel +incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten. +He now suspected that the grave roysterers of the mountain had put a +trick upon him, and, having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of +his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, but he might have strayed away +after a squirrel or partridge. He whistled after him and shouted his +name, but all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but +no dog was to be seen.</p> + +<p>He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's gambol, and +if he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun. As he rose +to walk, he found himself stiff in the joints, and wanting in his +usual activity. "These mountain beds do not agree with me," thought +Rip, "and if this frolic should lay me up with a fit of the +rheumatism, I shall have a blest time with Dame Van Winkle." With some +difficulty he got down into the glen: he found the gully up which he +and his companion had ascended the preceding evening; but to his +astonishment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> a mountain stream was now foaming down it, leaping from +rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling murmurs. He, however, +made shift to scramble up its sides, working his toilsome way through +thickets of birch, sassafras, and witch-hazel, and sometimes tript up +or entangled by the wild grape-vines that twisted their coils or +tendrils from tree to tree, and spread a kind of network in his path.</p> + +<p>At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs +to the amphitheater; but no traces of such opening remained. The rocks +presented a high impenetrable wall over which the torrent came +tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad deep +basin, black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, +poor Rip was brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after +his dog; he was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, +sporting high in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; +and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at +the poor man's perplexities. What was to be done? the morning was +passing away, and Rip felt famished for want of his breakfast. He +grieved to give up his dog and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but +it would not do to starve among the mountains. He shook his head, +shouldered the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and +anxiety, turned his steps homeward.</p> + +<p>As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none whom +he knew, which somewhat surprized him, for he had thought himself +acquainted with every one in the country round.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> Their dress, too, was +of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all +stared at him with equal marks of surprize, and whenever they cast +their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant +recurrence of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, +when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long!</p> + +<p>He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange +children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray +beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he recognized for an old +acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was +altered; it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses +which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar +haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors—strange +faces at the windows—everything was strange. His mind now misgave +him; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were +not bewitched. Surely this was his native village, which he had left +but the day before. There stood the Catskill Mountains—there ran the +silver Hudson at a distance—there was every hill and dale precisely +as it had always been—Rip was sorely perplexed—"That flagon last +night," thought he, "has addled my poor head sadly!"</p> + +<p>It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, +which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to bear +the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to +decay—the roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off +the hinges. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> half-starved dog that looked like Wolf was skulking +about it. Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his +teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed—"My very dog," +sighed poor Rip, "has forgotten me!"</p> + +<p>He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had +always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently +abandoned. This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears—he +called loudly for his wife and children—the lonely chambers rang for +a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence.</p> + +<p>He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the village +inn—but it too was gone. A large rickety wooden building stood in its +place, with great gaping windows, some of them broken and mended with +old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, "The Union +Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." Instead of the great tree that used to +shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a +tall naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red +night-cap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular +assemblage of stars and stripes—all this was strange and +incomprehensible. He recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of +King George, under which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe; but +even this was singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was changed for +one of blue and buff, a sword was held in the hand instead of a +scepter, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was +painted in large characters, <span class="smcap">General Washington</span>.</p> + +<p>There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> door, but none that +Rip recollected. The very character of the people seemed changed. +There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the +accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked in vain for the +sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long +pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco-smoke instead of idle speeches; or +Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient +newspaper. In place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with his +pockets full of handbills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of +citizens—elections—members of Congress—liberty—Bunker Hill—heroes +of seventy-six—and other words, which were a perfect Babylonish +jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle.</p> + +<p>The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his rusty +fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at +his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians. +They crowded round him, eyeing him from head to foot with great +curiosity. The orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly +aside, inquired "on which side he voted?" Rip stared in vacant +stupidity. Another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, +and, rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear "whether he was Federal or +Democrat?" Rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when +a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made +his way through the crowd, putting them to right and left with his +elbows as he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with arms +akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat +penetrating,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> as it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere +tone "what brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and +a mob at his heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot in the +village?" "Alas! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I am a +poor quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the +King, God bless him!"</p> + +<p>Here a general shout burst from the bystanders—"A Tory! a Tory! a +spy! a refugee! hustle him! away with him!" It was with great +difficulty that the self-important man in the cocked hat restored +order; and, having assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again +of the unknown culprit what he came there for, and whom he was +seeking? The poor man humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but +merely came there in search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep +about the tavern.</p> + +<p>"Well—who are they?—name them."</p> + +<p>Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, "Where's Nicholas +Vedder?"</p> + +<p>There was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a +thin piping voice, "Nicholas Vedder! why, he is dead and gone these +eighteen years! There was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that +used to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone too."</p> + +<p>"Where's Brom Dutcher?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he +was killed at the storming of Stony Point—others say he was drowned +in a squall at the foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know—he never came +back again."</p> + +<p>"Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He went off to the wars too, was a great militia general, and is now +in Congress."</p> + +<p>Rip's heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and +friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer +puzzled him too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of +matters which he could not understand: war—Congress—Stony Point; he +had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in +despair, "Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three—"oh, to be sure! that's +Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the tree."</p> + +<p>Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, as he went up +the mountain: apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor +fellow was now completely confounded. He doubted his own identity, and +whether he was himself or another man. In the midst of his +bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what +was his name?</p> + +<p>"God knows," exclaimed he, at his wit's end; "I'm not myself—I'm +somebody else—that's me yonder—no—that's somebody else got into my +shoes—I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and +they've changed my gun, and everything's changed, and I'm changed, and +I can't tell what's my name, or who I am!"</p> + +<p>The bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink +significantly, and tap their fingers against their foreheads. There +was a whisper, also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old +fellow from doing mischief, at the very suggestion of which the +self-important man in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> the cocked hat retired with some precipitation. +At this critical moment a fresh comely woman prest through the throng +to get a peep at the gray-bearded man. She had a chubby child in her +arms, which, frightened at his looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried +she, "hush, you little fool; the old man won't hurt you." The name of +the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened +a train of recollections in his mind. "What is your name, my good +woman," asked he.</p> + +<p>"Judith Gardenier."</p> + +<p>"And your father's name?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name, but it's twenty years +since he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of +since—his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself, or +was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a +little girl."</p> + +<p>Rip had but one question more to ask; but he put it with a faltering +voice:</p> + +<p>"Where's your mother?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood-vessel +in a fit of passion at a New England peddler."</p> + +<p>There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. The +honest man could contain himself no longer. He caught his daughter and +her child in his arms. "I am your father!" cried he—"Young Rip Van +Winkle once—old Rip Van Winkle now!—Does nobody know poor Rip Van +Winkle?"</p> + +<p>All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the +crowd, put her hand to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> her brow, and peering under it in his face for +a moment, exclaimed, "Sure enough! it is Rip Van Winkle—it is +himself! Welcome home again, old neighbor—why, where have you been +these twenty long years?"</p> + +<p>Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him +but as one night. The neighbors stared when they heard it; some were +seen to wink at each other, and put their tongues in their cheeks: and +the self-important man in the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was +over, had returned to the field, screwed down the corners of his +mouth, and shook his head—upon which there was a general shaking of +the head throughout the assemblage.</p> + +<p>It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter +Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing up the road. He was a +descendant of the historian of that name, who wrote one of the +earliest accounts of the province. Peter was the most ancient +inhabitant of the village, and well versed in all the wonderful events +and traditions of the neighborhood. He recollected Rip at once, and +corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner. He assured the +company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the +historian, that the Catskill Mountains had always been haunted by +strange beings. That it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, +the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil +there every twenty years, with his crew of the <i>Half-moon</i>; being +permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and +keep a guardian eye upon the river, and the great city called by his +name.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> That his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses +playing at nine-pins in a hollow of the mountain; and that he himself +had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like +distant peals of thunder.</p> + +<p>To make a long story short, the company broke up, and returned to the +more important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him home +to live with her; she had a snug, well-furnished house, and a stout +cheery farmer for a husband, whom Rip recollected for one of the +urchins that used to climb upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir, +who was the ditto of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was +employed to work on the farm; but evinced an hereditary disposition to +attend to anything else but his business.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> From the "Sketch Book," originally published in parts in +1819-20, "Rip Van Winkle" being included in the first number. Irving's +story has furnished the material for eight or ten plays, the most +successful of which was written by Dion Boucicault. Boucicault's work +was materially altered by Joseph Jefferson into the play now closely +associated with Jefferson's fame.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>III</h2> +<h2><a name="AT_ABBOTSFORD_WITH_SCOTT" id="AT_ABBOTSFORD_WITH_SCOTT"></a>AT ABBOTSFORD WITH SCOTT<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></h2> + +<p>I had a letter of introduction to him from Thomas Campbell the poet, +and had reason to think, from the interest he had taken in some of my +earlier scribblings,<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> that a visit from me would not be deemed an +intrusion.</p> + +<p>On the following morning, after an early breakfast, I set off in a +post-chaise for the Abbey.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p><p>On the way thither I stopt at the gate of Abbotsford, and sent the +postilion to the house with the letter of introduction and my card, on +which I had written that I was on my way to the ruins of Melrose +Abbey, and wished to know whether it would be agreeable to Mr. Scott +(he had not yet been made a baronet) to receive a visit from me in the +course of the morning....</p> + +<p>In a little while the "lord of the castle" himself made his +appearance. I knew him at once by the descriptions I had read and +heard, and the likeness that had been published of him. He was tall, +and of a large and powerful frame. His dress was simple, and almost +rustic: an old green shooting-coat, with a dog-whistle at the +buttonhole, brown linen pantaloons, stout shoes that tied at the +ankles, and a white hat that had evidently seen service. He came +limping up the gravel-walk, aiding himself by a stout walking-staff, +but moving rapidly and with vigor. By his side jogged along a large +iron-gray stag-hound of most grave demeanor, who took no part in the +clamor of the canine rabble, but seemed to consider himself bound, for +the dignity of the house, to give me a courteous reception.</p> + +<p>Before Scott had reached the gate he called out in a hearty tone, +welcoming me to Abbotsford, and asking news of Campbell. Arrived at +the door of the chaise, he grasped me warmly by the hand: "Come, drive +down, drive down to the house," said he, "ye're just in time for +breakfast, and afterward ye shall see all the wonders of the Abbey."</p> + +<p>I would have excused myself, on the plea of having already made my +breakfast. "Hout,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> man," cried he, "a ride in the morning in the keen +air of the Scotch hills is warrant enough for a second breakfast." I +was accordingly whirled to the portal of the cottage, and in a few +moments found myself seated at the breakfast-table....</p> + +<p>Scott proposed a ramble to show me something of the surrounding +country. As we sallied forth, every dog in the establishment turned +out to attend us. There was the old stag-hound Maida, a noble animal, +and a great favorite of Scott's; and Hamlet, the black greyhound, a +wild thoughtless youngster, not yet arrived to the years of +discretion; and Finette, a beautiful setter, with soft silken hair, +long pendent ears, and a mild eye, the parlor favorite. When in front +of the house, we were joined by a superannuated greyhound, who came +from the kitchen wagging his tail, and was cheered by Scott as an old +friend and comrade.</p> + +<p>In our walks, Scott would frequently pause in conversation to notice +his dogs and speak to them, as if rational companions; and, indeed, +there appears to be a vast deal of rationality in these faithful +attendants on man, derived from their close intimacy with him. Maida +deported himself with a gravity becoming his age and size, and seemed +to consider himself called upon to preserve a great degree of dignity +and decorum in our society. As he jogged along a little distance ahead +of us, the young dogs would gambol about him, leap on his neck, worry +at his ears, and endeavor to tease him into a frolic. The old dog +would keep on for a long time with imperturbable solemnity, now and +then seeming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> to rebuke the wantonness of his young companions....</p> + +<p>We had not walked much further before we saw the two Miss Scotts +advancing along the hillside to meet us. The morning's studies being +over, they had set off to take a ramble on the hills, and gather +heather-blossoms with which to decorate their hair for dinner. As they +came bounding lightly, like young fawns, and their dresses fluttering +in the pure summer breeze, I was reminded of Scott's own description +of his children in his introduction to one of the cantos of "Marmion."</p> + +<p>As they approached, the dogs all sprang forward and gamboled around +them. They played with them for a time, and then joined us with +countenances full of health and glee. Sophia,<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> the eldest, was the +most lively and joyous, having much of her father's varied spirit in +conversation, and seeming to catch excitement from his words and +looks. Ann was of quieter mood, rather silent, owing, in some measure, +no doubt, to her being some years younger.</p> + +<p>At the dinner Scott had laid by his half-rustic dress, and appeared +clad in black. The girls, too, in completing their toilet, had twisted +in their hair the sprigs of purple heather which they had gathered on +the hillside, and looked all fresh and blooming from their breezy +walk.</p> + +<p>There was no guest at dinner but myself. Around the table were two or +three dogs in attendance. Maida, the old stag-hound, took his seat at +Scott's elbow, looking up wistfully in his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>master's eye, while +Finette, the pet spaniel, placed herself near Mrs. Scott, by whom, I +soon perceived, she was completely spoiled....</p> + +<p>Among the other important and privileged members of the household who +figured in attendance at the dinner was a large gray cat, who, I +observed, was regaled from time to time with titbits from the table. +This sage grimalkin was a favorite of both master and mistress, and +slept at night in their room; and Scott laughingly observed that one +of the least wise parts of their establishment was that the window was +left open at night for puss to go in and out. The cat assumed a kind +of ascendency among the quadrupeds—sitting in state in Scott's +armchair, and occasionally stationing himself on a chair beside the +door, as if to review his subjects as they passed, giving each dog a +cuff beside the ears as he went by. This clapper-clawing was always +taken in good part; it appeared to be, in fact, a mere act of +sovereignty on the part of grimalkin, to remind the others of their +vassalage; which they acknowledged by the most perfect acquiescence. A +general harmony prevailed between sovereign and subjects, and they +would all sleep together in the sunshine....</p> + +<p>After dinner we adjourned to the drawing-room, which served also for +study and library. Against the wall on one side was a long +writing-table, with drawers; surmounted by a small cabinet of polished +wood, with folding-drawers richly studded with brass ornaments, within +which Scott kept his most valuable papers. Above the cabinet, in a +kind of niche, was a complete corselet of glittering steel, with a +closed helmet,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> and flanked by gantlets and battle-axes. Around were +hung trophies and relics of various kinds; a simitar of Tipu Sahib; a +Highland broadsword from Flodden field; a pair of Rippon spurs from +Bannockburn, and above all, a gun which had belonged to Rob Roy, and +bore his initials, R. M. C.,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> an object of peculiar interest to me +at the time, as it was understood Scott was actually engaged in +printing a novel founded on the story of that famous outlaw.</p> + +<p>On each side of the cabinet were bookcases, well stored with works of +romantic fiction in various languages, many of them rare and +antiquated. This, however, was merely his cottage library, the +principal part of his books being at Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>From this little cabinet of curiosities Scott drew forth a manuscript +picked up on the field at Waterloo, containing copies of several songs +popular at the time in France. The paper was dabbled with blood—"the +very life-blood, very possibly," said Scott, "of some gay young +officer who had cherished these songs as a keepsake from some +lady-love in Paris."...</p> + +<p>The evening passed away delightfully in this quaint-looking apartment, +half study, half drawing-room. Scott had read several passages from +the old romances of Arthur, with a fine deep sonorous voice, and a +gravity of tone that seemed to suit the antiquated black-letter +volume. It was a rich treat to hear such a work, read by such a +person, and in such a place; and his appearance as he sat reading, in +a large armed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>chair, with his favorite hound Maida at his feet and +surrounded by books and relics, and border trophies, would have formed +an admirable and most characteristic picture.</p> + +<p>While Scott was reading, the sage grimalkin already mentioned had +taken his seat in a chair beside the fire, and remained with fixt eye +and grave demeanor, as if listening to the reader. I observed to Scott +that his cat seemed to have a black-letter taste in literature.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said he, "these cats are a very mysterious kind of folk. There +is always more passing in their minds than we are aware of. It comes, +no doubt, from their being so familiar with witches and warlocks."...</p> + +<p>When I retired for the night, I found it almost impossible to sleep; +the idea of being under the roof of Scott, of being on the borders of +the Tweed in the very center of that region which had for some time +past been the favorite scene of romantic fiction, and above all, the +recollections of the ramble I had taken, the company in which I had +taken it, and the conversation which had passed, all fermented in my +mind, and nearly drove sleep from my pillow.</p> + +<p>On the following morning the sun darted his beams from over the hills +through the low lattice window. I rose at an early hour, and looked +out between the branches of eglantine which overhung the casement. To +my surprize Scott was already up and forth, seated on a fragment of +stone, and chatting with the workmen employed on the new building.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> +I had supposed, after the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>time he had wasted upon me yesterday, he +would be closely occupied this morning; but he appeared like a man of +leisure, who had nothing to do but bask in the sunshine and amuse +himself.</p> + +<p>I soon drest myself and joined him. He talked about his proposed plans +of Abbotsford: happy would it have been for him could he have +contented himself with his delightful little vine-covered cottage, and +the simple yet hearty and hospitable style in which he lived at the +time of my visit. The great pile of Abbotsford, with the huge expense +it entailed upon him, of servants, retainers, guests, and baronial +style, was a drain upon his purse, a tax upon his exertions, and a +weight upon his mind, and finally crusht him....</p> + +<p>After breakfast Scott was occupied for some time correcting +proof-sheets, which he had received by the mail. The novel of "Rob +Roy,"<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> as I have already observed, was at that time in the press, +and I supposed them to be the proof-sheets of that work. The +authorship of the Waverley novels was still a matter of conjecture and +uncertainty; tho few doubted their being principally written by Scott. +One proof to me of his being the author was that he never adverted to +them. A man so fond of anything Scottish, and anything relating to +national history or local legend, could not have been mute <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>respecting +such productions, had they been written by another. He was fond of +quoting the works of his contemporaries; he was continually reciting +scraps of border songs, or relating anecdotes of border story. With +respect to his own poems and their merits, however, he was mute, and +while with him I observed a scrupulous silence on the subject.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> From the collection of papers entitled "Crayon +Miscellany." Irving's visit was made in 1817. His account of it was +not published until nearly twenty years afterward—that is, after +Scott's death.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Irving at that time had published little more than the +"Salmagundi" papers and "Knickerbocker's History of New York."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Sophia three years later became the wife of John Gibson +Lockhart, the biographer of Scott.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Robert McGregor Campbell was the real name of Rob Roy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> This "new building" became in time the mansion now known +as Abbotsford. At the time of Irving's visit Scott was living in a +small villa which he had built after settling at the place in 1812. +The present large castellated residence was produced by making +extensive additions to the original villa.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Of his novels Scott at this time had published only +"Waverley," "Guy Mannering," "The Antiquarii," "Old Mortality," and +the "Black Dwarf."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="JAMES_FENIMORE_COOPER" id="JAMES_FENIMORE_COOPER"></a>JAMES FENIMORE COOPER</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born In New Jersey in 1789, died in Cooperstown, N. Y., in +1851; son of William Cooper, the pioneer who founded +Cooperstown; settled in Cooperstown in 1790; entered Yale +College in 1803, remaining three years; midshipman in the +navy in 1808; married in 1811 and resigned from the navy; +published "Precaution" and "The Spy," both in 1821; the +latter established his literary reputation; "The Pioneers" +in 1823, "The Pilot" in 1823, "The Last of the Mohicans" in +1826; "The Prairie" in 1827, "The Pathfinder" in 1840, "The +Deerslayer" in 1841; author of many other books.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="HIS_FATHERS_ARRIVAL_AT_OTSEGO_LAKE" id="HIS_FATHERS_ARRIVAL_AT_OTSEGO_LAKE"></a>HIS FATHER'S ARRIVAL AT OTSEGO LAKE<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></h2> + +<p>Near the center of the State of New York lies an extensive district of +country whose surface is a succession of hills and dales, or, to speak +with greater deference to geographical definitions, of mountains and +valleys. It is among these hills that the Delaware takes its rise; +and, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>flowing from the limpid lakes and thousand springs of this +region, the numerous sources of the Susquehanna meander through the +valleys, until, uniting their streams, they form one of the proudest +rivers of the United States. The mountains are generally arable to the +tops, altho instances are not wanting where the sides are jutted with +rocks, that aid greatly in giving to the country that romantic and +picturesque character which it so eminently possesses.</p> + +<p>The vales are narrow, rich and cultivated, with a stream uniformly +winding through each. Beautiful and thriving villages are found +interspersed along the margins of the small lakes, or situated at +those points of the stream which are favorable for manufacturing; and +neat and comfortable farms, with every indication of wealth about +them, are scattered profusely through the vales, and even to the +mountain tops. Roads diverge in every direction from the even and +graceful bottoms of the valleys to the most rugged and intricate +passes of the hills. Academies<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> and minor edifices of learning meet +the eye of the stranger at every few miles as he winds his way through +this uneven territory, and places for the worship of God abound with +that frequency <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>which characterizes a moral and reflecting people, and +with that variety of exterior and canonical government which flows +from unfettered liberty of conscience....</p> + +<p>It was near the setting of the sun, on a clear, cold day in December, +when a sleigh was moving slowly up one of the mountains in the +district we have described. The day had been fine for the season, and +but two or three large clouds, whose color seemed brightened by the +light reflected from the mass of snow that covered the earth, floated +in a sky of the purest blue. The road wound along the brow of a +precipice, and on one side was upheld by a foundation of logs, piled +one upon the other, while a narrow excavation in the mountain in the +opposite direction had made a passage of sufficient width for the +ordinary traveling of that day. But logs, excavation, and everything +that did not reach several feet above the earth lay alike buried +beneath the snow. A single track, barely wide enough to receive the +sleigh, denoted the route of the highway, and this was sunk nearly two +feet below the surrounding surface.</p> + +<p>In the vale, which lay at a distance of several hundred feet lower, +there was what, in the language of the country, was called a clearing, +and all the usual improvements of a new settlement; these even +extended up the hill to the point where the road turned short and ran +across the level land, which lay on the summit of the mountain; but +the summit itself remained in the forest. There was glittering in the +atmosphere, as if it was filled with innumerable shining particles; +and the noble bay horses that drew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> the sleigh were covered, in many +parts, with a coat of hoar-frost. The vapor from their nostrils was +seen to issue like smoke; and every object in the view, as well as +every arrangement of the travelers, denoted the depth of a winter in +the mountains.</p> + +<p>The harness, which was of a deep, dull black, differing from the +glossy varnishing of the present day, was ornamented with enormous +plates and buckles of brass, that shone like gold in those transient +beams of the sun which found their way obliquely through the tops of +the trees. Huge saddles, studded with nails and fitted with cloth that +served as blankets to the shoulders of the cattle, supported four +high, square-topped turrets, through which the stout reins led from +the mouths of the horses to the hands of the driver, who was a negro +of apparently twenty years of age. His face, which Nature had colored +with a glistening black, was now mottled with the cold, and his large +shining eyes filled with tears; a tribute to its power, that the keen +frosts of those regions always extracted from one of his African +origin. Still, there was a smiling expression of good humor in his +happy countenance, that was created by the thoughts of home, and a +Christmas fireside, with its Christmas frolics....</p> + +<p>A dark spot of a few acres in extent at the southern extremity of this +beautiful flat, and immediately under the feet of our travelers, alone +showed by its rippling surface, and the vapors which exhaled from it, +that what at first might seem a plain was one of the mountain lakes, +locked in the frosts of winter. A narrow current<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> rushed impetuously +from its bosom at the open place we mentioned and was to be traced for +miles as it wound its way toward the south through the real valley, by +its borders of hemlock and pine, and by the vapor which arose from its +warmer surface into the chill atmosphere of the hills. The banks of +this lovely basin, at its outlet,<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> or southern end, were steep, but +not high; and in that direction the land continued, far as the eye +could reach, a narrow but graceful valley, along which the settlers +had scattered their humble habitations, with a profusion that bespoke +the quality of the soil, and the comparative facilities of +intercourse.</p> + +<p>Immediately on the bank of the lake and at its foot stood the village +of Templeton.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> It consisted of some fifty buildings, including +those of every description, chiefly built of wood and which in their +architecture bore no great marks of taste, but which also, by the +unfinished appearance of most of the dwellings, indicated the hasty +manner of their construction. To the eye they presented a variety of +colors. A few were white in both front and rear, but more bore that +expensive color on their fronts only, while their economical but +ambitious owners had covered the remaining sides of the edifices with +a dingy red. One or two were slowly assuming the russet of age; while +the uncovered beams that were to be seen through the broken windows on +their second stories showed that either the taste or the vanity of +their proprietors had led them to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>undertake a task which they were +unable to accomplish.</p> + +<p>The whole were grouped in a manner that aped the streets of the city, +and were evidently so arranged by the directions of one who looked to +the wants of posterity rather than to the convenience of the present +incumbents. Some three or four of the better sort of buildings, in +addition to the uniformity of their color, were fitted with green +blinds, which, at that season at least, were rather strangely +contrasted to the chill aspect of the lake, the mountains, the +forests, and the wide fields of snow. Before the doors of these +pretentious dwellings were placed a few saplings, either without +branches, or possessing only the feeble shoots of one or two summers' +growth, that looked not unlike tall grenadiers on post near the +threshold of princes. In truth, the occupants of these favored +habitations were the nobles of Templeton, as Marmaduke was its king. +They were the dwellings of two young men who were cunning in the law; +an equal number of that class who chaffered to the wants of the +community under the title of storekeepers; and a disciple of +Æsculapius, who, for a novelty, brought more subjects into the world +than he sent out of it.</p> + +<p>In the midst of this incongruous group of dwellings rose the mansion +of the Judge, towering above all its neighbors. It stood in the center +of an enclosure of several acres, which was covered with fruit-trees. +Some of the latter had been left by the Indians, and began already to +assume the moss and inclination of age, therein forming a very marked +contrast to the infant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> plantations that peered over most of the +picketed fences of the village. In addition to this show of +cultivation were two rows of young Lombardy poplars, a tree but lately +introduced into America, formally lining either side of a pathway +which led from a gate that opened on the principal street to the front +door of the building. The house itself had been built entirely under +the superintendence of a certain Mr. Richard Jones, whom we have +already mentioned, and who, from his cleverness in small matters, and +an entire willingness to exert his talents, added to the circumstances +of their being sisters' children, ordinarily superintended all the +minor concerns of Marmaduke Temple. Richard was fond of saying that +this child of invention consisted of nothing more or less than what +should form the groundwork of every clergyman's discourse, viz., a +firstly and a lastly. He had commenced his labors, in the first year +of their residence, by erecting a tall, gaunt edifice of wood, with +its gable toward the highway. In this shelter, for it was little more, +the family resided three years. By the end of that period Richard had +completed his design. He had availed himself, in this heavy +undertaking, of the experience of a certain wandering Eastern +mechanic, who, by exhibiting a few soiled plates of English +architecture, and talking learnedly of friezes, entablatures, and +particularly of the composite order, had obtained a very undue +influence over Richard's taste in everything that pertained to that +branch of the fine arts. Not that Mr. Jones did not affect to consider +Hiram Doolittle a perfect empiric in his profession, being in the +constant habit of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> listening to his treatises on architecture with a +kind of indulgent smile; yet, either from an inability to oppose them +by anything plausible from his own stores of learning, or from secret +admiration, Richard generally submitted to the arguments of his +coadjutor.</p> + +<p>Together they had not only directed a dwelling for Marmaduke, but they +had given a fashion to the architecture of the whole country. The +composite order, Mr. Doolittle would contend, was an order composed of +many others, and was intended to be the most useful of all, for it +admitted into its construction such alterations as convenience or +circumstances might require. To this proposition Richard usually +assented; and when rival geniuses, who monopolize not only all the +reputation, but most of the money of the neighborhood, are of a mind, +it is not uncommon to see them lead the fashion, even in graver +matters. In the present instance, as we have already hinted, the +castle, as Judge Temple's dwelling was termed in common parlance, came +to be the model, in some one or other of its numerous excellences, for +every aspiring edifice within twenty miles of it.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> From Chapters I and III of "The Pioneers." Cooper's +father, Judge William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown, first +visited Otsego Lake in 1785, built a house there in 1787 and in 1790 +made it the permanent home of his family. In 1790 the place contained +35 other people. The selection here given pictures the circumstances +in which Judge Cooper, as well as Marmaduke Temple, visited Otsego +Lake. Fenimore Cooper was not two years old when his father settled +there. His native place was Burlington, N. J. Judge Cooper's settling +at Cooperstown was a consequence of his having acquired, through +foreclosure, extensive lands which George Croghan had failed in an +attempt to settle, near the lake. Except for this circumstance, it is +unlikely that his son ever would have acquired that intimate knowledge +of Indian and frontier life of which he has left such notable pictures +in his books.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> An "academy" was a high school or seminary, of which an +example could be found as late as fifty years ago in almost every +prosperous village of Central New York.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> The outlet of this lake is the Susquehanna River.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Templeton is another name for Cooperstown.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Judge Cooper's new home was called Otsego Hall. It was +afterward improved by Fenimore Cooper and remained his home during the +many years he spent in Cooperstown. A few years after his death it was +destroyed by fire. Its site is now a village park.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="RUNNING_THE_GANTLET" id="RUNNING_THE_GANTLET"></a>RUNNING THE GANTLET<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></h2> + +<p>Tho astonished at first by the uproar, Heyward was soon enabled to +find its solution by the scene that followed. There yet lingered +sufficient light in the heavens to exhibit those bright openings among +the tree-tops where different paths left the clearing to enter the +depths of the wilderness. Beneath one of them, a line of warriors +issued from the woods and advanced slowly toward the dwellings. One in +front bore a short pole, on which, as it afterward appeared, were +suspended several human scalps. The startling sounds that Duncan had +heard were what the whites have not inappropriately called the +"death-hallo"; and each repetition of the cry was intended to announce +to the tribe the fate of an enemy. Thus far the knowledge of Heyward +assisted him in the explanation; and as he knew that the interruption +was caused by the unlooked-for return of a successful war-party, every +disagreeable sensation was quieted in inward congratulations for the +opportune relief and insignificance it conferred on himself.</p> + +<p>When at the distance of a few hundred feet from the lodges, the newly +arrived warriors halted. The plaintive and terrific cry which was +intended to represent equally the wailings of the dead and the triumph +of the victors, had entirely ceased. One of their number now called +aloud, in words that were far from appalling, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>tho not more +intelligible to those for whose ears they were intended than their +expressive yells. It would be difficult to convey a suitable idea of +the savage ecstasy with which the news thus imparted was received. The +whole encampment in a moment became a scene of the most violent bustle +and commotion. The warriors drew their knives, and flourishing them, +they arranged themselves in two lines, forming a lane that extended +from the war-party to the lodges. The squaws seized clubs, axes, or +whatever weapons of offense first offered itself to their hands, and +rushed eagerly to act their part in the cruel game that was at hand. +Even the children would not be excluded; but boys, little able to +wield the instruments, tore the tomahawks from the belts of their +fathers, and stole into the ranks, apt imitators of the savage traits +exhibited by their parents.</p> + +<p>Large piles of brush lay scattered about the clearing, and a wary and +aged squaw was occupied firing as many as might serve to light the +coming exhibition. As the flame arose, its power exceeded that of the +parting day, and assisted to render objects at the same time more +distinct and more hideous. The whole scene formed a striking picture, +whose frame was composed of the dark and tall border of pines. The +warriors just arrived were the most distant figures. A little in +advance stood two men, who were apparently selected from the rest as +the principal actors in what was to follow. The light was not strong +enough to render their features distinct, tho it was quite evident +that they were governed by very different emotions. While one stood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +erect and firm, prepared to meet his fate like a hero, the other bowed +his head, as if palsied by terror or stricken with shame.</p> + +<p>The high-spirited Duncan felt a powerful impulse of admiration and +pity toward the former, tho no opportunity could offer to exhibit his +generous emotions. He watched his slightest movement, however, with +eager eyes; and as he traced the fine outline of his admirably +proportioned and active frame, he endeavored to persuade himself that +if the powers of man, seconded by such noble resolution, could bear +one harmless through so severe a trial, the youthful captive before +him might hope for success in the hazardous race he was about to run. +Insensibly the young man drew nigher to the swarthy lines of the +Hurons, and scarcely breathed, so intense became his interest in the +spectacle. Just then the signal yell was given, and the momentary +quiet which had preceded it was broken by a burst of cries that far +exceeded any before heard. The most abject of the two victims +continued motionless; but the other bounded from the place at the cry, +with the activity and the swiftness of a deer. Instead of rushing +through the hostile lines as had been expected, he just entered the +dangerous defile, and before time was given for a single blow, turned +short, and leaping the heads of a row of children, he gained at once +the exterior and safer side of the formidable array. The artifice was +answered by a hundred voices raised in imprecations, and the whole of +the excited multitude broke from their order and spread themselves +about the place in wild confusion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p> + +<p>A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the place, +which resembled some unhallowed and supernatural arena in which +malicious demons had assembled to act their bloody and lawless rites. +The forms in the background looked like unearthly beings gliding +before the eye and cleaving the air with frantic and unmeaning +gestures; while the savage passions of such as passed the flames were +rendered fearfully distinct by the gleams that shot athwart their +inflamed visages.</p> + +<p>It will easily be understood that amid such a concourse of vindictive +enemies no breathing-time was allowed the fugitive. There was a single +moment when it seemed as if he would have reached the forest; but the +whole body of his captors threw themselves before him, and drove him +back into the center of his relentless persecutors. Turning like a +headed deer, he shot with the swiftness of an arrow through a pillar +of forked flame, and passing the whole multitude harmless he appeared +on the opposite side of the clearing. Here, too, he was met and turned +by a few of the older and more subtle of the Hurons. Once more he +tried the throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness; and then +several moments succeeded, during which Duncan believed the active and +courageous young stranger was lost.</p> + +<p>Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human forms tossed +and involved in inexplicable confusion. Arms, gleaming knives, and +formidable clubs appeared, above them, but the blows were evidently +given at random. The awful effect was heightened by the piercing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +shrieks of the women and the fierce yells of the warriors. Now and +then Duncan caught a glimpse of a light form cleaving the air in some +desperate bound, and he rather hoped than believed that the captive +yet retained the command of his astonishing powers of activity. +Suddenly the multitude rolled backward, and approached the spot where +he himself stood. The heavy body in the rear prest upon the women and +children in front, and bore them to the earth. The stranger reappeared +in the confusion. Human power could not, however, much longer endure +so severe a trial....</p> + +<p>There was no term of abuse known to the Huron vocabulary that the +disappointed women did not lavishly expend on the successful stranger. +They flouted at his efforts, and told him with bitter scoffs that his +feet were better than his hands, and that he merited wings, while he +knew not the use of an arrow or a knife. To all this the captive made +no reply, but was content to preserve an attitude in which dignity was +singularly blended with disdain. Exasperated as much by his composure +as by his good fortune, their words became unintelligible, and were +succeeded by shrill piercing yells. Just then the crafty squaw who had +taken the necessary precautions to fire the piles made her way through +the throng, and cleared a place for herself in front of the captive. +The squalid and withered person of this hag might well have obtained +for her the character of possessing more than human cunning. Throwing +back her light vestment, she Stretched forth her long skinny arm in +derision, and using the language of the Lenape, as more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> intelligible +to the subject of her gibes, she commenced aloud:</p> + +<p>"Look you, Delaware," she said, snapping her fingers in his face, +"your nation is a race of women, and the hoe is better fitted to your +hands than the gun. Your squaws are the mothers of deer; but if a bear +or a wild cat or a serpent were born among you, ye would flee. The +Huron girls shall make you petticoats, and we will find you a +husband."</p> + +<p>A burst of savage laughter succeeded this attack, during which the +soft and musical merriment of the younger females strangely chimed +with the cracked voice of their older and more malignant companion. +But the stranger was superior to all their efforts. His head was +immovable, nor did he betray the slightest consciousness that any were +present, except when his haughty eyes rolled toward the dusky forms of +the warriors who stalked in the background, silent and sullen +observers of the scene.</p> + +<p>Infuriated at the self-command of the captive, the woman placed her +arms akimbo, and throwing herself into a posture of defiance she broke +out anew, in a torrent of words that no art of ours could commit +successfully to paper. Her breath was, however, expended in vain; for, +altho distinguished in her nation as a proficient in the art of abuse, +she was permitted to work herself into such a fury as actually to foam +at the mouth, without causing a muscle to vibrate in the motionless +figure of the stranger. The effect of his indifference began to extend +itself to the other spectators, and a youngster who was just quitting +the condition of a boy to enter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> the state of manhood, attempted to +assist the termagant by flourishing his tomahawk before their victim +and adding his empty boasts to the taunts of the woman. Then, indeed, +the captive turned his face toward the light, and looked down on the +stripling with an expression that was superior to contempt. At the +next moment he resumed his quiet and reclining attitude against the +post. But the change of posture had permitted Duncan to exchange +glances with the firm and piercing eyes of Uncas.</p> + +<p>Breathless with amazement, and heavily opprest with the critical +situation of his friend, Heyward recoiled before the look, trembling +lest its meaning might in some unknown manner hasten the prisoner's +fate. There was not, however, any instant cause for such an +apprehension. Just then a warrior forced his way into the exasperated +crowd. Motioning the women and children aside with a stern gesture, he +took Uncas by the arm and led him toward the door of the council +lodge. Thither all the chiefs and most of the distinguished warriors +followed, among whom the anxious Heyward found means to enter without +attracting any dangerous attention to himself.</p> + +<p>A few minutes were consumed in disposing of those present in a manner +suitable to their rank and influence in the tribe. An order very +similar to that adopted in the preceding interview was observed, the +aged and superior chiefs occupying the area of the spacious apartment, +within the powerful light of a glaring torch, while their juniors and +inferiors were arranged in the background, presenting a dark outline +of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> swarthy and marked visages. In the very center of the lodge, +immediately under an opening that admitted the twinkling light of one +or two stars, stood Uncas, calm, elevated, and collected. His high and +haughty carriage was not lost on his captors, who often bent their +looks on his person with eyes which, while they lost none of their +inflexibility of purpose, plainly betrayed their admiration of the +stranger's daring.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> From Chapter XXIII of "The Last of the Mohicans."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>III</h2> +<h2><a name="LEATHER-STOCKINGS_FAREWELL" id="LEATHER-STOCKINGS_FAREWELL"></a>LEATHER-STOCKING'S FAREWELL<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></h2> + +<p>Effingham and Elizabeth were surprized at the manner of the +Leather-Stocking, which was unusually impressive and solemn; but, +attributing it to the scene, the young man turned to the monument, and +read aloud:</p> + +<p>"Sacred to the memory of Oliver Effingham, Esquire, formerly a major +in his B. Majesty's 60th Foot; a soldier of tried valor; a subject of +chivalrous loyalty; and a man of honesty. To these virtues he added +the graces of a Christian. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>The morning of his life was spent in +honor, wealth, and power; but its evening was obscured by poverty, +neglect, and disease, which were alleviated only by the tender care of +his old, faithful, and upright friend and attendant, Nathaniel Bumppo. +His descendants rear this stone to the virtues of the master, and to +the enduring gratitude of the servant."</p> + +<p>The Leather-Stocking stared at the sound of his own name, and a smile +of joy illumined his wrinkled features as he said:</p> + +<p>"And did ye say it, lad? have you then got the old man's name cut in +the stone by the side of his master's? God bless ye, children! 'twas a +kind thought, and kindness goes to the heart as life shortens."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth turned her back to the speakers. Effingham made a fruitless +effort before he succeeded in saying:</p> + +<p>"It is there cut in plain marble; but it should have been written in +letters of gold!"</p> + +<p>"Show me the name, boy," said Natty, with simple eagerness; "let me +see my own name placed in such honor. 'Tis a gin'rous gift to a man +who leaves none of his name and family behind him, in a country where +he has tarried so long."</p> + +<p>Effingham guided his finger to the spot, and Natty followed the +windings of the letters to the end with deep interest, when he raised +himself from the tomb, and said:</p> + +<p>"I suppose it's all right; and it's kindly thought, and kindly done! +But what have ye put over the redskin?"</p> + +<p>"You shall hear:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'This stone is raised to the memory of an Indian chief, of the +Delaware tribe, who was known by the several names of John Mohegan; +Mohican'"—</p> + +<p>"Mo-hee-can, lad, they call theirselves! 'he-can."</p> + +<p>"Mohican; 'and Chingagook'"—</p> + +<p>"'Gach, boy; 'gach-gook; Chingachgook, which, intarpreted, means Big +Sarpent. The name should be set down right, for an Indian's name has +always some meaning in it."</p> + +<p>"I will see it altered. 'He was the last of his people who continued +to inhabit this country; and it may be said of him that his faults +were those of an Indian, and his virtues those of a man.'"</p> + +<p>"You never said truer word, Mr. Oliver; ah's me! if you had knowed him +as I did, in his prime, in that very battle where the old gentleman, +who sleeps by his side, saved his life, when them thieves, the +Iroquois, had him at the stake, you'd have said all that, and more +too. I cut the thongs with this very hand, and gave him my own +tomahawk and knife, seeing that the rifle was always my fav'rite +weapon. He did lay about him like a man! I met him as I was coming +home from the trail, with eleven Mingo scalps on his pole. You needn't +shudder, Madam Effingham, for they was all from shaved heads and +warriors. When I look about me, at these hills, where I used to count +sometimes twenty smokes, curling over the tree-tops, from the Delaware +camps, it raises mournful thoughts, to think that not a redskin is +left of them all; unless it be a drunken vagabond from the Oneidas, or +them Yankee Indians,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> who, they say, be moving up from the sea-shore; +and who belong to none of God's creatures, to my seeming, being, as it +were, neither fish nor flesh—neither white man nor savage. Well, +well! the time has come at last, and I must go"—</p> + +<p>"Go!" echoed Edwards, "whither do you go?"</p> + +<p>The Leather-Stocking, who had imbibed, unconsciously, many of the +Indian qualities, tho he always thought of himself as of a civilized +being, compared with even the Delawares, averted his face to conceal +the workings of his muscles, as he stooped to lift a large pack from +behind the tomb, which he placed deliberately on his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Go!" exclaimed Elizabeth, approaching him with a hurried step; "you +should not venture so far in the woods alone, at your time of life, +Natty; indeed, it is imprudent. He is bent, Effingham, on some distant +hunting."</p> + +<p>"What Mrs. Effingham tells you is true, Leather-Stocking," said +Edwards; "there can be no necessity for your submitting to such +hardships now! So throw aside your pack, and confine your hunt to the +mountains near us, if you will go."</p> + +<p>"Hardship! 'tis a pleasure, children, and the greatest that is left me +on this side the grave."</p> + +<p>"No, no; you shall not go to such a distance," cried Elizabeth, laying +her white hand on his deerskin pack; "I am right! I feel his +camp-kettle, and a canister of powder! he must not be suffered to +wander so far from us, Oliver; remember how suddenly Mohegan dropt +away."</p> + +<p>"I knowed the parting would come hard, chil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>dren; I knowed it would!" +said Natty, "and so I got aside to look at the graves by myself, and +thought if I left ye the keepsake which the Major gave me, when we +first parted in the woods, ye wouldn't take it unkind, but would know +that, let the old man's body go where it might, his feeling stayed +behind him."</p> + +<p>"This means something more than common!" exclaimed the youth; "where +is it, Natty, that you purpose going?"</p> + +<p>The hunter drew nigh him with a confident, reasoning air, as if what +he had to say would silence all objections, and replied:</p> + +<p>"Why, lad, they tell me that on the Big Lakes there's the best of +hunting, and a great range, without a white man on it, unless it may +be one like myself. I'm weary of living in clearings, and where the +hammer is sounding in my ears from sunrise to sundown. And tho I'm +much bound to ye both, children—I wouldn't say it if it was not +true—I crave to go into the woods ag'in, I do."</p> + +<p>"Woods!" echoed Elizabeth, trembling with her feelings; "do you not +call these endless forests woods?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! child, these be nothing to a man that's used to the wilderness. I +have took but little comfort sin' your father come on with his +settlers; but I wouldn't go far, while the life was in the body that +lies under the sod there. But now he's gone, and Chingachgook is gone; +and you be both young and happy. Yes! the big house has rung with +merriment this month past! And now, I thought, was the time to try to +get a little comfort in the close of my days. Woods!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> indeed! I +doesn't call these woods, Madam Effingham, where I lose myself every +day of my life in the clearings."</p> + +<p>"If there be anything wanting to your comfort, name it, +Leather-Stocking; if it be attainable it is yours."</p> + +<p>"You mean all for the best, lad; I know it; and so does Madam, too: +but your ways isn't my ways. 'Tis like the dead there, who thought, +when the breath was in them, that one went east, and one went west to +find their heavens; but they'll meet at last; and so shall we, +children. Yes, ind as you've begun, and we shall meet in the land of +the just at last."</p> + +<p>"This is so new! so unexpected!" said Elizabeth, in almost breathless +excitement; "I had thought you meant to live with us and die with us, +Natty."</p> + +<p>"Words are of no avail," exclaimed her husband; "the habits of forty +years are not to be dispossest by the ties of a day. I know you too +well to urge you further, Natty; unless you will let me build you a +hut on one of the distant hills, where we can sometimes see you, and +know that you are comfortable."</p> + +<p>"Don't fear for the Leather-Stocking, children; God will see that his +days be provided for, and his ind happy. I know you mean all for the +best, but our ways doesn't agree. I love the woods, and ye relish the +face of man; I eat when hungry, and drink when a-dry; and ye keep +stated hours and rules: nay, nay, you even overfeed the dogs, lad, +from pure kindness; and hounds should be gaunty to run well. The +meanest of God's creatures be made for some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> use, and I'm formed for +the wilderness; if ye love me, let me go where my soul craves to be +ag'in!"</p> + +<p>The appeal was decisive; and not another word of entreaty for him to +remain was then uttered; but Elizabeth bent her head to her bosom and +wept, while her husband dashed away the tears from his eyes; and, with +hands that almost refused to perform their office, he produced his +pocket-book, and extended a parcel of banknotes to the hunter.</p> + +<p>"Take these," he said, "at least take these; secure them about your +person, and in the hour of need they will do you good service."</p> + +<p>The old man took the notes, and examined them with a curious eye.</p> + +<p>"This, then, is some of the new-fashioned money that they've been +making at Albany, out of paper! It can't be worth much to they that +hasn't l'arning! No, no, lad—take back the stuff; it will do me no +sarvice. I took kear to get all the Frenchman's powder afore he broke +up, and they say lead grows where I'm going. It isn't even fit for +wads, seeing that I use none but leather! Madam Effingham, let an old +man kiss your hand, and wish God's choicest blessings on you and +your'n."</p> + +<p>"Once more let me beseech you, stay!" cried Elizabeth. "Do not, +Leather-Stocking, leave me to grieve for the man who has twice rescued +me from death, and who has served those I love so faithfully. For my +sake, if not for your own, stay. I shall see you in those frightful +dreams that still haunt my nights, dying in poverty and age, by the +side of those terrific beasts you slew.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> There will be no evil that +sickness, want, and solitude can inflict that my fancy will not +conjure as your fate. Stay with us, old man, if not for your own sake, +at least for ours."</p> + +<p>"Such thoughts and bitter dreams, Madam Effingham," returned the +hunter, solemnly, "will never haunt an innocent parson long. They'll +pass away with God's pleasure. And if the catamounts be yet brought to +your eyes in sleep, 'tis not for my sake, but to show you the power of +Him that led me there to save you. Trust in God, madam, and your +honorable husband, and the thoughts for an old man like me can never +be long nor bitter. I pray that the Lord will keep you in mind—the +Lord that lives in clearings as well as in the wilderness—and bless +you, and all that belong to you, from this time till the great day +when the whites shall meet the redskins in judgment, and justice shall +be the law, and not power."</p> + +<p>Elizabeth raised her head, and offered her colorless cheek to his +salute, when he lifted his cap and touched it respectfully. His hand +was grasped with convulsive fervor by the youth, who continued silent. +The hunter prepared himself for his journey, drawing his belt tighter, +and wasting his moments in the little reluctant movements of a +sorrowful departure. Once or twice he essayed to speak, but a rising +in his throat prevented it. At length he shouldered his rifle, and +cried with a clear huntsman's call that echoed through the woods:</p> + +<p>"He-e-e-re, he-e-e-re, pups—away, dogs, away; ye'll be footsore afore +ye see the ind of the journey!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p> + +<p>The hounds leapt from the earth at this cry, and scenting around the +graves and the silent pair, as if conscious of their own destination, +they followed humbly at the heels of their master. A short pause +succeeded, during which even the youth concealed his face on his +grandfather's tomb. When the pride of manhood, however, had supprest +the feelings of nature, he turned to renew his entreaties, but saw +that the cemetery was occupied only by himself and his wife.</p> + +<p>"He is gone!" cried Effingham.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth raised her face, and saw the old hunter standing, looking +back for a moment, on the verge of the wood. As he caught their +glances, he drew his hard hand hastily across his eyes again, waved it +on high for an adieu, and uttering a forced cry to his dogs, who were +crouching at his feet, he entered the forest.</p> + +<p>This was the last that they ever saw of the Leather-Stocking, whose +rapid movements preceded the pursuit which Judge Temple both ordered +and conducted. He had gone far toward the setting sun—the foremost in +that band of pioneers who are opening the way for the march of the +nation across the continent.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> From Chapter XLI of "The Pioneers." Leather-Stocking was +a name given by Cooper to his character Natty Bumppo, who, also, in +various works, bore the name of Hawkeye, Pathfinder and Deerslayer. +Leather-Stocking appears in five of Cooper's books, which are commonly +and collectively known as "the Leather-Stocking Tales." He has +generally been accepted as a type of the hardy frontiersman who, in +the years following the Revolution, carried civilization westward.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_CULLEN_BRYANT" id="WILLIAM_CULLEN_BRYANT"></a>WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in Massachusetts in 1794, died in New York in 1878; +studied at Williams College in 1810-11; admitted to the bar +in 1815; published "Thanatopsis" in 1816; a volume of +"Poems" in 1821; joined the staff of the New York <i>Evening +Post</i>, becoming its chief editor in 1829; published another +volume of poems in 1832; opposed the extension of slavery; +published a translation of Homer in 1870-71; his "Prose +Writings" published after his death.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AN_OCTOBER_DAY_IN_FLORENCE" id="AN_OCTOBER_DAY_IN_FLORENCE"></a>AN OCTOBER DAY IN FLORENCE<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></h2> + + +<p>Waked by the jangling of all the bells in Florence and by the noise of +carriages departing loaded with travelers for Rome and other places in +the south of Italy, I rise, dress myself, and take my place at the +window. I see crowds of men and women from the country, the former in +brown velvet jackets, and the latter in broad-brimmed straw hats, +driving donkeys loaded with panniers or trundling handcarts before +them, heaped with grapes, figs and all the fruits of the orchard, the +garden, and the field. They have hardly passed when large flocks of +sheep and goats make their appearance, attended by shepherds and their +families, driven by the approach <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>of winter from the Apenines, and +seeking the pastures of the Maremma, a rich, but, in the summer, an +unhealthy tract on the coast. The men and boys are drest in +knee-breeches, the women in bodices, and both sexes wear capotes with +pointed hoods, and felt hats with conical crowns; they carry long +staves in their hands, and their arms are loaded with kids and lambs +too young to keep pace with their mothers.</p> + +<p>After the long procession of sheep and goats and dogs and men and +women and children, come horses loaded with cloths and poles for +tents, kitchen utensils, and the rest of the younglings of the flock. +A little after sunrise I see well-fed donkeys, in coverings of red +cloth, driven over the bridge to be milked for invalids. +Maid-servants, bareheaded, with huge, high-carved combs in their hair, +waiters of coffee-houses carrying the morning cup of coffee or +chocolate to their customers, bakers' boys with a dozen loaves on a +board balanced on their heads, milkmen with rush baskets filled with +flasks of milk are crossing the streets in all directions. A little +later the bell of the small chapel opposite to my window rings +furiously for a quarter of an hour, and then I hear mass chanted in a +deep strong nasal tone. As the day advances, the English, in white +hats and white pantaloons, come out of their lodgings, accompanied +sometimes by their hale and square-built spouses, and saunter stiffly +along the Arno, or take their way to the public galleries and museums. +Their massive, clean, and brightly polished carriages also begin to +rattle through the streets, setting out on excursions to some part of +the environs of Florence—to Fiesole, to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> Pratolino, to the Bello +Sguardo, to the Poggio Imperiale.</p> + +<p>Sights of a different kind now present themselves. Sometimes it is a +troop of stout Franciscan friars, in sandals and brown robes, each +carrying his staff and wearing a brown, broad-brimmed hat with a +hemispherical crown. Sometimes it is a band of young theological +students, in purple cassocks with red collars and cuffs, let out on a +holiday, attended by their clerical instructors, to ramble in the +Cascine. There is a priest coming over the bridge, a man of venerable +age and great reputation for sanctity. The common people crowd around +him to kiss his hand, and obtain a kind word from him as he passes. +But what is that procession of men in black gowns, black gaiters, and +black masks moving swiftly along, and bearing on their shoulders a +litter covered with black cloth? These are the Brethren of Mercy, who +have assembled at the sound of the cathedral bell, and are conveying +some sick or wounded person to the hospital.</p> + +<p>As the day begins to decline, the number of carriages in the streets, +filled with gaily drest people attended by servants in livery, +increases. The Grand Duke's equipage, an elegant carriage drawn by six +horses, with coachmen, footmen, and outriders in drab-colored livery, +comes from the Pitti Palace, and crosses the Arno, either by the +bridge close to my lodgings, or by that called Alla Santa Trinita, +which is in full sight from the windows. The Florentine nobility, with +their families, and the English residents now throng to the Cascine, +to drive at a slow pace through its thickly planted walks of elms, +oaks and ilexes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> As the sun is sinking I perceive the quay on the +other side of the Arno filled with a moving crowd of well-drest people +walking to and fro and enjoying the beauty of the evening.</p> + +<p>Travelers now arrive from all quarters, in cabriolets, in calashes, in +the shabby vettura, and in the elegant private carriage drawn by +post-horses, and driven by postilions in the tightest possible +deerskin breeches, the smallest red coats, and the hugest jack-boots. +The streets about the doors of the hotels resound with the crackling +of whips and the stamping of horses, and are encumbered with +carriages, heaps of baggage, porters, postilions, couriers, and +travelers. Night at length arrives—the time of spectacles and +funerals. The carriages rattle toward the opera-houses. Trains of +people, sometimes in white robes and sometimes in black, carrying +blazing torches and a cross elevated on a high pole before a coffin, +pass through the streets chanting the service for the dead. The +Brethren of Mercy may also be seen engaged in their office. The +rapidity of their pace, the flare of their torches, the gleam of their +eyes through their masks, and their sable garb, give them a kind of +supernatural appearance. I return to bed and fall asleep amidst the +shouts of people returning from the opera, singing as they go snatches +of the music with which they had been entertained during the evening.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> From the "Letters of a Traveler," first published in +book form in 1850. The selection here given was written in 1834. It +has been republished by Parke Godwin, Bryant's biographer and editor, +in one of his two volumes devoted to the "Prose Writings."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="WILLIAM_H_PRESCOTT" id="WILLIAM_H_PRESCOTT"></a>WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in Salem, Mass., in 1796; died in Boston in 1859; +studied at Harvard, where, through an accident to his eyes, +he became nearly blind; devoted himself to the study of +Spanish history, employing a reader and using a specially +constructed writing apparatus; published his "Ferdinand and +Isabella" in 1838; "Conquest of Mexico" in 1843, "Conquest +of Peru" in 1847, and "Philip II" in 1855-58.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="THE_FATE_OF_EGMONT_AND_HOORNE" id="THE_FATE_OF_EGMONT_AND_HOORNE"></a>THE FATE OF EGMONT AND HOORNE<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></h2> + +<p>On the second of June, 1568, a body of three thousand men was ordered +to Ghent to escort the Counts Egmont and Hoorne to Brussels. No +resistance was offered, altho the presence of the Spaniards caused a +great sensation among the inhabitants of the place, who too well +foreboded the fate of their beloved lord.</p> + +<p>The nobles, each accompanied by two officers, were put into separate +chariots. They were guarded by twenty companies of pikemen and +arquebusiers; and a detachment of lancers, among whom was a body of +the duke's own horse, rode in the van, while another of equal strength +protected the rear. Under this strong escort they moved slowly toward +Brussels. One night they halted at Dendermonde, and toward evening, on +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>the fourth of the month, entered the capital. As the martial array +defiled through its streets, there was no one, however stout-hearted +he might be, says an eye-witness, who could behold the funeral pomp of +the procession, and listen to the strains of melancholy music without +a feeling of sickness at his heart.</p> + +<p>The prisoners were at once conducted to the <i>Brod-huys</i>, or +"Bread-house," usually known as the <i>Maison du Roi</i>—that venerable +pile in the market-place of Brussels, still visited by every traveler +for its curious architecture, and yet more as the last resting-place +of the Flemish lords. Here they were lodged in separate rooms, small, +dark, and uncomfortable, and scantily provided with furniture. Nearly +the whole of the force which had escorted them to Brussels was +established in the great square, to defeat any attempt at a rescue. +But none was made; and the night passed away without disturbance, +except what was occasioned by the sound of busy workmen employed in +constructing a scaffold for the scene of execution on the following +day.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the fourth, the Duke of Alva<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> had sent for +Martin Rithovius, bishop of Ypres; and, communicating to him the +sentence of the nobles, he requested the prelate to visit the +prisoners, acquaint them with their fate, and prepare them for their +execution on the following day. The bishop, an excellent man, and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>personal friend of Egmont, was astounded by the tidings. He threw +himself at Alva's feet, imploring mercy for the prisoners, and if he +could not spare their lives, beseeching him at least to grant them +more time for preparation. But Alva sternly rebuked the prelate, +saying that he had been summoned not to thwart the execution of the +law, but to console the prisoners and enable them to die like +Christians. The bishop, finding his entreaties useless, rose and +addrest himself to his melancholy mission.</p> + +<p>It was near midnight when he entered Egmont's apartment, where he +found the poor nobleman, whose strength had been already reduced by +confinement, and who was wearied by the fatigue of the journey, buried +in slumber. It is said that the two lords, when summoned to Brussels, +had indulged the vain hope that it was to inform them of the +conclusion of their trial and their acquittal! However this may be, +Egmont seems to have been but ill prepared for the dreadful tidings he +received. He turned deadly pale as he listened to the bishop, and +exclaimed, with deep emotion, "It is a terrible sentence. Little did I +imagine that any offense I had committed against God or the king could +merit such punishment. It is not death that I fear. Death is the +common lot of all. But I shrink from dishonor. Yet I may hope that my +sufferings will so far expiate my offenses that my innocent family +will not be involved in my ruin by the confiscation of my property. +This much, at least, I think I may claim in consideration of my past +services." Then, after a pause, he added, "Since my death is the will +of God<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> and his Majesty, I will try to meet it with patience." He +asked the bishop if there were no hope. On being answered, "None +whatever," he resolved to devote himself at once to preparing for the +solemn change.</p> + +<p>He rose from his couch, and hastily drest himself. He then made his +confession to the prelate, and desired that mass might be said, and +the sacrament administered to him. This was done with great solemnity, +and Egmont received the communion in the most devout manner, +manifesting the greatest contrition for his sins. He next inquired of +the bishop to what prayer he could best have recourse to sustain him +in this trying hour. The prelate recommended to him that prayer which +our Savior had commended to his disciples. The advice pleased the +count, who earnestly engaged in his devotions. But a host of tender +recollections crowded on his mind, and the images of his wife and +children drew his thoughts in another direction, till the kind +expostulations of the prelate again restored him to himself.</p> + +<p>Egmont asked whether it would be well to say anything on the scaffold +for the edification of the people. But the bishop discouraged him, +saying that he would be imperfectly heard, and that the people, in +their present excitement, would be apt to misinterpret what he said to +their own prejudice.</p> + +<p>Having attended to his spiritual concerns, Egmont called for writing +materials, and wrote a letter to his wife, whom he had not seen during +his long confinement; and to her he now bade a tender farewell. He +then addrest another letter,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> written in French, in a few brief and +touching sentences, to the King—which fortunately has been preserved +to us. "This morning," he says, "I have been made acquainted with the +sentence which it has pleased your majesty to pass upon me. And altho +it has never been my intent to do aught against the person or the +service of your majesty, or against our true, ancient, and Catholic +faith, yet I receive in patience what it has pleased God to send me. +If during these troubles I have counseled or permitted aught which +might seem otherwise, I have done so from a sincere regard for the +service of God and your majesty, and from what I believed the +necessity of the times. Wherefore I pray your majesty to pardon it, +and for the sake of my past services to take pity on my poor wife, my +children, and my servants. In this trust I commend myself to the mercy +of God." The letter is dated Brussels, "on the point of death," June +5th, 1568.</p> + +<p>Having time still left, the count made a fair copy of the two letters, +and gave them to the bishop, entreating him to deliver them according +to their destination. He accompanied that to Philip with a ring, to be +given at the same time to the monarch. It was of great value, and, as +it had been the gift of Philip himself during the count's late visit +to Madrid, it might soften the heart of the King by reminding him of +happier days, when he had looked with an eye of favor on his unhappy +vassal.</p> + +<p>Having completed all his arrangements, Egmont became impatient for the +hour of his departure; and he exprest the hope that there would be no +unnecessary delay. At ten in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> morning the soldiers appeared who +were to conduct him to the scaffold. They brought with them cords, as +usual, to bind the prisoner's hands. But Egmont remonstrated, and +showed that he had himself cut off the collar of his doublet and +shirt, in order to facilitate the stroke of the executioner. This he +did to convince them that he meditated no resistance; and on his +promising that he would attempt none, they consented to his remaining +with his hands unbound.</p> + +<p>Egmont was drest in a crimson damask robe, over which was a Spanish +mantle fringed with gold. His breeches were of black silk, and his +hat, of the same material, was garnished with white and sable plumes. +In his hand, which, as we have seen, remained free, he held a white +handkerchief. On his way to the place of execution he was accompanied +by Julian de Romero, <i>maître de camp</i>, by the captain, Salinas, who +had charge of the fortress of Ghent, and by the bishop of Ypres. As +the procession moved slowly forward, the count repeated some portion +of the fifty-first Psalm—"Have mercy on me, O God!"—in which the +good prelate joined with him. In the center of the square, on the spot +where so much of the best blood of the Netherlands had been shed, +stood the scaffold, covered with black cloth. On it were two velvet +cushions with a small table, shrouded likewise in black, and +supporting a silver crucifix. At the corners of the platform were two +poles, pointed at the end with steel, intimating the purpose for which +they were intended.</p> + +<p>In front of the scaffold was the provost of the court, mounted on +horseback, and bearing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> the red wand of office in his hand. The +executioner remained, as usual, below the platform, screened from +view, that he might not, by his presence before it was necessary, +outrage the feelings of the prisoners. The troops, who had been under +arms all night, were drawn up around in order of battle; and strong +bodies of arquebusiers were posted in the great avenues which led to +the square. The space left open by the soldiery was speedily occupied +by a crowd of eager spectators. Others thronged the roofs and windows +of the buildings that surrounded the market-place, some of which, +still standing at the present day, show, by their quaint and venerable +architecture, that they must have looked down on the tragic scene we +are now depicting.</p> + +<p>It was indeed a gloomy day for Brussels—so long the residence of the +two nobles, where their forms were as familiar and where they were +held in as much love and honor as in any of their own provinces. All +business was suspended. The shops were closed. The bells tolled in all +the churches. An air of gloom, as of some impending calamity, settled +on the city. "It seemed," says one residing there at the time, "as if +the day of judgment were at hand!"</p> + +<p>As the procession slowly passed through the ranks of the soldiers, +Egmont saluted the officers—some of them his ancient companions—with +such a sweet and dignified composure in his manner as was long +remembered by those who saw it. And few even of the Spaniards could +refrain from tears as they took their last look at the gallant noble +who was to perish so miserably.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p> + +<p>With a steady step he mounted the scaffold, and, as he crossed it, +gave utterance to the vain wish that, instead of meeting such a fate, +he had been allowed to die in the service of his King and country. He +quickly, however, turned to other thoughts, and, kneeling on one of +the cushions, with the bishop beside him on the other, he was soon +engaged earnestly in prayer. With his eyes raised toward heaven with a +look of unutterable sadness, he prayed so fervently and loud as to be +distinctly heard by the spectators. The prelate, much affected, put +into his hands the silver crucifix, which Egmont repeatedly kissed; +after which, having received absolution for the last time, he rose and +made a sign to the bishop to retire. He then stript off his mantle and +robe; and, again kneeling, he drew a silk cap, which he had brought +for the purpose, over his eyes, and, repeating the words, "Into Thy +hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," he calmly awaited the stroke of +the executioner.</p> + +<p>The low sounds of lamentation which from time to time had been heard +among the populace were now hushed into silence as the minister of +justice, appearing on the platform, approached his victim and with a +single blow of the sword severed the head from the body. A cry of +horror rose from the multitude, and some, frantic with grief, broke +through the ranks of the soldiers and wildly dipped their +handkerchiefs in the blood that streamed from the scaffold, treasuring +them up, says the chronicler, as precious memorials of love and +incitements to vengeance. The head was then set on one of the poles at +the end of the platform, while a mantle thrown over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> the mutilated +trunk hid it from the public gaze.</p> + +<p>It was near noon when orders were sent to lead forth the remaining +prisoner to execution. It had been assigned to the curate of La +Chapelle to acquaint Count Hoorne with his fate. That nobleman +received the awful tidings with less patience than was shown by his +friend. He gave way to a burst of indignation at the cruelty and +injustice of the sentence. It was a poor requital, he said, for +eight-and-twenty years of faithful service to his sovereign. Yet, he +added, he was not sorry to be released from a life of such incessant +fatigue. For some time he refused to confess, saying he had done +enough in the way of confession. When urged not to throw away the few +precious moments that were left to him, he at length consented.</p> + +<p>The count was drest in a plain suit of black, and wore a Milanese cap +upon his head. He was, at this time, about fifty years of age. He was +tall, with handsome features, and altogether of a commanding presence. +His form was erect, and as he passed with a steady step through the +files of soldiers, on his way to the place of execution, he frankly +saluted those of his acquaintance whom he saw among the spectators. +His look had in it less of sorrow than of indignation, like that of +one conscious of enduring wrong. He was spared one pang, in his last +hour, which had filled Egmont's cup with bitterness; tho, like him, he +had a wife, he was to leave no orphan family to mourn him.</p> + +<p>As he trod the scaffold, the apparatus of death seemed to have no +power to move him. He still repeated the declaration that, "often as +he had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> offended his Maker, he had never, to his knowledge, committed +any offense against the King." When his eyes fell on the bloody shroud +that enveloped the remains of Egmont, he inquired if it were the body +of his friend. Being answered in the affirmative, he made some remark +in Castilian, not understood. He then prayed for a few moments, but in +so low a tone that the words were not caught by the bystanders, and, +rising, he asked pardon of those around if he had ever offended any of +them, and earnestly besought their prayers. Then, without further +delay, he knelt down, and, repeating the words, "<i>In manus tuas, +Domine</i>," he submitted himself to his fate.</p> + +<p>His bloody head was set up opposite to that of his fellow sufferer. +For three hours these ghastly trophies remained exposed to the gaze of +the multitude. They were then taken down, and, with the bodies, placed +in leaden coffins, which were straightway removed—that containing the +remains of Egmont to the convent of Santa Clara, and that of Hoorne to +the ancient church of Ste. Gudule. To these places, especially to +Santa Clara, the people now flocked as to the shrine of a martyr. They +threw themselves on the coffin, kissing it and bedewing it with their +tears, as if it had contained the relics of some murdered saint; while +many of them, taking little heed of the presence of informers, +breathed vows of vengeance, some even swearing not to trim either hair +or beard till these vows were executed. The government seems to have +thought it prudent to take no notice of this burst of popular feeling. +But a funeral hatchment, bla<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>zoned with the arms of Egmont, which, as +usual after the master's death, had been fixt by his domestics on the +gates of his mansion, was ordered to be instantly removed—no doubt, +as tending to keep alive the popular excitement. The bodies were not +allowed to remain long in their temporary places of deposit, but were +transported to the family residences of the two lords in the country, +and laid in the vaults of their ancestors.</p> + +<p>Thus by the hand of the common executioner perished these two +unfortunate noblemen, who, by their rank, possessions, and personal +characters, were the most illustrious victims that could have been +selected in the Netherlands. Both had early enjoyed the favor of +Charles the Fifth, and both had been entrusted by Philip with some of +the highest offices in the state. Philip de Montmorency, Count Hoorne, +the elder of the two, came of the ancient house of Montmorency in +France. Besides filling the high post of Admiral of the Low Countries, +he was made governor of the provinces of Guelders and Zutphen, was a +councilor of state, and was created by the Emperor a knight of the +Golden Fleece. His fortune was greatly inferior to that of Count +Egmont; yet its confiscation afforded a supply by no means unwelcome +to the needy exchequer of the Duke of Alva.</p> + +<p>However nearly on a footing they might be in many respects, Hoorne was +altogether eclipsed by his friend in military renown.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> From Book III, Chapter V, of the "History of the Reign +of Philip II, King of Spain."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> The Duke of Alva was sent to the Netherlands as governor +in 1567 where, as an instrument of his cruelty, he established what is +known as "The Council of Blood," a court of inquiry and persecution +which, in the course of three months, put to death 1,600 persons.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="THE_GENESIS_OF_DON_QUIXOTE" id="THE_GENESIS_OF_DON_QUIXOTE"></a>THE GENESIS OF "DON QUIXOTE"<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></h2> + +<p>The age of chivalry, as depicted in romances, could never, of course, +have had any real existence; but the sentiments which are described as +animating that age have been found more or less operative in different +countries and different periods of society. In Spain, especially, this +influence is to be discerned from a very early date. Its inhabitants +may be said to have lived in a romantic atmosphere, in which all the +extravagances of chivalry were nourished by their peculiar situation. +Their hostile relations with the Moslem kept alive the full glow of +religious and patriotic feeling. Their history is one interminable +crusade. An enemy always on the borders invited perpetual displays of +personal daring and adventure. The refinement and magnificence of the +Spanish Arabs throw a luster over these contests such as could not be +reflected from the rude skirmishes with their Christian neighbors. +Lofty sentiments, embellished by the softer refinements of courtesy, +were blended in the martial bosom of the Spaniard, and Spain became +emphatically the land of romantic chivalry.</p> + +<p>The very laws themselves, conceived in this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>spirit, contributed +greatly to foster it. The ancient code of Alfonso X, in the thirteenth +century, after many minute regulations for the deportment of the good +knight, enjoins on him to "invoke the name of his mistress in the +fight, that it may infuse new ardor into his soul and preserve him +from the commission of unknightly actions." Such laws were not a dead +letter. The history of Spain shows that the sentiment of romantic +gallantry penetrated the nation more deeply and continued longer than +in any other quarter of Christendom....</p> + +<p>The taste for these romantic extravagances naturally fostered a +corresponding taste for the perusal of tales of chivalry. Indeed, they +acted reciprocally on each other. These chimerical legends had once, +also, beguiled the long evenings of our Norman ancestors, but, in the +progress of civilization, had gradually given way to other and more +natural forms of composition. They still maintained their ground in +Italy, whither they had passed later, and where they were consecrated +by the hand of genius. But Italy was not the true soil of chivalry, +and the inimitable fictions of Bojardo, Pulci, and Ariosto were +composed with that lurking smile of half-supprest mirth which, far +from a serious tone, could raise only a corresponding smile of +incredulity in the reader.</p> + +<p>In Spain, however, the marvels of romance were all taken in perfect +good faith. Not that they were received as literally true; but the +reader surrendered himself up to the illusion, and was moved to +admiration by the recital of deeds which, viewed in any other light +than as a wild<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> frolic of imagination, would be supremely ridiculous; +for these tales had not the merit of a seductive style and melodious +versification to relieve them. They were, for the most part, an +ill-digested mass of incongruities, in which there was as little +keeping and probability in the characters as in the incidents, while +the whole was told in that stilted "Hercles' vein" and with that +licentiousness of allusion and imagery which could not fail to debauch +both the taste and the morals of the youthful reader. The mind, +familiarized with these monstrous, over-colored pictures, lost all +relish for the chaste and sober productions of art. The love of the +gigantic and the marvelous indisposed the reader for the simple +delineations of truth in real history....</p> + +<p>Cervantes brought forward a personage, in whom were embodied all those +generous virtues which belong to chivalry; disinterestedness, contempt +of danger, unblemished honor, knightly courtesy, and those aspirations +after ideal excellence which, if empty dreams, are the dreams of a +magnanimous spirit. They are, indeed, represented by Cervantes as too +ethereal for this world, and are successively dispelled as they come +in contact with the coarse realities of life. It is this view of the +subject which has led Sismondi, among other critics, to consider that +the principal end of the author was "the ridicule of enthusiasm—the +contrast of the heroic with the vulgar"—and he sees something +profoundly sad in the conclusions to which it leads. This sort of +criticism appears to be over-refined. It resembles the efforts of some +commentators to allegorize the great epics of Homer and Virgil,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +throwing a disagreeable mistiness over the story by converting mere +shadows into substances, and substances into shadows.</p> + +<p>The great purpose of Cervantes was, doubtless, that expressly avowed +by himself, namely, to correct the popular taste for romances of +chivalry. It is unnecessary to look for any other in so plain a tale, +altho, it is true, the conduct of the story produces impressions on +the reader, to a certain extent, like those suggested by Sismondi. The +melancholy tendency, however, is in a great degree counteracted by the +exquisitely ludicrous character of the incidents. Perhaps, after all, +if we are to hunt for a moral as the key of the fiction, we may with +more reason pronounce it to be the necessity of proportioning our +undertakings to our capacities.</p> + +<p>The mind of the hero, Don Quixote, is an ideal world into which +Cervantes has poured all the rich stores of his own imagination, the +poet's golden dreams, high romantic exploit, and the sweet visions of +pastoral happiness; the gorgeous chimeras of the fancied age of +chivalry, which had so long entranced the world; splendid illusions, +which, floating before us like the airy bubbles which the child throws +off from his pipe, reflect, in a thousand variegated tints, the rude +objects around, until, brought into collision with these, they are +dashed in pieces and melt into air. These splendid images derive +tenfold beauty from the rich antique coloring of the author's +language, skilfully imitated from the old romances, but which +necessarily escapes in the translation into a foreign tongue. Don +Quixote's insanity operates both in mistaking the ideal for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> the real, +and the real for the ideal. Whatever he has found in romances he +believes to exist in the world; and he converts all he meets with in +the world into the visions of his romances. It is difficult to say +which of the two produces the most ludicrous results.</p> + +<p>For the better exposure of these mad fancies Cervantes has not only +put them into action in real life, but contrasted them with another +character which may be said to form the reverse side of his hero's. +Honest Sancho represents the material principle as perfectly as his +master does the intellectual or ideal. He is of the earth, earthy. +Sly, selfish, sensual, his dreams are not of glory, but of good +feeding. His only concern is for his carcass. His notions of honor +appear to be much the same with those of his jovial contemporary +Falstaff, as conveyed in his memorable soliloquy. In the sublime +night-piece which ends with the fulling-mills—truly sublime until we +reach the dénouement—Sancho asks his master: "Why need you go about +this adventure? It is main dark, and there is never a living soul sees +us; we have nothing to do but to sheer off and get out of harm's way. +Who is there to take notice of our flinching?" Can anything be +imagined more exquisitely opposed to the true spirit of chivalry? The +whole compass of fiction nowhere displays the power of contrast so +forcibly as in these two characters; perfectly opposed to each other, +not only in their minds and general habits, but in the minutest +details of personal appearance.</p> + +<p>It was a great effort of art for Cervantes to maintain the dignity of +his hero's character in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> the midst of the whimsical and ridiculous +distresses in which he has perpetually involved him. His infirmity +leads us to distinguish between his character and his conduct, and to +absolve him from all responsibility for the latter. The author's art +is no less shown in regard to the other principal figure in the piece, +Sancho Panza, who, with the most contemptible qualities, contrives to +keep a strong hold on our interest by the kindness of his nature and +his shrewd understanding. He is far too shrewd a person, indeed, to +make it natural for him to have followed so crack-brained a master +unless bribed by the promise of a substantial recompense. He is a +personification, as it were, of the popular wisdom—a "bundle of +proverbs," as his master somewhere styles him; and proverbs are the +most compact form in which the wisdom of a people is digested. They +have been collected into several distinct works in Spain, where they +exceed in number those of any other, if not every other country in +Europe. As many of them are of great antiquity, they are of +inestimable price with the Castilian jurists, as affording rich +samples of obsolete idioms and the various mutations of the language.</p> + +<p>"Don Quixote" may be said to form an epoch in the history of letters, +as the original of that kind of composition, the novel of character, +which is one of the distinguishing peculiarities of modern literature. +When well executed, this sort of writing rises to the dignity of +history itself, and may be said to perform no insignificant part of +the functions of the latter. History describes men less as they are +than as they appear,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> as they are playing a part on the great +political theater—men in masquerade. It rests on state documents, +which too often cloak real purposes under an artful veil of policy, or +on the accounts of contemporaries blinded by passion or interest. Even +without these deductions, the revolutions of states, their wars, and +their intrigues do not present the only aspect, nor, perhaps, the most +interesting, under which human nature can be studied. It is man in his +domestic relations, around his own fireside, where alone his real +character can be truly disclosed; in his ordinary occupations in +society, whether for purposes of profit or pleasure; in his every-day +manner of living, his tastes and opinions, as drawn out in social +intercourse; it is, in short, under all those forms which make up the +interior of society that man is to be studied, if we would get the +true form and pressure of the age—if, in short, we would obtain clear +and correct ideas of the actual progress of civilization.</p> + +<p>But these topics do not fall within the scope of the historian. He can +not find authentic materials for them. They belong to the novelist, +who, indeed, contrives his incidents and creates his characters, but +who, if true to his art, animates them with the same tastes, +sentiments, and motives of action which belong to the period of his +fiction. His portrait is not the less true because no individual has +sat for it. He has seized the physiognomy of the times. Who is there +that does not derive a more distinct idea of the state of society and +manners in Scotland from the "Waverley Novels" than from the best of +its historians? Of the condition of the Middle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> Ages from the single +romance of "Ivanhoe" than from the volumes of Hume or Hallam? In like +manner, the pencil of Cervantes has given a far more distinct and a +richer portraiture of life in Spain in the sixteenth century than can +be gathered from a library of monkish chronicles.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> From the "Biographical and Critical Miscellanies," which +were collected by the author for publication in England in 1845. This +essay, and the others in the volume, with one exception, had been +published originally in <i>The North American Review</i>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="GEORGE_BANCROFT" id="GEORGE_BANCROFT"></a>GEORGE BANCROFT</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in Massachusetts in 1800; died in Washington in 1891; +graduated from Harvard in 1817; studied in Germany; taught +Greek in Harvard; established a private school at +Northampton in 1823; collector of the Port of Boston in +1838; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts +in 1844; Secretary of the Navy in 1845; established the +Naval Academy at Annapolis; minister to England in 1846; +minister to Berlin in 1867; published his "History of the +United States" in 10 volumes in 1834-74.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FATE_OF_EVANGELINES_COUNTRYMEN" id="THE_FATE_OF_EVANGELINES_COUNTRYMEN"></a>THE FATE OF EVANGELINE'S COUNTRYMEN<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></h2> + +<h3>(1755)</h3> +<p>They [the French inhabitants of Acadia] still counted in their +villages "eight thousand" souls, and the English not more than "three +thousand"; they stood in the way of "the progress of the settlement"; +"by their non-compliance with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>the conditions of the treaty of Utrecht +they had forfeited their possessions to the crown"; after the +departure "of the fleet and troops, the province would not be in a +condition to drive them out." "Such a juncture as the present might +never occur"; so he [the chief justice, Belcher] advised "against +receiving any of the French inhabitants to take the oath," and for the +removal of "all" of them from the province.</p> + +<p>That the cruelty might have no palliation, letters arrived leaving no +doubt that the shores of the Bay of Fundy were entirely in the +possession of the British; and yet at a council, at which Vice-Admiral +Boscawen and Rear-Admiral Mostyn were present by invitation, it was +unanimously determined to send the French inhabitants out of the +province; and, after mature consideration, it was further unanimously +agreed that, to prevent their attempting to return and molest the +settlers that were to be set down on their lands, it would be most +proper to distribute them among the several colonies on the continent.</p> + +<p>To hunt them into the net was impracticable; artifice was therefore +resorted to. By a general proclamation, on one and the same day, the +scarcely conscious victims, "both old men and young men, as well as +all the lads of ten years of age," were peremptorily ordered to +assemble at their respective posts. On the appointed fifth of +September they obeyed. At Grand Pré, for example, four hundred and +eighteen unarmed men came together. They were marched into the church +and its avenues were closed, when Winslow, the American commander, +placed himself in their center, and spoke:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You are convened together to manifest to you his majesty's final +resolution to the French inhabitants of this his province. Your lands +and tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, are +forfeited to the crown, and you yourselves are to be removed from this +his province. I am, through his majesty's goodness, directed to allow +you liberty to carry off your money and household goods, as many as +you can, without discommoding the vessels you go in."</p> + +<p>And he then declared them the King's prisoners. Their wives and +families shared their lot; their sons, five hundred and twenty-seven +in number; their daughters, five hundred and seventy-six; in the +whole, women and babes and old men and children all included, nineteen +hundred and twenty-three souls. The blow was sudden; they had left +home but for the morning, and they never were to return. Their cattle +were to stay unfed in the stalls, their fires to die out on their +hearths. They had for that first day even no food for themselves or +their children, and were compelled to beg for bread.</p> + +<p>The tenth of September was the day for the embarkation of a part of +the exiles. They were drawn up six deep; and the young men, one +hundred and sixty-one in number, were ordered to march first on board +the vessel. They could leave their farms and cottages, the shady rocks +on which they had reclined, their herds, and their garners; but nature +yearned within them, and they would not be separated from their +parents. Yet of what avail was the frenzied despair of the unarmed +youth? They had not one weapon; the bayonet drove them to obey; and +they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> marched slowly and heavily from the chapel to the shore, between +women and children, who, kneeling, prayed for blessings on their +heads, they themselves weeping and praying and singing hymns. The +seniors went next; the wives and children must wait till other +transport vessels arrive. The delay had its horrors. The wretched +people left behind were kept together near the sea, without proper +food, or raiment, or shelter, till other ships came to take them away; +and December, with its appalling cold, had struck the shivering, +half-clad, broken-hearted sufferers, before the last of them were +removed.</p> + +<p>"The embarkation of the inhabitants goes on but slowly," wrote +Monckton, from Fort Cumberland, near which he had burned three +hamlets; "the most part of the wives of the men we have prisoners are +gone off with their children, in hopes I would not send off their +husbands without them." Their hope was vain. Near Annapolis a hundred +heads of families fled to the woods, and a party was detached on the +hunt to bring them in. "Our soldiers hate them," wrote an officer on +this occasion; "and, if they can but find a pretext to kill them, they +will." Did a prisoner seek to escape, he was shot down by the +sentinel. Yet some fled to Quebec; more than three thousand had +withdrawn to Miramachi and the region south of the Restigouche; some +found rest on the banks of the St. John's and its branches; some found +a lair in their native forests; some were charitably sheltered from +the English in the wigwams of the savages. But seven thousand of these +banished people were driven on board ships, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> scattered among the +British colonies, from New Hampshire to Georgia—one thousand and +twenty to South Carolina alone. They were cast ashore without +resources, hating the poorhouse as a shelter for their offspring, and +abhorring the thought of selling themselves as laborers. Households, +too, were separated; the colonial newspapers contained advertisements +of members of families seeking their companions, of sons anxious to +reach and relieve their parents, of mothers moaning for their +children.</p> + +<p>The wanderers sighed for their native country; but, to prevent their +return, their villages, from Annapolis to the isthmus, were laid +waste. Their old homes were but ruins. In the district of Minas, for +instance, two hundred and fifty of their houses, and more than as many +barns, were consumed. The live stock which belonged to them, +consisting of great numbers of horned cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses, +were seized as spoils and disposed of by the English officials. A +beautiful and fertile tract of country was reduced to a solitude. +There was none left round the ashes of the cottages of the Acadians +but the faithful watch-dog, vainly seeking the hands that fed him. +Thickets of forest-trees choked their orchards; the ocean broke over +their neglected dikes, and desolated their meadows.</p> + +<p>Relentless misfortune pursued the exiles wherever they fled. Those +sent to Georgia, drawn by a love for the spot where they were born, as +strong as that of the captive Jews who wept by the rivers of Babylon +for their own temple and land, escaped to sea in boats, and went +coasting from harbor to harbor; but when they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> had reached New +England, just as they would have set sail for their native fields, +they were stopt by orders from Nova Scotia. Those who dwelt on the St. +John's were torn from their new homes. When Canada surrendered, hatred +with its worst venom pursued the fifteen hundred who remained south of +the Restigouche. Once those who dwelt in Pennsylvania presented a +humble petition to the Earl of Loudoun, then the British +commander-in-chief in America; and the cold-hearted peer, offended +that the prayer was made in French, seized their five principal men, +who in their own land had been persons of dignity and substance, and +shipped them to England, with the request that they might be kept from +ever again becoming troublesome by being consigned to service as +common sailors on board ships-of-war. No doubt existed of the King's +approbation. The lords of trade, more merciless than the savages and +than the wilderness in winter, wished very much that every one of the +Acadians should be driven out; and, when it seemed that the work was +done, congratulated the King that "the zealous endeavors of Lawrence +had been crowned with an entire success."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> From Volume IV, Chapter VIII, of "The History of the +United States," as published in 1862. Acadia was the name of the +original French colony in the eastern part of Canada, including Nova +Scotia, New Brunswick and adjacent islands. It was first colonized by +the French in 1604. It is more particularly of the French settlers in +Nova Scotia that Bancroft writes. These were deported by the British +in 1755. Longfellow's poem "Evangeline" is founded on an incident in +this deportation, by which two lovers were hopelessly parted. +Hawthorne is said first to have heard this story and considered it as +the theme for a novel, but, unable to use it satisfactorily to +himself, he passed it on to Longfellow.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="RALPH_WALDO_EMERSON" id="RALPH_WALDO_EMERSON"></a>RALPH WALDO EMERSON</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in 1803, died In 1882, a Unitarian clergyman in Boston +in 1829-32; began a long career as lecturer in 1833; settled +in Concord in 1834; editor of <i>The Dial</i> in 1842-44; +published "Nature" in 1836; "Essays," two series, in +1841-44; "Poems" in 1846; "Representative Men" in 1850; +"English Traits" in 1856; "Conduct of Life" in 1860; +"Society and Solitude" in 1870; "Letters and Social Aims" in +1876.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="THOREAUS_BROKEN_TASK" id="THOREAUS_BROKEN_TASK"></a>THOREAU'S BROKEN TASK<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></h2> + + +<p>His robust common sense, armed with stout hands, keen perceptions, and +strong will, can not yet account for the superiority which shone in +his simple and hidden life. I must add the cardinal fact that there +was an excellent wisdom in him, proper to a rare class of men, which +showed him the material world as a means and symbol. This discovery, +which sometimes yields to poets a certain casual and interrupted +light, serving for the ornament of their writing, was in him an +unsleeping insight; and whatever faults or obstructions of temperament +might cloud it, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. In his +youth he said one day, "The other world <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>is all my art: my pencils +will draw no other; my jack-knife will cut nothing else; I do not use +it as a means." This was the muse and genius that ruled his opinions, +conversation, studies, work and course of life. This made him a +searching judge of men. At first glance he measured his companion, +and, tho insensible to some fine traits of culture, could very well +report his weight and caliber. And this made the impression of genius +which his conversation often gave.</p> + +<p>I think his fancy for referring everything to the meridian of Concord +did not grow out of any ignorance or depreciation of other longitudes +or latitudes, but was rather a playful expression of his conviction of +the indifferency of all places, and that the best place for each is +where he stands. He exprest it once in this wise: "I think nothing is +to be hoped from you, if this bit of mold under your feet is not +sweeter to you to eat than any other in this world, or in any world."</p> + +<p>The other weapon with which he conquered all obstacles in science was +patience. He knew how to sit immovable, a part of the rock he rested +on, until the bird, the reptile, the fish, which had retired from him, +should come back, and resume his habits, nay, moved by curiosity, +should come to him and watch him.</p> + +<p>It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the +country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths +of his own. He knew every track in the snow or on the ground, and what +creature had taken this path before him. One must submit abjectly to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +such a guide, and the reward was great. Under his arm he carried an +old music-book to press plants; in his pocket his diary and pencil, a +spyglass for birds, microscope, jack-knife, and twine. He wore straw +hat, stout shoes, strong gray trousers, to brave shrub-oaks and +smilax, and to climb a tree for a hawk's or a squirrel's nest. He +waded into the pool for the water-plants, and his strong legs were no +insignificant part of his armor.</p> + +<p>No college ever offered him a diploma, or a professor's chair; no +academy made him its corresponding secretary, its discoverer, or even +its member. Perhaps these learned bodies feared the satire of his +presence. Yet so much knowledge of Nature's secret and genius few +others possest, none in a more large and religious synthesis. For not +a particle of respect had he to the opinions of any man or body of +men, but homage solely to the truth itself; and as he discovered +everywhere among doctors some leaning of courtesy, it discredited +them. He grew to be revered and admired by his townsmen, who had at +first known him only as an oddity. The farmers who employed him as a +surveyor soon discovered his rare accuracy and skill, his knowledge of +their lands, of trees, of birds, of Indian remains, and the like, +which enabled him to tell every farmer more than he knew before of his +own farm; so that he began to feel as if Mr. Thoreau had better rights +in his land than he. They felt, too, the superiority of character +which addrest all men with a native authority.</p> + +<p>His virtues, of course, sometimes ran into extremes. It was easy to +trace to the inexorable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> demand on all for exact truth that austerity +which made this willing hermit more solitary even than he wished. +Himself of a perfect probity, he required not less of others. He had a +disgust for crime, and no worldly success could cover it. He detected +paltering as readily in dignified and prosperous persons as in +beggars, and with equal scorn. Such dangerous frankness was in his +dealing that his admirers called him "that terrible Thoreau," as if he +spoke when silent, and was still present when he had departed. I think +the severity of his ideal interfered to deprive him of a healthy +sufficiency of human society.</p> + +<p>The habit of a realist to find things the reverse of their appearance +inclined him to put every statement in a paradox. A certain habit of +antagonism defaced his earlier writings—a trick of rhetoric not quite +outgrown in his later, of substituting for the obvious word and +thought its diametrical opposite. He praised wild mountains and winter +forests for their domestic air, in snow and ice he would find +sultriness, and commended the wilderness for resembling Rome and +Paris. "It was so dry that you might call it wet."</p> + +<p>The tendency to magnify the moment, to read all the laws of Nature in +the one object or one combination under your eye, is of course comic +to those who do not share the philosopher's perception of identity. To +him there was no such thing as size. The pond was a small ocean; the +Atlantic a large Walden Pond. He referred every minute fact to +cosmical laws. Tho he meant to be just, he seemed haunted by a certain +chronic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> assumption that the science of the day pretended +completeness, and he had just found out that the savants had neglected +to discriminate a particular botanical variety, had failed to describe +the seeds or count the sepals. "That is to say," we replied, "the +blockheads were not born in Concord; but who said they were? It was +their unspeakable misfortune to be born in London, or Paris, or Rome; +but, poor fellows, they did what they could, considering that they +never saw Bateman's Pond, or Nine-acre Corner, or Becky Stow's Swamp. +Besides, what were you sent into the world for but to add this +observation?"</p> + +<p>Had this genius been only contemplative, he had been fitted to his +life, but with his energy and practical ability he seemed born for +great enterprise and for command; and I so much regret the loss of his +rare powers of action that I can not help counting it a fault in him +that he had no ambition. Wanting this, instead of engineering for all +America, he was the captain of a huckleberry party. Pounding beans is +good to the end of pounding empires one of these days; but if, at the +end of years, it is still only beans!</p> + +<p>But these foibles, real or apparent, were fast vanishing in the +incessant growth of a spirit so robust and wise, and which effaced its +defeats with new triumphs. His study of nature was a perpetual +ornament to him, and inspired his friends with curiosity to see the +world through his eyes, and to hear his adventures. They possest every +kind of interest.</p> + +<p>He had many elegances of his own, while he scoffed at conventional +elegance. Thus, he could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> not bear to hear the sound of his own steps, the +grit of gravel; and therefore never willingly walked in the road, but in +the grass, on mountains and in woods. His senses were acute, and he +remarked that by night every dwelling-house gives out bad air, like a +slaughter-house. He liked the pure fragrance of melilot. He honored certain +plants with special regard, and, over all, the pond lily, then the gentian, +and the <i>Mikania scandens</i>, and "life-everlasting," and a bass-tree which +he visited every year when it bloomed, in the middle of July. He thought +the scent a more oracular inquisition than the sight—more oracular and +trustworthy. The scent, of course, reveals what it concealed from the other +senses. By it he detected earthiness. He delighted in echoes, and said they +were almost the only kind of kindred voices that he heard. He loved Nature +so well, was so happy in her solitude, that he became very jealous of +cities, and the sad work which their refinements and artifices made with +man and his dwelling. The ax was always destroying his forest. "Thank God," +he said, "they can not cut down the clouds!"....</p> + +<p>The scale on which his studies proceeded was so large as to require +longevity, and we were the less prepared for his sudden disappearance. +The country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a son it +has lost. It seems an injury that he should leave in the midst his +broken task, which none else can finish—a kind of indignity to so +noble a soul, that it should depart out of Nature before yet he has +been really shown to his peers for what he is. But he, at least, is +content. His soul was made for the noblest society; he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> had in a short +life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is +knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will +find a home.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> From Emerson's address at the funeral of Thoreau, as +expanded for the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> of August, 1862; usually printed +since as an introduction to Thoreau's volume entitled "Excursions," +published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="THE_INTELLECTUAL_HONESTY_OF_MONTAIGNE" id="THE_INTELLECTUAL_HONESTY_OF_MONTAIGNE"></a>THE INTELLECTUAL HONESTY OF MONTAIGNE<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></h2> + +<p>A single odd volume of Cotton's translation of the Essays remained to +me from my father's library, when a boy. It lay long neglected, until, +after many years, when I was newly escaped from college, I read the +book, and procured the remaining volumes. I remember the delight and +wonder in which I lived with it. It seemed to me as if I had myself +written the book, in some former life, so sincerely it spoke to my +thought and experience. It happened, when in Paris, in 1833, that, in +the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, I came to a tomb of August Collignon, +who died in 1830, aged sixty-eight years, and who, said the monument, +"lived to do right, and had formed himself to virtue on the Essays of +Montaigne." Some years later, I became acquainted with an accomplished +English poet, John Sterling; and, in prosecuting my correspondence, I +found that, from a love of Montaigne, he had made a pilgrimage to his +chateau, still standing near Castellan, in Perigord, and, after two +hundred and fifty years, had copied from the walls <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>of his library the +inscriptions which Montaigne had written there. That Journal of Mr +Sterling's, published in the <i>Westminster Review</i>, Mr. Hazlitt has +reprinted in the Prolegomena to his edition of the Essays. I heard +with pleasure that one of the newly-discovered autographs of William +Shakespeare was in a copy of Florio's translation of Montaigne. It is +the only book which we certainly know to have been in the poet's +library. And, oddly enough, the duplicate copy of Florio, which the +British Museum purchased with a view of protecting the Shakespeare +autograph (as I was informed in the Museum), turned out to have the +autograph of Ben Jonson in the fly-leaf. Leigh Hunt relates of Lord +Byron that Montaigne was the only great writer of past times whom he +read with avowed satisfaction. Other coincidences, not needful to be +mentioned here, concurred to make this old Gascon still new and +immortal for me.</p> + +<p>In 1571, on the death of his father, Montaigne, then thirty-eight +years old, retired from the practise of law at Bordeaux, and settled +himself on his estate. Tho he had been a man of pleasure, and +sometimes a courtier, his studious habits now grew on him, and he +loved the compass, staidness, and independence of the country +gentleman's life. He took up his economy in good earnest, and made his +farms yield the most. Downright and plain-dealing, and abhorring to be +deceived or to deceive, he was esteemed in the country for his sense +and probity. In the civil wars of the League, which converted every +house into a fort, Montaigne kept his gates open, and his house +without defense. All parties freely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> came and went, his courage and +honor being universally esteemed. The neighboring lords and gentry +brought jewels and papers to him for safe-keeping. Gibbon reckons, in +these bigoted times, but two men of liberality in France—Henry IV and +Montaigne.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> From "Montaigne; or The Skeptic," in "Representative +Men." Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>III</h2> +<h2><a name="HIS_VISIT_TO_CARLYLE_AT_CRAIGEN-PUTTOCK" id="HIS_VISIT_TO_CARLYLE_AT_CRAIGEN-PUTTOCK"></a>HIS VISIT TO CARLYLE AT CRAIGEN-PUTTOCK<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></h2> + +<h3>(1833)</h3> +<p>From Edinburgh I went to the Highlands. On my return I came from +Glasgow to Dumfries, and being intent on delivering a letter which I +had brought from Rome, inquired for Craigen-puttock. It was a farm in +Nithsdale, in the parish of Dunscore, sixteen miles distant. No public +coach passed near it, so I took a private carriage from the inn. I +found the house amid desolate heathery hills, where the lonely scholar +nourished his mighty heart. Carlyle was a man from his youth, an +author who did not need to hide from his readers, and as absolute a +man of the world, unknown and exiled on that hill-farm, as if holding +on his own terms what is best in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>London. He was tall and gaunt, with +cliff-like brow, self-possest, and holding his extraordinary powers of +conversation in easy command; clinging to his northern accent with +evident relish; full of lively anecdote, and with a streaming humor, +which floated everything he looked upon. His talk playfully exalting +the familiar objects, put the companion at once into an acquaintance +with his Lars and Lemurs, and it was very pleasant to learn what was +predestined to be a pretty mythology. Few were the objects and lonely +the man, "not a person to speak to within sixteen miles except the +minister of Dunscore"; so that books inevitably made his topics.</p> + +<p>He had names of his own for all the matters familiar to his discourse. +<i>Blackwood's</i> was the "sand magazine"; <i>Fraser's</i> nearer approach to +possibility of life was the "mud magazine"; a piece of road near by +that marked some failed enterprise was the "grave of the last +sixpence." When too much praise of any genius annoyed him, he profest +hugely to admire the talent shown by his pig. He had spent much time +and contrivance in confining the poor beast to one enclosure in his +pen, but pig, by great strokes of judgment, had found out how to let a +board down, and had foiled him. For all that, he still thought man the +most plastic little fellow in the planet, and he liked Nero's death, +"<i>Qualis artifex pereo!</i>" better than most history. He worships a man +that will manifest any truth to him. At one time he had inquired and +read a good deal about America. Landor's principle was mere rebellion, +and <i>that</i> he feared was the American principle. The best thing he +knew of that coun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>try was that in it a man can have meat for his +labor. He had read in Stewart's book that, when he inquired in a New +York hotel for the Boots, he had been shown across the street and had +found Mungo in his own house dining on roast turkey.</p> + +<p>We talked of books. Plato he does not read, and he disparaged +Socrates; and, when prest, persisted in making Mirabeau a hero. Gibbon +he called the splendid bridge from the old world to the new. His own +reading had been multifarious. "Tristram Shandy" was one of his first +books after "Robinson Crusoe," and Robertson's "America" an early +favorite. Rousseau's "Confessions" had discovered to him that he was +not a dunce; and it was now ten years since he had learned German, by +the advice of a man who told him he would find in that language what +he wanted.</p> + +<p>He took despairing or satirical views of literature at this moment; +recounted the incredible sums paid in one year by the great +booksellers for puffing. Hence it comes that no newspaper is trusted +now, no books are bought, and the booksellers are on the eve of +bankruptcy.</p> + +<p>He still returned to English pauperism, the crowded country, the +selfish abdication by public men of all that public persons should +perform. "Government should direct poor men what to do. Poor Irish +folk come wandering over these moors. My dame makes it a rule to give +to every son of Adam bread to eat, and supplies his wants to the next +house. But here are thousands of acres which might give them all meat, +and nobody to bid these poor Irish go to the moor and till it. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +burned the stacks, and so found a way to force the rich people to +attend to them."</p> + +<p>We went out to walk over long hills, and looked at Criffel, then +without his cap, and down into Wordsworth's country. There we sat +down, and talked of the immortality of the soul. It was not Carlyle's +fault that we talked on that topic, for he had the natural +disinclination of every nimble spirit to bruise itself against walls, +and did not like to place himself where no step can be taken. But he +was honest and true, and cognizant of the subtile links that bind ages +together, and saw how every event affects all the future. "Christ died +on the tree: that built Dunscore kirk yonder: that brought you and me +together. Time had only a relative existence."</p> + +<p>He was already turning his eyes toward London with a scholar's +appreciation. London is the heart of the world, he said, wonderful +only from the mass of human beings. He liked the huge machine. Each +keeps its own round. The baker's boy brings muffins to the window at a +fixt hour every day, and that is all the Londoner knows or wishes to +know on the subject. But it turned out good men. He named certain +individuals, especially one man of letters, his friend, the best mind +he knew, whom London had well served.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> From Chapter I of "English Traits," published by +Houghton, Mifflin Company. At the time of this visit, Emerson had +published none of his books, but Carlyle was known as the author of +many of the "Essays" now included among his collected writings, and +had published the "Life of Schiller" and his translation of Goethe's +"Wilhelm Meister." "Sartor Resartus" in that year was beginning its +course through the monthly numbers of <i>Fraser's Magazine</i>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="NATHANIEL_HAWTHORNE" id="NATHANIEL_HAWTHORNE"></a>NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE</h2> + +<blockquote><p>Born in Salem, Mass., in 1804; died in 1864; graduated from +Bowdoin College in 1825; served in the Custom House in +Boston; joined the Brook Farm community in 1841; surveyor of +the port of Salem in 1846-49; consul at Liverpool in +1853-57; published "Fanshawe" at his own expense in 1826, +"Twice Told Tales" in 1837-42; "Mosses from an Old Manse" in +1846, "The Scarlet Letter" in 1850, "House of the Seven +Gables" in 1851, "The Marble Faun" in 1860, "Our Old Home" +in 1863.</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I</h2> +<h2><a name="OCCUPANTS_OF_AN_OLD_MANSE" id="OCCUPANTS_OF_AN_OLD_MANSE"></a>OCCUPANTS OF AN OLD MANSE<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></h2> + +<p>Between two tall gate-posts of rough-hewn stone (the gate itself +having fallen from its hinges at some unknown epoch) we beheld the +gray front of the old parsonage terminating the vista of an avenue of +black-ash trees. It was now a twelvemonth since the funeral procession +of the venerable clergyman, its last inhabitant, had turned from that +gateway toward the village burying-ground. The wheel track leading to +the door, as well as the whole breadth of the avenue, was almost +overgrown with grass, affording dainty mouthfuls to two or three +vagrant cows and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>an old white horse who had his own living to pick up +along the roadside. The glimmering shadows that lay half asleep +between the door of the house and the public highway were a kind of +spiritual medium, seen through which the edifice had not quite the +aspect of belonging to the material world. Certainly, it had little in +common with those ordinary abodes which stand so imminent upon the +road that every passer-by can thrust his head, as it were, into the +domestic circle. From these quiet windows the figures of passing +travelers look too remote and dim to disturb the sense of privacy. In +its near retirement and accessible seclusion, it was the very spot for +the residence of a clergyman—a man not estranged from human life, yet +enveloped, in the midst of it, with a veil woven of intermingled gloom +and brightness. It was worthy to have been one of the time-honored +parsonages of England, in which through many generations a succession +of holy occupants pass from youth to age, and bequeath each an +inheritance of sanctity to pervade the house and hover over it as with +an atmosphere.</p> + +<p>Nor, in truth, had the Old Manse ever been profaned by a lay occupant +until that memorable summer afternoon when I entered it as my home. A +priest had built it; a priest had succeeded to it; other priestly men +from time to time had dwelt in it; and children born in its chambers +had grown up to assume the priestly character. It was awful to reflect +how many sermons must have been written there. The latest inhabitant +alone—he by whose translation to paradise the dwelling was left +vacant—had penned nearly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> three thousand discourses, besides the +better if not the greater number that gushed living from his lips. How +often, no doubt, had he paced to and fro along the avenue, attuning +his meditations to the sighs and gentle murmurs and deep and solemn +peals of the wind among the tops of the lofty trees! In that variety +of natural utterances he could find something accordant with every +passage of his sermon, were it of tenderness or reverential fear. The +boughs over my head seemed shadowy with solemn thoughts, as well as +with rustling leaves.</p> + +<p>I took shame to myself for having been so long a writer of idle +stories, and ventured to hope that wisdom would descend upon me with +the falling leaves of the avenue, and that I should light upon an +intellectual treasure in the Old Manse well worth those hoards of +long-hidden gold which people seek for in moss-grown houses. Profound +treatises of morality, a layman's unprofessional and therefore +unprejudiced views of religion, histories (such as Bancroft might have +written had he taken up his abode here, as he once proposed) bright +with picture, gleaming over a depth of philosophic thought—these were +the works that might fitly have flowed from such a retirement. In the +humblest event, I resolved at least to achieve a novel that should +evolve some deep lesson, and should possess physical substance enough +to stand alone....</p> + +<p>The study had three windows set with little old-fashioned panes of +glass, each with a crack across it. The two on the western side looked +or rather peeped between the willow branches down into the orchard, +with glimpses of the river<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> through the trees. The third, facing +northward, commanded a broader view of the river at a spot where its +hitherto obscure waters gleam forth into the light of history. It was +at this window that the clergyman who then dwelt in the manse stood +watching the outbreak of a long and deadly struggle between two +nations.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> He saw the irregular array of his parishioners on the +farther side of the river, and the glittering line of the British on +the hither bank; he awaited in an agony of suspense the rattle of the +musketry. It came; and there needed but a gentle wind to sweep the +battle smoke around this quiet house....</p> + +<p>When summer was dead and buried, the Old Manse became as lonely as a +hermitage. Not that ever—in my time at least—it had been thronged +with company; but at no rare intervals we welcomed some friend out of +the dusty glare and tumult of the world, and rejoiced to share with +him the transparent obscurity that was floating over us. In one +respect our precincts were like the Enchanted Ground through which the +pilgrim traveled on his way to the Celestial City. The guests, each +and all, felt a slumbrous influence upon them; they fell asleep in +chairs, or took a more deliberate siesta on the sofa, or were seen +stretched among the shadows of the orchard, looking up dreamily +through the boughs. They could not have paid a more acceptable +compliment to my abode, nor to my own qualities as a host. I held it +as a proof that they left their cares behind them as they passed +between <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>the stone gate-posts at the entrance of our avenue, and that +the so powerful opiate was the abundance of peace and quiet within and +all around us....</p> + +<p>Hobgoblins of flesh and blood were attracted thither by the +wide-spreading influence of a great original thinker, who had his +earthly abode at the opposite extremity of our village. His mind acted +upon other minds of a certain constitution with wonderful magnetism, +and drew many men upon long pilgrimages to speak with him face to +face. Young visionaries, to whom just so much of insight had been +imparted as to make life all a labyrinth around them, came to seek the +clue that should guide them out of their self-involved bewilderment. +Gray-headed theorists, whose systems, at first air, had finally +imprisoned them in an iron framework, traveled painfully to his door, +not to ask deliverance, but to invite the free spirit into their own +thraldom. People that had lighted on a new thought, or a thought that +they fancied new, came to Emerson, as the finder of a glittering gem +hastens to a lapidary to ascertain its quality and value. Uncertain, +troubled, earnest wanderers through the midnight of a moral world +beheld its intellectual fire as a beacon burning on a hill-top, and +climbing the difficult ascent, looked forth into the surrounding +obscurity more hopefully than hitherto. The light revealed objects +unseen before—mountains, gleaming lakes, glimpses of a creation among +the chaos; but also, as was unavoidable, it attracted bats and owls +and the whole host of night birds, which flapped their dusky wings +against the gazer's eyes, and sometimes were mistaken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> for fowls of +angelic feather. Such delusions always hover nigh whenever a +beacon-fire of truth is kindled.</p> + +<p>For myself, there had been epochs of my life when I too might have +asked of this prophet the master word that should solve me the riddle +of the universe; but now, being happy, I felt as if there were no +question to be put, and therefore admired Emerson as a poet of deep +beauty and austere tenderness, but sought nothing from him as a +philosopher. It was good nevertheless to meet him in the wood paths, +or sometimes in our avenue, with that pure intellectual gleam diffused +about his presence like the garment of a Shining One; and he so quiet, +so simple, so without pretension, encountering each man alike as if +expecting to receive more than he could impart. And in truth, the +heart of many an ordinary man had, perchance, inscriptions which he +could not read.</p> + +<p>But it was impossible to dwell in his vicinity without inhaling more +or less the mountain atmosphere of his lofty thought, which in the +brains of some people wrought a singular giddiness—new truth being as +heady as new wine. Never was a poor little country village infested +with such a variety of queer, strangely drest, oddly behaved mortals, +most of whom took upon themselves to be important agents of the +world's destiny, yet were simply bores of a very intense water. Such, +I imagine, is the invariable character of persons who crowd so closely +about an original thinker as to draw in his unuttered breath, and thus +to become imbued with a false originality. This triteness of novelty +is enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> to make any man of common sense blaspheme at all ideas of +less than a century's standing, and pray that the world may be +petrified and rendered immovable in precisely the worst moral and +physical state that it ever yet arrived at, rather than be benefited +by such schemes of such philosophers....</p> + +<p>Glancing back over what I have written, it seems but the scattered +reminiscences of a single summer. In fairyland there is no measurement +of time; and in a spot so sheltered from the turmoil of life's ocean, +three years hasten away with a noiseless flight, as the breezy +sunshine chases the cloud shadows across the depths of a still valley. +Now came hints, growing more and more distinct, that the owner of the +old house was pining for his native air. Carpenters next appeared, +making a tremendous racket among the outbuildings, strewing the green +grass with pine shavings and chips of chestnut joists, and vexing the +whole antiquity of the place with their discordant renovations. Soon, +moreover, they divested our abode of the veil of woodbine which had +crept over a large portion of its southern face. All the aged mosses +were cleared unsparingly away, and there were horrible whispers about +brushing up the external walls with a coat of paint—a purpose as +little to my taste as might be that of rouging the venerable cheeks of +one's grandmother. But the hand that renovates is always more +sacrilegious than that which destroys. In fine, we gathered up our +household goods, drank a farewell cup of tea in our pleasant little +breakfast-room—delicately fragrant tea, an unpurchasable luxury, one +of the many angel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> gifts that had fallen like dew upon us—and passed +forth between the tall stone gate-posts, as uncertain as the wandering +Arabs where our tent might next be pitched. Providence took me by the +hand, and—an oddity of dispensation which, I trust, there is no +irreverence in smiling at—has led me, as the newspapers announce, +while I am writing from the Old Manse, into a custom-house.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> As a +story-teller I have often contrived strange vicissitudes for my +imaginary personages, but none like this.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> From the introductory chapter of "Mosses from an Old +Manse," published by Houghton, Mifflin Company. This house, built in +1765, is still standing in Concord. Emerson lived there while writing +his "Nature." Hawthorne made it his home soon after his marriage in +1842.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> The bridge at Concord, where the battle of April, 1775, +was fought, stands only a short distance from the old manse.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> A reference to his appointment to a position in the +Boston Custom-house.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>II</h2> +<h2><a name="ARTHUR_DIMMESDALE_ON_THE_SCAFFOLD" id="ARTHUR_DIMMESDALE_ON_THE_SCAFFOLD"></a>ARTHUR DIMMESDALE ON THE SCAFFOLD<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></h2> + +<p>The crowd was in a tumult. The men of rank and dignity, who stood more +immediately around the clergyman, were so taken by surprize, and so +perplexed as to the purport of what they saw—unable to receive the +explanation which most readily presented itself, or to imagine any +other—that they remained silent and inactive spectators of the +judgment which Providence seemed about to work. They beheld the +minister, leaning on Hester's shoulder, and supported by her arm +around him, approach the scaffold, and ascend its steps; while still +the little hand of the sin-born child was clasped in his. Old Roger +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>Chillingworth followed, as one intimately connected with the drama of +guilt and sorrow in which they had all been actors, and well entitled, +therefore, to be present at its closing scene.</p> + +<p>"Hadst thou sought the whole earth over," said he, looking darkly at +the clergyman, "there was no one place so secret—no high place nor +lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me—save on this very +scaffold!"</p> + +<p>"Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" answered the minister.</p> + +<p>Yet he trembled, and turned to Hester with an expression of doubt and +anxiety in his eyes, not the less evidently betrayed that there was a +feeble smile upon his lips.</p> + +<p>"Is not this better," murmured he, "than what we dreamed of in the +forest?"</p> + +<p>"I know not! I know not!" she hurriedly replied. "Better? Yea; so we +may both die, and little Pearl die with us!"</p> + +<p>"For thee and Pearl, be it as God shall order," said the minister; +"and God is merciful! Let me now do the will which He hath made plain +before my sight. For, Hester, I am a dying man. So let me make haste +to take my shame upon me!"</p> + +<p>Partly supported by Hester Prynne, and holding one hand of little +Pearl's, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale turned to the dignified and +venerable rulers; to the holy ministers, who were his brethren; to the +people, whose great heart was thoroughly appalled, yet overflowing +with tearful sympathy, as knowing that some deep life-matter—which, +if full of sin, was full of anguish and repentance likewise—was now +to be laid open to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> them. The sun, but little past its meridian, shone +down upon the clergyman, and gave a distinctness to his figure as he +stood out from all the earth to put in his plea of guilty at the bar +of Eternal Justice.</p> + +<p>"People of New England!" cried he, with a voice that rose over them, +high, solemn, and majestic—yet had always a tremor through it, and +sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of a fathomless depth of remorse +and wo—"ye that have loved me!—ye that have deemed me holy!—behold +me here, the one sinner of the world! At last!—at last!—I stand upon +the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with +this woman, whose arm, more than the little strength wherewith I have +crept hitherward, sustains me, at this dreadful moment, from groveling +down upon my face! Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have +all shuddered at it! Wherever her walk hath been—wherever, so +miserably burdened, she may have hoped to find repose—it hath cast a +lurid gleam of awe and horrible repugnance round about her. But there +stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye +have not shuddered!"</p> + +<p>It seemed, at this point, as if the minister must leave the remainder +of his secret undisclosed. But he fought back the bodily +weakness—and, still more, the faintness of heart—that was striving +for the mastery with him. He threw off all assistance, and stept +passionately forward a pace before the woman and the child.</p> + +<p>"It was on him!" he continued, with a kind of fierceness—so +determined was he to speak out the whole. "God's eye beheld it! The +angels<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> were forever pointing at it! The devil knew it well, and +fretted it continually with the touch of his burning finger! But he +hid it cunningly from men, and walked among you with the mien of a +spirit, mournful, because so pure in a sinful world—and sad, because +he missed his heavenly kindred! Now, at the death-hour, he stands up +before you! He bids you look again at Hester's scarlet letter! He +tells you that, with all its mysterious horror, it is but the shadow +of what he bears on his own breast, and that even this, his own red +stigma, is no more than the type of what has seared his inmost heart! +Stand any here that question God's judgment on a sinner? Behold! +Behold a dreadful witness of it!"</p> + +<p>With a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band from his +breast. It was revealed! But it were irreverent to describe that +revelation. For an instant the gaze of the horror-stricken multitude +was concentrated on the ghastly miracle; while the minister stood, +with a flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of +acutest pain, had won a victory. Then, down he sank upon the scaffold! +Hester partly raised him, and supported his head against her bosom. +Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him, with a blank, dull +countenance, out of which the life seemed to have departed.</p> + +<p>"Thou hast escaped me!" he repeated more than once. "Thou hast escaped +me!"</p> + +<p>"May God forgive thee!" said the minister. "Thou, too, hast deeply +sinned!"</p> + +<p>He withdrew his dying eyes from the old man, and fixt them on the +woman and the child.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My little Pearl," said he, feebly—and there was a sweet and gentle +smile over his face, as of a spirit sinking into deep repose; nay, now +that the burden was removed, it seemed almost as if he would be +sportive with the child—"dear little Pearl, wilt thou kiss me now? +Thou wouldst not yonder, in the forest! But now thou wilt?"</p> + +<p>Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, +in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her +sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were +the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor +forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it. Toward her +mother, too, Pearl's errand as a messenger of anguish was all +fulfilled.</p> + +<p>"Hester," said the clergyman, "farewell!"</p> + +<p>"Shall we not meet again?" whispered she, bending her face down close +to his. "Shall we not spend our immortal life together? Surely, +surely, we have ransomed one another with all this wo! Thou lookest +far into eternity, with those bright dying eyes! Then tell me what +thou seest?"</p> + +<p>"Hush, Hester, hush!" said he, with tremulous solemnity. "The law we +broke!—the sin here so awfully revealed!—let these be in thy +thoughts! I fear! I fear! It may be that, when we forgot our God—when +we violated our reverence each for the other's soul—it was +thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an +everlasting and pure reunion. God knows; and He is merciful! He hath +proved His mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this +burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> yonder dark and +terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red heat! By bringing +me hither to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! +Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost forever! +Praised be His name! His will be done! Farewell!"</p> + +<p>That final word came forth with the minister's expiring breath. The +multitude, silent till then, broke out in a strange, deep voice of awe +and wonder, which could not as yet find utterance save in this murmur +that rolled so heavily after the departed spirit.</p> + +<p>After many days, when time sufficed for the people to arrange their +thoughts in reference to the foregoing scene, there was more than one +account of what had been witnessed on the scaffold.</p> + +<p>Most of the spectators testified to having seen on the breast of the +unhappy minister a <span class="smcap">scarlet letter</span>—the very semblance of that worn by +Hester Prynne—imprinted in the flesh. As regarded its origin, there +were various explanations, all of which must necessarily have been +conjectural. Some affirmed that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the +very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had +begun a course of penance—which he afterward, in so many futile +methods, followed out—by inflicting a hideous torture on himself. +Others contended that the stigma had not been produced until a long +time subsequent, when old Roger Chillingworth, being a potent +necromancer, had caused it to appear, through the agency of magic and +poisonous drugs. Others, again—and those best able to appreciate the +minister's peculiar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> sensibility, and the wonderful operation of his +spirit upon the body—whispered their belief that the awful symbol was +the effect of the ever-active tooth of remorse, gnawing from the +inmost heart outwardly, and at last manifesting Heaven's dreadful +judgment by the visible presence of the letter. The reader may choose +among these theories. We have thrown all the light we could acquire +upon the portent, and would gladly, now that it has done its office, +erase its deep print out of our own brain, where long meditation has +fixt it in very undesirable distinctness.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> From Chapters XIII and XIV of "The Scarlet Letter," +published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>III</h2> +<h2><a name="OF_LIFE_AT_BROOK_FARM" id="OF_LIFE_AT_BROOK_FARM"></a>OF LIFE AT BROOK FARM<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></h2> + +<p>We had very young people with us, it is true—downy lads, rosy girls +in their first teens, and children of all heights above one's knee; +but these had chiefly been sent hither for education, which it was one +of the objects and methods of our institution to supply. Then we had +boarders from town and elsewhere, who lived with us in a familiar way, +sympathized more or less in our theories, and sometimes shared in our +labors.</p> + +<p>On the whole, it was a society such as has seldom met together; nor, +perhaps, could it reasonably be expected to hold together long. +Persons of marked individuality—crooked sticks, as <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>some of us might +be called—are not exactly the easiest to bind up into a fagot. But, +so long as our union should subsist, a man of intellect and feeling, +with a free nature in him, might have sought far and near without +finding so many points of attraction as would allure him hitherward. +We were of all creeds and opinions, and generally tolerant of all, on +every imaginable subject. Our bond, it seems to me, was not +affirmative, but negative. We had individually found one thing or +another to quarrel with in our past life, and were pretty well agreed +as to the inexpediency of lumbering along with the old system any +further. As to what should be substituted there was much less +unanimity. We did not greatly care—at least, I never did—for the +written constitution under which our millennium had commenced. My hope +was that, between theory and practise, a true and available mode of +life might be struck out; and that, even should we ultimately fail, +the months or years spent in the trial would not have been wasted, +either as regarded passing enjoyment, or the experience which makes +men wise.</p> + +<p>Arcadians tho we were, our costume bore no resemblance to the +beribboned doublets, silk breeches and stockings, and slippers +fastened with artificial roses, that distinguish the pastoral people +of poetry and the stage. In outward show, I humbly conceive, we looked +rather like a gang of beggars, or banditti, than either a company of +honest laboring-men, or a conclave of philosophers. Whatever might be +our points of difference, we all of us seemed to have come to +Blithedale with the one thrifty and laudable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> idea of wearing out our +old clothes. Such garments as had an airing whenever we strode afield! +Coats with high collars and with no collars, broad-skirted or +swallow-tailed, and with the waist at every point between the hip and +the armpit; pantaloons of a dozen successive epochs, and greatly +defaced at the knees by the humiliations of the wearer before his +lady-love—in short, we were a living epitome of defunct fashions, and +the very raggedest presentment of men who had seen better days. It was +gentility in tatters. Often retaining a scholarlike or clerical air, +you might have taken us for the denizens of Grub street, intent on +getting a comfortable livelihood by agricultural labor; or, +Coleridge's projected Pantisocracy in full experiment; or Candide and +his motley associates, at work in their cabbage-garden; or anything +else that was miserably out at elbows, and most clumsily patched in +the rear. We might have been sworn comrades to Falstaff's ragged +regiment. Little skill as we boasted in other points of husbandry, +every mother's son of us would have served admirably to stick up for a +scarecrow. And the worst of the matter was that the first energetic +movement essential to one downright stroke of real labor was sure to +put a finish to these poor habiliments. So we gradually flung them all +aside, and took to honest homespun and linsey-woolsey, as preferable, +on the whole, to the plan recommended, I think, by Virgil—"<i>Ara +nudus; sere nudus</i>,"—which, as Silas Foster remarked, when I +translated the maxim, would be apt to astonish the women-folks.</p> + +<p>After a reasonable training, the yeoman life<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> throve well with us. Our +faces took the sunburn kindly; our chests gained in compass, and our +shoulders in breadth and squareness; our great brown fists looked as +if they had never been capable of kid gloves. The plow, the hoe, the +scythe, and the hay-fork grew familiar to our grasp. The oxen +responded to our voices. We could do almost as fair a day's work as +Silas Foster himself, sleep dreamlessly after it, and awake at +daybreak with only a little stiffness of the joints, which was usually +quite gone by breakfast-time.</p> + +<p>To be sure, our next neighbors pretended to be incredulous as to our +real proficiency in the business which we had taken in hand. They told +slanderous fables about our inability to yoke our own oxen, or to +drive them afield when yoked, or to release the poor brutes from their +conjugal bond at nightfall. They had the face to say, too, that the +cows laughed at our awkwardness at milking-time, and invariably kicked +over the pails; partly in consequence of our putting the stool on the +wrong side, and partly because, taking offense at the whisking of +their tails, we were in the habit of holding these natural +fly-flappers with one hand, and milking with the other. They further +averred that we hoed up whole acres of Indian corn and other crops, +and drew the earth carefully about the weeds; and that we raised five +hundred tufts of burdock, mistaking them for cabbages; and that, by +dint of unskilful planting, few of our seeds ever came up at all, or, +if they did come up, it was stern-foremost; and that we spent the +better part of the month of June in reversing a field of beans, which +had thrust themselves out of the ground<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> in this unseemly way. They +quoted it as nothing more than an ordinary occurrence for one or other +of us to crop off two or three fingers, of a morning, by our clumsy +use of the hay-cutter. Finally, and as an ultimate catastrophe, these +mendacious rogues circulated a report that we communitarians were +exterminated, to the last man, by severing ourselves asunder with the +sweep of our own scythes!—and that the world had lost nothing by this +little accident.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> From "The Blithedale Romance," published by Houghton, +Mifflin Company. Hawthorne was a member of the Brook Farm Community of +Roxbury, Mass., and from it derived at least suggestions for the scene +and action of this story.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>IV</h2> +<h2><a name="THE_DEATH_OF_JUDGE_PYNCHEON" id="THE_DEATH_OF_JUDGE_PYNCHEON"></a>THE DEATH OF JUDGE PYNCHEON<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></h2> + +<p>Meanwhile the twilight is glooming upward out of the corners of the +room. The shadows of the tall furniture grow deeper, and at first +become more definite; then, spreading wider, they lose their +distinctness of outline in the dark gray tide of oblivion, as it were, +that creeps slowly over the various objects, and the one human figure +sitting in the midst of them. The gloom has not entered from without; +it has brooded here all day, and now, taking its own inevitable time, +will possess itself of everything. The Judge's face, indeed, rigid, +and singularly white, refuses to melt into this universal solvent. +Fainter and fainter grows the light. It is as if another +double-handful of darkness had been scattered through the air. Now it +is no longer gray, but sable. There is still a faint appearance <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>at +the window; neither a glow, nor a gleam, nor a glimmer—any phrase of +light would express something far brighter than this doubtful +perception, or sense, rather, that there is a window there. Has it yet +vanished? No!—yes!—not quite! And there is still the swarthy +whiteness—we shall venture to marry these ill-agreeing words—the +swarthy whiteness of Judge Pyncheon's face. The features are all gone: +there is only the paleness of them left. And how looks it now? There +is no window! There is no face! An infinite, inscrutable blackness has +annihilated sight! Where is our universe? All crumbled away from us; +and we, adrift in chaos, may harken to the gusts of homeless wind, +that go sighing and murmuring about, in quest of what was once a +world!</p> + +<p>Is there no other sound? One other, and a fearful one. It is the +ticking of the Judge's watch, which, ever since Hepzibah left the room +in search of Clifford, he has been holding in his hand. Be the cause +what it may, this little, quiet, never-ceasing throb of Time's pulse, +repeating its small strokes with such busy regularity, in Judge +Pyncheon's motionless hand, has an effect of terror, which we do not +find in any other accompaniment of the scene.</p> + +<p>But, listen! That puff of the breeze was louder; it had a tone unlike +the dreary and sullen one which has bemoaned itself, and afflicted all +mankind with miserable sympathy, for five days past. The wind has +veered about! It now comes boisterously from the northwest, and, +taking hold of the aged framework of the Seven Gables, gives it a +shake, like a wrestler that would try strength<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> with his antagonist. +Another and another sturdy tussle with the blast! The old house creaks +again, and makes a vociferous but somewhat unintelligible bellowing in +its sooty throat (the big flue, we mean, of its wide chimney), partly +in complaint at the rude wind, but rather, as befits their century and +a half of hostile intimacy, in tough defiance. A rumbling kind of a +bluster roars behind the fireboard. A door has slammed above stairs. A +window, perhaps, has been left open, or else is driven in by an unruly +gust. It is not to be conceived, beforehand, what wonderful +wind-instruments are these old timber mansions, and how haunted with +the strangest noises, which immediately begin to sing, and sigh, and +sob, and shriek—and to smite with sledge-hammers, airy but ponderous, +in some distant chamber—and to tread along the entries as with +stately footsteps, and rustle up and down the staircase, as with silks +miraculously stiff—whenever the gale catches the house with a window +open, and gets fairly into it. Would that we were not an attendant +spirit here! It is too awful! This clamor of the wind through the +lonely house; the Judge's quietude, as he sits invisible; and that +pertinacious ticking of his watch!...</p> + +<p>Yonder leaden Judge sits immovably upon our soul. Will he never stir +again? We shall go mad unless he stirs! You may the better estimate +his quietude by the fearlessness of a little mouse, which sits on its +hind legs, in a streak of moonlight, close by Judge Pyncheon's foot, +and seems to meditate a journey of exploration over this great black +bulk. Ha! what has startled the nimble little mouse? It is the visage +of grimalkin,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> outside of the window, where he appears to have posted +himself for a deliberate watch. This grimalkin has a very ugly look. +Is it a cat watching for a mouse, or the devil for a human soul? Would +we could scare him from the window!</p> + +<p>Thank heaven, the night is well-nigh past! The moonbeams have no +longer so silvery a gleam, nor contrast so strongly with the blackness +of the shadows among which they fall. They are paler, now; the shadows +look gray, not black. The boisterous wind is hushed. What is the hour? +Ah! the watch has at last ceased to tick; for the Judge's forgetful +fingers neglected to wind it up, as usual, at ten o'clock, being half +an hour or so before his ordinary bedtime—and it has run down, for +the first time in five years. But the great world-clock of Time still +keeps its beat. The dreary night—for, oh, how dreary seems its +haunted waste, behind us—gives place to a fresh, transparent +cloudless morn. Blest, blest radiance! The day-beam—even what little +of it finds its way into this always dusky parlor—seems part of the +universal benediction, annulling evil, and rendering all goodness +possible and happiness attainable. Will Judge Pyncheon now rise up +from his chair? Will he go forth, and receive the early sunbeams on +his brow? Will he begin this new day—which God has smiled upon, and +blest, and given to mankind—will he begin it with better purposes +than the many that have been spent amiss? Or are all the deep-laid +schemes of yesterday as stubborn in his heart, and as busy in his +brain, as ever?...</p> + +<p>The morning sunshine glimmers through the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> foliage, and, beautiful and +holy as it is, shuns not to kindle up your face. Rise up, thou subtle, +worldly, selfish, iron-hearted hypocrite, and make thy choice whether +still to be subtle, worldly, selfish, iron-hearted, and hypocritical, +or to tear these sins out of thy nature, tho they bring the life-blood +with them! The Avenger is upon thee! Rise up, before it be too late!</p> + +<p>What! Thou art not stirred by this last appeal? No, not a jot! And +there we see a fly—one of your common house-flies, such as are always +buzzing on the window-pane—which has smelt out Governor Pyncheon, and +alights, now on his forehead, now on his chin, and now, heaven help +us! is creeping over the bridge of his nose, toward the would-be chief +magistrate's wide-open eyes! Canst thou not brush the fly away? Art +thou too sluggish? Thou man, that hadst so many busy projects +yesterday! Art thou too weak, that wast so powerful? Not brush away a +fly? Nay, then, we give thee up!</p> + +<p>And hark! the shop-bell rings. After hours like these latter ones, +through which we have borne our heavy tale, it is good to be made +sensible that there is a living world, and that even this old, lonely +mansion retains some manner of connection with it. We breathe more +freely, emerging from Judge Pyncheon's presence into the street before +the Seven Gables.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> From Chapter XVIII of "The House of the Seven Gables." +Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.</p></div></div> + + +<h3>END OF VOLUME IX</h3> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best of the World's Classics, +Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of , by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEST OF THE WORLD'S CLASSICS *** + +***** This file should be named 28653-h.htm or 28653-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/5/28653/ + +Produced by Joseph R. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I + +Author: Various + +Editor: Henry Cabot Lodge + Francis W. Halsey + +Release Date: May 1, 2009 [EBook #28653] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEST OF THE WORLD'S CLASSICS *** + + + + +Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: EMERSON, IRVING, COOPER, HAWTHORNE] + + + + THE BEST + + of the + + WORLD'S CLASSICS + + RESTRICTED TO PROSE + + + + + + HENRY CABOT LODGE + + Editor-in-Chief + + FRANCIS W. HALSEY + + Associate Editor + + + With an Introduction, Biographical and + Explanatory Notes, etc. + + + + IN TEN VOLUMES + + + Vol. IX + + AMERICA--I + + + + + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + + NEW YORK AND LONDON + + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + + * * * * * + + + + +The Best of the World's Classics + +VOL. IX + +AMERICA--I + +1579-1891 + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + +VOL. IX--AMERICA--I + + _Page_ + +JOHN SMITH--(Born in 1579, died in 1631.) + His Story of Pocahontas. + (From the "General History of Virginia") 3 + +WILLIAM BRADFORD--(Born in 1590, died in 1657.) + The Pilgrims Land and Meet the Indians. + (From the "History of Plymouth") 11 + +SAMUEL SEWALL--(Born in 1652, died in 1730.) + How He Courted Madam Winthrop. + (From his "Diary") 19 + +COTTON MATHER--(Born in 1663, died in 1728.) + In Praise of John Eliot. + (From the "Magnalia Christi Americana") 33 + +WILLIAM BYRD--(Born in 1674, died in 1744.) + At the Home of Colonel Spotswood. + (From "A Visit to the Mines") 38 + +JONATHAN EDWARDS--(Born in 1703, died in 1758.) + Of Liberty and Moral Agencies. + (From the "Freedom of the Will") 44 + +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN--(Born in 1706, died in 1790.) + I His First Entry into Philadelphia. + (From the "Autobiography") 51 + + II Warnings Braddock Did Not Heed. + (From the "Autobiography") 55 + + III How to Draw Lightning from the Clouds. + (From a letter to Peter Collinson) 59 + + IV The Way to Wealth. + (From "Poor Richard's Almanac") 61 + + V Dialog with the Gout 68 + + VI A Proposal to Madame Helvetius. + (A letter to Madame Helvetius) 76 + +GEORGE WASHINGTON--(Born in 1732, died in 1799.) + + I To His Wife on Taking Command of the Army. + (A letter written on June 18, 1775) 79 + + II Of His Army in Cambridge. + (A letter to Joseph Reed) 81 + + III To the Marquis Chastellux on His Marriage. + (A letter of April 25, 1788) 84 + +JOHN ADAMS--(Born in 1735, died in 1826.) + + I On His Nomination of Washington to Be + Commander-in-Chief. + (From his "Diary") 87 + + II An Estimate of Franklin. + (From a letter to the Boston _Patriot_) 90 + +THOMAS PAINE--(Born in 1737, died in 1809.) + + In Favor of the Separation of the Colonies + from Great Britain. + (From "Common Sense") 94 + +THOMAS JEFFERSON--(Born in 1743, died in 1826.) + + I When the Bastile Fell. + (From his "Autobiography") 98 + + II The Futility of Disputes. + (From a letter to his nephew) 106 + + III Of Blacks and Whites in the South. + (From the "Notes on the State of Virginia") 108 + + IV His Account of Logan's Famous Speech. + (From the "Notes on Virginia") 114 + +GOUVERNEUR MORRIS--(Born in 1752, died in 1816.) + + I The Opening of the French States-General. + (From a letter to Mrs. Morris) 117 + + II Of the Execution of Louis XVI. + (From a letter to Thomas Jefferson) 120 + +ALEXANDER HAMILTON--(Born in 1757, died in 1804.) + + I Of the Failure of Confederation. + (From _The Federalist_) 123 + + II His Reasons for not Declining Burr's + Challenge. + (From a statement written before the + day of the duel) 129 + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS--(Born in 1767, died in 1848.) + + I Of His Mother. + (From the "Diary") 133 + + II The Moral Taint Inherent in Slavery. + (From the "Diary") 135 + +WILLIAM E. CHANNING--(Born in 1780, died in 1842.) + + Of Greatness in Napoleon. + (From a review of Scott's "Life of Napoleon") 139 + +JOHN JAMES AUDUBON--(Born in 1780, died in 1857.) + + Where the Mocking Bird Dwells. + (From the "Birds of America") 144 + +WASHINGTON IRVING--(Born in 1783, died in 1859.) + + I The Last of the Dutch Governors of New York. + (From "Knickerbocker's History of New York") 147 + + II The Awakening of Rip Van Winkle. + (From the "Sketch Book") 151 + + III At Abbotsford with Scott. + (From the "Crayon Miscellany") 161 + +FENIMORE COOPER--(Born in 1789, died in 1851.) + + I His Father's Arrival at Otsego Lake. + (From "The Pioneers") 170 + + II Running the Gantlet. + (From "The Last of the Mohicans") 178 + + III Leather-Stocking's Farewell. + (From "The Pioneers") 185 + +WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT--(Born in 1794, died in 1878.) + + An October Day in Florence. + (From a letter) 194 + +WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT--(Born in 1796, died in 1859.) + + I The Fate of Egmont and Hoorne. + (From "Philip II") 198 + + II The Genesis of Don Quixote. + (From the "Miscellanies") 209 + +GEORGE BANCROFT--(Born in 1800, died in 1891.) + + The Fate of Evangeline's Countrymen. + (From the "History of the United States") 217 + +RALPH WALDO EMERSON--(Born in 1803, died in 1882.) + + I Thoreau's Broken Task. + (From the "Funeral Address") 223 + + II The Intellectual Honesty of Montaigne. + (From "Representative Men") 229 + + III His Visit to Carlyle at Craigen-puttock. + (From "English Traits") 231 + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE--(Born in 1804, died in 1864.) + + I Occupants of an Old Manse. + (From "Mosses from an Old Manse") 235 + + II Arthur Dimmesdale on the Scaffold. + (From "The Scarlet Letter") 242 + + III Of Life at Brook Farm. + (From "The Blithedale Romance") 248 + + IV The Death of Judge Pyncheon. + (From "The House of the Seven Gables") 252 + + * * * * * + + + + +AMERICA--I + +1579-1891 + + +JOHN SMITH + + Born in England in 1579, died in 1631; served against the + Turks, captured, but escaped and returned to England in + 1605; sailed for Virginia in 1606, and helped to found + Jamestown; captured by Indians and his life saved by + Pocahontas the same year; explored the Chesapeake to its + head; president of the Colony in 1608; returned to London in + 1609; in 1614 explored the coast of New England; captured by + the French in 1615 and escaped the same year; received the + title of Admiral of New England in 1617; published his "True + Relation" in 1608, "Map of Virginia" in 1612, "A Description + of New England" in 1616, "New England's Trials" in 1620, and + his "General History" in 1624. + + + + +HIS STORY OF POCAHONTAS[1] + + +Here more than two hundred of those grim Courtiers stood wondering at +him [John Smith], as he had beene a monster; till Powhatan[2] and his +train had put themselves in their greatest braveries. Before a fire +upon a seat like a bedsted, he sat covered with a great robe, made of +Rarowcun skinnes, and all the tayles hanging by. On either hand did +sit a young wench of 16 or 18 years, and along on each side the house, +two rowes of men, and behind them as many women, with all their heads +and shoulders painted red; many of their heads bedecked with the +white downe of Birds; but every one with something: and a great chain +of white beads about their necks. + +[Footnote 1: From Smith's "Generall Historie of Virginia."] + +[Footnote 2: Powhatan was chief of a confederacy of Indians known as +the Powhatans, which he had raised from one comprizing only seven +tribes to one of thirty. The word Powhatan means "falls in a stream," +and was originally applied to the falls in the James river at +Richmond.] + +At his entrance before the King, all the people gave a great shout. +The Queene of Appamatuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his +hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel +to dry them. Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they +could, a long consultation was held, but the conclusion was, two great +stones were brought before Powhatan: then as many as could laid hands +on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being +ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines, Pocahontas the +King's dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head +in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death: +whereat the Emperour was contented he should live to make him +hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper; for they thought him as +well of all occupations as themselves. For the King himselfe will make +his owne robes, shooes, bowes, arrowes, pots; plant, hunt, or doe any +thing so well as the rest.... + +To conclude our peace, thus it happened. Captaine Argall[3] having +entered into a great acquaintance with Japazaws, an old friend of +Captaine Smith's, and so to all our Nation, ever since hee discovered +the Countrie: hard by him there was Pocahontas, whom Captaine Smith's +Relations intituleth the Numparell of Virginia, and tho she had beene +many times a preserver of him and the whole Colonie, yet till this +accident shee was never seene at James towne since his departure, +being at Patawomeke, as it seemes, thinking her selfe unknown, was +easily by her friend Japazaws perswaded to goe abroad with him and his +wife to see the ship, for Captaine Argall had promised him a Copper +Kettle to bring her but to him, promising no way to hurt her, but +keepe her till they could conclude a peace with her father. The +Salvage for this Copper Kettle would have done any thing, it seemed by +the Relation; for tho she had seene and beene in many ships, yet he +caused his wife to faine how desirous she was to see one, and that he +offered to beat her for her importunitie, till she wept. + +[Footnote 3: Argall, through intimidation or bribery, had made +Pocahontas a captive in 1612, when she was the wife of an Indian +attached to her father as a subordinate chief or leader.] + +But at last he told her, if Pocahontas would goe with her, he was +content: and thus they betrayed the poore innocent Pocahontas aboord, +where they were all kindly feasted in the cabin. Japazaws treading oft +on the Captaine's foot, to remember he had done his part, the Captaine +when he saw his time, perswaded Pocahontas to the gun-roome, faining +to have some conference with Japazaws, which was only that she should +not perceive he was any way guiltie of her captivitie: so sending for +her againe, he told her before her friends, she must goe with him, and +compound peace betwixt her Countrie and us, before she ever should see +Powhatan, whereat the old Jew and his wife began to howle and crie as +fast as Pocahontas, that upon the Captaine's fair perswasions, by +degrees pacifying her selfe, and Japazaws and his wife, with the +Kettle and other toys, went merrily on shore, and she to James towne. +A messenger forthwith was sent to her father, that his daughter +Pocahontas he loved so dearly, he must ransome with our men, swords, +pieces, tooles, etc., he trecherously had stolne.... + +Long before this, Master John Rolfe, an honest Gentleman, and of good +behaviour, had beene in love with Pocahontas, and she with him, which +thing at that instant I made knowne to Sir Thomas Dale by a letter +from him, wherein hee intreated his advice, and she acquainted her +brother with it, which resolution Sir Thomas Dale[4] well approved. +The bruit of this mariage came soone to the knowledge of Powhatan, a +thing acceptable to him, as appeared by his sudden consent, for within +ten days he sent Opachisco, an old Uncle of hers, and two of his sons, +to see the manner of the mariage, and to doe in that behalfe what they +requested, for the confirmation thereof, as his deputie; which was +accordingly done about the first of Aprill. And ever since we have had +friendly trade and commerce, as well with Powhatan himself, as all his +subjects.... + +[Footnote 4: Dale was colonial governor of Virginia in 1611 and again +in 1614-16. In the latter year he returned to England, taking with him +Captain Rolfe and Pocahontas.] + +The Lady Rebecca,[5] alias Pocahontas, daughter to Powhattan, by the +diligent care of Master John Rolfe her husband and his friends, as +taught to speake such English as might well bee understood, well +instructed in Christianitie, and was become very formal and civil +after our English manner; she had also by him a childe which she loved +most dearely and the Treasurer and Company tooke order both for the +maintenance of her and it, besides there were divers persons of great +ranke and qualitie had beene very kinde to her; and before she arrived +at London, Captaine Smith to deserve her former courtesies, made her +qualities knowne to the Queene's most excellent Majestie and her +Court, and writ a little booke to this effect to the Queene: An +abstract whereof followeth. + +[Footnote 5: Under that name Pocahontas had been baptized in the +original Jamestown church. A legend has survived that an old font, now +preserved in the church at Williamsburg, is the one from which she was +baptized.] + +"_To the most high and vertuous Princesse Queene Anne of Great +Brittanie._ + +"MOST ADMIRED QUEENE, + +"The love I beare my God, my King, and Countrie hath so oft emboldened +me in the worst of extreme dangers, that now honestie doth constraine +mee presume thus far beyond my selfe, to present your Majestie this +short discourse: If ingratitude be a deadly poyson to all honest +vertues, I must bee guiltie of that crime if I should omit any meanes +to bee thankful. So it is, that some ten yeers agoe being in Virginia, +and taken prisoner by the power of Powhatan their chiefe King, I +received from this great Salvage exceeding great courtesie, especially +from his son Nantaquaus, the most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit, +I ever saw in a Salvage, and his sister Pocahontas, the King's most +deare and well-beloved daughter, being but a childe of twelve or +thirteene yeers of age, whose compassionate pitiful heart, of +desperate estate, gave me much cause to respect her: I being the +first Christian this proud King and his grim attendants ever saw: and +thus inthralled in their barbarous power, I cannot say I felt the +least occasion of want that was in the power of those my mortal foes +to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some six weeks +fatting among those Salvage Courtiers, at the minute of my execution, +she hazarded the beating out of her owne braines to save mine, and not +only that, but so prevaild with her father, that I was safely +conducted to James towne, where I found about eight and thirtie +miserable poore and sicke creatures, to keepe possession of all those +large territories of Virginia. Such was the weaknesse of this poore +Commonwealth, as had the Salvages not fed us, we directly had starved. + +"And this reliefe, most gracious Queene, was commonly brought us by +this Lady Pocahontas, notwithstanding all these passages when +inconstant Fortune turned our peace to war, this tender Virgin would +still not spare to dare to visit us, and by her our jars have beene +oft appeased, and our wants still supplyed; were it the policie of her +father thus to imploy her, or the ordinance of God thus to make her +His instrument, or her extraordinary affection to our Nation, I know +not: but of this I am sure:--when her father with the utmost of his +policie and power, sought to surprize mee, having but eighteene with +mee, the darke night could not affright her from comming through the +irkesome woods, and with watered eyes gave me intelligence, with her +best advice to escape his furie; which had hee knowne, hee had surely +slaine her. James towne with her wild traine she as freely +frequented, as her father's habitation; and during the time of two or +three yeeres, she next under God, was still the Instrument to preserve +this Colonie from death, famine and utter confusion, which if in those +times had once beene dissolved, Virginia might have line as it was at +our first arrival to this day. Since then, this businesse having beene +turned and varied by many accidents from that I left it at: it is most +certaine, after a long and troublesome war after my departure, betwixt +her father and our Colonie, all which time shee was not heard of, +about two yeeres after she her selfe was taken prisoner, being so +detained neere two yeeres longer, the Colonie by that meanes was +relieved, peace concluded, and at last rejecting her barbarous +condition, was maried to an English Gentleman, with whom at this +present she is in England; the first Christian ever of that Nation, +the first Virginian ever spake English, or had a childe in mariage by +an Englishman, a matter surely, if my meaning bee truly considered and +well understood, worthy a Prince's understanding.... + +"The small time I staid in London, divers Courtiers and others, my +acquaintances, hath gone with mee to see her, that generally +concluded, they did thinke God had a great hand in her conversion, and +they have seen many English Ladies worse favored, proportioned and +behaviored, and as since I have heard, it pleased both the King and +Queene's Majestie honorably to esteeme her, accompanied with that +honorable Lady the Lady De la Warre, and that honorable Lord her +husband, and divers other persons of good qualities, both publikely +at the maskes and otherwise, to her great satisfaction and content, +which doubtlesse she would have deserved had she lived to arrive in +Virginia."[6] + +[Footnote 6: Pocahontas in England gave birth to a son. She died at +Gravesend in the following year, in 1617. The parish records of +Gravesend describe her as "a Virginia lady borne, here was buried in +ye chauncell." In London a well-known street preserves a memorial of +her in its name--La Belle Sauvage. Her son, Thomas Rolfe, after living +many years in England, settled in Virginia. Several families in that +State have traced their descent from him. One of these was the famous +John Randolph of Roanoke.] + + + + +WILLIAM BRADFORD + + Born in England in 1590, died at Plymouth, Mass., in 1657; + governor of Plymouth Colony from 1627, except for five + years, to 1657; wrote a "History of the Plymouth Plantation" + for the period 1602-47, the manuscript of which was lost in + England, but after the lapse of about seventy-five years it + was found in a library in 1855, and in the following year + published. + + + + +THE PILGRIMS LAND AND MEET THE INDIANS[7] + +(1620) + + +Having the wind good, we sailed all that day along the coast about +fifteen leagues; but saw neither river nor creek to put into. After we +had sailed an hour or two, it began to snow and rain, and to be bad +weather. About the midst of the afternoon the wind increased, and the +seas began to be very rough; and the hinges of the rudder broke, so +that we could steer no longer with it, but two men, with much ado, +were fain to serve with a couple of oars. The seas were grown so great +that we were much troubled and in great danger; and night grew on. +Anon, Master Coppin bade us be of good cheer; he saw the harbor. As we +drew near, the gale being stiff, and we bearing great sail to get in, +split our mast in three pieces, and were like to have cast away our +shallop. Yet, by God's mercy, recovering ourselves, we had the flood +with us, and struck into the harbor. + +[Footnote 7: From what was long known as "Mourt's Relation," published +in London in 1622, but more properly, and now generally, called the +"Journal," or diary, of Bradford and Edward Winslow. This important +historical document covers the first year of the Plymouth colony.] + +Now he that thought that had been the place, was deceived, it being a +place where not any of us had been before; and coming into the harbor, +he that was our pilot, did bear up northward, which if he had +continued, we had been cast away. Yet still the Lord kept us and we +bare up for an island before us, and recovering of that island, being +compassed about with many rocks, and dark night growing upon us, it +pleased the Divine Providence that we fell upon a place of sandy +ground, where our shallop did ride safe and secure all that night; and +coming upon a strange island, kept our watch all night in the rain +upon that island. And in the morning we marched about it, and found no +inhabitants at all; and here we made our rendezvous all that day, +being Saturday, 10th of December. On the Sabbath day we rested; and on +Monday we sounded the harbor, and found it a very good harbor for our +shipping. We marched also into the land, and found divers cornfields, +and little running brooks, a place very good for situation. So we +returned to our ship again with good news to the rest of our people, +which did much comfort their hearts.... + +Some of us, having a good mind, for safety, to plant in the greater +isle, we crossed the bay, which is there five or six miles over, and +found the isle about a mile and half or two miles about, all wooded, +and no fresh water but two or three pits, that we doubted of fresh +water in summer, and so full of wood as we could hardly clear so much +as to serve us for corn. Besides, we judged it cold for our corn, and +some part very rocky; yet divers thought of it as a place defensible, +and of great security. That night we returned again a shipboard, with +resolution the next morning to settle on some of those places. + +So in the morning, after we had called on God for direction, we came +to this resolution, to go presently ashore again, and to take a better +view of two places which we thought most fitting for us; for we could +not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals +being much spent, especially our beer, and it being now the 19th of +December. After our landing and viewing of the places, so well as we +could, we came to a conclusion, by most voices, to set on the main +land, on the first place, on a high ground, where there is a great +deal of land cleared, and hath been planted with corn three or four +years ago; and there is a very sweet brook runs under the hill side, +and many delicate springs of as good water as can be drunk, and where +we may harbor our shallops and boats exceeding well; and in this brook +much good fish in their seasons; on the further side of the river also +much corn-ground cleared. In one field is a great hill, on which we +point to make a platform, and plant our ordnance, which will command +all round about. From thence we may see into the bay, and far into the +sea; and we may see thence Cape Cod. Our greatest labor will be +fetching of our wood, which is half a quarter of an English mile; but +there is enough so far off. What people inhabit here we yet know not, +for as yet we have seen none. So there we made our rendezvous, and a +place for some of our people, about twenty, resolving in the morning +to come all ashore and to build houses. + +But the next morning, being Thursday, the 21st of December, it was +stormy and wet, that we could not go ashore; and those that remained +there all night could do nothing, but were wet, not having daylight +enough to make them a sufficient court of guard, to keep them dry. All +that night it blew and rained extremely. It was so tempestuous that +the shallop could not go on land so soon as was meet, for they had no +victuals on land. About eleven o'clock the shallop went off with much +ado with provision, but could not return, it blew so strong; and was +such foul weather that we were forced to let fall our anchor, and ride +with three anchors ahead. + +Friday, the 22d, the storm still continued, that we could not get a +land, nor they come to us aboard.... + +Saturday, the 23d, so many of us as could went on shore, felled and +carried timber, to provide themselves stuff for building. + +Sunday, the 24th, our people on shore heard a cry of some savages, as +they thought, which caused an alarm and to stand on their guard, +expecting an assault; but all was quiet. + +Friday, the 16th, a fair warm day toward. This morning we determined +to conclude of the military orders, which we had begun to consider of +before, but were interrupted by the savages, as we mentioned formerly. +And while we were busied, hereabout, we were interrupted again; for +there presented himself a savage, which caused an alarm. He very +boldly came all alone, and along the houses, straight to the +rendezvous; where we intercepted him, not suffering him to go in, as +undoubtedly he would out of his boldness. He saluted us in English, +and bade us "Welcome!" for he had learned some broken English among +the Englishmen that came to fish at Monhiggon, and knew by name the +most of the captains, commanders and masters, that usually come. He +was a man free in speech, so far as he could express his mind, and of +a seemly carriage. We questioned him of many things; he was the first +savage we could meet withal. He said he was not of these parts, but of +Morattiggon, and one of the sagamores or lords thereof; and had been +eight months in these parts, it lying hence a day's sail with a great +wind, and five days by land. He discoursed of the whole country, and +of every province, and of their sagamores, and their number of men and +strength. The wind beginning to rise a little, we cast a horseman's +coat about him; for he was stark naked, only a leather about his +waist, with a fringe about a span long or little more. He had a bow +and two arrows, the one headed, and the other unheaded. He was a tall, +straight man, the hair of his head black, long behind, only short +before, none on his face at all. He asked some beer, but we gave him +strong water, and biscuit, and butter, and cheese, and pudding, and a +piece of mallard; all which he liked well, and had been acquainted +with such amongst the English. He told us the place where we now live +is called Patuxet, and that about four years ago all the inhabitants +died of an extraordinary plague, and there is neither man, woman, nor +child remaining, as indeed we have found none; so as there is none to +hinder our possession, or to lay claim unto it. All the afternoon we +spent in communication with him. We would gladly have been rid of him +at night, but he was not willing to go this night. Then we thought to +carry him on shipboard, wherewith he was well content, and went into +the shallop; but the wind was high and the water scant, that it could +not return back. We lodged him that night at Steven Hopkin's house, +and watched him. + +The next day he went away back to the Masasoits, from whence he said +he came, who are our next bordering neighbors. They are sixty strong, +as he saith. The Nausites are as near, southeast of them, and are a +hundred strong; and those were they of whom our people were +encountered, as we before related. They are much incensed and provoked +against the English; and about eight months ago slew three Englishmen, +and two more hardly escaped by flight to Monhiggon. They were Sir +Ferdinando Gorge's[8] men, as this savage told us; as he did likewise +of the _huggery_, that is, fight, that our discoverers had with the +Nausites, and of our tools that were taken out of the woods, which we +willed him, should be brought again; otherwise we would right +ourselves. These people are ill affected toward the English by reason +of one Hunt, a master of a ship, who deceived the people and got them +under color of trucking with them, twenty out of this very place where +we inhabit, and seven men from the Nausites, and carried them away, +and sold them for slaves, like a wretched man (for twenty pound a man) +that cares not what mischief he doth for his profit. + +[Footnote 8: Gorge was an English naval and military commander who +came of an ancient family in Somersetshire. He had undertaken several +schemes of discovery and settlement in America, but with small +success. His pioneer work, however, was of such importance that he has +sometimes been called "the father of English colonization in +America."] + +Saturday, in the morning, we dismissed the savage, and gave him a +knife, a bracelet, and a ring. He promised within a night or two to +come again and to bring with him some of the Masasoits, our neighbors, +with such beavers' skins as they had to truck with us. + +Saturday and Sunday reasonable fair days. On this day came again the +savage, and brought with him five other tall, proper men. They had +every man a deer's skin on him, and the principal of them had a wild +cat's skin, or such like, on the one arm. They had most of them long +hosen up to their groins, close made, and above their groins to their +waist another leather; they were altogether like the Irish trousers. +They are of complexion like our English gipseys; no hair or very +little on their faces; on their heads long hair to their shoulders, +only cut before; some trussed up before with a feather, broad-wise, +like a fan; another a fox-tail, hanging out. These left (according to +our charge given him before) their bows and arrows a quarter of a mile +from our town. We gave them entertainment as we thought was fitting +them. They did eat liberally of our English victuals. They made +semblance unto us of friendship and amity. They sang and danced after +their manner, like antics. They brought with them in a thing like a +bow-case (which the principal of them had about his waist) a little of +their corn pounded to powder, which, put to a little water, they eat. +He had a little tobacco in a bag; but none of them drank but when he +liked. Some of them had their faces painted black, from the forehead +to the chin, four or five fingers broad; others after other fashions, +as they liked. They brought three or four skins; but we would not +truck with them at all that day, but wished them to bring more, and we +would truck for all; which they promised within a night or two, and +would leave these behind them, tho we were not willing they should; +and they brought us all our tools again, which were taken in the +woods, in our men's absence. So, because of the day, we dismissed them +so soon as we could. But Samoset,[9] our first acquaintance, either +was sick or feigned himself so, and would not go with them, and stayed +with us till Wednesday morning. Then we sent him to them to know the +reason they came not according to their words; and we gave him a hat, +a pair of stockings and shoes, a shirt, and a piece of cloth to tie +about his waist. + +[Footnote 9: Samoset is still famous as an Indian who remained firm in +his friendship with the Plymouth colonists.] + + + + +SAMUEL SEWALL + + Born in England in 1652, died in Boston in 1730; served in + the Bay Colony as judge and in other public stations; one of + the judges at trials for witchcraft in 1692; chief justice + in 1718; a philanthropist, and in 1700 wrote a pamphlet + against slavery; his other works: "Queries Respecting + America," published in 1690; "The Kennebec Indians" in 1721, + and his "Diary" covering the period 1664-1729 in 1882. + + + + +HOW HE COURTED MADAM WINTHROP[10] + +(1720) + + +September 5, 1720. Mary Hirst goes to Board with Madam Oliver and her +Mother Loyd. Going to Son Sewall's I there meet with Madam Winthrop, +told her I was glad to meet her there, had not seen her a great while; +gave her Mr. Homes's Sermon.... + +[Footnote 10: From Sewall's "Diary," as published by the Massachusetts +Historical Society in 1882. + +Mrs. Winthrop was the widow of General Waite Still Winthrop, a son of +John Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut, who was a son of John +Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her maiden name +was Katharine Brattle. She had first married John Eyre, with whom she +lived about twenty years, and by whom she had twelve children. She was +born in 1664, and at the time of Sewall's courtship of her was +fifty-six and he sixty-nine. General Winthrop and Mrs. Sewall had died +a few years before within a month of each other. Madam Winthrop did +not marry Judge Sewall, nor any one else. She died five years after +the date of this courtship.] + +September 30. Mr. Colman's Lecture: Daughter Sewall acquaints Madam +Winthrop that if she pleas'd to be within at 3 P.M. I would wait on +her. She answer'd she would be at home. + +October 1. Satterday, I dine at Mr. Stoddard's: from thence I went to +Madam Winthrop's just at 3. Spake to her, saying, my loving wife died +so soon and suddenly, 'twas hardly convenient for me to think of +marrying again; however I came to this Resolution, that I would not +make my Court to any person without first Consulting with her. Had a +pleasant discourse about 7 [seven] Single persons sitting in the +Fore-seat. She propounded one and another for me; but none would do, +said Mrs. Loyd was about her Age. + +October 3. 2. Waited on Madam Winthrop again; 'twas a little while +before she came in. Her daughter Noyes being there alone with me, I +said, I hoped my Waiting on her Mother would not be disagreeable to +her. She answer'd she should not be against that that might be for her +Comfort. I Saluted her, and told her I perceived I must shortly wish +her a good Time; (her mother had told me, she was with Child, and +within a Moneth or two of her Time). By and by in came Mr. Airs, +Chaplain of the Castle, and hang'd up his Hat, which I was a little +startled at, it seeming as if he was to lodge there. At last Madam +Winthrop came too. After a considerable time, I went up to her and +said, if it might not be inconvenient I desired to speak with her. She +assented, and spake of going into another Room; but Mr. Airs and Mrs. +Noyes presently rose up, and went out, leaving us there alone. Then I +usher'd in Discourse from the names in the Fore-seat; at last I pray'd +that Katharine [Mrs. Winthrop] might be the person assign'd for me. +She instantly took it up in the way of Denyal, as if she had catch'd +at an Opportunity to do it, saying she could not do it before she was +asked. Said that was her mind unless she should Change it, which she +believed she should not; could not leave her Children. I express'd my +Sorrow that she should do it so Speedily, pray'd her Consideration, +and ask'd her when I should wait on her agen. She setting no time, I +mentioned that day Sennight. Gave her Mr. Willard's Fountain open'd +with the little print and verses; saying, I hop'd if we did well read +that book, we should meet together hereafter, if we did not now. She +took the Book, and put it in her Pocket. Took Leave. + +October 5. Midweek, I din'ed with the Court; from thence went and +visited Cousin Jonathan's wife, Lying in with her little Betty. Gave +the Nurse 2s. Altho I had appointed to wait upon her, Madam Winthrop, +next Monday, yet I went from my Cousin Sewall's thither about 3 P.M. +The Nurse told me Madam dined abroad at her daughter Noyes's, they +were to go out together. I ask'd for the Maid, who was not within. +Gave Katee a penny and a Kiss, and came away. Accompanyed my Son and +daughter Cooper in their Remove to their New House. + +October 6. A little after 6 P.M. I went to Madam Winthrop's. She was +not within. I gave Sarah Chickering the Maid 2s., Juno, who brought in +wood, 1s. Afterward the Nurse came in, I gave her 18d., having no +other small Bill. After awhile Dr. Noyes came in with his Mother; and +quickly after his wife came in: They sat talking, I think, till eight +a-clock. I said I fear'd I might be some Interruption to their +Business: Dr. Noyes reply'd pleasantly: He fear'd they might be an +Interruption to me, and went away. Madam seem'd to harp upon the same +string. Must take care of her Children; could not leave that House and +Neighborhood where she had dwelt so long. I told her she might doe her +children as much or more good by bestowing what she laid out in +Hous-keeping, upon them. Said her Son would be of age the 7th of +August. I said it might be inconvenient for her to dwell with her +Daughter-in-Law, who must be Mistress of the House. I gave her a piece +of Mr. Belcher's Cake and Ginger-Bread wrapped up in a clean sheet of +Paper; told her of her Father's kindness to me when Treasurer, and I +Constable. My Daughter Judith was gon from me and I was more +lonesom--might help to forward one another in our Journey to +Canaan.--Mr. Eyre[11] came within the door; I saluted him, ask'd how +Mr. Clark did, and he went away. I took leave about 9 a-clock. I told +[her] I came now to refresh her Memory as to Monday night; said she +had not forgot it. In discourse with her, I ask'd leave to speak with +her Sister; I meant to gain Madam Mico's favour to persuade her +Sister. She seem'd surpris'd and displeas'd, and said she was in the +same condition!... + +[Footnote 11: A son of Madam Winthrop by her first marriage.] + +October 10. In the Evening I visited Madam Winthrop, who treated me +with a great deal of Curtesy; Wine, Marmalade. I gave her a +News-Letter about the Thanksgiving; Proposals, for sake of the Verses +for David Jeffries. She tells me Dr. Increase Mather visited her this +day, in Mr. Hutchinson's Coach. + +October 11. I writ a few Lines to Madam Winthrop to this purpose: +"Madam, These wait on you with Mr. Mayhew's Sermon, and Account of the +state of the Indians on Martha's Vinyard. I thank you for your +Unmerited Favors of yesterday; and hope to have the Happiness of +Waiting on you to-morrow before Eight a-clock after Noon. I pray GOD +to keep you, and give you a joyfull entrance upon the Two Hundred and +twenty-ninth year of Christopher Columbus his Discovery; and take +Leave, who am, Madam, your humble Servant. S. S." + +Sent this by Deacon Green, who deliver'd it to Sarah Chickering, her +Mistress not being at home. + +October 12. At Madam Winthrop's Steps I took leave of Capt Hill, &c. +Mrs. Anne Cotton came to door (twas before 8.) said Madam Winthrop was +within, directed me into the little Room, where she was full of work +behind a Stand Mrs. Cotton came in and stood. Madam Winthrop pointed +to her to set me a Chair. Madam Winthrop's Countenance was much +changed from what 'twas on Monday, look'd dark and lowering. At last, +the work, (black stuff or Silk) was taken away, I got my Chair in +place, had some Converse, but very Cold and indifferent to what 'twas +before. Ask'd her to acquit me of Rudeness if I drew off her Glove. +Enquiring the reason, I told her twas great odds between handling a +dead Goat, and a living Lady. Got it off. I told her I had one +Petition to ask of her, that was, that she would take off the Negative +she laid on me the third of October; She readily answer'd she could +not, and enlarg'd upon it; She told me of it so soon as she could; +could not leave her house, children, neighbours, business. I told her +she might do som Good to help and support me. Mentioning Mrs. Gookin, +Nath, the widow Weld was spoken of; said I had visited Mrs. Denison. I +told her Yes! Afterward I said, If after a first and second Vagary she +would Accept of me returning, Her Victorious Kindness and Good Will +would be very Obliging. She thank'd me for my Book, (Mr. Mayhew's +Sermon), But said not a word of the Letter. When she insisted on the +Negative, I pray'd there might be no more Thunder and Lightening, I +should not sleep all night. I gave her Dr. Preston, The Church's +Marriage and the Church's Carriage, which cost me 6s. at the Sale. The +door standing open, Mr. Airs came in, hung up His hat, and sat down. +After awhile, Madam Winthrop moving, he went out. Jno. Eyre look'd in, +I said How do ye, or your servant Mr. Eyre: but heard no word from +him. Sarah fill'd a Glass of Wine, she drank to me, I to her, She sent +Juno home with me with a good Lantern, I gave her 6d. and bid her +thank her Mistress. In some of our Discourse, I told her I had rather +go the Stone-House adjoining to her, than to come to her against her +mind. Told her the reason why I came every other night was lest I +should drink too deep draughts of Pleasure. She had talk'd of Canary, +her Kisses were to me better than the best Canary. Explain'd the +expression Concerning Columbus. + +October 13. I tell my Son and daughter Sewall, that the Weather was +not so fair as I apprehended. + +October 17. In the Evening I visited Madam Winthrop, who Treated me +Courteously, but not in Clean Linen as somtimes. She said, she did not +know whether I would come again, or no. I ask'd her how she could so +impute inconstancy to me. (I had not visited her since Wednesday night +being unable to get over the Indisposition received by the Treatment +received that night, and _I must_ in it seem'd to sound like a made +piece of Formality.) Gave her this day's Gazett. Heard David Jeffries +say the Lord's Prayer, and some other portions of the Scriptures. He +came to the door, and ask'd me to go into Chamber, where his +Grandmother was tending Little Katee, to whom she had given Physick; +but I chose to sit below. Dr. Noyes and his wife came in, and sat a +considerable time; had been visiting Son and daughter Cooper. Juno +came home with me. + +October 18. Visited Madam Mico, who came to me in a splendid Dress. I +said, It may be you have heard of my Visiting Madam Winthrop, her +Sister. She answered, Her Sister had told her of it. I ask'd her good +Will in the Affair. She answer'd, If her Sister were for it, she +should not hinder it. I gave her Mr. Homes's Sermon. She gave me a +Glass of Canary, entertain'd me with good Discourse, and a Respectfull +Remembrance of my first Wife. I took Leave. + +October 19. Midweek, Visited Madam Winthrop; Sarah told me she was at +Mr. Walley's, would not come home till late. I gave her Hannah 3 +oranges with her Duty, not knowing whether I should find her or no. +Was ready to go home: but said if I knew she was there, I would go +thither. Sarah seem'd to speak with pretty good Courage, She would be +there. I went and found her there, with Mr. Walley and his wife in the +little Room below. At 7 a-clock I mentioned going home; at 8. I put on +my Coat, and quickly waited on her home. She found occasion to speak +loud to the servant, as if she had a mind to be known. Was Courteous +to me; but took occasion to speak pretty earnestly about my keeping a +Coach: I said 'twould cost L100. per annum: she said twould cost but +L40. Spake much against John Winthrop, his false-heartedness. Mr. Eyre +came in and sat awhile; I offer'd him Dr. Incr. Mather's Sermons, +whereof Mr. Appleton's Ordination Sermon was one; said he had them +already. I said I would give him another. Exit. Came away somewhat +late. + +October 20. Promis'd to wait on the Governor about 7. Madam Winthrop +not being at Lecture, I went thither first; found her very Serene with +her daughter Noyes, Mrs. Dering, and the widow Shipreev sitting at a +little Table, she in her arm'd Chair. She drank to me, and I to Mrs. +Noyes. After awhile pray'd the favor to speak with her. She took one +of the Candles, and went into the best Room, clos'd the shutters, sat +down upon the Couch. She told me Madam Usher had been there, and said +the Coach must be set on Wheels, and not by Rusting. She spake +something of my needing a Wigg. Ask'd me what her Sister said to me. I +told her, She said, If her Sister were for it, She would not hinder +it. But I told her, she did not say she would be glad to have me for +her Brother. Said, I shall keep you in the Cold, and asked her if she +would be within to morrow night, for we had had but a running Feat. +She said she could not tell whether she should, or no. I took Leave. +As were drinking at the Governour's, he said: In England the Ladies +minded little more than that they might have Money, and Coaches to +ride in. I said, And New-England brooks its Name. At which Mr. Dudley +smiled. Governour said they were not quite so bad here. + +October 21. Friday, My Son, the Minister, came to me P.M. by +appointment and we pray one for another in the Old Chamber; more +especially respecting my Courtship. About 6. a-clock I go to Madam +Winthrop's; Sarah told me her Mistress was gon out, but did not tell +me whither she went. She presently order'd me a Fire; so I went in, +having Dr. Sibb's Bowels with me to read. I read the two first +Sermons, still no body came in: at last about 9. a-clock Mr. Jno. Eyre +came in; I took the opportunity to say to him as I had done to Mrs. +Noyes before, that I hoped my Visiting his Mother would not be +disagreeable to him; He answered me with much Respect. When twas after +9. a-clock He of himself said he would go and call her, she was but at +one of his Brothers: A while after I heard Madam Winthrop's voice, +enquiring somthing about John. After a good while and Clapping the +Garden door twice or thrice, she came in. I mention'd somthing of the +lateness; she banter'd me, and said I was later. She receiv'd me +Courteously. I ask'd when our proceedings should be made publick: She +said They were like to be no more publick than they were already. +Offer'd me no Wine that I remember. I rose up at 11 a-clock to come +away, saying I would put on my Coat, She offer'd not to help me. I +pray'd her that Juno might light me home, she open'd the Shutter, and +said twas pretty light abroad; Juno was weary and gon to bed. So I +came home by Star-light as well as I could. At my first coming in, I +gave Sarah five Shillings. I writ Mr. Eyre his name in his book with +the date October 21, 1720. It cost me 8s. Jehovah jireh! Madam told me +she had visited M. Mico, Wendell, and Wm. Clark of the South [Church]. + +October 22. Daughter Cooper visited me before my going out of Town, +staid till about Sun set. I brought her going near as far as the +Orange Tree. Coming back, near Leg's Corner, Little David Jeffries saw +me, and looking upon me very lovingly, ask'd me if I was going to see +his Grandmother? I said, Not to-night. Gave him a peny, and bid him +present my Service to his Grandmother. + +October 24. I went in the Hackny Coach through the Common, stop'd at +Madam Winthrop's (had told her I would take my departure from thence). +Sarah came to the door with Katee in her Arms: but I did not think to +take notice of the Child. Call'd her Mistress. I told her, being +encourag'd by David Jeffries loving eyes, and sweet Words, I was come +to enquire whether she could find in her heart to leave that House and +Neighbourhood, and go and dwell with me at the South-end; I think she +said softly, Not yet. I told her It did not ly in my Lands to keep a +Coach. If I should, I should be in danger to be brought to keep +company with her Neighbour Brooker, (he was a little before sent to +prison for Debt). Told her I had an Antipathy against those who would +pretend to give themselves; but nothing of their Estate. I would a +proportion of my Estate with my self. And I supposed she would do so. +As to a Perriwig, My best and greatest Friend, I could not possibly +have a greater, began to find me with Hair before I was born, and had +continued to do so ever since; and I could not find in my heart to go +to another. She commended the book I gave her, Dr. Preston, the Church +Marriage; quoted him saying 'twas inconvenient keeping out of a +Fashion commonly used. I said the Time and Tide did circumscribe my +Visit. She gave me a Dram of Black-Cherry Brandy, and gave me a lump +of the Sugar that was in it. She wish'd me a good Journy. I pray'd God +to keep her, and came away. Had a very pleasant Journy to Salem. + +November 1. I was so taken up that I could not go if I would. + +November 2. Midweek, went again, and found Mrs. Alden there, who +quickly went out. Gave her about 1/2 pound of Sugar Almonds, cost 3s. +per L. Carried them on Monday. She seem'd pleas'd with them, ask'd +what they cost. Spake of giving her a Hundred pounds per annum if I +dy'd before her. Ask'd her what sum she would give me, if she should +dy first? Said I would give her time to Consider of it. She said she +heard as if I had given all to my Children by Deeds of Gift. I told +her 'twas a mistake, Point-Judith was mine &c. That in England I +own'd, my Father's desire was that it should go to my eldest Son; +'twas 20L per annum; she thought 'twas forty. I think when I seem'd to +excuse pressing this, she seemed to think twas best to speak of it; a +long winter was coming on. Gave me a Glass or two of Canary. + +November 4. Friday, Went again, about 7. a-clock; found there Mr. John +Walley and his wife: sat discoursing pleasantly. I shew'd them Isaac +Moses's [an Indian] Writing. Madam W. serv'd Comfeits to us. After +awhile a Table was spread, and Supper was set. I urg'd Mr. Walley to +Crave a Blessing; but he put it upon me. About 9. they went away. I +ask'd Madam what fashioned Neck-lace I should present her with, She +said, None at all. I ask'd her Whereabout we left off last time; +mention'd what I had offer'd to give her; Ask'd her what she would +give me; She said she could not Change her Condition: She had said so +from the beginning; could not be so far from her Children, the +Lecture. Quoted the Apostle Paul affirming that a single Life was +better than a Married. I answered That was for the present Distress. +Said she had not pleasure in things of that nature as formerly: I +said, you are the fitter to make me a Wife. If she held in that mind, +I must go home and bewail my Rashness in making more haste than good +Speed. However, considering the Supper, I desired her to be within +next Monday night, if we liv'd so long. Assented. She charg'd me with +saying, that she must put away Juno, if she came to me: I utterly +deny'd it, it never came in my heart; yet she insisted upon it; +saying it came in upon discourse about the Indian woman that obtained +her Freedom this Court. About 10. I said I would not disturb the good +orders of her House, and came away. She not seeming pleas'd with my +Coming away. Spake to her about David Jeffries, had not seen him. + +Monday, November 7. My Son pray'd in the Old Chamber. Our time had +been taken up by Son and Daughter Cooper's Visit; so that I only read +the 130th and 143. Psalm. Twas on the Account of my Courtship. I went +to Mad. Winthrop; found her rocking her little Katee in the Cradle. I +excus'd my Coming so late (near Eight). She set me an arm'd Chair and +Cusheon; and so the Cradle was between her arm'd Chair and mine. Gave +her the remnant of my Almonds; She did not eat of them as before; but +laid them away; I said I came to enquire whether she had alter'd her +mind since Friday, or remained of the same mind still. She said, +Thereabouts. I told her I loved her, and was so fond as to think that +she loved me: she said had a great respect for me. I told her, I had +made her an offer, without asking any advice; she had so many to +advise with, that 'twas an hindrance. The Fire was come to one short +Brand besides the Block, which Brand was set up in end; at last it +fell to pieces, and no Recruit was made: She gave me a glass of Wine. +I think I repeated again that I would go home and bewail my Rashness +in making more haste than good Speed. I would endeavor to contain +myself, and not go on to sollicit her to do that which she could not +Consent to. Took leave of her. As came down the steps she bid me have +a care. Treated me Courteously. Told her she had enter'd the 4th year +of her Widowhood. I had given her the News-Letter before: I did not +bid her draw off her Glove as sometime I had done. Her Dress was not +so clean as somtime it had been. Jehovah Jireh. + +Midweek, November 9th. Dine at Brother Stoddard's: were so kind as to +enquire of me if they should invite Madam Winthrop; I answer'd No. +Thank'd my Sister Stoddard for her Courtesie. Had a noble Treat. At +night our Meeting was at the Widow Belknap's. Gave each one of the +Meeting One of Mr. Holmes's Sermons, 12 in all; She sent her servant +home with me with a Lantern. Madam Winthrop's Shutters were open as I +pass'd by. + +November 11th. Went not to Madam Winthrop's. This is the 2d +Withdraw.... + +About the middle of December Madam Winthrop made a Treat for her +Children; Mr. Sewall, Prince, Willoughby: I knew nothing of it; but +the same day abode in the Council Chamber for fear of the Rain, and +din'd alone upon Kilby's Pyes and good Beer.[12] + +[Footnote 12: In the following summer Judge Sewall made his addresses +to an old friend of his, then a widow, Mrs. Ruggles, by whom he was +rejected. In March of the next year he married Mrs. Mary Gibbs.] + + + + +COTTON MATHER + + Born in Boston in 1663, died in 1728; son of Increase + Mather; colleague of his father in the North Church of + Boston in 1684, remaining in that pulpit until his death; + active in the suppression of witchcraft; published his + "Magnalia" in 1702, his "Wonders of the Invisible World" in + 1692. + + + + +IN PRAISE OF JOHN ELIOT[13] + + +He that will write of Eliot must write of charity, or say nothing. His +charity was a star of the first magnitude in the bright constellation +of his vertues, and the rays of it were wonderfully various and +extensive. His liberality to pious uses, whether publick or private, +went much beyond the proportions of his little estate in the world. +Many hundreds of pounds did he freely bestow upon the poor; and he +would, with a very forcible importunity, press his neighbors to join +with him in such beneficences. It was a marvelous alacrity with which +he imbraced all opportunities of relieving any that were miserable; +and the good people of Roxbury doubtless cannot remember (but the +righteous God will!) how often, and with what ardors, with what +arguments, he became a beggar to them for collections in their +assemblies, to support such needy objects as had fallen under his +observation. The poor counted him their father, and repaired still +unto him with a filial confidence in their necessities; and they were +more than seven or eight, or indeed than so many scores, who received +their portions of his bounty. Like that worthy and famous English +general, he could not perswade himself "that he had anything but what +he gave away," but he drove a mighty trade at such exercises as he +thought would furnish him with bills of exchange, which he hoped +"after many days" to find the comfort of; and yet, after all, he would +say, like one of the most charitable souls that ever lived in the +world, "that looking over his accounts he could nowhere find the God +of heaven charged a debtor there." He did not put off his charity to +be put in his last will, as many who therein shew that their charity +is against their will; but he was his own administrator; he made his +own hands his executors, and his own eyes his overseers. It has been +remarked that liberal men are often long-lived men; so do they after +many days find the bread with which they have been willing to keep +other men alive. The great age of our Eliot was but agreeable to this +remark; and when his age had unfitted him for almost all employments, +and bereaved him of those gifts and parts which once he had been +accomplished with, being asked, "How he did?" he would sometimes +answer, "Alas, I have lost everything; my understanding leaves me, my +memory fails me, my utterance fails me; but, I thank God, my charity +holds out still; I find that rather grows than fails!" And I make no +question, that at his death his happy soul was received and welcomed +into the "everlasting habitations," by many scores got thither before +him, of such as his charity had been liberal unto. + +[Footnote 13: From the "Magnalia Christi Americana." This work +comprizes an ecclesiastical history of early New England, and has been +in much favor with collectors. John Eliot has commonly been called +"The Apostle of the Indians." He labored among them many years and +translated into their language the Bible. Copies of the "Eliot Bible" +are now among the most valuable of early American books.] + +But besides these more substantial expressions of his charity, he made +the odors of that grace yet more fragrant unto all that were about +him, by that pitifulness and that peaceableness which rendered him yet +further amiable. If any of his neighborhood were in distress, he was +like a "brother born for their adversity," he would visit them, and +comfort them with a most fraternal sympathy; yea, 'tis not easy to +recount how many whole days of prayer and fasting he has got his +neighbors to keep with him, on the behalf of those whose calamities he +found himself touched withal. It was an extreme satisfaction to him +that his wife had attained unto a considerable skill in physick and +chirurgery, which enabled her to dispense many safe, good and useful +medicines unto the poor that had occasion for them; and some hundreds +of sick and weak and maimed people owed praises to God for the benefit +which therein they freely received of her. The good gentleman her +husband would still be casting oil into the flame of that charity, +wherein she was of her own accord abundantly forward thus to be doing +of good unto all; and he would urge her to be serviceable unto the +worst enemies that he had in the world. Never had any man fewer +enemies than he! but once having delivered something in his ministry +which displeased one of his hearers, the man did passionately abuse +him for it, and this both with speeches and with writings that +reviled him. Yet it happening not long after that this man gave +himself a very dangerous wound, Mr. Eliot immediately sends his wife +to cure him; who did accordingly. When the man was well, he came to +thank her, but she took no rewards; and this good man made him stay +and eat with him, taking no notice of all the calumnies with which he +had loaded him; but by this carriage he mollified and conquered the +stomach of his reviler. + +He was also a great enemy to all contention, and would ring aloud +courfeu bell wherever he saw the fires of animosity. When he heard any +ministers complain that such and such in their flocks were too +difficult for them, the strain of his answer still was, "Brother, +compass them!" and "Brother, learn the meaning of those three little +words, bear, forbear, forgive." Yea, his inclinations for peace, +indeed, sometimes almost made him to sacrifice right itself. When +there was laid before an assembly of ministers a bundle of papers +which contained certain matters of difference and contention between +some people which our Eliot thought should rather unite, with an +amnesty upon all their former quarrels, he (with some imitation of +what Constantine did upon the like occasion) hastily threw the papers +into the fire before them all, and, with a zeal for peace as hot as +that fire, said immediately, "Brethren, wonder not at what I have +done; I did it on my knees this morning before I came among you." Such +an excess (if it were one) flowed from his charitable inclinations to +be found among those peace-makers which, by following the example of +that Man who is our peace, come to be called "the children of God." +Very worthily might he be called an Irenaeus as being all for peace; +and the commendation which Epiphanius gives unto the ancient of that +name, did belong unto our Eliot; he was "a most blessed and a most +holy man." He disliked all sorts of bravery; but yet with an ingenious +note upon the Greek word in Col. iii. 15, he propounded, "that peace +might brave it among us." In short, wherever he came, it was like +another old John, with solemn and earnest persuasives to love; and +when he could say little else he would give that charge, "My children, +love one another!" + +Finally, 'twas his charity which disposed him to continual +applications for, and benedictions on those that he met withal; he had +an heart full of good wishes and a mouth full of kind blessings for +them. And he often made his expressions very wittily agreeable to the +circumstances which he saw the persons in. Sometimes when he came into +a family, he would call for all the young people in it, that so he +might very distinctly lay his holy hands upon every one of them, and +bespeak the mercies of heaven for them all. + + + + +WILLIAM BYRD + + Born in Virginia in 1674, died, in 1744; educated in England + and the Netherlands; visited the court of France; chosen a + Fellow of the Royal Society; receiver-general of the revenue + in Virginia and three times colonial agent for Virginia in + England; for thirty-seven years member, and finally + president, of the Council of Virginia; his home in Virginia + the famous ancestral seat called Westover. + + + + +AT THE HOME OF COLONEL SPOTSWOOD[14] + + +Sept., 1732. Colonel Spotswood's enchanted castle is on one side of +the street, and a baker's dozen of ruinous tenements on the other, +where so many German families had dwelt some years ago; but are now +removed ten miles higher, in the Fork of Rappahannock, to land of +their own. There had also been a chapel about a bow-shot from the +colonel's house, at the end of an avenue of cherry trees, but some +pious people had lately burned it down, with intent to get another +built nearer to their own homes. Here I arrived about three o'clock, +and found only Mrs. Spotswood at home, who received her old +acquaintance with many a gracious smile. I was carried into a room +elegantly set off with pier glasses, the largest of which came soon +after to an odd misfortune. Amongst other favorite animals that +cheered this lady's solitude, a brace of tame deer ran familiarly +about the house, and one of them came to stare at me as a stranger. +But unluckily spying his own figure in the glass, he made a spring +over the tea-table that stood under it, and shattered the glass to +pieces, and falling back upon the tea-table made a terrible fracas +among the china. + +[Footnote 14: From "A Progress to the Mines," the date of the visit +being 1732, which was the year in which Washington was born. Byrd's +work is one of several admired writings by Byrd, now known +collectively as the "Westover Manuscripts." Colonel Spotswood, of whom +Byrd here writes, in early life had been a soldier under Marlborough, +and in 1710 Governor of Virginia. In 1714, on his appointment to +command a British expedition to the West Indies, he was made a +major-general, but he died before embarking. He maintained fine +establishments at Yorktown and on the Rapidan.] + +This exploit was so sudden, and accompanied with such a noise, that it +surprized me, and perfectly frightened Mrs. Spotswood. But 'twas worth +all the damage to show the moderation and good humor with which she +bore this disaster. In the evening the noble colonel came home from +his mines, who saluted me very civilly, and Mrs. Spotswood's sister, +Miss Theky, who had been to meet him _en cavalier_, was so kind too as +to bid me welcome. We talked over a legend of old stories, supped +about 9, and then prattled with the ladies, till it was time for a +traveler to retire. In the mean time I observed my old friend to be +very uxorious, and exceedingly fond of his children. This was so +opposite to the maxims he used to preach up before he was married, +that I could not forbear rubbing up the memory of them. But he gave a +very good-natured turn to his change of sentiments by alleging that +whoever brings a poor gentlewoman into so solitary a place, from all +her friends and acquaintance, would be ungrateful not to use her and +all that belongs to her with all possible tenderness. + +We all kept snug in our several apartments till nine, except Miss +Theky, who was the housewife of the family. At that hour we met over a +pot of coffee, which was not quite strong enough to give us the palsy. +After breakfast the colonel and I left the ladies to their domestic +affairs, and took a turn in the garden, which has nothing beautiful +but three terrace walks that fall in slopes one below another. I let +him understand that, besides the pleasure of paying him a visit, I +came to be instructed by so great a master in the mystery of making of +iron, wherein he had led the way, and was the Tubal Cain of Virginia. +He corrected me a little there, by assuring me he was not only the +first in this country, but the first in North America who had erected +a regular furnace. That they ran altogether upon bloomeries in New +England and Pennsylvania till his example had made them attempt +greater works. But in this last colony they have so few ships to carry +their iron to Great Britain that they must be content to make it only +for their own use, and must be obliged to manufacture it when they +have done. That he hoped he had done the country very great service by +setting so good an example.... + +Our conversation on this subject continued till dinner, which was both +elegant and plentiful. The afternoon was devoted to the ladies, who +showed me one of their most beautiful walks. They conducted me through +a shady lane to the landing, and by the way made me drink some very +fine water that issued from a marble fountain, and ran incessantly. +Just behind it was a covered bench, where Miss Theky often sat and +bewailed her virginity. Then we proceeded to the river, which is the +south branch of Rappahannock, about fifty yards wide, and so rapid +that the ferry boat is drawn over by a chain, and therefore called the +Rapidan. At night we drank prosperity to all the colonel's projects in +a bowl of rack punch, and then retired to our devotions. + +Having employed about two hours in retirement, I sallied out at the +first summons to breakfast, where our conversation with the ladies, +like whip syllabub, was very pretty, but had nothing in it. This, it +seems, was Miss Theky's birthday, upon which I made her my +compliments, and wished she might live twice as long a married woman +as she had lived a maid. I did not presume to pry into the secret of +her age, nor was she forward to disclose it, for this humble reason, +lest I should think her wisdom fell short of her years.... + +We had a Michaelmas goose for dinner, of Miss Theky's own raising, who +was now good-natured enough to forget the jeopardy of her dog. In the +afternoon we walked in a meadow by the river side, which winds in the +form of a horseshoe about Germanna, making it a peninsula containing +about four hundred acres. Rappahannock forks about fourteen miles +below this place, the northern branch being the larger, and +consequently must be the river that bounds my Lord Fairfax's grant of +the northern neck. + +The sun rose clear this morning, and so did I, and finished all my +little affairs by breakfast. It was then resolved to wait on the +ladies on horseback, since the bright sun, the fine air, and the +wholesome exercise, all invited us to it. We forded the river a little +above the ferry, and rode six miles up the neck to a fine level piece +of rich land, where we found about twenty plants of ginseng, with the +scarlet berries growing on the top of the middle stalk. The root of +this is of wonderful virtue in many cases, particularly to raise the +spirits and promote perspiration, which makes it a specific in colds +and coughs. The colonel complimented me with all we found, in return +for my telling him the virtues of it. We were all pleased to find so +much of this king of plants so near the colonel's habitation, and +growing, too, upon his own land; but were, however surprized to find +it upon level ground, after we had been told it grew only upon the +north side of Stony Mountains. I carried home this treasure with as +much joy as if every root had been a graft of the Tree of Life, and +washed and dried it carefully. This airing made us as hungry as so +many hawks, so that between appetite and a very good dinner, 'twas +difficult to eat like a philosopher. In the afternoon the ladies +walked me about amongst all their little animals, with which they +amuse themselves, and furnish the table; the worst of it is, they are +so tenderhearted they shed a silent tear every time any of them are +killed. At night the colonel and I quitted the threadbare subject of +iron, and changed the scene to politics. He told me the ministry had +receded from their demand upon New England, to raise a standing +salary for all succeeding governors, for fear some curious members of +the House of Commons should inquire how the money was disposed of that +had been raised in the other American colonies for the support of +their governors.... + +Our conversation was interrupted by a summons to supper, for the +ladies, to show their power, had by this time brought us tamely to go +to bed with our bellies full, tho we both at first declared positively +against it. So very pliable a thing is frail man, when women have the +bending of him. + + + + +JONATHAN EDWARDS + + Born In Connecticut in 1703, died in Princeton in 1758; + pastor at Northampton, Mass., in 1727-50; missionary to the + Indians at Stockbridge in 1751-58; president of Princeton in + 1758; his "Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections" + published in 1746; "Qualifications for Full Communion" in + 1749; "The Freedom of the Will," his most famous book, in + 1754; "Doctrine of Original Sin Defended" in 1758, and + "History of the Redemption" in 1772. + + + + +OF LIBERTY AND MORAL AGENCIES[15] + + +The plain and obvious meaning of the words freedom and liberty, in +common speech, is power, opportunity, or advantage, that any one has, +to do as he pleases. Or, in other words, his being free from hindrance +or impediment in the way of doing, or conducting in any respect, as he +wills. (I say not only doing, but conducting; because a voluntary +forbearing to do, sitting still, keeping silence, etc., are instances +of persons' conduct, about which liberty is exercised; tho they are +not so properly called doing.) And the contrary to Liberty, whatever +name we call that by, is a person's being hindered or unable to +conduct as he will, or being necessitated to do otherwise. + +[Footnote 15: From "The Freedom of the Will." It is not alone as a +contribution to theology that this work has been much admired. It is +probably the most famous theological treatise yet produced in America; +one writer has called it "one of the most famous philosophical works +in the world." But as an intellectual achievement solely, and for the +perfection of its style, it has been quite as generally praised.] + +If this which I have mentioned be the meaning of the word liberty, in +the ordinary use of language; as I trust that none that has ever +learned to talk, and is unprejudiced, will deny: then it will follow +that in propriety of speech neither liberty, nor its contrary, can +properly be ascribed to any being or thing but that which has such a +faculty, power or property as is called will. For that which is +possest of no such thing as will, can not have any power or +opportunity of doing according to its will, nor be necessitated to act +contrary to its will, nor be restrained from acting agreeably to it. +And therefore to talk of liberty, or the contrary, as belonging to the +very will itself is not to speak good sense; if we judge of sense and +nonsense by the original and proper signification of words. For the +will itself is not an agent that has a will: the power of choosing +itself has not a power of choosing. That which has the power of +volition or choice is the man or the soul, and not the power of +volition itself. And he that has the liberty of doing according to his +will, is the agent or doer who is possest of the will; and not the +will which he is possest of. We say with propriety that a bird let +loose has power and liberty to fly; but not that the bird's power of +flying has a power and liberty of flying. To be free is the property +of an agent, who is possest of powers and faculties, as much as to be +cunning, valiant, bountiful, or zealous. But these qualities are the +properties of men or persons and not the properties of properties. + +There are two things that are contrary to this which is called liberty +in common speech. One is constraint; the same is otherwise called +force, compulsion, and coaction; which is a person's being +necessitated to do a thing contrary to his will. The other is +restraint; which is his being hindered, and not having power to do +according to his will. But that which has no will, can not be the +subject of these things. I need say the less on this head, Mr. Locke +having set the same thing forth, with so great clearness, in his +"Essay on the Human Understanding." + +But one thing more I would observe concerning what is vulgarly called +liberty; namely, that power and opportunity for one to do and conduct +as he will, or according to his choice, is all that is meant by it; +without taking into the meaning of the word anything of the cause or +original of that choice; or at all considering how the person came to +have such a volition; whether it was caused by some external motive or +internal habitual bias; whether it was determined by some internal +antecedent volition, or whether it happened without a cause; whether +it was necessarily connected with something foregoing, or not +connected. Let the person come by his volition or choice how he will, +yet, if he is able, and there is nothing in the way to hinder his +pursuing and executing his will, the man is fully and perfectly free, +according to the primary and common notion of freedom. + +What has been said may be sufficient to show what is meant by liberty, +according to the common notions of mankind, and in the usual and +primary acceptation of the word: but the word, as used by Arminians, +Pelagians and others, who oppose the Calvinists, has an entirely +different signification. These several things belong to their notion +of liberty. 1. That it consists in a self-determining power in the +will, or a certain sovereignty the will has over itself, and its own +acts, whereby it determines its own volitions; so as not to be +dependent, in its determinations, on any cause without itself, nor +determined by anything prior to its own acts. 2. Indifference belongs +to liberty in their notion of it, or that the mind, previous to the +act of volition, be in equilibrio. 3. Contingence is another thing +that belongs and is essential to it; not in the common acceptation of +the word, as that has been already explained, but as opposed to all +necessity, or any fixt and certain connection with some previous +ground or reason of its existence. They suppose the essence of liberty +so much to consist in these things that unless the will of man be free +in this sense, he has no real freedom, how much soever he may be at +liberty to act according to his will. + +A moral agent is a being that is capable of those actions that have a +moral quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a +moral sense, virtuous or vicious, commendable or faulty. To moral +agency belongs a moral faculty, or sense of moral good and evil, or of +such a thing as desert or worthiness, of praise or blame, reward or +punishment; and a capacity which an agent has of being influenced in +his actions by moral inducements or motives, exhibited to the view of +understanding and reason, to engage to a conduct agreeable to the +moral faculty. + +The sun is very excellent and beneficial in its action and influence +on the earth, in warming it, and causing it to bring forth its fruits; +but it is not a moral agent. Its action, tho good, is not virtuous or +meritorious. Fire that breaks out in a city, and consumes great part +of it, is very mischievous in its operation; but is not a moral agent. +What it does is not faulty or sinful, or deserving of any punishment. +The brute creatures are not moral agents. The actions of some of them +are very profitable and pleasant; others are very hurtful; yet, seeing +they have no moral faculty, or sense of desert, and do not act from +choice guided by understanding, or with a capacity of reasoning and +reflecting, but only from instinct, and are not capable of being +influenced by moral inducements, their actions are not properly sinful +or virtuous; nor are they properly the subjects of any such moral +treatment for what they do, as moral agents are for their faults or +good deeds. + +Here it may be noted that there is a circumstantial difference between +the moral agency of a ruler and a subject. I call it circumstantial, +because it lies only in the difference of moral inducements they are +capable of being influenced by, arising from the difference of +circumstances. A ruler, acting in that capacity only, is not capable +of being influenced by a moral law, and its sanctions of threatenings +and promises, rewards and punishments as the subject is; tho both may +be influenced by a knowledge of moral good and evil. And therefore +the moral agency of the Supreme Being, who acts only in the capacity +of a ruler toward His creatures, and never as a subject, differs in +that respect from the moral agency of created intelligent beings. +God's actions, and particularly those which are to be attributed to +Him as moral governor, are morally good in the highest degree. They +are most perfectly holy and righteous; and we must conceive of Him as +influenced in the highest degree by that which, above all others, is +properly a moral inducement, viz., the moral good which He sees in +such and such things: and therefore He is, in the most proper sense, a +moral agent, the source of all moral ability and agency, the fountain +and rule of all virtue and moral good; tho by reason of His being +supreme over all, it is not possible He should be under the influence +of law or command, promises or threatenings, rewards or punishments, +counsels or warnings. The essential qualities of a moral agent are in +God, in the greatest possible perfection; such as understanding, to +perceive the difference between moral good and evil; a capacity of +discerning that moral worthiness and demerit, by which some things are +praiseworthy, others deserving of blame and punishment; and also a +capacity of choice, and choice guided by understanding, and a power of +acting according to his choice or pleasure, and being capable of doing +those things which are in the highest sense praiseworthy. And herein +does very much consist that image of God wherein He made man (which we +read of Gen. i. 26, 27, and chapter ix. 6), by which God distinguishes +man from the beasts, viz., in those faculties and principles of +nature, whereby he is capable of moral agency. Herein very much +consists the natural image of God; as His spiritual and moral image, +wherein man was made at first, consisted in that moral excellency, +that he was endowed with. + + + + +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN + + Born in Boston in 1706, died in 1790; settled in + Philadelphia in 1729; Postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737; + discovered the identity of lightning with electricity in + 1753; proposed a "Plan of Union" at Albany in 1754; Colonial + Agent for Pennsylvania in England in 1757-62 and 1764-75; + Member of the Second Continental Congress in 1775; Member of + the Committee which drew up the Declaration of Independence + in 1776; Ambassador to France in 1776; helped to negotiate + the treaty of peace with England in 1783; President of + Pennsylvania in 1785-88; Member of the Constitutional + Convention in 1787. + + + + +I + +HIS FIRST ENTRY INTO PHILADELPHIA[16] + +(1729) + + +I have been the more particular in this description of my journey, and +shall be so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your +mind compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since +made there. I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come +round by sea. I was dirty from my journey; my pockets were stuffed out +with shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul nor where to look for +lodging. I was fatigued with traveling, rowing and want of rest, I was +very hungry; and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar, +and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the people of the +boat for my passage, who at first refused it, on account of my rowing; +but I insisted on their taking it. A man being sometimes more generous +when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps +through fear of being thought to have but little. + +[Footnote 16: From Chapters I and II of the "Autobiography."] + +Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the market-house I +met a boy with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and, inquiring +where he got it, I went immediately to the baker's he directed me to, +in Second street, and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had in +Boston; but they, it seems, were not made in Philadelphia. Then I +asked for a three-penny loaf, and was told they had none such. So, not +considering or knowing the difference of money, and the greater +cheapness nor the names of his bread, I had him give me three +pennyworth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great puffy +rolls. I was surprized at the quantity, but took it, and, having no +room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm, and eating +the other. Thus I went up Market street as far as Fourth street, +passing by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife's father;[17] when +she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly +did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance. Then I turned and went +down Chestnut street and part of Walnut street, eating my roll all the +way, and, coming round, found myself again at Market street wharf, +near the boat I came in, to which I went for a draft of the river +water; and, being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other two to a +woman and her child that came down the river in the boat with us, and +were waiting to go farther. + +[Footnote 17: Deborah was Mr. Read's daughter's name. Her grave, +alongside Franklin's, in Philadelphia, has been a place of much +pilgrimage these many years. One of the letters of Mrs. Franklin that +has survived may be given here in illustration of her limited +education. It was addrest to Franklin while he was in England, being +dated "October ye 11, 1770": + +"My dear Child:--the bairer of this is the Son of Dr. Phinis Bond his +only son and a worthey young man he is going to studey the Law he +desired a line to you I believe you have such a number of worthey +young Jentelmen as ever wonte to gather I hope to give you pleshner to +see such a number of fine youthes from your one country which will be +an Honour to thar parentes and Countrey. + + "I am my dear Child your + ffeckshonot + Wife D. Franklin."] + +Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by this time had +many clean-drest people in it, who were all walking the same way. I +joined them, and thereby was led into the great meeting-house of the +Quakers near the market. I sat down among them, and, after looking +round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy through labor +and want of rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and +continued so till the meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to +rouse me. This was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, +in Philadelphia. + +Walking down again toward the river, and, looking in the faces of +people, I met a young Quaker man, whose countenance I liked, and, +accosting him, requested he would tell me where a stranger could get +lodging. We were then near the sign of the Three Mariners. "Here," +says he, "is one place that entertains strangers, but it is not a +reputable house; if thee wilt walk with me, I'll show thee a better." +He brought me to the Crooked Billet in Water street. Here I got a +dinner; and, while I was eating it, several sly questions were asked +me, as it seemed to be suspected, from my youth and appearance, that I +might be some runaway. + +After dinner, my host having shown me to a bed, I laid myself on +without undressing, and slept till six in the evening, when I was +called to supper. I went to bed again very early, and slept very +soundly till next morning. Then I drest myself as neat as I could, and +went to Andrew Bradford the printer's. I found in the shop the old man +his father, whom I had seen at New York, and who, traveling on +horseback, had got to Philadelphia before me. He introduced me to his +son, who received me civilly, gave me a breakfast, but told me he did +not at present want a hand, being lately supplied with one; but there +was another printer in town, lately set up, one Keimer, who, perhaps, +might employ me; if not, I should be welcome to lodge at his house, +and he would give me a little work to do now and then till fuller +business should offer. + + + + +II + +WARNINGS BRADDOCK DID NOT HEED[18] + + +This general [Braddock] was, I think, a brave man, and might probably +have made a figure as a good officer in some European war. But he had +too much self-confidence, too high an opinion of the validity of +regular troops, and too mean a one of both Americans and Indians. +George Croghan,[19] our Indian interpreter, joined him on his march +with one hundred of those people, who might have been of great use to +his army as guides, scouts, etc., if he had treated them kindly; but +he slighted and neglected them, and they gradually left him. + +[Footnote 18: From Chapter X of the "Autobiography."] + +[Footnote 19: Croghan afterward became associated closely with Sir +William Johnson in the Mohawk and Upper Susquehanna Valleys. He +acquired title to a large tract of land at the foot of Otsego Lake, +but, while settling it, mortgaged the land heavily, and eventually +lost it through foreclosure. William Cooper, father of the novelist, +subsequently obtained title to these lands and went into the country +to settle them. In the course of his labors, he founded the village of +Cooperstown, and made it his home. It was this circumstance which led +to Fenimore Cooper's knowledge of Indian and frontier life as depicted +in his writings. The home of William Cooper had previously been in +Burlington, N. J.] + +In conversation with him one day he was giving me some account of his +intended progress. "After taking Fort Duquesne,"[20] says he, "I am to +proceed to Niagara; and, having taken that, to Frontenac,[21] if the +season will allow time; and I suppose it will, for Duquesne can hardly +detain me above three or four days; and then I see nothing that can +obstruct my march to Niagara." Having before revolved in my mind the +long line his army must make in their march by a very narrow road, to +be cut for them through the woods and bushes, and also what I had read +of a former defeat of fifteen hundred French, who invaded the Iroquois +country, I had conceived some doubts and some fears for the event of +the campaign. But I ventured only to say, "To be sure, sir, if you +arrive well before Duquesne, with these fine troops, so well provided +with artillery, that place, not yet completely fortified and as we +hear with no very strong garrison, can probably make but a short +resistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march +is from ambuscades of Indians, who, by constant practise, are dextrous +in laying and executing them; and the slender line, near four miles +long, which your army must make, may expose it to be attacked by +surprize in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several +pieces, which, from their distance, can not come up in time to support +each other." + +[Footnote 20: Now Pittsburg.] + +[Footnote 21: In early times commonly called Fort Frontenac, but now +Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The name was changed to Kingston by +Loyalists who settled at the fort after the American Revolution.] + +He smiled at my ignorance, and replied, "These savages may, indeed, be +a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the King's +regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make +any impression." I was conscious of an impropriety in my disputing +with a military man in matters of his profession, and said no more. +The enemy, however, did not take advantage of his army which I +apprehended its long line of march exposed it to, but let it advance +without interruption till within nine miles of the place; and then, +when more in a body (for it had just passed a river, where the front +had halted till all were come over), and in a more open part of the +woods than any it had passed, attacked its advanced guard by a heavy +fire from behind trees and bushes, which was the first intelligence +the general had of an enemy's being near him. This guard being +disordered, the general hurried the troops up to their assistance, +which was done in great confusion, through wagons, baggage, and +cattle; and presently the fire came upon their flank: the officers, +being on horseback, were more easily distinguished, picked out as +marks, and fell very fast; and the soldiers were crowded together in a +huddle, having or hearing no orders, and standing to be shot at till +two-thirds of them were killed; and then, being seized with a panic, +the whole fled with precipitation. + +The wagoners took each a horse out of his team and scampered; their +example was immediately followed by others; so that all the wagons, +provisions, artillery, and stores were left to the enemy. The general, +being wounded, was brought off with difficulty; his secretary, Mr. +Shirley, was killed by his side; and out of eighty-six officers, +sixty-three were killed or wounded, and seven hundred and fourteen men +killed out of eleven hundred. These eleven hundred had been picked +men from the whole army; the rest had been left behind with Colonel +Dunbar, who was to follow with the heavier part of the stores, +provisions, and baggage. The flyers, not being pursued, arrived at +Dunbar's camp, and the panic they brought with them instantly seized +him and all his people; and, tho he had now above one thousand men, +and the enemy who had beaten Braddock did not at most exceed four +hundred Indians and French together, instead of proceeding, and +endeavoring to recover some of the lost honor, he ordered all the +stores, ammunition, etc., to be destroyed, that he might have more +horses to assist his flight toward the settlements, and less lumber to +remove. He was there met with requests from the governors of Virginia, +Maryland and Pennsylvania that he would post his troops on the +frontiers, so as to afford some protection to the inhabitants; but he +continued his hasty march through all the country, not thinking +himself safe till he arrived at Philadelphia, where the inhabitants +could protect him. This whole transaction gave us Americans the first +suspicion that our exalted ideas of the prowess of British regulars +had not been well founded. + +In their first march, too, from their landing till they got beyond the +settlements, they had plundered and stript the inhabitants, totally +ruining some poor families, besides insulting, abusing, and confining +the people if they remonstrated. This was enough to put us out of +conceit of such defenders, if we had really wanted any. How different +was the conduct of our French friends in 1781, who, during a march +through the most inhabited part of our country, from Rhode Island to +Virginia, near seven hundred miles, occasioned not the smallest +complaint for the loss of a pig, a chicken, or even an apple. + + + + +III + +HOW TO DRAW LIGHTNING FROM THE CLOUDS[22] + + +As frequent mention is made in public papers from Europe of the +success of the Philadelphia experiment for drawing the electric fire +from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron erected on high +buildings, etc., it may be agreeable to the curious to be informed +that the same experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia, tho made in a +different and more easy manner, which is as follows. + +[Footnote 22: From a letter to Peter Collinson, dated October 19, +1752, and read before the Royal Society of London in December of the +same year.] + +Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so long as +to reach to the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief when +extended; tie the corners of the handkerchief to the extremities of +the cross, so you have the body of a kite; which, being properly +accommodated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air, like +those made of paper; but this being of silk is fitter to bear the wet +and wind of a thunder-gust without tearing. To the top of the upright +stick of the cross is to be fixt a very sharp pointed wire, rising a +foot or more above the wood. To the end of the twine, next the hand, +is to be tied a silk ribbon, and where the silk and twine join, a key +may be fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thunder-gust appears +to be coming on, and the person who holds the string must stand within +a door or window, or under some cover, so that the silk ribbon may not +be wet; and care must be taken that the twine does not touch the frame +of the door or window. As soon as any of the thunder-clouds come over +the kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and +the kite, with all the twine, will be electrified, and the loose +filaments of the twine will stand out every way, and be attracted by +an approaching finger. And when the rain has wetted the kite and +twine, so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find +it stream out plentifully from the key on the approach of your +knuckle. At this key the vial may be charged; and from electric fire +thus obtained, spirits may be kindled, and all the other electric +experiments be performed, which are usually done by the help of a +rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the sameness of the electric +matter with that of lightning completely demonstrated. + + + + +IV + +THE WAY TO WEALTH[23] + + +COURTEOUS reader: + +I have heard that nothing gives an author so great pleasure as to find +his works respectfully quoted by others. Judge, then, how much I must +have been gratified by an incident I am going to relate to you. I +stopt my horse lately, where a great number of people were collected +at an auction of merchants' goods. The hour of the sale not being +come, they were conversing on the badness of the times; and one of the +company called to a plain, clean old man, with white locks, "Pray, +Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Will not these heavy +taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we ever be able to pay them? +What would you advise us to do?" Father Abraham stood up and replied, +"If you would have my advice, I will give it you in short; for 'A word +to the wise is enough,' as Poor Richard says." They joined in desiring +him to speak his mind, and gathering round him he proceeded as +follows. + +[Footnote 23: From "Poor Richard's Almanac" for 1757, where it was +printed as a preface signed "Richard Saunders." Franklin began this +Almanac in 1732. John Bigelow, Franklin's biographer and editor, says +it "attained an astonishing popularity." For twenty-five years it had +an average circulation of 10,000 copies. Sometimes it was sent to +press as early as October in order to supply remote colonists in time +for the new year. Translations of it have been printed in nearly all +written languages.] + +"Friends," said he, "the taxes are indeed very heavy, and, if those +laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might +more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more +grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, +three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; +and from these taxes the commissioners can not ease or deliver us by +allowing an abatement. However, let us harken to good advice, and +something may be done for us; 'God helps them that help themselves,' +as Poor Richard says. + +"I. It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people +one-tenth part of their time, to be employed in its service; but +idleness taxes many of us much more; sloth, by bringing on diseases, +absolutely shortens life. 'Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than +labor wears; while the used key is always bright,' as Poor Richard +says. 'But dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that is +the stuff life is made of,' as Poor Richard says. How much more than +is necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that 'The sleeping fox +catches no poultry,' and that 'There will be sleeping enough in the +grave,' as Poor Richard says. + +"'If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be,' +as Poor Richard says, 'the greatest prodigality'; since, as he +elsewhere tells us, 'Lost time is never found again; and what we call +time enough, always proves little enough.' Let us, then, up and be +doing, and doing to the purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with +less perplexity. 'Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all +easy'; and 'He that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce +overtake his business at night'; while 'Laziness travels so slowly +that Poverty soon overtakes him. Drive thy business, let not that +drive thee'; and 'Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man +healthy, wealthy, and wise,' as Poor Richard says.... + +"Methinks I hear some of you say, 'Must a man afford himself no +leisure?' I will tell thee, my friend, what Poor Richard says, 'Employ +thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure; and, since thou art +not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.' Leisure is time for +doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but +the lazy man never; for 'A life of leisure and a life of laziness are +two things. Many, without labor, would live by their wits only, but +they break for want of stock'; whereas industry gives comfort, and +plenty, and respect. 'Fly pleasures, and they will follow you. The +diligent spinner has a large shift; and now I have a sheep and a cow, +everybody bids me good morrow.' + +"II. But with our industry we must likewise be steady, settled, and +careful, and oversee our own affairs with our own eye, and not trust +too much to others; for, as Poor Richard says, + + 'I never saw an oft-removed tree, + Nor yet an oft-removed family, + That throve so well as those that settled be.' + +And again, 'Three removes are as bad as a fire'; and again, 'Keep thy +shop, and thy shop will keep thee'; and again, 'If you would have your +business done, go; if not, send.' And again, + + 'He that by the plough would thrive, + Himself must either hold or drive.' + +And again, 'The eye of a master will do more work than both his +hands'; and again, 'Want of care does us more damage than want of +knowledge'; and again, 'Not to oversee workmen, is to leave them your +purse open.' Trusting too much to others' care is the ruin of many; +for 'In the affairs of this world men are saved not by faith, but by +the want of it'; but a man's own care is profitable; for 'If you would +have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself. A +little neglect may breed great mischief; for want of a nail the shoe +was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a +horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy; all +for want of a little care about a horseshoe nail.' + +"III. So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own +business; but to these we must add frugality, if we would make our +industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to +save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die +not worth a groat at last. 'A fat kitchen makes a lean will'; and + + 'Many estates are spent in the getting, + Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting, + And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting.' + +'If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as of getting. The +Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes are greater than +her incomes.' + +"Away, then, with your expensive follies, and you will not then have +so much cause to complain of hard times, heavy taxes, and chargeable +families; for + + 'Women and wine, game and deceit, + Make the wealth small and the want great.' + +"And further, 'What maintains one vice would bring up two children.' +You may think, perhaps, that a little tea, or a little punch now and +then, diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer, and a little +entertainment now and then can be no great matter; but remember, 'Many +a little makes a mickle.' Beware of little expenses; 'A small leak +will sink a great ship,' as Poor Richard says; and again, 'Who +dainties love, shall beggars prove'; and moreover, 'Fools makes +feasts, and wise men eat them.... If you would know the value of +money, go and try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes +a-sorrowing,' as Poor Richard says; and, indeed, so does he that lends +to such people, when he goes to get it in again. Poor Dick further +advises, and says, + + 'Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse; + Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse.' + +And again, 'Pride is as loud a beggar as Want, and a great deal more +saucy.' When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, +that your appearance may be all of a piece; but Poor Dick says, 'It is +easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow +it.' And it is as truly folly for the poor to ape the rich as for the +frog to swell in order to equal the ox. + + 'Vessels large may venture more, + But little boats should keep near shore. + +It is, however, a folly soon punished; for, as Poor Richard says, +'Pride that dines on vanity sups on contempt. Pride breakfasted with +Plenty, dined with Poverty, and supped with Infamy.' And, after all, +of what use is this pride of appearance, for which so much is risked, +so much is suffered? It can not promote health, nor ease pain; it +makes no increase of merit in the person; it creates envy; it hastens +misfortune. + +"But what madness must it be to run in debt for these +superfluities.... When you have got your bargain, you may, perhaps, +think little of payment; but, as Poor Richard says, 'Creditors have +better memories than debtors; creditors are a superstitious sect, +great observers of set days and times.' The day comes round before you +are aware, and the demand is made before you are prepared to satisfy +it; or, if you bear your debt in mind, the term, which at first seemed +so long, will, as it lessens, appear extremely short. Time will seem +to have added wings to his heels as well as his shoulders. 'Those have +a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter.' At present, perhaps, +you may think yourselves in thriving circumstances, and that you can +bear a little extravagance without injury; but + + 'For age and want save while you may; + No morning sun lasts a whole day.' + +Gain may be temporary and uncertain, but ever, while you live, expense +is constant and certain; and 'It is easier to build two chimneys than +to keep one in fuel,' as Poor Richard says; so, 'Rather go to bed +supperless than rise in debt.' + + 'Get what you can, and what you get hold; + 'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold.' + +And when you have got the philosopher's stone, sure you will no longer +complain of bad times, or the difficulty of paying taxes. + +"IV. This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wisdom; but, after all, +do not depend too much upon your own industry, and frugality, and +prudence, tho excellent things; for they may all be blasted without +the blessing of Heaven; and, therefore, ask that blessing humbly, and +be not uncharitable to those that at present seem to want it, but +comfort and help them. Remember, Job suffered, and was afterward +prosperous. + +"And now, to conclude, 'Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will +learn in no other,' as Poor Richard says, and scarce in that; for, it +is true, 'We may give advice, but we can not give conduct.' However, +remember this, 'They that will not be counseled, can not be helped;' +and further, that 'If you will not hear Reason, she will surely rap +your knuckles' as Poor Richard says." + +Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue. The people heard it and +approved the doctrine; and immediately practised the contrary, just as +if it had been a common sermon; for the auction opened, and they began +to buy extravagantly. I found the good man had thoroughly studied my +Almanacs, and digested all I had dropt on these topics during the +course of twenty-five years. The frequent mention he made of me must +have tired any one else; but my vanity was wonderfully delighted with +it, tho I was conscious that not a tenth part of the wisdom was my +own, which he ascribed to me, but rather the gleanings that I had made +of the sense of all ages and nations. However, I resolved to be the +better for the echo of it; and tho I had at first determined to buy +stuff for a new coat, I went away resolved to wear my old one a little +longer. Reader, if thou wilt do the same, thy profit will be as great +as mine. + + + + +V + +A DIALOG WITH THE GOUT + +[_Dated at midnight, 22 October,1780._] + + +_Franklin._ Eh! Oh! Eh! What have I done to merit these cruel +sufferings? + +_Gout._ Many things; you have ate and drank too freely, and too much +indulged those legs of yours in their indolence. + +_Franklin._ Who is it that accuses me? + +_Gout._ It is I, even I, the Gout. + +_Franklin._ What! my enemy in person? + +_Gout._ No, not your enemy. + +_Franklin._ I repeat it; my enemy; for you would not only torment my +body to death, but ruin my good name; you reproach me as a glutton +and a tippler; now all the world that knows me will allow that I am +neither the one nor the other. + +_Gout._ The world may think as it pleases; it is always very +complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends; but I very well +know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man who takes a +reasonable degree of exercise, would be too much for another, who +never takes any. + +_Franklin._ I take--Eh! Oh!--as much exercise--Eh!--as I can, Madam +Gout. You know my sedentary state, and on that account, it would seem, +Madam Gout, as if you might spare me a little, seeing it is not +altogether my own fault. + +_Gout._ Not a jot; your rhetoric and your politeness are thrown away; +your apology avails nothing. If your situation in life is a sedentary +one, your amusements, your recreations, at least, should be active. +You ought to walk or ride; or, if the weather prevents that, play at +billiards. But let us examine your course of life. While the mornings +are long, and you have leisure to go abroad, what do you do? Why, +instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast, by salutary exercise, +you amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or newspapers, which +commonly are not worth the reading. Yet you eat an inordinate +breakfast, four dishes of tea, with cream, and one or two buttered +toasts, with slices of hung beef, which I fancy are not things the +most easily digested. Immediately afterward you sit down to write at +your desk, or converse with persons who apply to you on business. Thus +the time passes till one, without any kind of bodily exercise. + +But all this I could pardon, in regard, as you say, to your sedentary +condition. But what is your practise after dinner? Walking in the +beautiful gardens of those friends with whom you have dined would be +the choice of men of sense; yours is to be fixt down to chess, where +you are found engaged for two or three hours! This is your perpetual +recreation, which is the least eligible of any for a sedentary man, +because, instead of accelerating the motion of the fluids, the rigid +attention it requires helps to retard the circulation and obstruct +internal secretions. Wrapt in the speculations of this wretched game, +you destroy your constitution. What can be expected from such a course +of living but a body replete with stagnant humors, ready to fall a +prey to all kinds of dangerous maladies, if I, the Gout, did not +occasionally bring you relief by agitating those humors, and so +purifying or dissipating them? If it was in some nook or alley in +Paris, deprived of walks, that you played awhile at chess after +dinner, this might be excusable; but the same taste prevails with you +in Passy, Auteuil, Montmartre, or Sanoy, places where there are the +finest gardens and walks, a pure air, beautiful women, and most +agreeable and instructive conversation; all which you might enjoy by +frequenting the walks. But these are rejected for this abominable game +of chess. Fie, then, Mr. Franklin! But amidst my instructions, I had +almost forgot to administer my wholesome corrections; so take that +twinge--and that. + +_Franklin._ Oh! Eh! Oh! Ohhh! As much instruction as you please, Madam +Gout, and as many reproaches; but pray, Madam, a truce with your +corrections! + +_Gout._ No, Sir, no--I will not abate a particle of what is so much +for your good--therefore-- + +_Franklin._ Oh! Ehhh!--It is not fair to say I take no exercise, when +I do very often, going out to dine and returning in my carriage. + +_Gout._ That, of all imaginable exercises, is the most slight and +insignificant, if you allude to the motion of a carriage suspended on +springs. By observing the degree of heat obtained by different kinds +of motion we may form an estimate of the quantity of exercise given by +each. Thus, for example, if you turn out to walk in winter with cold +feet, in an hour's time you will be in a glow all over; ride on +horseback, the same effect will scarcely be perceived by four hours' +round trotting; but if you loll in a carriage, such as you have +mentioned, you may travel all day, and gladly enter the last inn to +warm your feet by a fire. Flatter yourself then no longer that half an +hour's airing in your carriage deserves the name of exercise. +Providence has appointed few to roll in carriages, while he has given +to all a pair of legs, which are machines infinitely more commodious +and serviceable. Be grateful, then, and make a proper use of yours. +Would you know how they forward the circulation of your fluids, in the +very action of transporting you from place to place; observe when you +walk that all your weight is alternately thrown from one leg to the +other; this occasions a great pressure on the vessels of the foot, and +repels their contents; when relieved, by the weight being thrown on +the other foot, the vessels of the first are allowed to replenish, +and, by a return of this weight, this repulsion again succeeds, thus +accelerating the circulation of the blood. The heat produced in any +given time depends on the degree of this acceleration; the fluids are +shaken, the humors attenuated, the secretions facilitated, and all +goes well; the cheeks are ruddy, and health is established. Behold +your fair friend at Auteuil;[24] a lady who received from bounteous +nature more really useful science than half a dozen of such pretenders +to philosophy as you have been able to extract from all your books. +When she honors you with a visit, it is on foot. She walks all hours +of the day, and leaves indolence, and its concomitant maladies, to be +endured by her horses. In this see at once the preservative of her +health and personal charms. But when you go to Auteuil, you must have +your carriage, tho it is no farther from Passy to Auteuil than from +Auteuil to Passy. + +[Footnote 24: The reference is to Madame Helvetius, whom Franklin knew +as the widow of the writer Claude Adrien Helvetius. Her home was long +a center of literary society in France. The friendship with Franklin +was a notable incident in his career as American Ambassador to France. +See his letter to her printed here as the sixth of these selections +from Franklin.] + +_Franklin._ Your reasonings grow very tiresome. + +_Gout._ I stand corrected. I will be silent and continue my office; +take that, and that. + +_Franklin._ Oh! Ohh! Talk on, I pray you. + +_Gout._ No, no; I have a good number of twinges for you to-night, and +you may be sure of some more to-morrow. + +_Franklin._ What, with such a fever! I shall go distracted. Oh! Eh! +Can no one bear it for me? + +_Gout._ Ask that of your horses; they have served you faithfully. + +_Franklin._ How can you so cruelly sport with my torments? + +_Gout._ Sport! I am very serious. I have here a list of offenses +against your own health distinctly written, and can justify every +stroke inflicted on you. + +_Franklin._ Read it then. + +_Gout._ It is too long a detail; but I will briefly mention some +particulars. + +_Franklin._ Proceed. I am all attention. + +_Gout._ Do you remember how often you have promised yourself, the +following morning, a walk in the grove of Boulogne, in the garden de +la Muette, or in your own garden, and have violated your promise, +alleging at one time it was too cold, at another too warm, too windy, +too moist, or what else you pleased; when in truth it was too nothing +but your insuperable love of ease? + +_Franklin._ That I confess may have happened occasionally, probably +ten times in a year. + +_Gout._ Your confession is very far short of the truth; the gross +amount is one hundred and ninety-nine times. + +_Franklin._ Is it possible? + +_Gout._ So possible that it is fact; you may rely on the accuracy of +my statement. You know Mr. Brillon's gardens, and what fine walks they +contain; you know the handsome flight of a hundred steps, which lead +from the terrace above to the lawn below. You have been in the +practise of visiting this amiable family twice a week, after dinner, +and it is a maxim of your own, that "a man may take as much exercise +in walking a mile up and down-stairs as in ten on level ground." What +an opportunity was here for you to have had exercise in both these +ways! Did you embrace it, and how often? + +_Franklin._ I can not immediately answer that question. + +_Gout._ I will do it for you; not once. + +_Franklin._ Not once? + +_Gout._ Even so. During the summer you went there at six o'clock. You +found the charming lady, with her lovely children and friends, eager +to walk with you, and entertain you with their agreeable conversation; +and what has been your choice? Why, to sit on the terrace, satisfying +yourself with the fine prospect, and passing your eye over the +beauties of the garden below, without taking one step to descend and +walk about in them. + +On the contrary, dear sir, you call for tea and the chess-board; and +lo! you are occupied in your seat till nine o'clock, and that besides +two hours' play after dinner; and then, instead of walking home, which +would have bestirred you a little, you step into your carriage. How +absurd to suppose that all this carelessness can be reconcilable with +health, without my interposition! + +_Franklin._ I am convinced now of the justness of Poor Richard's +remark that "Our debts and our sins are always greater than we think +for." + +_Gout._ So it is. You philosophers are sages in your maxims, and fools +in your conduct. + +_Franklin._ But do you charge, among my crimes, that I return in a +carriage from Mr. Brillon's? + +_Gout._ Certainly; for having been seated all the while, you can not +object the fatigue of the day, and can not want, therefore, the +relief of a carriage. + +_Franklin._ What, then, would you have me do with my carriage? + +_Gout._ Burn it, if you choose; you would at least get heat out of it +once in this way, or, if you dislike that proposal, here's another for +you; observe the poor peasants, who work in the vineyards and grounds +about the villages of Passy, Auteuil, Chaillot, etc.; you may find +every day, among these deserving creatures, four or five old men and +women, bent and perhaps crippled by weight of years and too long and +too great labor. After a most fatiguing day, these people have to +trudge a mile or two to their smoky huts. Order your coachman to set +them down. This is an act that will be good for your soul; and, at the +same time, after your visit to the Brillons, if you return on foot, +that will be good for your body. + +_Franklin._ Ah! how tiresome you are! + +_Gout._ Well, then, to my office; it should not be forgotten that I am +your physician. There. + +_Franklin._ Ohhh! what a devil of a physician! + +_Gout._ How ungrateful you are to say so! Is it not I who, in the +character of your physician, have saved you from the palsy, dropsy and +apoplexy? one or other of which would have done for you long ago but +for me. + +_Franklin._ I submit, and thank you for the past, but entreat the +discontinuance of your visits for the future; for, in my mind, one had +better die than be cured so dolefully. Permit me just to hint that I +have also not been unfriendly to you. I never feed physician or quack +of any kind, to enter the list against you; if, then, you do not +leave me to my repose, it may be said you are ungrateful too. + +_Gout._ I can scarcely acknowledge that as any objection. As to +quacks, I despise them; they may kill you, indeed, but can not injure +me. And as to regular physicians, they are at last convinced that the +gout, in such a subject as you are, is no disease, but a remedy; and +wherefore cure a remedy?--but to our business--there. + +_Franklin._ Oh! Oh!--for Heaven's sake leave me; and I promise +faithfully never more to play at chess, but to take exercise daily, +and live temperately. + +_Gout._ I know you too well. You promise fair; after a few months of +good health you will return to your old habits; your fine promises +will be forgotten like the forms of the last year's clouds. Let us +then finish the account, and I will go. But leave you with an +assurance of visiting you again at a proper time and place; for my +object is your good, and you are sensible now that I am your real +friend. + + + + +VI + +A PROPOSAL TO MADAME HELVETIUS[25] + + +Mortified at the barbarous resolution pronounced by you so positively +yesterday evening, that you would remain single for the rest of your +life as a compliment due to the memory of your husband, I retired to +my chamber. Throwing myself upon my bed I dreamt that I was dead, and +was transported to the Elysian fields. + +[Footnote 25: A letter now printed in Volume VI of the "Works of +Franklin," edited by John Bigelow.] + +I was asked whether I wished to see any persons in particular; to +which I replied that I wished to see the philosophers. "There are two +who live here at hand in this garden; they are good neighbors and very +friendly toward one another." "Who are they?" "Socrates and +Helvetius." "I esteem them both highly; but let me see Helvetius +first, because I understand a little French but not a word of Greek." +I was conducted to him; he received me with much courtesy, having +known me, he said, by character some time past. He asked me a thousand +questions relative to the war, the present state of religion, of +liberty, of the government in France. "You do not inquire, then," said +I, "after your dear friend, Madame Helvetius; yet she loves you +exceedingly. I was in her company not more than an hour ago." "Ah," +said he, "you make me recur to my past happiness, which ought to be +forgotten in order to be happy here. For many years I could think of +nothing but her, tho at length I am consoled. I have taken another +wife, the most like her that I could find; she is not, indeed, +altogether so handsome, but she has a great fund of wit and good +sense, and her whole study is to please me. She is at this moment gone +to fetch the nectar and ambrosia to regale me; stay here awhile and +you will see her." "I perceive," said I, "that your former friend is +more faithful to you than you are to her; she has had several good +offers, but has refused them all. I will confess to you that I love +her extremely, but she was cruel to me and rejected me peremptorily +for your sake." "I pity you sincerely," said he, "for she is an +excellent woman, handsome and amiable. But do not the Abbe de la R---- +and the Abbe M---- visit her?" "Certainly they do; not one of your +friends has dropt her acquaintance." "If you had gained the Abbe M---- +with a bribe of good coffee and cream perhaps you would have +succeeded; for he is as deep a reasoner as Dun Scotus or St. Thomas; +he arranges and methodizes his arguments in such a manner that they +are almost irresistible. Or if by a fine edition of some old classic +you had gained the Abbe de la R---- to speak against you, that would +have been still better, as I always observed that when he recommended +anything to her, she had a great inclination to do exactly the +contrary." + +As he finished these words the new Madame Helvetius entered with the +nectar and I recognized her immediately as my former American friend, +Mrs. Franklin! I reclaimed her, but she answered me coldly, "I was a +good wife to you for forty-nine years and four months, nearly half a +century; let that content you. I have formed a new condition here, +which will last to eternity." + +Indignant at this refusal of my Eurydice, I immediately resolved to +quit those ungraceful shades and return to this good world again, to +behold the sun and you. Here am I; let us _avenge ourselves_. + + + + +GEORGE WASHINGTON + + Born in 1732, died in 1799; adjutant of Virginia troops in + 1751; sent on a mission to the French beyond the Alleghany + River in 1753; defended Fort Necessity in 1754; with + Braddock at his defeat in 1755; led the advance guard to + Fort Duquesne in 1758; Member of the Continental Congress in + 1774-75; made Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in + 1775; resigned his commission in 1783; President of the + Constitutional Convention in 1787; elected President of the + United States in 1789; reelected President in 1793; + Commander-in-chief of the Army in 1798. + + + + +I + +TO HIS WIFE ON TAKING COMMAND OF THE ARMY[26] + + +My Dearest: I am now set down to write to you on a subject which fills +me with inexpressible concern, and this concern is greatly aggravated +and increased when I reflect upon the uneasiness I know it will give +you. It has been determined in Congress that the whole army raised for +the defense of the American cause shall be put under my care, and that +it is necessary for me to proceed immediately to Boston to take upon +me the command of it. + +[Footnote 26: A letter written in Philadelphia on June 18, 1775, three +days after his appointment.] + +You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure you, in the most +solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment, I have used +every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my +unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a +consciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity, and that +I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than +I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to +be seven times seven years. But as it has been a kind of destiny that +has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it +is designed to answer some good purpose. + +You might, and I suppose did perceive, from the tenor of my letters, +that I was apprehensive I could not avoid this appointment, as I did +not pretend to intimate when I should return. That was the case. It +was utterly out of my power to refuse this appointment without +exposing my character to such censures as would have reflected +dishonor upon myself, and given pain to my friends. This, I am sure, +could not, and ought not, to be pleasing to you, and must have +lessened me considerably in my own esteem. I shall rely, therefore, +confidently on that Providence which has heretofore preserved and been +bountiful to me, not doubting but that I shall return safe to you in +the fall. I shall feel no pain from the toil or the danger of the +campaign; my unhappiness will flow from the uneasiness I know you will +feel from being left alone. I therefore beg that you will summon your +whole fortitude, and pass your time as agreeably as possible. Nothing +will give me so much sincere satisfaction as to hear this, and to hear +it from your own pen. My earnest and ardent desire is that you would +pursue any plan that is most likely to produce content, and a +tolerable degree of tranquillity; as it must add greatly to my uneasy +feelings to hear that you are dissatisfied or complaining at what I +really could not avoid. + +As life is always uncertain, and common prudence dictates to every man +the necessity of settling his temporal concerns, while it is in his +power, and while the mind is calm and undisturbed, I have, since I +came to this place (for I had not time to do it before I left home) +got Colonel Pendleton to draft a will for me, by the directions I gave +him, which will I now enclose. The provision made for you in case of +my death will, I hope, be agreeable. + +I shall add nothing more, as I have several letters to write, but to +desire that you will remember me to your friends, and to assure you +that I am with the most unfeigned regard, my dear Patsy, your +affectionate, etc. + + + + +II + +OF HIS ARMY IN CAMBRIDGE[27] + + +Nothing would give me more real satisfaction than to know the +sentiments which are entertained of me by the public, whether they be +favorable or otherwise; and I urged as a reason that the man who +wished to steer clear of shelves and rocks must know where they lie. I +know the integrity of my own heart, but to declare it, unless to a +friend, may be an argument of vanity; I know the unhappy predicament I +stand in: I know that much is expected of me; I know that without men, +without arms, without ammunition, without anything fit for the +accommodation of a soldier, little is to be done; and, what is +mortifying, I know that I can not stand justified to the world without +exposing my own weakness, and injuring the cause by declaring my +wants, which I am determined not to do, further than unavoidable +necessity brings every man acquainted with them. + +[Footnote 27: From the letter addrest to Joseph Reed, and dated +February 10, 1776. Washington had assumed command in Cambridge on July +3d of the previous year. Joseph Reed was President of the Pennsylvania +Provincial Congress in 1775, and afterward became Washington's +secretary and aide-de-camp. This letter was in reply to two letters +from Reed containing "early and regular communication of what is +passing in your quarter."] + +If, under these disadvantages, I am able to keep above water, in the +esteem of mankind, I shall feel myself happy; but if, from the unknown +peculiarity of my circumstances, I suffer in the opinion of the world, +I shall not think you take the freedom of a friend, if you conceal the +reflections that may be cast upon my conduct. My own situation is so +irksome to me at times that, if I did not consult the public good more +than my own tranquillity, I should long ere this have put everything +on the cast of a die. So far from my having an army of twenty thousand +men well armed, I have been here with less than one-half of that +number, including sick, furloughed, and on command, and those neither +armed nor clothed, as they should be. In short, my situation has been +such, that I have been obliged to use art to conceal it from my own +officers. + +The party sent to Bunker Hill had some good and some bad men engaged +in it. One or two courts have been held on the conduct of part of +them. To be plain, these people are not to be depended upon if +exposed; and any man will fight well if he thinks himself in no +danger. I do not apply this only to these people. I suppose it to be +the case with all raw and undisciplined troops. Yon may rely upon it +that transports left Boston six weeks ago with troops; where they are +gone, unless driven to the West Indies, I know not. You may also rely +upon General Clinton's sailing from Boston about three weeks ago, with +about four or five hundred men; his destination I am also a stranger +to. I am sorry to hear of the failures you speak of from France. But +why will not Congress forward part of the powder made in your +province? They seem to look upon this as the season for action, but +will not furnish the means. I will not blame them. I dare say the +demands upon them are greater than they can supply. The cause must be +starved till our resources are greater, or more certain within +ourselves. + +With respect to myself, I have never entertained an idea of an +accommodation since I heard of the measures which were adopted in +consequence of the Bunker Hill fight. The King's speech has confirmed +the sentiments I entertained upon the news of that affair; and, if +every man was of my mind, the ministers of Great Britain should know, +in a few words, upon what issue the cause should be put. I would not +be deceived by artful declarations, nor specious pretenses; nor would +I be amused by unmeaning propositions; but in open, undisguised, and +manly terms proclaim our wrongs, and our resolution to be redressed. +I would tell them, that we had borne much, that we had long and +ardently sought for reconciliation upon honorable terms, that it had +been denied us, that all our attempts after peace had proved abortive, +and had been grossly misrepresented, that we had done everything which +could be expected from the best of subjects, that the spirit of +freedom rises too high in us to submit to slavery, and that, if +nothing else would satisfy a tyrant and his diabolical ministry, we +are determined to shake off all connections with a state so unjust and +unnatural. This I would tell them, not under covert, but in words as +clear as the sun in its meridian brightness. + + + + +III + +TO THE MARQUIS DE CHASTELLUX ON HIS MARRIAGE[28] + + +My Dear Marquis: In reading your very friendly and acceptable letter, +which came to hand by the last mail, I was, as you may well suppose, +not less delighted than surprized to meet the plain American words, +"my wife." A wife! Well, my dear Marquis, I can hardly refrain from +smiling to find you are caught at last. I saw by the eulogium you +often made on the happiness of domestic life in America, that you had +swallowed the bait, and that you would as surely be taken, one day or +another, as that you were a philosopher and a soldier. + +[Footnote 28: From a letter, written at Mount Vernon on April 25, +1788, and addrest to the Marquis de Chastellux, author of "Travels in +North America," and a major-general in the army of Rochambeau, who +served under Washington in the American Revolution.] + +So your day has at length come. I am glad of it, with all my heart and +soul. It is quite good enough for you. Now you are well served for +coming to fight in favor of the American rebels, all the way across +the Atlantic Ocean, by catching that terrible contagion, domestic +felicity, which, like the smallpox or the plague, a man can have only +once in his life, because it commonly lasts him (at least with us in +America; I know not how you manage these matters in France), for his +whole lifetime. And yet, after all, the worst wish which I can find in +my heart to make against Madame de Chastellux and yourself is that you +may neither of you ever get the better of this same domestic felicity, +during the entire course of your mortal existence. + +If so wonderful an event should have occasioned me, my dear Marquis, +to write in a strange style, you will understand me as clearly as if I +had said, what in plain English is the simple truth, "Do me the +justice to believe that I take a heartfelt interest in whatsoever +concerns your happiness." And, in this view, I sincerely congratulate +you on your auspicious matrimonial connection. I am happy to find that +Madame de Chastellux is so intimately connected with the Duchess of +Orleans; as I have always understood that this noble lady was an +illustrious example of connubial love, as well as an excellent pattern +of virtue in general. + +While you have been making love under the banner of Hymen, the great +personages in the north have been making war under the inspiration, +or rather under the infatuation, of Mars. Now, for my part, I humbly +conceive that you have acted much the best and wisest part; for +certainly it is more consonant to all the principles of reason and +religion, natural and revealed, to replenish the earth with +inhabitants than to depopulate it by killing those already in +existence. Besides, it is time for the age of knight-errantry and mad +heroism to be at an end. Your young military men, who want to reap the +harvest of laurels, do not care, I suppose, how many seeds of war are +sown; but for the sake of humanity it is devoutly to be wished, that +the manly employment of agriculture, and the humanizing benefits of +commerce, would supersede the waste of war and the rage of conquest; +that the swords might be turned into plowshares, the spears into +pruning-hooks, and, as the Scriptures express it, the "nations learn +war no more." + +Now I will give you a little news from this side of the water, and +then finish. As for us, we are plodding on in the dull road of peace +and politics. We, who live in these ends of the earth, only hear of +the rumors of war like the roar of distant thunder. It is to be hoped +that our remote local situation will prevent us from being swept into +its vortex. + + + + +JOHN ADAMS + + Born in 1735, died in 1826; second President of the United + States; graduated from Harvard in 1755; active in opposing + the Stamp Act; elected to the Revolutionary Congress of + Massachusetts in 1774; delegate to the first and second + Continental Congresses; proposed Washington as + commander-in-chief; signed the Declaration of Independence; + commissioner to France in 1777; to the Netherlands in 1782, + to Great Britain in 1782-83, and to Prussia; minister to + England in 1785; vice-president in 1789; elected President + in 1796; unsuccessful candidate for President in 1800; his + "Life and Works" in ten volumes published in 1850-56. + + + + +I + +ON HIS NOMINATION OF WASHINGTON TO BE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF[29] + + +When Congress had assembled, I rose in my place, and in as short a +speech as the subject would admit, represented the state of the +colonies, the uncertainty in the minds of the people, their great +expectation and anxiety, the distresses of the army, the danger of its +dissolution, the difficulty of collecting another, and the probability +that the British army would take advantage of our delays, march out +of Boston, and spread desolation as far as they could go. I concluded +with a motion, in form, that Congress would adopt the army at +Cambridge, and appoint a general; that tho this was not the proper +time to nominate a general, yet, as I had reason to believe, this was +a point of the greatest difficulty. I had no hesitation to declare +that I had but one gentleman in my mind for that important command, +and that was a gentleman from Virginia who was among us and very well +known to all of us, a gentleman whose skill and experience as an +officer, whose independent fortune, great talents, and excellent +universal character, would command the approbation of all America, and +unite the cordial exertions of all the colonies better than any other +person in the Union. Mr. Washington, who happened to sit near the +door, as soon as he heard me allude to him, from his usual modesty, +darted into the library-room. Mr. Hancock--who was our President, +which gave me an opportunity to observe his countenance while I was +speaking on the state of the colonies, the army at Cambridge, and the +enemy--heard me with visible pleasure; but when I came to describe +Washington for the commander, I never remarked a more sudden and +striking change of countenance. Mortification and resentment were +exprest as forcibly as his face could exhibit them. Mr. Samuel Adams +seconded the motion, and that did not soften the President's +physiognomy at all. + +[Footnote 29: From the "Diary," printed in the "Works of John Adams," +as edited by Charles Francis Adams. In his speech naming Washington, +Adams referred to him as "one who could unite the cordial exertions of +all the colonies better than any other person." Two days later he +wrote to his wife that Congress had chosen "the modest and virtuous, +the amiable, generous and brave George Washington, Esq., to be chief +of the American army."] + +The subject came under debate, and several gentlemen declared +themselves against the appointment of Mr. Washington, not on account +of any personal objection against him, but because the army were all +from New England, had a general of their own, appeared to be satisfied +with him, and had proved themselves able to imprison the British army +in Boston, which was all they expected or desired at that time. Mr. +Pendleton, of Virginia, Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, were very +explicit in declaring this opinion; Mr. Cushing and several others +more faintly exprest their opposition, and their fears of discontents +in the army and in New England. Mr. Paine exprest a great opinion of +General Ward and a strong friendship for him, having been his +classmate at college, or at least his contemporary; but gave no +opinion upon the question. The subject was postponed to a future day. +In the mean time, pains were taken out-of-doors to obtain a unanimity, +and the voices were generally so clearly in favor of Washington, that +the dissentient members were persuaded to withdraw their opposition, +and Mr. Washington was nominated, I believe by Mr. Thomas Johnson of +Maryland, unanimously elected, and the army adopted. + + + + +II + +AN ESTIMATE OF FRANKLIN[30] + + +His reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, +Frederick or Voltaire, and his character more beloved and esteemed +than any or all of them. Newton had astonished perhaps forty or fifty +men in Europe, for not more than that number probably at any one time +had read him and understood him, by his discoveries and +demonstrations. And these being held in admiration in their respective +countries, as at the head of the philosophers, had spread among +scientific people a mysterious wonder at the genius of this, perhaps, +the greatest man that ever lived. But this fame was confined to men of +letters. The common people knew little and cared nothing about such a +recluse philosopher. Leibnitz's name was more confined still. +Frederick was hated by more than half of Europe as much as Louis XIV +was and Napoleon is. Voltaire, whose name was more universal than any +of these before mentioned, was considered as a vain, profligate wit, +and not much esteemed or beloved by anybody, tho admired by all who +knew his works. But Franklin's fame was universal. His name was +familiar to governments and people, to kings, courtiers, nobility, +clergy and philosophers, as well as plebeians, to such a degree that +there was scarcely a peasant or citizen, a valet de chambre, coachman, +or footman, a lady's maid, or a scullion in a kitchen, who was not +familiar with it, and who did not consider him a friend to human kind. +When they spoke of him they seemed to think he was to restore the +Golden Age.... + +[Footnote 30: From a letter to the Boston _Patriot_ of May 15, 1811, +now given as an appendix to the "Works of John Adams." The differences +of Adams and Franklin form a striking incident in the biographies of +the two men. Colaborers as they were in a common cause, they had +constant disagreements as to methods while serving their country in +Europe. That they never openly quarreled Adams's biographer, John T. +Morse, attributes to "their sense of propriety and dignity, and to the +age and position of Dr. Franklin." The radical cause lay in the fact +that "they were utterly incompatible, both mentally and morally."] + +Nothing perhaps that ever occurred upon this earth was so well +calculated to give any man an extensive and universal celebrity as the +discovery of the efficacy of iron points and the invention of +lightning-rods. The idea was one of the most sublime that ever entered +a human imagination that a mortal should disarm the clouds of heaven +and almost "snatch from his hand the scepter and the rod." The +ancients would have enrolled him with Bacchus and Ceres, Hercules and +Minerva.... + +Franklin had a great genius, original, sagacious, and inventive, +capable of discoveries in science no less than of improvements in the +fine arts and the mechanic arts. He had a vast imagination, equal to +the comprehension of the greatest objects, and capable of a steady and +cool comprehension of them. He had wit at will. He had humor that, +when he pleased, was delicate and delightful. He had a satire that was +good-natured or caustic, Horace or Juvenal, Swift or Rabelais, at his +pleasure. He had talents for irony, allegory, and fable, that he +could adapt with great skill to the promotion of moral and political +truth. He was master of that infantine simplicity which the French +call _naivete_, which never fails to charm, in Phaedrus and La +Fontaine, from the cradle to the grave. + +Had he been blest with the same advantages of scholastic education in +his early youth, and pursued a course of studies as unembarrassed with +occupations of public and private life, as Sir Isaac Newton, he might +have emulated the first philosopher. Altho I am not ignorant that most +of his positions and hypotheses have been controverted, I can not but +think he has added much to the mass of natural knowledge, and +contributed largely to the progress of the human mind, both by his own +writings and by the controversies and experiments he has excited in +all parts of Europe. He had abilities for investigating statistical +questions, and in some parts of his life has written pamphlets and +essays upon public topics with great ingenuity and success; but after +my acquaintance with him, which commenced in Congress in 1775, his +excellence as a legislator, a politician, or a negotiator most +certainly never appeared. No sentiments more weak and superficial were +ever avowed by the most absurd philosopher than some of his, +particularly one that he procured to be inserted in the first +constitution of Pennsylvania, and for which he had such a fondness as +to insert it in his will. I call it weak, for so it must have been, or +hypocritical; unless he meant by one satiric touch to ridicule his own +republic, or throw it into everlasting contempt. + +I must acknowledge, after all, that nothing in life has mortified or +grieved me more than the necessity which compelled me to oppose him so +often as I have. He was a man with whom I always wished to live in +friendship, and for that purpose omitted no demonstration of respect, +esteem, and veneration in my power, until I had unequivocal proofs of +his hatred, for no other reason under the sun, but because I gave my +judgment in opposition to his, in many points which materially +affected the interests of our country, and in many more which +essentially concerned our happiness, safety, and well-being. I could +not and would not sacrifice the clearest dictates of my understanding +and the purest principles of morals and policy in compliance to Dr. +Franklin. + + + + +THOMAS PAINE + + Born in England in 1737, died in New York in 1809; came to + America in 1774; took a prominent part in the Revolution as + a writer; his "Common Sense," advocating independence, + published in 1776; published a periodical, _The Crisis_, in + 1776-83; went to Europe in 1787; in 1792 was outlawed from + England for publishing his "Rights of Man"; went to France + and elected to the National Convention in 1793; imprisoned + in France in 1794; published his "Age of Reason" in 1794; + returned to the United States in 1802. + + + + +IN FAVOR OF SEPARATION OF THE COLONIES FROM GREAT BRITAIN[31] + + +The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, "'tis time +to part." Even the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England +and America, is a strong and natural proof that the authority of the +one over the other was never the design of heaven. The time, likewise, +at which the continent was discovered, adds weight to the argument, +and the manner in which it was peopled, increases the force of it. The +Reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the +Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in +future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety. + +[Footnote 31: From "Common Sense," a pamphlet issued by Paine in +Philadelphia on January 1, 1776. In this work Paine advocated complete +separation from England. His arguments helped to consolidate and make +effective a sentiment which already was drifting in the same +direction. Washington said he effected "a powerful change in the minds +of many men."] + +The authority of Great Britain over this continent is a form of +government which sooner or later must have an end: and a serious mind +can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and +positive conviction that what he calls "the present constitution" is +merely temporary. As parents, we can have no joy knowing that this +government is not sufficiently lasting to insure anything which we may +bequeath to posterity; and by a plain method of argument, as we are +running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, +otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the +line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and +fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will +present a prospect which a few present fears and prejudices conceal +from our sight. + +Tho I would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offense, yet I am +inclined to believe that all those who espouse the doctrine of +reconciliation may be included within the following descriptions: + +Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men, who can not see; +prejudiced men, who will not see; and a certain set of moderate men, +who think better of the European world than it deserves: and this last +class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more +calamities to this continent than all the other three. + +It is the good fortune of many to live distant from the scene of +sorrow; the evil is not sufficiently brought to their doors to make +them feel the precariousness with which all American property is +possest. But let our imaginations transport us a few moments to +Boston; that seat of wretchedness will teach us wisdom, and instruct +us forever to renounce a power in whom we can have no trust. The +inhabitants of that unfortunate city, who but a few months ago were in +ease and affluence, have now no other alternative than to stay and +starve, or turn out to beg. Endangered by the fire of their friends if +they continue within the city, and plundered by the soldiery if they +leave it. In their present situation they are prisoners without the +hope of redemption, and in a general attack for their relief they +would be exposed to the fury of both armies. + +Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offenses of +Britain, and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, "Come, +come, we shall be friends again for all this." But examine the +passions and feelings of mankind, bring the doctrine of reconciliation +to the touchstone of nature, and then tell me whether you can +hereafter love, honor, and faithfully serve the power that hath +carried fire and sword into your land? If you can not do all these, +then are you only deceiving yourselves, and by your delay bringing +ruin upon your posterity. Your future connection with Britain, whom +you can neither love nor honor, will be forced and unnatural, and +being formed only on the plan of present convenience, will in a little +time fall into a relapse more wretched than the first. But if you say +you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, hath your house +been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your face? Are +your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live +on? Have you lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the +ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then are you not a +judge of those who have. But if you have, and can still shake hands +with the murderers, then are you unworthy the name of husband, father, +friend, or lover, and, whatever may be your rank or title in life, you +have the heart of a coward and the spirit of a sycophant. + + + + +THOMAS JEFFERSON + + Born In 1743, died in 1826; Member of the Virginia House of + Burgesses in 1769-75, and again in 1776-78; Member of the + Continental Congress in 1775; drafted the Declaration of + Independence in 1776; Governor of Virginia in 1779; Member + of Congress in 1783; Minister to France in 1785; Secretary + of State in 1790; Vice-President in 1797; elected President + in 1801 and reelected in 1805. + + + + +I + +WHEN THE BASTILE FELL[32] + + +In the meantime these troops, to the number of twenty to thirty +thousand, had arrived and were posted in and between Paris and +Versailles. The bridges and passes were guarded. The King was now +completely in the hands of men the principal among whom had been +noted, through their lives, for the Turkish despotism of their +characters, and who were associated around the King as proper +instruments for what was to be executed. The news of this change began +to be known at Paris about one or two o'clock. In the afternoon a body +of about one hundred German cavalry were advanced, and drawn up in the +Place Louis XV, and about two hundred Swiss posted at a little +distance in their rear. This drew people to the spot, who thus +accidentally found themselves in front of the troops, merely at first +as spectators; but, as their numbers increased, their indignation +rose. They retired a few steps, and posted themselves on and behind +large piles of stones, large and small, collected in that place for a +bridge, which was to be built adjacent to it. + +[Footnote 32: From the "Autobiography," now printed in Volume I of the +"Writings of Jefferson," edited by Paul Leicester Ford.] + +In this position, happening to be in my carriage on a visit, I passed +through the lane they had formed without interruption. But the moment +after I had passed, the people attacked the cavalry with stones. They +charged, but the advantageous position of the people, and the showers +of stones, obliged the horse to retire, and quit the field altogether, +leaving one of their number on the ground, and the Swiss in the rear +not moving to their aid. This was the signal for universal +insurrection, and this body of cavalry, to avoid being massacred, +retired toward Versailles. The people now armed themselves with such +weapons as they could find in armorers' shops, and private houses, and +with bludgeons; and were roaming all night, through all parts of the +city, without any decided object. + +The next day (the 13th) the Assembly prest on the King to send away +the troops, to permit the bourgeoisie of Paris to arm for the +preservation of order in the city, and offered to send a deputation +from their body to tranquillize them; but their propositions were +refused. A committee of magistrates and electors of the city were +appointed by those bodies, to take upon them its government. The +people, now openly joined by the French guards, forced the prison of +St. Lazare, released all the prisoners, and took a great store of +corn, which they carried to the corn-market. Here they got some arms, +and the French guards began to form and train them. The city committee +determined to raise forty-eight thousand bourgeoisie, or rather to +restrain their numbers to forty-eight thousand. + +On the 14th, they sent one of their members (Monsieur de Corny) to the +Hotel des Invalides, to ask arms for their Garde Bourgeoisie. He was +followed by, and he found there, a great collection of people. The +Governor of the Invalids came out, and represented the impossibility +of his delivering arms without the orders of those from whom he +received them. De Corny advised the people then to retire, and retired +himself; but the people took possession of the arms. It was remarkable +that not only the Invalids themselves made no opposition, but that a +body of five thousand foreign troops, within four hundred yards, never +stirred. M. De Corny, and five others, were then sent to ask arms of +M. de Launay, Governor of the Bastile. They found a great collection +of people already before the place, and they immediately planted a +flag of truce, which was answered by a like flag hoisted on the +parapet. The deputation prevailed on the people to fall back a little, +advanced themselves to make their demand of the Governor, and in that +instant a discharge from the Bastile killed four persons of those +nearest to the deputies. The deputies retired. I happened to be at the +house of M. de Corny, when he returned to it, and received from him a +narrative of these transactions. + +On the retirement of the deputies the people rushed forward, and almost in +an instant were in possession of a fortification of infinite strength, +defended by one hundred men, which in other times had stood several regular +sieges, and had never been taken. How they forced their entrance has never +been explained. They took all the arms, discharged the prisoners, and such +of the garrison as were not killed in the first moment of fury; carried the +Governor and Lieutenant-Governor to the Place de Greve (the place of public +execution), cut off their heads, and sent them through the city, in +triumph, to the Palais royal. About the same instant a treacherous +correspondence having been discovered in M. de Flesseles, Prevot des +Marchands, they seized him in the Hotel de Ville, where he was in the +execution of his office, and cut off his head. + +These events, carried imperfectly to Versailles, were the subject of +two successive deputations from the Assembly to the King, to both of +which he gave dry and hard answers; for nobody had as yet been +permitted to inform him, truly and fully, of what had passed at Paris. +But at night the Duke de Liancourt forced his way into the King's +bedchamber, and obliged him to hear a full and animated detail of the +disasters of the day in Paris. He went to bed fearfully imprest. The +decapitation of de Launay worked powerfully through the night on the +whole Aristocratic party; insomuch that in the morning those of the +greatest influence on the Count d'Artois represented to him the +absolute necessity that the King should give up everything to the +Assembly. This according with the dispositions of the King, he went +about eleven o'clock, accompanied only by his brothers, to the +Assembly, and there read to them a speech, in which he asked their +interposition to reestablish order. Altho couched in terms of some +caution, yet the manner in which it was delivered made it evident that +it was meant as a surrender at discretion. He returned to the Chateau +afoot, accompanied by the Assembly. + +They sent off a deputation to quiet Paris, at the head of which was +the Marquis de La Fayette, who had, the same morning, been named +Commandant en chef of the Milice Bourgeoise; and Monsieur Bailly, +former President of the States General, was called for as Prevot des +Marchands. The demolition of the Bastile was now ordered and begun. A +body of the Swiss guards, of the regiment of Ventimille, and the city +horse guards joined the people. The alarm at Versailles increased. The +foreign troops were ordered off instantly. Every minister resigned. +The King confirmed Bailly as Prevot des Marchands, wrote to M. Necker, +to recall him, sent his letter open to the Assembly, to be forwarded +by them, and invited them to go with him to Paris the next day, to +satisfy the city of his dispositions; and that night, and the next +morning, the Count d'Artois, and M. de Montesson, a deputy connected +with him, Madame de Polignac, Madame de Guiche, and the Count de +Vaudreuil, favorites of the Queen, the Abbe de Vermont, her confessor, +the Prince of Conde, and the Duke of Bourbon fled. + +The King came to Paris, leaving the Queen in consternation for his +return. Omitting the less important figures of the procession, the +King's carriage was in the center; on each side of it the Assembly, in +two ranks afoot; at their head the Marquis de La Fayette, as +Commander-in-chief, on horseback, and Bourgeois guards before and +behind. About sixty thousand citizens, of all forms and conditions, +armed with the conquests of the Bastile and Invalids, as far as they +would go, the rest with pistols, swords, pikes, pruning-hooks, +scythes, etc., lined all the streets through which the procession +passed, and with the crowds of people in the streets, doors, and +windows, saluted them everywhere with the cries of "vive la nation," +but not a single "vive le roi" was heard. The King stopt at the Hotel +de Ville. There M. Bailly presented, and put into his hat the popular +cockade, and addrest him. The King being unprepared, and unable to +answer, Bailly went to him, gathered from him some scraps of +sentences, and made out an answer, which he delivered to the audience +as from the King. On their return, the popular cries were "vive le Roi +et la nation." He was conducted by a Garde Bourgeoise to his palace at +Versailles, and thus concluded an "amende honorable," as no sovereign +ever made, and no people ever received. + +And here, again, was lost another precious occasion of sparing to +France the crimes and cruelties through which she has since passed, +and to Europe, and finally America, the evils which flowed on them +also from this mortal source. The King was now become a passive +machine in the hands of the National Assembly, and had he been left to +himself, he would have willingly acquiesced in whatever they should +devise as best for the nation. A wise constitution would have been +formed, hereditary in his line, himself placed at its head, with +powers so large as to enable him to do all the good of his station, +and so limited as to restrain him from its abuse. This he would have +faithfully administered, and more than this I do not believe he ever +wished. But he had a Queen of absolute sway over his weak mind and +timid virtue, and of a character the reverse of his in all points. +This angel, as gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of Burke,[33] with +some smartness of fancy, but no sound sense, was proud, disdainful of +restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will, eager in the +pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires, or perish +in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and dissipations, with those +of the Count d'Artois, and others of her _clique_, had been a sensible +item in the exhaustion of the treasury, which called into action the +reforming hand of the nation; and her opposition to it, her inflexible +perverseness, and dauntless spirit, led herself to the guillotine, +drew the King on with her, and plunged the world into crimes and +calamities which will forever stain the pages of modern history. + +[Footnote 33: See page 214 of Volume IV of this collection for this +tribute from Burke.] + +I have ever believed that had there been no Queen there would have +been no revolution. No force would have been provoked, nor exercised. +The King would have gone hand in hand with the wisdom of his sounder +counselors, who, guided by the increased lights of the age, wished +only, with the same pace, to advance the principles of their social +constitution. The deed which closed the mortal course of these +sovereigns I shall neither approve nor condemn. I am not prepared to +say that the first magistrate of a nation can not commit treason +against his country, or is unamenable to its punishment; nor yet that +where there is no written law, no regulated tribunal, there is not a +law in our hearts, and a power in our hands, given for righteous +employment in maintaining right and redressing wrong. Of those who +judged the King many thought him wilfully criminal; many, that his +existence would keep the nation in perpetual conflict with the horde +of kings who would war against a generation which might come home to +themselves, and that it were better that one should die than all. I +should not have voted with this portion of the Legislature. I should +have shut up the Queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power, +and placed the King in his station, investing him with limited powers, +which, I verily believe, he would have honestly exercised, according +to the measure of his understanding. In this way no void would have +been created, courting the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor +occasion given for those enormities which demoralized the nations of +the world, and destroyed, and are yet to destroy millions and millions +of its inhabitants. + + + + +II + +THE FUTILITY OF DISPUTES[34] + + +I have mentioned good humor as one of the preservatives of our peace +and tranquillity. It is among the most effectual, and its effect is so +well imitated and aided, artificially, by politeness that this also +becomes an acquisition of first-rate value. In truth, politeness is +artificial good humor; it covers the natural want of it, and ends by +rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. +It is the practise of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society all +the little conveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and +deprive us of nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giving +a pleasing and flattering turn to our expressions, which will +conciliate others, and make them pleased with us as well as +themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another! When this +is in return for a rude thing said by another, it brings him to his +senses, it mortifies and corrects him in the most salutary way, and +places him at the feet of your good nature in the eyes of the company. + +[Footnote 34: From a letter to Thomas Jefferson Randolph, dated +Washington, Nov. 24, 1808.] + +But in stating prudential rules for our government in society I must +not omit the important one of never entering into dispute or argument +with another. I never saw an instance of one of two disputants +convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their getting +warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the +effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or +weighing within ourselves, dispassionately, what we hear from others, +standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was one of the rules +which, above all others, made Doctor Franklin the most amiable of men +in society "never to contradict anybody." If he was urged to announce +an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as if for +information, or by suggesting doubts. When I hear another express an +opinion which is not mine, I say to myself he has a right to his +opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error does me no +injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of +argument to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it is probable he is +gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of the +gratification. If he wants information, he will ask it, and then I +will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own +story, and shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him and +say nothing. It is his affair, not mine, if he prefers error. + +There are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with +among us. The first is of young students, just entered the threshold +of science, with a first view of its outlines, not yet filled up with +the details and modifications which a further progress would bring to +their knowledge. The other consists of the ill-tempered and rude men +in society, who have taken up a passion for politics. (Good humor and +politeness never introduce into mixt society a question on which they +foresee there will be a difference of opinion.) From both of those +classes of disputants, my dear Jefferson, keep aloof as you would from +the infected subjects of yellow fever or pestilence. Consider +yourself, when with them, as among the patients of Bedlam, needing +medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep within +yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of +silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country +no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery +zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as +to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will +act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not +for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal. + + + + +III + +OF BLACKS AND WHITES IN THE SOUTH[35] + + +It will probably be asked, Why not retain and incorporate the blacks +into the state, and thus save the expense of supplying by importation +of white settlers the vacancies they will leave? Deep-rooted +prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by +the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the +real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances +will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will +probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other +race. To these objections, which are political, may be added others, +which are physical and moral. + +[Footnote 35: From Query No. 14 of the "Notes on the State of +Virginia," which, says Jefferson in an "advertisement," "were written +in Virginia in the year 1781 and somewhat corrected and enlarged in +the winter of 1782, in answer to queries proposed to the author by a +foreigner of distinction then residing among us."] + +The first difference which strikes us is that of color. Whether the +black of the negro resides in the reticular membrane between the skin +and the scarf-skin, or in the scarf-skin itself; whether it proceeds +from the color of the blood, the color of the bile, or from that of +some other secretion, the difference is fixt in nature, and is as real +as if its seat and cause were better known to us. And is this +difference of no importance? Is it not the foundation of a greater or +less share of beauty in the two races? Are not the fine mixtures of +red and white, the expressions of every passion by greater or less +suffusions of color in the one, preferable to that eternal monotony +which reigns in the countenances, that immovable veil of black which +covers all the emotions of the other race? + +Add to these flowing hair, a more elegant symmetry of form, their own +judgment in favor of the whites, declared by their preference of them, +as uniformly as is the preference of the orangutan for the black women +over those of his own species. The circumstance of superior beauty is +thought worthy attention in the propagation of our horses, dogs, and +other domestic animals; why not in that of man? Besides those of +color, figure, and hair, there are other physical distinctions +proving a difference of race. They have less hair on the face and +body. They secrete less by the kidneys, and more by the glands of the +skin, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odor. This great +degree of transpiration renders them more tolerant of heat, and less +so of cold than the whites. + +Perhaps, too, a difference of structure in the pulmonary apparatus, +which a late ingenious experimentalist has discovered to be the +principal regulator of animal heat, may have disabled them from +extricating, in the act of inspiration, so much of that fluid from the +outer air, or obliged them in expiration to part with more of it. They +seem to require less sleep. A black, after hard labor through the day, +will be induced by the slightest amusement to sit up till midnight, or +later, tho knowing he must be out with the first dawn of the morning. +They are at least as brave, and more adventuresome. + +But this may perhaps proceed from a want of forethought, which +prevents their seeing a danger till it be present. When present, they +do not go through it with more coolness or steadiness than the whites. +They are more ardent after their female; but love seems with them to +be more an eager desire than a tender, delicate mixture of sentiment +and sensation. Their griefs are transient. Those numberless +afflictions, which render it doubtful whether heaven has given life to +us in mercy or in wrath, are less felt, and sooner forgotten with +them. In general, their existence appears to participate more of +sensation than reflection. To this must be ascribed their disposition +to sleep when abstracted from their diversions, and unemployed in +labor. An animal, whose body is at rest and who does not reflect, must +be disposed to sleep, of course. Comparing them by their faculties of +memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they +are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could +scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the +investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination they are dull, +tasteless, and anomalous. + +It would be unfair to follow them to Africa for this investigation. We +will consider them here, on the same stage with the whites, and where +the facts are not apocryphal on which a judgment is to be formed. It +will be right to make great allowances for the difference of +condition, of education, of conversation, of the sphere in which they +move. Many millions of them have been brought to, and born in America. +Most of them, indeed, have been confined to tillage, to their own +homes, and their own society; yet many have been so situated that they +might have availed themselves of the conversation of their masters; +many have been brought up to the handicraft arts, and from that +circumstance have always been associated with the white. Some have +been liberally educated, and all have lived in countries where the +arts and sciences are cultivated to a considerable degree, and have +had before their eyes samples of the best works from abroad. + +The Indians, with no advantages of their kind, will often carve +figures on their pipes not destitute of design and merit. They will +crayon out an animal, a plant, or a country, so as to prove the +existence of a germ in their minds which only wants cultivation. They +astonish you with strokes of the most sublime oratory; such as prove +their reason and sentiment strong, their imagination glowing and +elevated. But never yet could I find that a black had uttered a +thought above the level of plain narration; never saw even an +elementary trait of painting or sculpture. In music they are more +generally gifted than the whites with accurate ears for tune and time, +and they have been found capable of imagining a small catch. Whether +they will be equal to the composition of a more extensive run of +melody, or of complicated harmony is yet to be proved. Misery is often +the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. Among the blacks +is misery enough, God knows, but no poetry. Love is the peculiar +oestrum of the poet. Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses +only, not the imagination. + +There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our +people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole +commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most +boisterous passions--the most unremitting despotism on the one part +and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and +learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is +the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is +learning to do what he sees others do. If a parent could find no +motive either in his philanthropy or his self-love for restraining the +intemperance of passion toward his slave, it should always be a +sufficient one that his child is present. + +But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms; the child looks +on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs, in the +circle of smaller slaves gives a loose to the worst of passions, and +thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, can not but be +stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who +can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. +And with what execrations should the statesman be loaded who, +permitting one-half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the +other, transforms those into despots and these into enemies, destroys +the morals of the one part and the _amor patriae_ of the other! For if +a slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in +preference to that in which he is born to live and labor for another; +in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as +far as depends on his individual endeavors to the evanishment of the +human race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endless +generations proceeding from him. With the morals of the people, their +industry is destroyed. For in a warm climate no man will labor for +himself who can make another labor for him. This is so true that of +the proprietors of slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen +to labor. + + + + +IV + +HIS ACCOUNT OF LOGAN'S FAMOUS SPEECH[36] + + +The principles of their society forbidding all compulsion, they are to +be led to duty and to enterprise by personal influence and persuasion. +Hence eloquence in council, bravery and success in war become the +foundations of all consequence with them. To these acquirements all +their faculties are directed. Of their bravery and address in war we +have multiplied proofs, because we have been the subjects on which +they were exercised. Of their eminence in oratory we have fewer +examples, because it is displayed chiefly in their own councils. Some, +however, we have of very superior luster. I may challenge the whole +orations of Demosthenes and Cicero, and of any more eminent orator, if +Europe has furnished any more eminent, to produce a single passage +superior to the speech of Logan, a Mingo chief, to Lord Dunmore, when +governor of this State. And, as a testimony of their talents in this +line, I beg leave to introduce it, first stating the incidents +necessary for understanding it. + +[Footnote 36: From Query VI of the "Notes on Virginia."] + +In the spring of the year 1774 a robbery was committed by some Indians +on certain land adventurers on the river Ohio. The whites in that +quarter, according to their custom, undertook to punish this outrage +in a summary way. Captain Michael Cresap, and a certain Daniel +Greathouse leading on these parties, surprized, at different times, +traveling and hunting parties of the Indians, having their women and +children with them, and murdered many. Among these were unfortunately +the family of Logan, a chief celebrated in peace and war, and long +distinguished as the friend of the whites. This unworthy return +provoked his vengeance. He accordingly signalized himself in the war +which ensued. In the autumn of the same year a decisive battle was +fought at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, between the collected forces +of the Shawanese, Mingoes and Delawares, and a detachment of the +Virginia militia. The Indians were defeated and sued for peace. Logan, +however, disdained to be seen among the suppliants. But lest the +sincerity of a treaty should be disturbed, from which so distinguished +a chief absented himself, he sent, by a messenger, the speech, to be +delivered to Lord Dunmore.[37]... + +[Footnote 37: For the text of Logan's speech see Volume VIII of "The +World's Famous Orations," William J. Bryan, editor-in-chief; Francis +W. Halsey, associate editor; Funk and Wagnalls Company, publishers.] + +The story of Logan is repeated precisely as it had been current for +more than a dozen years before it was published. When Lord Dunmore +returned from the expedition against the Indians, in 1774, he and his +officers brought the speech of Logan, and related the circumstances +connected with it. These were so affecting, and the speech itself so +fine a morsel of eloquence, that it became the theme of every +conversation, in Williamsburg particularly, and generally, indeed, +wheresoever any of the officers resided or resorted. I learned it in +Williamsburgh; I believe at Lord Dunmore's; and I find in my +pocket-book of that year (1774) an entry of the narrative, as taken +from the mouth of some person, whose name, however, is not noted, nor +recollected, precisely in the words stated in the "Notes on Virginia." +The speech was published in the _Virginia Gazette_ of that time (I +have it myself in the volume of gazettes of that year), and tho in a +style by no means elegant, yet it was so admired that it flew through +all the public papers of the continent, and through the magazines and +other periodical publications of Great Britain; and those who were +boys at that day will now attest that the speech of Logan used to be +given them as a school exercise for repetition. It was not till about +thirteen or fourteen years after the newspaper publications that the +"Notes on Virginia" were published in America. Combating in these the +contumelious theory of certain European writers, whose celebrity have +currency and weight to their opinions, that our country, from the +combined effects of soil and climate, degenerated animal nature, in +the general, and particularly the moral faculties of man, I considered +the speech of Logan as an apt proof of the contrary, and used it as +such; and I copied, verbatim, the narrative I had taken down in 1774 +and the speech as it had been given us in a better translation by Lord +Dunmore.[38] + +[Footnote 38: The above final paragraph is from the appendix to the +second edition of the "Notes on Virginia," and was called forth by +public criticism of the statements made in the text.] + + + + +GOUVERNEUR MORRIS + + Born in 1752, died in 1816; member of the First and Second + Continental Congresses; chairman of the committee which + conferred with the British peace commissioners in 1778; + drafted a scheme for a system of coinage which is the basis + of our present system; member of the Convention which + drafted the Constitution, taking a leading part in all the + debates; went to France in 1789 on private business, and + witnessed the outbreak of the Revolution; kept a diary and + wrote important letters; minister to France in 1792; United + States Senator from New York in 1800; active in promoting + the Erie Canal project until his death; his biography + written by Theodore Roosevelt; his "Diary and Letters" + published in 1888. + + + + +I + +THE OPENING OF THE FRENCH STATES-GENERAL[39] + + +I had the honor to be present on the fifth of this month at the +opening of the States-General; a spectacle more solemn to the mind +than gaudy to the eye. And yet, there was displayed everything of +noble and of royal in this titled country. A great number of fine +women, and a very great number of fine dresses, ranged round the hall. +On a kind of stage the throne; on the left of the King and a little +below him the Queen; a little behind him to the right, and on chairs, +the princes of the blood; on the right and left, at some distance +from the throne, the various princesses, with the gentlemen and ladies +of their retinue. Advanced on the stage, to the left of the throne, +the Keeper of the Seals. Several officers of the household, richly +caparisoned, strewed about in different places. Behind the throne a +cluster of guards, of the largest size, drest in ancient costumes, +taken from the times of chivalry. In front of the throne on the right, +below the stage, the ministers of state, with a long table before +them. On the opposite side of the hall some benches, on which sat the +marechals of France, and other great officers. In front of the +ministers, on benches facing the opposite side of the hall, sat the +representatives of the clergy, being priests of all colors, scarlet, +crimson, black, white, and gray, to the number of three hundred. In +front of the marechals of France, on benches facing the clergy, sat an +equal number of representatives of the nobility, drest in a robe of +black, waistcoats of cloth of gold, and over their shoulders, so as to +hang forward to their waists, a kind of lapels about a quarter of a +yard wide at top, and wider at bottom, made of cloth of gold. On +benches, which reached quite across the hall, and facing the stage, +sat the representatives of the people clothed in black. In the space +between the clergy and nobles, directly in front of the +representatives of the people, and facing the throne, stood the +heralds-at-arms, with their staves and in very rich dresses. + +[Footnote 39: From a letter written in 1789 and addrest to Mrs. Morris +of Philadelphia. Copyright, 1888, by Charles Scribner's Sons.] + +When the King entered, he was saluted with a shout of applause. Some +time after he had taken his seat, he put on a round beaver, +ornamented with white plumes, the part in front turned up, with a +large diamond button in the center. He read his speech well, and was +interrupted at a part which affected his audience by a loud shout of +_Vive le Roi_. After this had subsided, he finished his speech, and +received again an animated acclamation of applause. He then took off +his hat, and after a while put it on again, at which the nobles also +put on their hats, which resembled the King's, excepting the button. +The effect of this display of plumage was fine. + +The Keeper of the Seals then performed his genuflexions to the throne, +and mumbled out, in a very ungraceful manner, a speech of considerable +length, which nobody pretends to judge of, because nobody heard it. He +was succeeded by M. Necker,[40] who soon handed his speech to his +clerk, being unable to go through with it. The clerk delivered it much +better than the minister, and that is no great praise. It was three +hours long, contained many excellent things, but too much of +compliment, too much of repetition, and indeed too much of everything, +for it was too long by two hours, and yet fell short in some capital +points of great expectation. He received, however, very repeated +plaudits from the audience, some of which were merited, but more were +certainly paid to his character than to his composition. M. Necker's +long speech now comes to a close, and the King rises to depart. The +hall resounds with a long loud _Vive le Roi_. He passes the Queen, who +rises to follow him. At this moment some one, imbued with the milk of +human kindness, originates a faint _Vive la Reine_. She makes a humble +courtesy and presents the sinking of the high Austrian spirit; a +livelier acclamation in return, and to this her lowlier bending, which +is succeeded by a shout of loud applause. Here drops the curtain on +the first great act of this great drama, in which Bourbon gives +freedom. His courtiers seem to feel what he seems to be insensible of, +the pang of greatness going off. + +[Footnote 40: Jacques Necker, director of the Treasury in 1776; +resigned in 1781; recalled in 1788; convened the States-General in +1789; dismissed in the same year and again recalled, but finally +resigned in 1790. Married Mlle. Suzanne Curchod, Gibbon's early love, +and became the father of Madame de Stael.] + + + + +II + +OF THE EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI[41] + + +The late King of this country has been publicly executed. He died in a +manner becoming his dignity. Mounting the scaffold, he exprest anew +his forgiveness of those who persecuted him, and a prayer that his +deluded people might be benefited by his death. On the scaffold he +attempted to speak, but the commanding officer, Santerre, ordered the +drums to beat. The King made two unavailing efforts, but with the same +bad success. The executioners threw him down, and were in such haste +as to let fall the ax before his neck was properly placed, so that he +was mangled. + +[Footnote 41: From a letter to Thomas Jefferson, dated Paris, January +25, 1793, printed in Volume II, Chapter 28, of Morris's "Diary and +Letters." Copyright, 1888, by Charles Scribner's Sons.] + +It would be needless to give you an affecting narrative of +particulars. I proceed to what is more important, having but a few +minutes to write in by the present good opportunity. The greatest care +was taken to prevent a concourse of people. This proves a conviction +that the majority was not favorable to that severe measure. In fact, +the great mass of the people mourned the fate of their unhappy prince. +I have seen grief, such as for the untimely death of a beloved parent. +Everything wears an appearance of solemnity which is awfully +distressing. I have been told by a gentleman from the spot that +putting the King to death would be a signal for disbanding the army in +Flanders. I do not believe this, but incline to think it will have +some effect on the army, already perishing by want and moldering fast +away. The people of that country, if the French army retreats, will, I +am persuaded, take a severe vengeance for the injuries they have felt +and the insults they have been exposed to. Both are great. The war +against France is become popular in Austria, and is becoming so in +Germany. If my judgment be good, the testament of Louis the Sixteenth +will be more powerful against the present rulers of this country than +any army of a hundred thousand men. You will learn the effect it has +in England. I believe that the English will be wound up to a pitch of +enthusiastic horror against France, which their cool and steady temper +seems to be scarcely susceptible of. + +I enclose you a translation of a letter from Sweden, which I have +received from Denmark. You will see thereby that the Jacobin +principles are propagated with zeal in every quarter. Whether the +Regent of Sweden intends to make himself king is a moot point. All the +world knows that the young prince is not legitimate, altho born under +circumstances which render it, legally speaking, impossible to +question his legitimacy. I consider a war between Britain and France +is inevitable. I have not proof, but some very leading circumstances. +Britain will, I think, suspend her blow until she can strike very +hard, unless, indeed, they should think it advisable to seize the +moment of indignation against late events for a declaration of war. +This is not improbable, because it may be coupled with those general +declarations against all kings, under the name of tyrants, which +contain a determination to destroy them, and the threat that if the +ministers of England presume to declare war, an appeal shall be made +to the people at the head of an invading army. Of course, a design may +be exhibited of entering into the heart of Great Britain, to overrun +the Constitution, destroy the rights of property, and finally to +dethrone and murder the King--all which are things the English will +neither approve of nor submit to. + + + + +ALEXANDER HAMILTON + + Born in 1757, died in 1804; a pamphleteer in the agitation + preceding the Revolution; a captain of artillery in 1776; on + Washington's staff in 1777-81: won distinction at Yorktown + in 1781; member of the Continental Congress in 1782; member + of the Constitutional Convention of 1787; Secretary of the + Treasury in 1789; Commander-in-chief of the army in 1799; + killed in a duel by Aaron Burr in 1804. + + + + +I + +OF THE FAILURE OF CONFEDERATION[42] + + +In the course of the preceding papers, I have endeavored, my fellow +citizens, to place before you, in a clear and convincing light, the +importance of union to your political safety and happiness. I have +unfolded to you a complication of dangers to which you would be +exposed, should you permit that sacred knot, which binds the people of +America together, to be severed or dissolved by ambition or by +avarice, by jealousy or by misrepresentation. In the sequel of the +inquiry through which I propose to accompany you the truths intended +to be inculcated will receive further confirmation from facts and +arguments hitherto unnoticed. If the road over which you will still +have to pass should in some places appear to you tedious or irksome, +you will recollect that you are in quest of information on a subject +the most momentous which can engage the attention of a free people; +that the field through which you have to travel is in itself spacious, +and that the difficulties of the journey have been unnecessarily +increased by the mazes with which sophistry has beset the way. It will +be my aim to remove the obstacles to your progress in as compendious a +manner as it can be done without sacrificing utility to dispatch. + +[Footnote 42: From No. 15 of the "Federalist" Papers, now printed in +Volume IX of the "Works of Hamilton," edited by Henry Cabot Lodge.] + +In pursuance of the plan which I have laid down for the discussion of +the subject, the point next in order to be examined is the +"insufficiency of the present confederation to the preservation of the +Union." + +It may perhaps be asked what need there is of reasoning or proof to +illustrate a position which is neither controverted nor doubted; to +which the understandings and feelings of all classes of men assent; +and which in substance is admitted by the opponents as well as by the +friends of the new constitution? It must in truth be acknowledged +that, however these may differ in other respects, they in general +appear to harmonize in the opinion that there are material +imperfections in our national system, and that something is necessary +to be done to rescue us from impending anarchy. The facts that support +this opinion are no longer objects of speculation. They have forced +themselves upon the sensibility of the people at large, and have at +length extorted from those whose mistaken policy has had the principal +share in precipitating the extremity at which we are arrived, a +reluctant confession of the reality of many of those defects in the +scheme of our federal government which have been long pointed out and +regretted by the intelligent friends of the Union. + +We may, indeed, with propriety be said to have reached almost the last +stage of national humiliation. There is scarcely anything that can +wound the pride, or degrade the character of an independent people +which we do not experience. Are there engagements, to the performance +of which we are held by every tie respectable among men? These are the +subjects of constant and unblushing violation. Do we owe debts to +foreigners, and to our own citizens, contracted in a time of imminent +peril, for the preservation of our political existence? These remain +without any proper or satisfactory provision for their discharge. Have +we valuable territories and important posts in the possession of a +foreign power, which, by express stipulations, ought long since to +have been surrendered? These are still retained, to the prejudice of +our interests not less than of our rights. Are we in a condition to +resent or to repel the aggression? We have neither troops, nor +treasury, nor government. Are we even in a condition to remonstrate +with dignity? The just imputations on our own faith, in respect to the +same treaty, ought first to be removed. Are we entitled, by nature and +compact, to a free participation in the navigation of the Mississippi? +Spain excludes us from it. Is public credit an indispensable resource +in time of public danger? We seem to have abandoned its cause as +desperate and irretrievable. Is commerce of importance to national +wealth? Ours is at the lowest point of declension. Is respectability +in the eyes of foreign powers a safeguard against foreign +encroachments? The imbecility of our government even forbids them to +treat with us: our ambassadors abroad are the mere pageants of mimic +sovereignty. + +Is a violent and unnatural decrease in the value of land a symptom of +national distress? The price of improved land, in most parts of the +country, is much lower than can be accounted for by the quantity of +waste land at market, and can only be fully explained by that want of +private and public confidence which are so alarmingly prevalent among +all ranks, and which have a direct tendency to depreciate property of +every kind. Is private credit the friend and patron of industry? That +most useful kind which relates to borrowing and lending is reduced +within the narrowest limits, and this still more from an opinion of +insecurity than from a scarcity of money. To shorten an enumeration of +particulars which can afford neither pleasure nor instruction, it may +in general be demanded what indication is there of national disorder, +poverty, and insignificance that could befall a community so +peculiarly blest with natural advantages as we are, which does not +form a part of the dark catalog of our public misfortunes? + +This is the melancholy situation to which we have been brought by +those very maxims and counsels which would now deter us from adopting +the proposed constitution; and which, not content with having +conducted us to the brink of a precipice, seem resolved to plunge us +into the abyss that awaits us below. Here, my countrymen, impelled by +every motive that ought to influence an enlightened people, let us +make a firm stand for our safety, our tranquillity, our dignity, our +reputation. Let us at last break the fatal charm which has too long +seduced us from the paths of felicity and prosperity. + +It is true, as has been before observed, that facts too stubborn to be +resisted have produced a species of general assent to the abstract +proposition that there exist material defects in our national system; +but the usefulness of the concession, on the part of the old +adversaries of federal measures, is destroyed by a strenuous +opposition to a remedy, upon the only principles that can give it a +chance of success. While they admit that the government of the United +States is destitute of energy, they contend against conferring upon it +those powers which are requisite to supply that energy. They seem +still to aim at things repugnant and irreconcilable; at an +augmentation of federal authority, without a diminution of State +authority; at sovereignty in the Union, and complete independence in +the members. They still, in fine, seem to cherish with blind devotion +the political monster of an _imperium in imperio_. This renders a full +display of the principal defects of the confederation necessary in +order to show that the evils we experience do not proceed from minute +or partial imperfections, but from fundamental errors in the structure +of the building, which can not be amended otherwise than by an +alteration in the very elements and main pillars of the fabric. + +The great and radical vice in the construction of the existing +confederation is in the principle of legislation for states or +governments in their corporate or collective capacities, and as +contra-distinguished from the individuals of whom they consist. Tho +this principle does not run through all the powers delegated to the +Union; yet it pervades and governs those on which the efficacy of the +rest depends: except as to the rule of apportionment, the United +States have an indefinite discretion to make requisitions for men and +money; but they have no authority to raise either by regulations +extending to the individual citizens of America. The consequence of +this is that, tho in theory their resolutions concerning those objects +are laws constitutionally binding on the members of the Union, yet in +practise they are mere recommendations, which the States observe or +disregard at their option. + +It is a singular instance of the capriciousness of the human mind that +after all the admonitions we have had from experience on this head, +there should still be found men who object to the new constitution for +deviating from a principle which has been found the bane of the old; +and which is, in itself, evidently incompatible with the idea of a +government; a principle, in short, which, if it is to be executed at +all, must substitute the violent and sanguinary agency of the sword to +the mild influence of the magistracy. + + + + +II + +HIS REASONS FOR NOT DECLINING BURR'S CHALLENGE[43] + + +On my expected interview with Col. Burr, I think it proper to make +some remarks explanatory of my conduct, motives, and views. I was +certainly desirous of avoiding this interview for the most urgent +reasons: + +[Footnote 43: Written the day before the duel, which took place in +Weehawken, N. J., on July 11, 1804. Hamilton, wounded, was taken to +his house in the upper part of Manhattan Island and there died on the +following day. This statement is now printed in Volume VIII of the +"Works of Hamilton."] + +1. My religious and moral principles are strongly opposed to the +practise of duelling, and it would ever give me pain to be obliged to +shed the blood of a fellow creature in a private combat forbidden by +the law. + +2. My wife and children are extremely dear to me, and my life is of +the utmost importance to them in various views. + +3. I feel a sense of obligation toward my creditors, who, in case of +accident to me, by the forced sale of my property, may be in some +degree sufferers. I did not think myself at liberty, as a man of +probity, lightly to expose them to this hazard. + +4. I am conscious of no ill-will toward Col. Burr, distinct from +political opposition, which, as I trust, has proceeded from pure and +upright motives. + +Lastly, I shall hazard much and can probably gain nothing by the issue +of this interview. + +But it was, as I conceive, impossible to avoid it. There were +intrinsic difficulties in the thing, an artificial embarrassment from +the manner of proceeding on the part of Col. Burr. + +Intrinsic, because it is not to be denied that my animadversion on the +political principles, character and views of Col. Burr have been +extremely severe; and on different occasions I, in common with many +others, have made very unfavorable criticisms on particular instances +of the private conduct of this gentleman. In proportion as these +impressions were entertained with sincerity and uttered with motives +and for purposes which might appear to me commendable would be the +difficulty (until they could be removed by evidence of their being +erroneous) of explanation or apology. The disavowal required of me by +Col. Burr in a general and indefinite form was out of my power, if it +had really been proper for me to submit to be questioned, but I was +sincerely of the opinion that this could not be, and in this opinion I +was confirmed by a very moderate and judicious friend whom I +consulted. Besides that, Col. Burr appeared to me to assume, in the +first instance, a tone unnecessarily peremptory and menacing, and, in +the second, positively offensive. Yet I wished as far as might be +practicable to leave a door open to accommodation. This, I think, will +be inferred from the written communication made by me and by my +directions, and would be confirmed by the conversation between Mr. Van +Ness and myself which arose out of the subject. I am not sure whether, +under all the circumstances, I did not go further in the attempt to +accommodate than a punctilious delicacy will justify. If so, I hope +the motives I have stated will excuse me. It is not my design by what +I have said to affix any odium on the conduct of Col. Burr in this +case. He doubtless has heard of animadversions of mine which bore very +hard upon him, and it is probable that, as usual, they were +accompanied with some falsehoods. He may have supposed himself under +the necessity of acting as he has done. I hope the ground of his +proceeding is such as ought to satisfy his own conscience. I trust, at +the same time, that the world will do me the justice to believe that I +have not censured him on light grounds nor from unworthy motives. I +certainly have had strong reasons for what I have said, tho it is +possible in some particulars I may have been influenced by +misconstructions or misinformation. It is also my ardent wish that I +may have been more mistaken than I think I have been, and that he, by +his future conduct, may show himself worthy of all confidence and +esteem and prove an ornament and a blessing to the country as well, +because it is possible I may have injured Col. Burr, however convinced +myself that my opinions and declarations may have been well founded. + +As for my general principles and temper in relation to similar +affairs, I have resolved, if our interview is conducted in the usual +manner, and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to reserve and +throw away my first fire, and I have thoughts even of reserving my +second fire, and thus giving a double opportunity to Col. Burr to +pause and reflect. It is not, however, my intention to enter into any +explanation on the ground. Apology, from principle, I hope, rather +than pride, is out of the question. To those who, with me abhorring +the practise of duelling, may think that I ought on no account to have +added to the number of examples, I answer that my relative situation +as well in public as in private, enforcing all the considerations +which constitute what men of the world denominate honor, inspired in +me (as I thought) a peculiar necessity not to decline the call. The +ability to be useful in future, whether in resisting mischief or in +effecting good, in those crises of our public affairs which seem +lately to happen would probably be inseparable from a conformity with +public prejudice in this particular.[44] + +[Footnote 44: Among the Hamilton papers is a letter addrest as follows +to Mrs. Hamilton, dated the day before the duel: + +"This letter, my dear Eliza, will not be delivered to you unless I +shall first have terminated my earthly career, to begin, as I humbly +hope from redeeming grace and divine mercy, a happy immortality. If it +had been possible for me to have avoided the interview, my love for +you and my precious children would have been alone a decisive motive. +But it was not possible without sacrifice which would have rendered me +unworthy of your esteem. I need not tell you of the pangs I feel from +the idea of quitting you and exposing you to the anguish I know you +would feel. Nor could I dwell on the topic lest it should unman me. +The consolations of religion, my beloved, can alone support you; and +these you have a right to enjoy. Fly to the bosom of your God and be +comforted. With my last idea I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting +you in a better world. Adieu, best of wives, best of women. Embrace +all my darling children for me."] + + + + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS + + Born in Massachusetts in 1767, died in Washington in 1848; + son of John Adams; graduated from Harvard in 1787; admitted + to the bar in 1791; minister to the Netherlands in 1794-97; + minister to Prussia in 1797-1801; Senator from Massachusetts + in 1803-08; professor at Harvard in 1806-09; minister to + Russia in 1809-14; minister to England in 1815-17; Secretary + of State in 1817-25; elected President in 1824; defeated for + the Presidency by Jackson in 1828; Member of Congress in + 1831-48; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of + Massachusetts in 1834; his "Diary" published in 1874-77. + + + + +I + +OF HIS MOTHER[45] + + +There is not a virtue that can abide in the female heart but it was +the ornament of hers. She had been fifty-four years the delight of my +father's heart, the sweetener of all his toils, the comforter of all +his sorrows, the sharer and heightener of all his joys. It was but the +last time when I saw my father that he told me, with an ejaculation of +gratitude to the Giver of every good and every perfect gift, that in +all the vicissitudes of his fortunes, through all the good report and +evil report of the world, in all his struggles and in all his +sorrows, the affectionate participation and cheering encouragement of +his wife had been his never-failing support, without which he was sure +he should never have lived through them.... + +[Footnote 45: From the "Diary." Adams's mother was Abigail Smith +Adams, daughter of the Rev. William Smith of Weymouth, Mass. Her +letters, which have been much admired, have been published in a work +entitled "The Familiar Letters of John Adams and his Wife."] + +Never have I known another human being the perpetual object of whose +life was so unremittingly to do good. It was a necessity of her +nature. Yet so unostentatious, so unconscious even of her own +excellence that even the objects of her kindness often knew not whence +it came. She had seen the world--its glories without being dazzled; +its vices and follies without being infected by them. She had suffered +often and severely from fits of long and painful sickness, always with +calmness and resignation. She had a profound, but not an obtrusive +sensibility. She was always cheerful, never frivolous; she had neither +gall nor guile. + +Her attention to the domestic economy of her family was +unrivaled--rising with the dawn, and superintending the household +concerns with indefatigable and all-foreseeing care. She had a warm +and lively relish for literature, for social conversation, for +whatever was interesting in the occurrences of the time, and even in +political affairs. She had been, during the war of our Revolution, an +ardent patriot, and the earliest lesson of unbounded devotion to the +cause of their country that her children received was from her. She +had the most delicate sense of propriety of conduct, but nothing +uncharitable, nothing bitter. Her price was indeed above rubies. + + + + +II + +THE MORAL TAINT INHERENT IN SLAVERY[46] + + +After this meeting I walked home with Calhoun, who said that the +principles which I had avowed were just and noble; but that in the +Southern country, whenever they were mentioned, they were always +understood as applying only to white men. Domestic labor was confined +to the blacks, and such was the prejudice that if he, who was the most +popular man in his district, were to keep a white servant in his +house, his character and reputation would be irretrievably ruined. + +[Footnote 46: From the "Diary."] + +I said that this confounding of the ideas of servitude and labor was +one of the bad effects of slavery; but he thought it attended with +many excellent consequences. It did not apply to all kinds of +labor--not, for example, to farming. He himself had often held the +plow; so had his father. Manufacturing and mechanical labor was not +degrading. It was only manual labor--the proper work of slaves. No +white person could descend to that. And it was the best guarantee to +equality among the whites. It produced an unvarying level among them. +It not only did not excite, but did not even admit of inequalities by +which one white man could domineer over another. + +I told Calhoun I could not see things in the same light. It is, in +truth, all perverted sentiment--mistaking labor for slavery, and +dominion for freedom. The discussion of the Missouri question has +betrayed the secret of their souls. In the abstract they admit that +slavery is an evil, they disclaim all participation in the +introduction of it, and cast it all upon the shoulders of our old +granddam Britain. But when probed to the quick upon it, they show at +the bottom of their souls pride and vainglory in their condition of +masterdom. They fancy themselves more generous and noble-hearted than +the plain freemen who labor for subsistence. They look down upon the +simplicity of a Yankee's manners, because he has no habits of +overbearing like theirs and can not treat negroes like dogs. + +It is among the evils of slavery that it taints the very sources of +moral principle. It establishes false estimates of virtue and vice; +for what can be more false and heartless than this doctrine which +makes the first and holiest rights of humanity to depend upon the +color of the skin? It perverts human reason, and reduces man endowed +with logical powers to maintain that slavery is sanctioned by the +Christian religion, that slaves are happy and contented in their +condition, that between master and slave there are ties of mutual +attachment and affection, that the virtues of the master are refined +and exalted by the degradation of the slave; while at the same time +they vent execrations upon the slave-trade, curse Britain for having +given them slaves, burn at the stake negroes convicted of crimes for +the terror of the example, and writhe in agonies of fear at the very +mention of human rights as applicable to men of color. The impression +produced upon my mind by the progress of this discussion is that the +bargain between freedom and slavery contained in the Constitution of +the United States is morally and politically vicious, inconsistent +with the principles upon which alone our Revolution can be justified; +cruel and oppressive, by riveting the chains of slavery, by pledging +the faith of freedom to maintain and perpetuate the tyranny of the +master; and grossly unequal and impolitic, by admitting that slaves +are at once enemies to be kept in subjection, property to be secured +or restored to their owners, and persons not to be represented +themselves, but for whom their masters are privileged with nearly a +double share of representation. + +The consequence has been that this slave representation has governed +the Union. Benjamin portioned above his brethren has ravened as a +wolf. In the morning he has devoured the prey, and at night he has +divided the spoil. It would be no difficult matter to prove, by +reviewing the history of the Union under this Constitution, that +almost everything which has contributed to the honor and welfare of +the nation has been accomplished in despite of them or forced upon +them, and that everything unpropitious and dishonorable, including the +blunders and follies of their adversaries, may be traced to them. I +have favored this Missouri compromise, believing it to be all that +could be effected under the present Constitution, and from extreme +unwillingness to put the Union at hazard. But perhaps it would have +been a wiser as well as a bolder course to have persisted in the +restriction upon Missouri, till it should have terminated in a +convention of the States to amend and revise the Constitution. This +would have produced a new Union of thirteen or fourteen States +unpolluted with slavery, with a great and glorious object to effect, +namely, that of rallying to their standard the other States by the +universal emancipation of their slaves. If the Union must be +dissolved, slavery is precisely the question upon which it ought to +break. For the present, however, this contest is laid asleep. + + + + +WILLIAM E. CHANNING + + Born in Rhode Island in 1780, died in Vermont in 1842; + clergyman, author and philanthropist; one of the chief + founders of Unitarianism; pastor of the Federal Street + Church in Boston in 1803; his complete works published in + 1848. + + + + +OF GREATNESS IN NAPOLEON[47] + + +We close our view of Bonaparte's character by saying that his original +propensities, released from restraint, and pampered by indulgence to a +degree seldom allowed to mortals, grew up into a spirit of despotism +as stern and absolute as ever usurped the human heart. The love of +power and supremacy absorbed, consumed him. No other passion, no +domestic attachment, no private friendship, no love of pleasure, no +relish for letters or the arts, no human sympathy, no human weakness, +divided his mind with the passion for dominion and for dazzling +manifestations of his power. Before this, duty, honor, love, humanity +fell prostrate. Josephine, we are told, was dear to him; but the +devoted wife, who had stood firm and faithful in the day of his +doubtful fortunes, was cast off in his prosperity to make room for a +stranger, who might be more subservient to his power. He was +affectionate, we are told, to his brothers and mother; but his +brothers, the moment they ceased to be his tools, were disgraced; and +his mother, it is said, was not allowed to sit in the presence of her +imperial son. He was sometimes softened, we are told, by the sight of +the field of battle strewn with the wounded and dead. But, if the +Moloch of his ambition claimed new heaps of slain to-morrow, it was +never denied. With all his sensibility, he gave millions to the sword +with as little compunction as he would have brushed away so many +insects which had infested his march. To him all human will, desire, +power were to bend. His superiority none might question. He insulted +the fallen, who had contracted the guilt of opposing his progress; and +not even woman's loveliness, and the dignity of a queen could give +shelter from his contumely. His allies were his vassals, nor was their +vassalage concealed. Too lofty to use the arts of conciliation, +preferring command to persuasion, overbearing, and all-grasping, he +spread distrust, exasperation, fear, and revenge through Europe; and, +when the day of retribution came, the old antipathies and mutual +jealousies of nations were swallowed up in one burning purpose to +prostrate the common tyrant, the universal foe. + +[Footnote 47: From a review of Sir Walter Scott's "Life of Napoleon," +printed in the _Christian Examiner_ in 1827 and now included in Volume +I of the collected edition of Channing's writings.] + +Such was Napoleon Bonaparte. But some will say he was still a great +man. This we mean not to deny. But we would have it understood that +there are various kinds or orders of greatness, and that the highest +did not belong to Bonaparte. There are different orders of greatness. +Among these the first rank is unquestionably due to moral greatness, +or magnanimity; to that sublime energy by which the soul, smitten with +the love of virtue, binds itself indissolubly, for life and for death, +to truth and duty; espouses as its own the interests of human nature; +scorns all meanness and defies all peril; hears in its own conscience +a voice louder than threatenings and thunders; withstands all the +powers of the universe which would sever it from the cause of freedom +and religion; reposes an unfaltering trust in God in the darkest hour, +and is ever "ready to be offered up" on the altar of its country or of +mankind. + +Of this moral greatness, which throws all other forms of greatness +into obscurity, we see not a trace in Napoleon. Tho clothed with the +power of a god, the thought of consecrating himself to the +introduction of a new and higher era, to the exaltation of the +character and condition of his race, seems never to have dawned on his +mind. The spirit of disinterestedness and self-sacrifice seems not to +have waged a moment's war with self-will and ambition. His ruling +passions, indeed, were singularly at variance with magnanimity. Moral +greatness has too much simplicity, is too unostentatious, too +self-subsistent and enters into others' interests with too much +heartiness, to live an hour for what Napoleon always lived, to make +itself the theme, and gaze, and wonder of a dazzled world. Next to +moral, comes intellectual greatness, or genius in the highest sense of +that word; and by this we mean that sublime capacity of thought, +through which the soul, smitten with the love of the true and the +beautiful, essays to comprehend the universe, soars into the heavens, +penetrates the earth, penetrates itself, questions the past, +anticipates the future, traces out the general and all-comprehending +laws of nature, binds together by innumerable affinities and relations +all the objects of its knowledge, rises from the finite and transient +to the infinite and the everlasting, frames to itself from its own +fulness lovelier and sublimer forms than it beholds, discerns the +harmonies between the world within and the world without us, and finds +in every region of the universe types and interpreters of its own deep +mysteries and glorious inspirations. This is the greatness which +belongs to philosophers, and to the master-spirits in poetry and the +fine arts. + +Next comes the greatness of action; and by this we mean the sublime +power of conceiving bold and extensive plans; of constructing and +bringing to bear on a mighty object a complicated machinery of means, +energies, and arrangements, and of accomplishing great outward +effects. To this head belongs the greatness of Bonaparte, and that he +possest it we need not prove, and none will be hardy enough to deny. A +man who raised himself from obscurity to a throne, who changed the +face of the world, who made himself felt through powerful and +civilized nations, who sent the terror of his name across seas and +oceans, whose will was pronounced and feared as destiny, whose +donatives were crowns, whose antechamber was thronged by submissive +princes, who broke down the awful barrier of the Alps and made them a +highway, and whose fame was spread beyond the boundaries of +civilization to the steppes of the Cossack, and the deserts of the +Arab; a man who has left this record of himself in history, has taken +out of our hands the question whether he shall be called great. All +must concede to him a sublime power of action, an energy equal to +great effects. + + + + +JOHN JAMES AUDUBON + + Born in New Orleans In 1780, died in New York in 1857; + educated in France, where he was a pupil of David; failing + to establish himself in business in America, he devoted his + time to the study of birds, making long excursions on foot; + published his "Birds of America" in 1827-30, the price per + copy being $1,000; published his "Ornithological Biography" + in 5 volumes in 1831-39. + + + + +WHERE THE MOCKING-BIRD DWELLS[48] + + +It is where the great magnolia shoots up its majestic trunk, crowned +with evergreen leaves, and decorated with a thousand beautiful +flowers, that perfume the air around; where the forests and fields are +adorned with blossoms of every hue; where the golden orange ornaments +the gardens and groves; where bignonias of various kinds interlace +their climbing stems around the white-flowered stuartia, and, mounting +still higher, cover the summits of the lofty trees around, accompanied +with innumerable vines that here and there festoon the dense foliage +of the magnificent woods, lending to the vernal breeze a slight +portion of the perfume of their clustered flowers; where a genial +warmth seldom forsakes the atmosphere; where berries and fruits of all +descriptions are met with at every step--in a word, it is where Nature +seems to have paused, as she passed over the earth, and, opening her +stores, to have strewed with unsparing hand the diversified seeds from +which have sprung all the beautiful and splendid forms which I should +in vain attempt to describe, that the mocking-bird should have fixt +its abode--there only that its wondrous song should be heard. + +[Footnote 48: From Volume II, page 187, of the "Birds of America," +edition of 1841.] + +But where is that favored land? It is in that great continent to whose +distant shores Europe has sent forth her adventurous sons, to wrest +for themselves a habitation from the wild inhabitants of the forest, +and to convert the neglected soil into fields of exuberant fertility. +It is, reader, in Louisiana that these bounties of nature are in the +greatest perfection. It is there that you should listen to the love +song of the mocking-bird, as I at this moment do. See how he flies +round his mate, with motions as light as those of the butterfly! His +tail is widely expanded, he mounts in the air to a small distance, +describes a circle, and, again alighting, approaches his beloved one, +his eyes gleaming with delight, for she has already promised to be his +and his only. His beautiful wings are gently raised, he bows to his +love, and, again bouncing upward, opens his bill and pours forth his +melody, full of exultation at the conquest he has made. + +They are not the soft sounds of the flute or the hautboy that I hear, +but the sweeter notes of nature's own music. The mellowness of the +song, the varied modulations and gradations, the extent of its +compass, the great brilliancy of execution are unrivaled. There is +probably no bird in the world that possesses all the musical +qualifications of this king of song, who has derived all from Nature's +self. Yes, reader, all! + +No sooner has he again alighted, and the conjugal contract has been +sealed, than, as if his breast were about to be rent with delight, he +again pours forth his notes with more softness and richness than +before. He now soars higher, glancing around with a vigilant eye, to +assure himself that none has witnessed his bliss. When these love +scenes are over, he dances through the air, full of animation and +delight, and, as if to convince his lovely mate that to enrich her +hopes he has much more love in store, he that moment begins anew, and +imitates all the notes which nature has imparted to the other +songsters of the grove. + + + + +WASHINGTON IRVING + + Born in New York in 1783, died at Sunnyside in 1859; studied + law, but owing to ill health went abroad in 1804, remaining + two years; returning home, began to publish "Salmagundi" in + company with James K. Paulding; published in 1809 his + "History of New York," which established his literary + reputation; went abroad in 1815, remaining until 1832; + attached to the legation in Madrid in 1826; secretary of + legation in London in 1829; minister to Spain in 1842; + published the "Sketch Book" in 1819-20, "Bracebridge Hall" + in 1822, "Tales of a Traveler" in 1824, "Christopher + Columbus" in 1828, "Conquest of Granada" in 1829, "The + Alhambra" in 1832, "Life of Washington" in 1855-59; author + of many other books; his "Life and Letters" published in + 1861-67. + + + + +I + +THE LAST OF THE DUTCH GOVERNORS OF NEW YORK[49] + + +Peter Stuyvesant was the last, and, like the renowned Wouter Van +Twiller, the best of our ancient Dutch governors. Wouter having +surpassed all who preceded him, and Peter, or Piet, as he was sociably +called by the old Dutch burghers, who were ever prone to familiarize +names, having never been equaled by any successor. He was, in fact, +the very man fitted by nature to retrieve the desperate fortunes of +her beloved province, had not the Fates, those most potent and +unrelenting of all ancient spinsters, destined them to inextricable +confusion. + +[Footnote 49: From Book V, Chapter I, of "Knickerbocker's History of +New York."] + +To say merely that he was a hero would be doing him great +injustice--he was in truth a combination of heroes--for he was of a +sturdy, raw-boned make like Ajax Telamon, with a pair of round +shoulders that Hercules would have given his hide for (meaning his +lion's hide) when he undertook to ease old Atlas of his load. He was, +moreover, as Plutarch describes Coriolanus, not only terrible for the +force of his arm, but likewise of his voice, which sounded as tho it +came out of a barrel; and, like the self-same warrior, he possest a +sovereign contempt for the sovereign people, and an iron aspect, which +was enough of itself to make the very bowels of his adversaries quake +with terror and dismay. All this martial excellency of appearance was +inexpressibly heightened by an accidental advantage, with which I am +surprized that neither Homer nor Virgil have graced any of their +heroes. This was nothing less than a wooden leg,[50] which was the +only prize he had gained in bravely fighting the battles of his +country, but of which he was so proud that he was often heard to +declare he valued it more than all his other limbs put together; +indeed, so highly did he esteem it that he had it gallantly enchased +and relieved with silver devices, which caused it to be related in +divers histories and legends that he wore a silver leg. + +[Footnote 50: Stuyvesant lost his leg in the West Indies, where he was +serving in a Dutch command. In 1634 he became director of the colony +of Curacao. In 1636 he was made director-general of the Dutch colony +in North America. He retained this office, in which he was notably +efficient, until the surrender of New Amsterdam to the English in +1664. Stuyvesant spent the remainder of his life in New York on a farm +called the Bowery, where he died in 1672. He was buried in grounds +where now stands St. Mark's Church.] + +Like that choleric warrior Achilles, he was somewhat subject to +extempore bursts of passion, which were rather unpleasant to his +favorites and attendants, whose perceptions he was apt to quicken, +after the manner of his illustrious imitator, Peter the Great, by +anointing their shoulders with his walking-staff. + +Tho I can not find that he had read Plato, or Aristotle, or Hobbes, or +Bacon, or Algernon Sydney, or Tom Paine, yet did he sometimes manifest +a shrewdness and sagacity in his measures that one would hardly expect +from a man who did not know Greek, and had never studied the ancients. +True it is, and I confess it with sorrow, that he had an unreasonable +aversion to experiments, and was fond of governing his province after +the simplest manner; but then he contrived to keep it in better order +than did the erudite Kieft,[51] tho he had all the philosophers, +ancient and modern, to assist and perplex him. I must likewise own +that he made but very few laws; but then again he took care that those +few were rigidly and impartially enforced: and I do not know but +justice on the whole was as well administered as if there had been +volumes of sage acts and statutes yearly made, and daily neglected and +forgotten. + +[Footnote 51: William Kieft, the predecessor of Stuyvesant in the +government of New Amsterdam, was a tyrannical, blundering +administrator, whose rule was marked by disastrous wars with the +Indians and dissension among his own people which nearly ruined the +province. He was recalled by the home government, and while on his way +to Holland was lost in the wreck, on the English coast, of the ship in +which he had sailed.] + +He was, in fact, the very reverse of his predecessors, being neither +tranquil and inert, like Walter the Doubter, nor restless and +fidgeting, like William the Testy; but a man, or rather a governor of +such uncommon activity and decision of mind that he never sought nor +accepted the advice of others; depending bravely upon his single head, +as would a hero of yore upon his single arm, to carry him through all +difficulties and dangers. To tell the simple truth, he wanted nothing +more to complete him as a statesman than to think always right; for no +one can say but that he always acted as he thought. He was never a man +to flinch when he found himself in a scrape; but to dash forward +through thick and thin, trusting, by hook or by crook, to make all +things straight in the end. In a word, he possest, in an eminent +degree, that great quality in a statesman, called perseverance by the +polite, but nicknamed obstinacy by the vulgar. A wonderful salve for +official blunders; since he who perseveres in error without flinching +gets the credit of boldness and consistency, while he who wavers in +seeking to do what is right gets stigmatized as a trimmer. This much +is certain; and it is a maxim well worthy the attention of all +legislators, great and small, who stand shaking in the wind, +irresolute which way to steer, that a ruler who follows his own will +pleases himself; while he who seeks to satisfy the wishes and whims of +others runs great risk of pleasing nobody. There is nothing, too, like +putting down one's foot resolutely, when in doubt, and letting things +take their course. The clock that stands still points right twice in +the four-and-twenty hours: while others may keep going continually and +be continually going wrong. + +Nor did this magnanimous quality escape the discernment of the good +people of Nieuw Nederlandts; on the contrary, so much were they struck +with the independent will and vigorous resolution displayed on all +occasions by their new governor, that they universally called him +Hard-Koppig Piet; or Peter the Headstrong--a great compliment to the +strength of his understanding. + +If, from all that I have said, thou dost not gather, worthy reader, +that Peter Stuyvesant was a tough, sturdy, valiant, weather-beaten, +mettlesome, obstinate, leather-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited +old governor, either I have written to but little purpose, or thou art +very dull at drawing conclusions. + + + + +II + +THE AWAKENING OF RIP VAN WINKLE[52] + + +On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had first +seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes--it was a bright +sunny morning. The birds were hopping and twittering among the +bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, and breasting the pure +mountain breeze. "Surely," thought Rip, "I have not slept here all +night." He recalled the occurrences before he fell asleep. The strange +man with a keg of liquor--the mountain ravine--the wild retreat among +the rocks--the wo-begone party at nine-pins--the flagon--"Oh! that +flagon! that wicked flagon!" thought Rip--"what excuse shall I make to +Dame Van Winkle!" + +[Footnote 52: From the "Sketch Book," originally published in parts in +1819-20, "Rip Van Winkle" being included in the first number. Irving's +story has furnished the material for eight or ten plays, the most +successful of which was written by Dion Boucicault. Boucicault's work +was materially altered by Joseph Jefferson into the play now closely +associated with Jefferson's fame.] + +He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well-oiled +fowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel +incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten. +He now suspected that the grave roysterers of the mountain had put a +trick upon him, and, having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of +his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, but he might have strayed away +after a squirrel or partridge. He whistled after him and shouted his +name, but all in vain; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but +no dog was to be seen. + +He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's gambol, and +if he met with any of the party, to demand his dog and gun. As he rose +to walk, he found himself stiff in the joints, and wanting in his +usual activity. "These mountain beds do not agree with me," thought +Rip, "and if this frolic should lay me up with a fit of the +rheumatism, I shall have a blest time with Dame Van Winkle." With some +difficulty he got down into the glen: he found the gully up which he +and his companion had ascended the preceding evening; but to his +astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it, leaping from +rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling murmurs. He, however, +made shift to scramble up its sides, working his toilsome way through +thickets of birch, sassafras, and witch-hazel, and sometimes tript up +or entangled by the wild grape-vines that twisted their coils or +tendrils from tree to tree, and spread a kind of network in his path. + +At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs +to the amphitheater; but no traces of such opening remained. The rocks +presented a high impenetrable wall over which the torrent came +tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, and fell into a broad deep +basin, black from the shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, +poor Rip was brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after +his dog; he was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, +sporting high in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice; +and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff at +the poor man's perplexities. What was to be done? the morning was +passing away, and Rip felt famished for want of his breakfast. He +grieved to give up his dog and gun; he dreaded to meet his wife; but +it would not do to starve among the mountains. He shook his head, +shouldered the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and +anxiety, turned his steps homeward. + +As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none whom +he knew, which somewhat surprized him, for he had thought himself +acquainted with every one in the country round. Their dress, too, was +of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all +stared at him with equal marks of surprize, and whenever they cast +their eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant +recurrence of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, +when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long! + +He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange +children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray +beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he recognized for an old +acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was +altered; it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses +which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar +haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors--strange +faces at the windows--everything was strange. His mind now misgave +him; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were +not bewitched. Surely this was his native village, which he had left +but the day before. There stood the Catskill Mountains--there ran the +silver Hudson at a distance--there was every hill and dale precisely +as it had always been--Rip was sorely perplexed--"That flagon last +night," thought he, "has addled my poor head sadly!" + +It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, +which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to bear +the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to +decay--the roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off +the hinges. A half-starved dog that looked like Wolf was skulking +about it. Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his +teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed--"My very dog," +sighed poor Rip, "has forgotten me!" + +He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had +always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently +abandoned. This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears--he +called loudly for his wife and children--the lonely chambers rang for +a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence. + +He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the village +inn--but it too was gone. A large rickety wooden building stood in its +place, with great gaping windows, some of them broken and mended with +old hats and petticoats, and over the door was painted, "The Union +Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." Instead of the great tree that used to +shelter the quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a +tall naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red +night-cap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular +assemblage of stars and stripes--all this was strange and +incomprehensible. He recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of +King George, under which he had smoked so many a peaceful pipe; but +even this was singularly metamorphosed. The red coat was changed for +one of blue and buff, a sword was held in the hand instead of a +scepter, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was +painted in large characters, GENERAL WASHINGTON. + +There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but none that +Rip recollected. The very character of the people seemed changed. +There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the +accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. He looked in vain for the +sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad face, double chin, and fair long +pipe, uttering clouds of tobacco-smoke instead of idle speeches; or +Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient +newspaper. In place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with his +pockets full of handbills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of +citizens--elections--members of Congress--liberty--Bunker Hill--heroes +of seventy-six--and other words, which were a perfect Babylonish +jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle. + +The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his rusty +fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at +his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians. +They crowded round him, eyeing him from head to foot with great +curiosity. The orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly +aside, inquired "on which side he voted?" Rip stared in vacant +stupidity. Another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, +and, rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear "whether he was Federal or +Democrat?" Rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when +a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made +his way through the crowd, putting them to right and left with his +elbows as he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with arms +akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat +penetrating, as it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere +tone "what brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and +a mob at his heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot in the +village?" "Alas! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I am a +poor quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the +King, God bless him!" + +Here a general shout burst from the bystanders--"A Tory! a Tory! a +spy! a refugee! hustle him! away with him!" It was with great +difficulty that the self-important man in the cocked hat restored +order; and, having assumed a tenfold austerity of brow, demanded again +of the unknown culprit what he came there for, and whom he was +seeking? The poor man humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but +merely came there in search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep +about the tavern. + +"Well--who are they?--name them." + +Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, "Where's Nicholas +Vedder?" + +There was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a +thin piping voice, "Nicholas Vedder! why, he is dead and gone these +eighteen years! There was a wooden tombstone in the churchyard that +used to tell all about him, but that's rotten and gone too." + +"Where's Brom Dutcher?" + +"Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he +was killed at the storming of Stony Point--others say he was drowned +in a squall at the foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know--he never came +back again." + +"Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?" + +"He went off to the wars too, was a great militia general, and is now +in Congress." + +Rip's heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and +friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer +puzzled him too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of +matters which he could not understand: war--Congress--Stony Point; he +had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in +despair, "Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?" + +"Oh, Rip Van Winkle!" exclaimed two or three--"oh, to be sure! that's +Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the tree." + +Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, as he went up +the mountain: apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor +fellow was now completely confounded. He doubted his own identity, and +whether he was himself or another man. In the midst of his +bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what +was his name? + +"God knows," exclaimed he, at his wit's end; "I'm not myself--I'm +somebody else--that's me yonder--no--that's somebody else got into my +shoes--I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and +they've changed my gun, and everything's changed, and I'm changed, and +I can't tell what's my name, or who I am!" + +The bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink +significantly, and tap their fingers against their foreheads. There +was a whisper, also, about securing the gun, and keeping the old +fellow from doing mischief, at the very suggestion of which the +self-important man in the cocked hat retired with some precipitation. +At this critical moment a fresh comely woman prest through the throng +to get a peep at the gray-bearded man. She had a chubby child in her +arms, which, frightened at his looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried +she, "hush, you little fool; the old man won't hurt you." The name of +the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, all awakened +a train of recollections in his mind. "What is your name, my good +woman," asked he. + +"Judith Gardenier." + +"And your father's name?" + +"Ah, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name, but it's twenty years +since he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of +since--his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself, or +was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a +little girl." + +Rip had but one question more to ask; but he put it with a faltering +voice: + +"Where's your mother?" + +"Oh, she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood-vessel +in a fit of passion at a New England peddler." + +There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. The +honest man could contain himself no longer. He caught his daughter and +her child in his arms. "I am your father!" cried he--"Young Rip Van +Winkle once--old Rip Van Winkle now!--Does nobody know poor Rip Van +Winkle?" + +All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the +crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under it in his face for +a moment, exclaimed, "Sure enough! it is Rip Van Winkle--it is +himself! Welcome home again, old neighbor--why, where have you been +these twenty long years?" + +Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had been to him +but as one night. The neighbors stared when they heard it; some were +seen to wink at each other, and put their tongues in their cheeks: and +the self-important man in the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was +over, had returned to the field, screwed down the corners of his +mouth, and shook his head--upon which there was a general shaking of +the head throughout the assemblage. + +It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter +Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing up the road. He was a +descendant of the historian of that name, who wrote one of the +earliest accounts of the province. Peter was the most ancient +inhabitant of the village, and well versed in all the wonderful events +and traditions of the neighborhood. He recollected Rip at once, and +corroborated his story in the most satisfactory manner. He assured the +company that it was a fact, handed down from his ancestor the +historian, that the Catskill Mountains had always been haunted by +strange beings. That it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, +the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil +there every twenty years, with his crew of the _Half-moon_; being +permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and +keep a guardian eye upon the river, and the great city called by his +name. That his father had once seen them in their old Dutch dresses +playing at nine-pins in a hollow of the mountain; and that he himself +had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound of their balls, like +distant peals of thunder. + +To make a long story short, the company broke up, and returned to the +more important concerns of the election. Rip's daughter took him home +to live with her; she had a snug, well-furnished house, and a stout +cheery farmer for a husband, whom Rip recollected for one of the +urchins that used to climb upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir, +who was the ditto of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was +employed to work on the farm; but evinced an hereditary disposition to +attend to anything else but his business. + + + + +III + +AT ABBOTSFORD WITH SCOTT[53] + + +I had a letter of introduction to him from Thomas Campbell the poet, +and had reason to think, from the interest he had taken in some of my +earlier scribblings,[54] that a visit from me would not be deemed an +intrusion. + +[Footnote 53: From the collection of papers entitled "Crayon +Miscellany." Irving's visit was made in 1817. His account of it was +not published until nearly twenty years afterward--that is, after +Scott's death.] + +[Footnote 54: Irving at that time had published little more than the +"Salmagundi" papers and "Knickerbocker's History of New York."] + +On the following morning, after an early breakfast, I set off in a +post-chaise for the Abbey. + +On the way thither I stopt at the gate of Abbotsford, and sent the +postilion to the house with the letter of introduction and my card, on +which I had written that I was on my way to the ruins of Melrose +Abbey, and wished to know whether it would be agreeable to Mr. Scott +(he had not yet been made a baronet) to receive a visit from me in the +course of the morning.... + +In a little while the "lord of the castle" himself made his +appearance. I knew him at once by the descriptions I had read and +heard, and the likeness that had been published of him. He was tall, +and of a large and powerful frame. His dress was simple, and almost +rustic: an old green shooting-coat, with a dog-whistle at the +buttonhole, brown linen pantaloons, stout shoes that tied at the +ankles, and a white hat that had evidently seen service. He came +limping up the gravel-walk, aiding himself by a stout walking-staff, +but moving rapidly and with vigor. By his side jogged along a large +iron-gray stag-hound of most grave demeanor, who took no part in the +clamor of the canine rabble, but seemed to consider himself bound, for +the dignity of the house, to give me a courteous reception. + +Before Scott had reached the gate he called out in a hearty tone, +welcoming me to Abbotsford, and asking news of Campbell. Arrived at +the door of the chaise, he grasped me warmly by the hand: "Come, drive +down, drive down to the house," said he, "ye're just in time for +breakfast, and afterward ye shall see all the wonders of the Abbey." + +I would have excused myself, on the plea of having already made my +breakfast. "Hout, man," cried he, "a ride in the morning in the keen +air of the Scotch hills is warrant enough for a second breakfast." I +was accordingly whirled to the portal of the cottage, and in a few +moments found myself seated at the breakfast-table.... + +Scott proposed a ramble to show me something of the surrounding +country. As we sallied forth, every dog in the establishment turned +out to attend us. There was the old stag-hound Maida, a noble animal, +and a great favorite of Scott's; and Hamlet, the black greyhound, a +wild thoughtless youngster, not yet arrived to the years of +discretion; and Finette, a beautiful setter, with soft silken hair, +long pendent ears, and a mild eye, the parlor favorite. When in front +of the house, we were joined by a superannuated greyhound, who came +from the kitchen wagging his tail, and was cheered by Scott as an old +friend and comrade. + +In our walks, Scott would frequently pause in conversation to notice +his dogs and speak to them, as if rational companions; and, indeed, +there appears to be a vast deal of rationality in these faithful +attendants on man, derived from their close intimacy with him. Maida +deported himself with a gravity becoming his age and size, and seemed +to consider himself called upon to preserve a great degree of dignity +and decorum in our society. As he jogged along a little distance ahead +of us, the young dogs would gambol about him, leap on his neck, worry +at his ears, and endeavor to tease him into a frolic. The old dog +would keep on for a long time with imperturbable solemnity, now and +then seeming to rebuke the wantonness of his young companions.... + +We had not walked much further before we saw the two Miss Scotts +advancing along the hillside to meet us. The morning's studies being +over, they had set off to take a ramble on the hills, and gather +heather-blossoms with which to decorate their hair for dinner. As they +came bounding lightly, like young fawns, and their dresses fluttering +in the pure summer breeze, I was reminded of Scott's own description +of his children in his introduction to one of the cantos of "Marmion." + +As they approached, the dogs all sprang forward and gamboled around +them. They played with them for a time, and then joined us with +countenances full of health and glee. Sophia,[55] the eldest, was the +most lively and joyous, having much of her father's varied spirit in +conversation, and seeming to catch excitement from his words and +looks. Ann was of quieter mood, rather silent, owing, in some measure, +no doubt, to her being some years younger. + +[Footnote 55: Sophia three years later became the wife of John Gibson +Lockhart, the biographer of Scott.] + +At the dinner Scott had laid by his half-rustic dress, and appeared +clad in black. The girls, too, in completing their toilet, had twisted +in their hair the sprigs of purple heather which they had gathered on +the hillside, and looked all fresh and blooming from their breezy +walk. + +There was no guest at dinner but myself. Around the table were two or +three dogs in attendance. Maida, the old stag-hound, took his seat at +Scott's elbow, looking up wistfully in his master's eye, while +Finette, the pet spaniel, placed herself near Mrs. Scott, by whom, I +soon perceived, she was completely spoiled.... + +Among the other important and privileged members of the household who +figured in attendance at the dinner was a large gray cat, who, I +observed, was regaled from time to time with titbits from the table. +This sage grimalkin was a favorite of both master and mistress, and +slept at night in their room; and Scott laughingly observed that one +of the least wise parts of their establishment was that the window was +left open at night for puss to go in and out. The cat assumed a kind +of ascendency among the quadrupeds--sitting in state in Scott's +armchair, and occasionally stationing himself on a chair beside the +door, as if to review his subjects as they passed, giving each dog a +cuff beside the ears as he went by. This clapper-clawing was always +taken in good part; it appeared to be, in fact, a mere act of +sovereignty on the part of grimalkin, to remind the others of their +vassalage; which they acknowledged by the most perfect acquiescence. A +general harmony prevailed between sovereign and subjects, and they +would all sleep together in the sunshine.... + +After dinner we adjourned to the drawing-room, which served also for +study and library. Against the wall on one side was a long +writing-table, with drawers; surmounted by a small cabinet of polished +wood, with folding-drawers richly studded with brass ornaments, within +which Scott kept his most valuable papers. Above the cabinet, in a +kind of niche, was a complete corselet of glittering steel, with a +closed helmet, and flanked by gantlets and battle-axes. Around were +hung trophies and relics of various kinds; a simitar of Tipu Sahib; a +Highland broadsword from Flodden field; a pair of Rippon spurs from +Bannockburn, and above all, a gun which had belonged to Rob Roy, and +bore his initials, R. M. C.,[56] an object of peculiar interest to me +at the time, as it was understood Scott was actually engaged in +printing a novel founded on the story of that famous outlaw. + +[Footnote 56: Robert McGregor Campbell was the real name of Rob Roy.] + +On each side of the cabinet were bookcases, well stored with works of +romantic fiction in various languages, many of them rare and +antiquated. This, however, was merely his cottage library, the +principal part of his books being at Edinburgh. + +From this little cabinet of curiosities Scott drew forth a manuscript +picked up on the field at Waterloo, containing copies of several songs +popular at the time in France. The paper was dabbled with blood--"the +very life-blood, very possibly," said Scott, "of some gay young +officer who had cherished these songs as a keepsake from some +lady-love in Paris."... + +The evening passed away delightfully in this quaint-looking apartment, +half study, half drawing-room. Scott had read several passages from +the old romances of Arthur, with a fine deep sonorous voice, and a +gravity of tone that seemed to suit the antiquated black-letter +volume. It was a rich treat to hear such a work, read by such a +person, and in such a place; and his appearance as he sat reading, in +a large armed chair, with his favorite hound Maida at his feet and +surrounded by books and relics, and border trophies, would have formed +an admirable and most characteristic picture. + +While Scott was reading, the sage grimalkin already mentioned had +taken his seat in a chair beside the fire, and remained with fixt eye +and grave demeanor, as if listening to the reader. I observed to Scott +that his cat seemed to have a black-letter taste in literature. + +"Ah," said he, "these cats are a very mysterious kind of folk. There +is always more passing in their minds than we are aware of. It comes, +no doubt, from their being so familiar with witches and warlocks."... + +When I retired for the night, I found it almost impossible to sleep; +the idea of being under the roof of Scott, of being on the borders of +the Tweed in the very center of that region which had for some time +past been the favorite scene of romantic fiction, and above all, the +recollections of the ramble I had taken, the company in which I had +taken it, and the conversation which had passed, all fermented in my +mind, and nearly drove sleep from my pillow. + +On the following morning the sun darted his beams from over the hills +through the low lattice window. I rose at an early hour, and looked +out between the branches of eglantine which overhung the casement. To +my surprize Scott was already up and forth, seated on a fragment of +stone, and chatting with the workmen employed on the new building.[57] +I had supposed, after the time he had wasted upon me yesterday, he +would be closely occupied this morning; but he appeared like a man of +leisure, who had nothing to do but bask in the sunshine and amuse +himself. + +[Footnote 57: This "new building" became in time the mansion now known +as Abbotsford. At the time of Irving's visit Scott was living in a +small villa which he had built after settling at the place in 1812. +The present large castellated residence was produced by making +extensive additions to the original villa.] + +I soon drest myself and joined him. He talked about his proposed plans +of Abbotsford: happy would it have been for him could he have +contented himself with his delightful little vine-covered cottage, and +the simple yet hearty and hospitable style in which he lived at the +time of my visit. The great pile of Abbotsford, with the huge expense +it entailed upon him, of servants, retainers, guests, and baronial +style, was a drain upon his purse, a tax upon his exertions, and a +weight upon his mind, and finally crusht him.... + +After breakfast Scott was occupied for some time correcting +proof-sheets, which he had received by the mail. The novel of "Rob +Roy,"[58] as I have already observed, was at that time in the press, +and I supposed them to be the proof-sheets of that work. The +authorship of the Waverley novels was still a matter of conjecture and +uncertainty; tho few doubted their being principally written by Scott. +One proof to me of his being the author was that he never adverted to +them. A man so fond of anything Scottish, and anything relating to +national history or local legend, could not have been mute respecting +such productions, had they been written by another. He was fond of +quoting the works of his contemporaries; he was continually reciting +scraps of border songs, or relating anecdotes of border story. With +respect to his own poems and their merits, however, he was mute, and +while with him I observed a scrupulous silence on the subject. + +[Footnote 58: Of his novels Scott at this time had published only +"Waverley," "Guy Mannering," "The Antiquarii," "Old Mortality," and +the "Black Dwarf."] + + + + +JAMES FENIMORE COOPER + + Born In New Jersey in 1789, died in Cooperstown, N. Y., in + 1851; son of William Cooper, the pioneer who founded + Cooperstown; settled in Cooperstown in 1790; entered Yale + College in 1803, remaining three years; midshipman in the + navy in 1808; married in 1811 and resigned from the navy; + published "Precaution" and "The Spy," both in 1821; the + latter established his literary reputation; "The Pioneers" + in 1823, "The Pilot" in 1823, "The Last of the Mohicans" in + 1826; "The Prairie" in 1827, "The Pathfinder" in 1840, "The + Deerslayer" in 1841; author of many other books. + + + + +I + +HIS FATHER'S ARRIVAL AT OTSEGO LAKE[59] + + +Near the center of the State of New York lies an extensive district of +country whose surface is a succession of hills and dales, or, to speak +with greater deference to geographical definitions, of mountains and +valleys. It is among these hills that the Delaware takes its rise; +and, flowing from the limpid lakes and thousand springs of this +region, the numerous sources of the Susquehanna meander through the +valleys, until, uniting their streams, they form one of the proudest +rivers of the United States. The mountains are generally arable to the +tops, altho instances are not wanting where the sides are jutted with +rocks, that aid greatly in giving to the country that romantic and +picturesque character which it so eminently possesses. + +[Footnote 59: From Chapters I and III of "The Pioneers." Cooper's +father, Judge William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown, first +visited Otsego Lake in 1785, built a house there in 1787 and in 1790 +made it the permanent home of his family. In 1790 the place contained +35 other people. The selection here given pictures the circumstances +in which Judge Cooper, as well as Marmaduke Temple, visited Otsego +Lake. Fenimore Cooper was not two years old when his father settled +there. His native place was Burlington, N. J. Judge Cooper's settling +at Cooperstown was a consequence of his having acquired, through +foreclosure, extensive lands which George Croghan had failed in an +attempt to settle, near the lake. Except for this circumstance, it is +unlikely that his son ever would have acquired that intimate knowledge +of Indian and frontier life of which he has left such notable pictures +in his books.] + +The vales are narrow, rich and cultivated, with a stream uniformly +winding through each. Beautiful and thriving villages are found +interspersed along the margins of the small lakes, or situated at +those points of the stream which are favorable for manufacturing; and +neat and comfortable farms, with every indication of wealth about +them, are scattered profusely through the vales, and even to the +mountain tops. Roads diverge in every direction from the even and +graceful bottoms of the valleys to the most rugged and intricate +passes of the hills. Academies[60] and minor edifices of learning meet +the eye of the stranger at every few miles as he winds his way through +this uneven territory, and places for the worship of God abound with +that frequency which characterizes a moral and reflecting people, and +with that variety of exterior and canonical government which flows +from unfettered liberty of conscience.... + +[Footnote 60: An "academy" was a high school or seminary, of which an +example could be found as late as fifty years ago in almost every +prosperous village of Central New York.] + +It was near the setting of the sun, on a clear, cold day in December, +when a sleigh was moving slowly up one of the mountains in the +district we have described. The day had been fine for the season, and +but two or three large clouds, whose color seemed brightened by the +light reflected from the mass of snow that covered the earth, floated +in a sky of the purest blue. The road wound along the brow of a +precipice, and on one side was upheld by a foundation of logs, piled +one upon the other, while a narrow excavation in the mountain in the +opposite direction had made a passage of sufficient width for the +ordinary traveling of that day. But logs, excavation, and everything +that did not reach several feet above the earth lay alike buried +beneath the snow. A single track, barely wide enough to receive the +sleigh, denoted the route of the highway, and this was sunk nearly two +feet below the surrounding surface. + +In the vale, which lay at a distance of several hundred feet lower, +there was what, in the language of the country, was called a clearing, +and all the usual improvements of a new settlement; these even +extended up the hill to the point where the road turned short and ran +across the level land, which lay on the summit of the mountain; but +the summit itself remained in the forest. There was glittering in the +atmosphere, as if it was filled with innumerable shining particles; +and the noble bay horses that drew the sleigh were covered, in many +parts, with a coat of hoar-frost. The vapor from their nostrils was +seen to issue like smoke; and every object in the view, as well as +every arrangement of the travelers, denoted the depth of a winter in +the mountains. + +The harness, which was of a deep, dull black, differing from the +glossy varnishing of the present day, was ornamented with enormous +plates and buckles of brass, that shone like gold in those transient +beams of the sun which found their way obliquely through the tops of +the trees. Huge saddles, studded with nails and fitted with cloth that +served as blankets to the shoulders of the cattle, supported four +high, square-topped turrets, through which the stout reins led from +the mouths of the horses to the hands of the driver, who was a negro +of apparently twenty years of age. His face, which Nature had colored +with a glistening black, was now mottled with the cold, and his large +shining eyes filled with tears; a tribute to its power, that the keen +frosts of those regions always extracted from one of his African +origin. Still, there was a smiling expression of good humor in his +happy countenance, that was created by the thoughts of home, and a +Christmas fireside, with its Christmas frolics.... + +A dark spot of a few acres in extent at the southern extremity of this +beautiful flat, and immediately under the feet of our travelers, alone +showed by its rippling surface, and the vapors which exhaled from it, +that what at first might seem a plain was one of the mountain lakes, +locked in the frosts of winter. A narrow current rushed impetuously +from its bosom at the open place we mentioned and was to be traced for +miles as it wound its way toward the south through the real valley, by +its borders of hemlock and pine, and by the vapor which arose from its +warmer surface into the chill atmosphere of the hills. The banks of +this lovely basin, at its outlet,[61] or southern end, were steep, but +not high; and in that direction the land continued, far as the eye +could reach, a narrow but graceful valley, along which the settlers +had scattered their humble habitations, with a profusion that bespoke +the quality of the soil, and the comparative facilities of +intercourse. + +[Footnote 61: The outlet of this lake is the Susquehanna River.] + +Immediately on the bank of the lake and at its foot stood the village +of Templeton.[62] It consisted of some fifty buildings, including +those of every description, chiefly built of wood and which in their +architecture bore no great marks of taste, but which also, by the +unfinished appearance of most of the dwellings, indicated the hasty +manner of their construction. To the eye they presented a variety of +colors. A few were white in both front and rear, but more bore that +expensive color on their fronts only, while their economical but +ambitious owners had covered the remaining sides of the edifices with +a dingy red. One or two were slowly assuming the russet of age; while +the uncovered beams that were to be seen through the broken windows on +their second stories showed that either the taste or the vanity of +their proprietors had led them to undertake a task which they were +unable to accomplish. + +[Footnote 62: Templeton is another name for Cooperstown.] + +The whole were grouped in a manner that aped the streets of the city, +and were evidently so arranged by the directions of one who looked to +the wants of posterity rather than to the convenience of the present +incumbents. Some three or four of the better sort of buildings, in +addition to the uniformity of their color, were fitted with green +blinds, which, at that season at least, were rather strangely +contrasted to the chill aspect of the lake, the mountains, the +forests, and the wide fields of snow. Before the doors of these +pretentious dwellings were placed a few saplings, either without +branches, or possessing only the feeble shoots of one or two summers' +growth, that looked not unlike tall grenadiers on post near the +threshold of princes. In truth, the occupants of these favored +habitations were the nobles of Templeton, as Marmaduke was its king. +They were the dwellings of two young men who were cunning in the law; +an equal number of that class who chaffered to the wants of the +community under the title of storekeepers; and a disciple of +AEsculapius, who, for a novelty, brought more subjects into the world +than he sent out of it. + +In the midst of this incongruous group of dwellings rose the mansion +of the Judge, towering above all its neighbors. It stood in the center +of an enclosure of several acres, which was covered with fruit-trees. +Some of the latter had been left by the Indians, and began already to +assume the moss and inclination of age, therein forming a very marked +contrast to the infant plantations that peered over most of the +picketed fences of the village. In addition to this show of +cultivation were two rows of young Lombardy poplars, a tree but lately +introduced into America, formally lining either side of a pathway +which led from a gate that opened on the principal street to the front +door of the building. The house itself had been built entirely under +the superintendence of a certain Mr. Richard Jones, whom we have +already mentioned, and who, from his cleverness in small matters, and +an entire willingness to exert his talents, added to the circumstances +of their being sisters' children, ordinarily superintended all the +minor concerns of Marmaduke Temple. Richard was fond of saying that +this child of invention consisted of nothing more or less than what +should form the groundwork of every clergyman's discourse, viz., a +firstly and a lastly. He had commenced his labors, in the first year +of their residence, by erecting a tall, gaunt edifice of wood, with +its gable toward the highway. In this shelter, for it was little more, +the family resided three years. By the end of that period Richard had +completed his design. He had availed himself, in this heavy +undertaking, of the experience of a certain wandering Eastern +mechanic, who, by exhibiting a few soiled plates of English +architecture, and talking learnedly of friezes, entablatures, and +particularly of the composite order, had obtained a very undue +influence over Richard's taste in everything that pertained to that +branch of the fine arts. Not that Mr. Jones did not affect to consider +Hiram Doolittle a perfect empiric in his profession, being in the +constant habit of listening to his treatises on architecture with a +kind of indulgent smile; yet, either from an inability to oppose them +by anything plausible from his own stores of learning, or from secret +admiration, Richard generally submitted to the arguments of his +coadjutor. + +Together they had not only directed a dwelling for Marmaduke, but they +had given a fashion to the architecture of the whole country. The +composite order, Mr. Doolittle would contend, was an order composed of +many others, and was intended to be the most useful of all, for it +admitted into its construction such alterations as convenience or +circumstances might require. To this proposition Richard usually +assented; and when rival geniuses, who monopolize not only all the +reputation, but most of the money of the neighborhood, are of a mind, +it is not uncommon to see them lead the fashion, even in graver +matters. In the present instance, as we have already hinted, the +castle, as Judge Temple's dwelling was termed in common parlance, came +to be the model, in some one or other of its numerous excellences, for +every aspiring edifice within twenty miles of it.[63] + +[Footnote 63: Judge Cooper's new home was called Otsego Hall. It was +afterward improved by Fenimore Cooper and remained his home during the +many years he spent in Cooperstown. A few years after his death it was +destroyed by fire. Its site is now a village park.] + + + + +II + +RUNNING THE GANTLET[64] + + +Tho astonished at first by the uproar, Heyward was soon enabled to +find its solution by the scene that followed. There yet lingered +sufficient light in the heavens to exhibit those bright openings among +the tree-tops where different paths left the clearing to enter the +depths of the wilderness. Beneath one of them, a line of warriors +issued from the woods and advanced slowly toward the dwellings. One in +front bore a short pole, on which, as it afterward appeared, were +suspended several human scalps. The startling sounds that Duncan had +heard were what the whites have not inappropriately called the +"death-hallo"; and each repetition of the cry was intended to announce +to the tribe the fate of an enemy. Thus far the knowledge of Heyward +assisted him in the explanation; and as he knew that the interruption +was caused by the unlooked-for return of a successful war-party, every +disagreeable sensation was quieted in inward congratulations for the +opportune relief and insignificance it conferred on himself. + +[Footnote 64: From Chapter XXIII of "The Last of the Mohicans."] + +When at the distance of a few hundred feet from the lodges, the newly +arrived warriors halted. The plaintive and terrific cry which was +intended to represent equally the wailings of the dead and the triumph +of the victors, had entirely ceased. One of their number now called +aloud, in words that were far from appalling, tho not more +intelligible to those for whose ears they were intended than their +expressive yells. It would be difficult to convey a suitable idea of +the savage ecstasy with which the news thus imparted was received. The +whole encampment in a moment became a scene of the most violent bustle +and commotion. The warriors drew their knives, and flourishing them, +they arranged themselves in two lines, forming a lane that extended +from the war-party to the lodges. The squaws seized clubs, axes, or +whatever weapons of offense first offered itself to their hands, and +rushed eagerly to act their part in the cruel game that was at hand. +Even the children would not be excluded; but boys, little able to +wield the instruments, tore the tomahawks from the belts of their +fathers, and stole into the ranks, apt imitators of the savage traits +exhibited by their parents. + +Large piles of brush lay scattered about the clearing, and a wary and +aged squaw was occupied firing as many as might serve to light the +coming exhibition. As the flame arose, its power exceeded that of the +parting day, and assisted to render objects at the same time more +distinct and more hideous. The whole scene formed a striking picture, +whose frame was composed of the dark and tall border of pines. The +warriors just arrived were the most distant figures. A little in +advance stood two men, who were apparently selected from the rest as +the principal actors in what was to follow. The light was not strong +enough to render their features distinct, tho it was quite evident +that they were governed by very different emotions. While one stood +erect and firm, prepared to meet his fate like a hero, the other bowed +his head, as if palsied by terror or stricken with shame. + +The high-spirited Duncan felt a powerful impulse of admiration and +pity toward the former, tho no opportunity could offer to exhibit his +generous emotions. He watched his slightest movement, however, with +eager eyes; and as he traced the fine outline of his admirably +proportioned and active frame, he endeavored to persuade himself that +if the powers of man, seconded by such noble resolution, could bear +one harmless through so severe a trial, the youthful captive before +him might hope for success in the hazardous race he was about to run. +Insensibly the young man drew nigher to the swarthy lines of the +Hurons, and scarcely breathed, so intense became his interest in the +spectacle. Just then the signal yell was given, and the momentary +quiet which had preceded it was broken by a burst of cries that far +exceeded any before heard. The most abject of the two victims +continued motionless; but the other bounded from the place at the cry, +with the activity and the swiftness of a deer. Instead of rushing +through the hostile lines as had been expected, he just entered the +dangerous defile, and before time was given for a single blow, turned +short, and leaping the heads of a row of children, he gained at once +the exterior and safer side of the formidable array. The artifice was +answered by a hundred voices raised in imprecations, and the whole of +the excited multitude broke from their order and spread themselves +about the place in wild confusion. + +A dozen blazing piles now shed their lurid brightness on the place, +which resembled some unhallowed and supernatural arena in which +malicious demons had assembled to act their bloody and lawless rites. +The forms in the background looked like unearthly beings gliding +before the eye and cleaving the air with frantic and unmeaning +gestures; while the savage passions of such as passed the flames were +rendered fearfully distinct by the gleams that shot athwart their +inflamed visages. + +It will easily be understood that amid such a concourse of vindictive +enemies no breathing-time was allowed the fugitive. There was a single +moment when it seemed as if he would have reached the forest; but the +whole body of his captors threw themselves before him, and drove him +back into the center of his relentless persecutors. Turning like a +headed deer, he shot with the swiftness of an arrow through a pillar +of forked flame, and passing the whole multitude harmless he appeared +on the opposite side of the clearing. Here, too, he was met and turned +by a few of the older and more subtle of the Hurons. Once more he +tried the throng, as if seeking safety in its blindness; and then +several moments succeeded, during which Duncan believed the active and +courageous young stranger was lost. + +Nothing could be distinguished but a dark mass of human forms tossed +and involved in inexplicable confusion. Arms, gleaming knives, and +formidable clubs appeared, above them, but the blows were evidently +given at random. The awful effect was heightened by the piercing +shrieks of the women and the fierce yells of the warriors. Now and +then Duncan caught a glimpse of a light form cleaving the air in some +desperate bound, and he rather hoped than believed that the captive +yet retained the command of his astonishing powers of activity. +Suddenly the multitude rolled backward, and approached the spot where +he himself stood. The heavy body in the rear prest upon the women and +children in front, and bore them to the earth. The stranger reappeared +in the confusion. Human power could not, however, much longer endure +so severe a trial.... + +There was no term of abuse known to the Huron vocabulary that the +disappointed women did not lavishly expend on the successful stranger. +They flouted at his efforts, and told him with bitter scoffs that his +feet were better than his hands, and that he merited wings, while he +knew not the use of an arrow or a knife. To all this the captive made +no reply, but was content to preserve an attitude in which dignity was +singularly blended with disdain. Exasperated as much by his composure +as by his good fortune, their words became unintelligible, and were +succeeded by shrill piercing yells. Just then the crafty squaw who had +taken the necessary precautions to fire the piles made her way through +the throng, and cleared a place for herself in front of the captive. +The squalid and withered person of this hag might well have obtained +for her the character of possessing more than human cunning. Throwing +back her light vestment, she Stretched forth her long skinny arm in +derision, and using the language of the Lenape, as more intelligible +to the subject of her gibes, she commenced aloud: + +"Look you, Delaware," she said, snapping her fingers in his face, +"your nation is a race of women, and the hoe is better fitted to your +hands than the gun. Your squaws are the mothers of deer; but if a bear +or a wild cat or a serpent were born among you, ye would flee. The +Huron girls shall make you petticoats, and we will find you a +husband." + +A burst of savage laughter succeeded this attack, during which the +soft and musical merriment of the younger females strangely chimed +with the cracked voice of their older and more malignant companion. +But the stranger was superior to all their efforts. His head was +immovable, nor did he betray the slightest consciousness that any were +present, except when his haughty eyes rolled toward the dusky forms of +the warriors who stalked in the background, silent and sullen +observers of the scene. + +Infuriated at the self-command of the captive, the woman placed her +arms akimbo, and throwing herself into a posture of defiance she broke +out anew, in a torrent of words that no art of ours could commit +successfully to paper. Her breath was, however, expended in vain; for, +altho distinguished in her nation as a proficient in the art of abuse, +she was permitted to work herself into such a fury as actually to foam +at the mouth, without causing a muscle to vibrate in the motionless +figure of the stranger. The effect of his indifference began to extend +itself to the other spectators, and a youngster who was just quitting +the condition of a boy to enter the state of manhood, attempted to +assist the termagant by flourishing his tomahawk before their victim +and adding his empty boasts to the taunts of the woman. Then, indeed, +the captive turned his face toward the light, and looked down on the +stripling with an expression that was superior to contempt. At the +next moment he resumed his quiet and reclining attitude against the +post. But the change of posture had permitted Duncan to exchange +glances with the firm and piercing eyes of Uncas. + +Breathless with amazement, and heavily opprest with the critical +situation of his friend, Heyward recoiled before the look, trembling +lest its meaning might in some unknown manner hasten the prisoner's +fate. There was not, however, any instant cause for such an +apprehension. Just then a warrior forced his way into the exasperated +crowd. Motioning the women and children aside with a stern gesture, he +took Uncas by the arm and led him toward the door of the council +lodge. Thither all the chiefs and most of the distinguished warriors +followed, among whom the anxious Heyward found means to enter without +attracting any dangerous attention to himself. + +A few minutes were consumed in disposing of those present in a manner +suitable to their rank and influence in the tribe. An order very +similar to that adopted in the preceding interview was observed, the +aged and superior chiefs occupying the area of the spacious apartment, +within the powerful light of a glaring torch, while their juniors and +inferiors were arranged in the background, presenting a dark outline +of swarthy and marked visages. In the very center of the lodge, +immediately under an opening that admitted the twinkling light of one +or two stars, stood Uncas, calm, elevated, and collected. His high and +haughty carriage was not lost on his captors, who often bent their +looks on his person with eyes which, while they lost none of their +inflexibility of purpose, plainly betrayed their admiration of the +stranger's daring. + + + + +III + +LEATHER-STOCKING'S FAREWELL[65] + + +Effingham and Elizabeth were surprized at the manner of the +Leather-Stocking, which was unusually impressive and solemn; but, +attributing it to the scene, the young man turned to the monument, and +read aloud: + +"Sacred to the memory of Oliver Effingham, Esquire, formerly a major +in his B. Majesty's 60th Foot; a soldier of tried valor; a subject of +chivalrous loyalty; and a man of honesty. To these virtues he added +the graces of a Christian. The morning of his life was spent in +honor, wealth, and power; but its evening was obscured by poverty, +neglect, and disease, which were alleviated only by the tender care of +his old, faithful, and upright friend and attendant, Nathaniel Bumppo. +His descendants rear this stone to the virtues of the master, and to +the enduring gratitude of the servant." + +[Footnote 65: From Chapter XLI of "The Pioneers." Leather-Stocking was +a name given by Cooper to his character Natty Bumppo, who, also, in +various works, bore the name of Hawkeye, Pathfinder and Deerslayer. +Leather-Stocking appears in five of Cooper's books, which are commonly +and collectively known as "the Leather-Stocking Tales." He has +generally been accepted as a type of the hardy frontiersman who, in +the years following the Revolution, carried civilization westward.] + +The Leather-Stocking stared at the sound of his own name, and a smile +of joy illumined his wrinkled features as he said: + +"And did ye say it, lad? have you then got the old man's name cut in +the stone by the side of his master's? God bless ye, children! 'twas a +kind thought, and kindness goes to the heart as life shortens." + +Elizabeth turned her back to the speakers. Effingham made a fruitless +effort before he succeeded in saying: + +"It is there cut in plain marble; but it should have been written in +letters of gold!" + +"Show me the name, boy," said Natty, with simple eagerness; "let me +see my own name placed in such honor. 'Tis a gin'rous gift to a man +who leaves none of his name and family behind him, in a country where +he has tarried so long." + +Effingham guided his finger to the spot, and Natty followed the +windings of the letters to the end with deep interest, when he raised +himself from the tomb, and said: + +"I suppose it's all right; and it's kindly thought, and kindly done! +But what have ye put over the redskin?" + +"You shall hear: + +"'This stone is raised to the memory of an Indian chief, of the +Delaware tribe, who was known by the several names of John Mohegan; +Mohican'"-- + +"Mo-hee-can, lad, they call theirselves! 'he-can." + +"Mohican; 'and Chingagook'"-- + +"'Gach, boy; 'gach-gook; Chingachgook, which, intarpreted, means Big +Sarpent. The name should be set down right, for an Indian's name has +always some meaning in it." + +"I will see it altered. 'He was the last of his people who continued +to inhabit this country; and it may be said of him that his faults +were those of an Indian, and his virtues those of a man.'" + +"You never said truer word, Mr. Oliver; ah's me! if you had knowed him +as I did, in his prime, in that very battle where the old gentleman, +who sleeps by his side, saved his life, when them thieves, the +Iroquois, had him at the stake, you'd have said all that, and more +too. I cut the thongs with this very hand, and gave him my own +tomahawk and knife, seeing that the rifle was always my fav'rite +weapon. He did lay about him like a man! I met him as I was coming +home from the trail, with eleven Mingo scalps on his pole. You needn't +shudder, Madam Effingham, for they was all from shaved heads and +warriors. When I look about me, at these hills, where I used to count +sometimes twenty smokes, curling over the tree-tops, from the Delaware +camps, it raises mournful thoughts, to think that not a redskin is +left of them all; unless it be a drunken vagabond from the Oneidas, or +them Yankee Indians, who, they say, be moving up from the sea-shore; +and who belong to none of God's creatures, to my seeming, being, as it +were, neither fish nor flesh--neither white man nor savage. Well, +well! the time has come at last, and I must go"-- + +"Go!" echoed Edwards, "whither do you go?" + +The Leather-Stocking, who had imbibed, unconsciously, many of the +Indian qualities, tho he always thought of himself as of a civilized +being, compared with even the Delawares, averted his face to conceal +the workings of his muscles, as he stooped to lift a large pack from +behind the tomb, which he placed deliberately on his shoulders. + +"Go!" exclaimed Elizabeth, approaching him with a hurried step; "you +should not venture so far in the woods alone, at your time of life, +Natty; indeed, it is imprudent. He is bent, Effingham, on some distant +hunting." + +"What Mrs. Effingham tells you is true, Leather-Stocking," said +Edwards; "there can be no necessity for your submitting to such +hardships now! So throw aside your pack, and confine your hunt to the +mountains near us, if you will go." + +"Hardship! 'tis a pleasure, children, and the greatest that is left me +on this side the grave." + +"No, no; you shall not go to such a distance," cried Elizabeth, laying +her white hand on his deerskin pack; "I am right! I feel his +camp-kettle, and a canister of powder! he must not be suffered to +wander so far from us, Oliver; remember how suddenly Mohegan dropt +away." + +"I knowed the parting would come hard, children; I knowed it would!" +said Natty, "and so I got aside to look at the graves by myself, and +thought if I left ye the keepsake which the Major gave me, when we +first parted in the woods, ye wouldn't take it unkind, but would know +that, let the old man's body go where it might, his feeling stayed +behind him." + +"This means something more than common!" exclaimed the youth; "where +is it, Natty, that you purpose going?" + +The hunter drew nigh him with a confident, reasoning air, as if what +he had to say would silence all objections, and replied: + +"Why, lad, they tell me that on the Big Lakes there's the best of +hunting, and a great range, without a white man on it, unless it may +be one like myself. I'm weary of living in clearings, and where the +hammer is sounding in my ears from sunrise to sundown. And tho I'm +much bound to ye both, children--I wouldn't say it if it was not +true--I crave to go into the woods ag'in, I do." + +"Woods!" echoed Elizabeth, trembling with her feelings; "do you not +call these endless forests woods?" + +"Ah! child, these be nothing to a man that's used to the wilderness. I +have took but little comfort sin' your father come on with his +settlers; but I wouldn't go far, while the life was in the body that +lies under the sod there. But now he's gone, and Chingachgook is gone; +and you be both young and happy. Yes! the big house has rung with +merriment this month past! And now, I thought, was the time to try to +get a little comfort in the close of my days. Woods! indeed! I +doesn't call these woods, Madam Effingham, where I lose myself every +day of my life in the clearings." + +"If there be anything wanting to your comfort, name it, +Leather-Stocking; if it be attainable it is yours." + +"You mean all for the best, lad; I know it; and so does Madam, too: +but your ways isn't my ways. 'Tis like the dead there, who thought, +when the breath was in them, that one went east, and one went west to +find their heavens; but they'll meet at last; and so shall we, +children. Yes, ind as you've begun, and we shall meet in the land of +the just at last." + +"This is so new! so unexpected!" said Elizabeth, in almost breathless +excitement; "I had thought you meant to live with us and die with us, +Natty." + +"Words are of no avail," exclaimed her husband; "the habits of forty +years are not to be dispossest by the ties of a day. I know you too +well to urge you further, Natty; unless you will let me build you a +hut on one of the distant hills, where we can sometimes see you, and +know that you are comfortable." + +"Don't fear for the Leather-Stocking, children; God will see that his +days be provided for, and his ind happy. I know you mean all for the +best, but our ways doesn't agree. I love the woods, and ye relish the +face of man; I eat when hungry, and drink when a-dry; and ye keep +stated hours and rules: nay, nay, you even overfeed the dogs, lad, +from pure kindness; and hounds should be gaunty to run well. The +meanest of God's creatures be made for some use, and I'm formed for +the wilderness; if ye love me, let me go where my soul craves to be +ag'in!" + +The appeal was decisive; and not another word of entreaty for him to +remain was then uttered; but Elizabeth bent her head to her bosom and +wept, while her husband dashed away the tears from his eyes; and, with +hands that almost refused to perform their office, he produced his +pocket-book, and extended a parcel of banknotes to the hunter. + +"Take these," he said, "at least take these; secure them about your +person, and in the hour of need they will do you good service." + +The old man took the notes, and examined them with a curious eye. + +"This, then, is some of the new-fashioned money that they've been +making at Albany, out of paper! It can't be worth much to they that +hasn't l'arning! No, no, lad--take back the stuff; it will do me no +sarvice. I took kear to get all the Frenchman's powder afore he broke +up, and they say lead grows where I'm going. It isn't even fit for +wads, seeing that I use none but leather! Madam Effingham, let an old +man kiss your hand, and wish God's choicest blessings on you and +your'n." + +"Once more let me beseech you, stay!" cried Elizabeth. "Do not, +Leather-Stocking, leave me to grieve for the man who has twice rescued +me from death, and who has served those I love so faithfully. For my +sake, if not for your own, stay. I shall see you in those frightful +dreams that still haunt my nights, dying in poverty and age, by the +side of those terrific beasts you slew. There will be no evil that +sickness, want, and solitude can inflict that my fancy will not +conjure as your fate. Stay with us, old man, if not for your own sake, +at least for ours." + +"Such thoughts and bitter dreams, Madam Effingham," returned the +hunter, solemnly, "will never haunt an innocent parson long. They'll +pass away with God's pleasure. And if the catamounts be yet brought to +your eyes in sleep, 'tis not for my sake, but to show you the power of +Him that led me there to save you. Trust in God, madam, and your +honorable husband, and the thoughts for an old man like me can never +be long nor bitter. I pray that the Lord will keep you in mind--the +Lord that lives in clearings as well as in the wilderness--and bless +you, and all that belong to you, from this time till the great day +when the whites shall meet the redskins in judgment, and justice shall +be the law, and not power." + +Elizabeth raised her head, and offered her colorless cheek to his +salute, when he lifted his cap and touched it respectfully. His hand +was grasped with convulsive fervor by the youth, who continued silent. +The hunter prepared himself for his journey, drawing his belt tighter, +and wasting his moments in the little reluctant movements of a +sorrowful departure. Once or twice he essayed to speak, but a rising +in his throat prevented it. At length he shouldered his rifle, and +cried with a clear huntsman's call that echoed through the woods: + +"He-e-e-re, he-e-e-re, pups--away, dogs, away; ye'll be footsore afore +ye see the ind of the journey!" + +The hounds leapt from the earth at this cry, and scenting around the +graves and the silent pair, as if conscious of their own destination, +they followed humbly at the heels of their master. A short pause +succeeded, during which even the youth concealed his face on his +grandfather's tomb. When the pride of manhood, however, had supprest +the feelings of nature, he turned to renew his entreaties, but saw +that the cemetery was occupied only by himself and his wife. + +"He is gone!" cried Effingham. + +Elizabeth raised her face, and saw the old hunter standing, looking +back for a moment, on the verge of the wood. As he caught their +glances, he drew his hard hand hastily across his eyes again, waved it +on high for an adieu, and uttering a forced cry to his dogs, who were +crouching at his feet, he entered the forest. + +This was the last that they ever saw of the Leather-Stocking, whose +rapid movements preceded the pursuit which Judge Temple both ordered +and conducted. He had gone far toward the setting sun--the foremost in +that band of pioneers who are opening the way for the march of the +nation across the continent. + + + + +WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT + + Born in Massachusetts in 1794, died in New York in 1878; + studied at Williams College in 1810-11; admitted to the bar + in 1815; published "Thanatopsis" in 1816; a volume of + "Poems" in 1821; joined the staff of the New York _Evening + Post_, becoming its chief editor in 1829; published another + volume of poems in 1832; opposed the extension of slavery; + published a translation of Homer in 1870-71; his "Prose + Writings" published after his death. + + + + +AN OCTOBER DAY IN FLORENCE[66] + + +Waked by the jangling of all the bells in Florence and by the noise of +carriages departing loaded with travelers for Rome and other places in +the south of Italy, I rise, dress myself, and take my place at the +window. I see crowds of men and women from the country, the former in +brown velvet jackets, and the latter in broad-brimmed straw hats, +driving donkeys loaded with panniers or trundling handcarts before +them, heaped with grapes, figs and all the fruits of the orchard, the +garden, and the field. They have hardly passed when large flocks of +sheep and goats make their appearance, attended by shepherds and their +families, driven by the approach of winter from the Apenines, and +seeking the pastures of the Maremma, a rich, but, in the summer, an +unhealthy tract on the coast. The men and boys are drest in +knee-breeches, the women in bodices, and both sexes wear capotes with +pointed hoods, and felt hats with conical crowns; they carry long +staves in their hands, and their arms are loaded with kids and lambs +too young to keep pace with their mothers. + +[Footnote 66: From the "Letters of a Traveler," first published in +book form in 1850. The selection here given was written in 1834. It +has been republished by Parke Godwin, Bryant's biographer and editor, +in one of his two volumes devoted to the "Prose Writings."] + +After the long procession of sheep and goats and dogs and men and +women and children, come horses loaded with cloths and poles for +tents, kitchen utensils, and the rest of the younglings of the flock. +A little after sunrise I see well-fed donkeys, in coverings of red +cloth, driven over the bridge to be milked for invalids. +Maid-servants, bareheaded, with huge, high-carved combs in their hair, +waiters of coffee-houses carrying the morning cup of coffee or +chocolate to their customers, bakers' boys with a dozen loaves on a +board balanced on their heads, milkmen with rush baskets filled with +flasks of milk are crossing the streets in all directions. A little +later the bell of the small chapel opposite to my window rings +furiously for a quarter of an hour, and then I hear mass chanted in a +deep strong nasal tone. As the day advances, the English, in white +hats and white pantaloons, come out of their lodgings, accompanied +sometimes by their hale and square-built spouses, and saunter stiffly +along the Arno, or take their way to the public galleries and museums. +Their massive, clean, and brightly polished carriages also begin to +rattle through the streets, setting out on excursions to some part of +the environs of Florence--to Fiesole, to the Pratolino, to the Bello +Sguardo, to the Poggio Imperiale. + +Sights of a different kind now present themselves. Sometimes it is a +troop of stout Franciscan friars, in sandals and brown robes, each +carrying his staff and wearing a brown, broad-brimmed hat with a +hemispherical crown. Sometimes it is a band of young theological +students, in purple cassocks with red collars and cuffs, let out on a +holiday, attended by their clerical instructors, to ramble in the +Cascine. There is a priest coming over the bridge, a man of venerable +age and great reputation for sanctity. The common people crowd around +him to kiss his hand, and obtain a kind word from him as he passes. +But what is that procession of men in black gowns, black gaiters, and +black masks moving swiftly along, and bearing on their shoulders a +litter covered with black cloth? These are the Brethren of Mercy, who +have assembled at the sound of the cathedral bell, and are conveying +some sick or wounded person to the hospital. + +As the day begins to decline, the number of carriages in the streets, +filled with gaily drest people attended by servants in livery, +increases. The Grand Duke's equipage, an elegant carriage drawn by six +horses, with coachmen, footmen, and outriders in drab-colored livery, +comes from the Pitti Palace, and crosses the Arno, either by the +bridge close to my lodgings, or by that called Alla Santa Trinita, +which is in full sight from the windows. The Florentine nobility, with +their families, and the English residents now throng to the Cascine, +to drive at a slow pace through its thickly planted walks of elms, +oaks and ilexes. As the sun is sinking I perceive the quay on the +other side of the Arno filled with a moving crowd of well-drest people +walking to and fro and enjoying the beauty of the evening. + +Travelers now arrive from all quarters, in cabriolets, in calashes, in +the shabby vettura, and in the elegant private carriage drawn by +post-horses, and driven by postilions in the tightest possible +deerskin breeches, the smallest red coats, and the hugest jack-boots. +The streets about the doors of the hotels resound with the crackling +of whips and the stamping of horses, and are encumbered with +carriages, heaps of baggage, porters, postilions, couriers, and +travelers. Night at length arrives--the time of spectacles and +funerals. The carriages rattle toward the opera-houses. Trains of +people, sometimes in white robes and sometimes in black, carrying +blazing torches and a cross elevated on a high pole before a coffin, +pass through the streets chanting the service for the dead. The +Brethren of Mercy may also be seen engaged in their office. The +rapidity of their pace, the flare of their torches, the gleam of their +eyes through their masks, and their sable garb, give them a kind of +supernatural appearance. I return to bed and fall asleep amidst the +shouts of people returning from the opera, singing as they go snatches +of the music with which they had been entertained during the evening. + + + + +WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT + + Born in Salem, Mass., in 1796; died in Boston in 1859; + studied at Harvard, where, through an accident to his eyes, + he became nearly blind; devoted himself to the study of + Spanish history, employing a reader and using a specially + constructed writing apparatus; published his "Ferdinand and + Isabella" in 1838; "Conquest of Mexico" in 1843, "Conquest + of Peru" in 1847, and "Philip II" in 1855-58. + + + + +I + +THE FATE OF EGMONT AND HOORNE[67] + + +On the second of June, 1568, a body of three thousand men was ordered +to Ghent to escort the Counts Egmont and Hoorne to Brussels. No +resistance was offered, altho the presence of the Spaniards caused a +great sensation among the inhabitants of the place, who too well +foreboded the fate of their beloved lord. + +[Footnote 67: From Book III, Chapter V, of the "History of the Reign +of Philip II, King of Spain."] + +The nobles, each accompanied by two officers, were put into separate +chariots. They were guarded by twenty companies of pikemen and +arquebusiers; and a detachment of lancers, among whom was a body of +the duke's own horse, rode in the van, while another of equal strength +protected the rear. Under this strong escort they moved slowly toward +Brussels. One night they halted at Dendermonde, and toward evening, on +the fourth of the month, entered the capital. As the martial array +defiled through its streets, there was no one, however stout-hearted +he might be, says an eye-witness, who could behold the funeral pomp of +the procession, and listen to the strains of melancholy music without +a feeling of sickness at his heart. + +The prisoners were at once conducted to the _Brod-huys_, or +"Bread-house," usually known as the _Maison du Roi_--that venerable +pile in the market-place of Brussels, still visited by every traveler +for its curious architecture, and yet more as the last resting-place +of the Flemish lords. Here they were lodged in separate rooms, small, +dark, and uncomfortable, and scantily provided with furniture. Nearly +the whole of the force which had escorted them to Brussels was +established in the great square, to defeat any attempt at a rescue. +But none was made; and the night passed away without disturbance, +except what was occasioned by the sound of busy workmen employed in +constructing a scaffold for the scene of execution on the following +day. + +On the afternoon of the fourth, the Duke of Alva[68] had sent for +Martin Rithovius, bishop of Ypres; and, communicating to him the +sentence of the nobles, he requested the prelate to visit the +prisoners, acquaint them with their fate, and prepare them for their +execution on the following day. The bishop, an excellent man, and the +personal friend of Egmont, was astounded by the tidings. He threw +himself at Alva's feet, imploring mercy for the prisoners, and if he +could not spare their lives, beseeching him at least to grant them +more time for preparation. But Alva sternly rebuked the prelate, +saying that he had been summoned not to thwart the execution of the +law, but to console the prisoners and enable them to die like +Christians. The bishop, finding his entreaties useless, rose and +addrest himself to his melancholy mission. + +[Footnote 68: The Duke of Alva was sent to the Netherlands as governor +in 1567 where, as an instrument of his cruelty, he established what is +known as "The Council of Blood," a court of inquiry and persecution +which, in the course of three months, put to death 1,600 persons.] + +It was near midnight when he entered Egmont's apartment, where he +found the poor nobleman, whose strength had been already reduced by +confinement, and who was wearied by the fatigue of the journey, buried +in slumber. It is said that the two lords, when summoned to Brussels, +had indulged the vain hope that it was to inform them of the +conclusion of their trial and their acquittal! However this may be, +Egmont seems to have been but ill prepared for the dreadful tidings he +received. He turned deadly pale as he listened to the bishop, and +exclaimed, with deep emotion, "It is a terrible sentence. Little did I +imagine that any offense I had committed against God or the king could +merit such punishment. It is not death that I fear. Death is the +common lot of all. But I shrink from dishonor. Yet I may hope that my +sufferings will so far expiate my offenses that my innocent family +will not be involved in my ruin by the confiscation of my property. +This much, at least, I think I may claim in consideration of my past +services." Then, after a pause, he added, "Since my death is the will +of God and his Majesty, I will try to meet it with patience." He +asked the bishop if there were no hope. On being answered, "None +whatever," he resolved to devote himself at once to preparing for the +solemn change. + +He rose from his couch, and hastily drest himself. He then made his +confession to the prelate, and desired that mass might be said, and +the sacrament administered to him. This was done with great solemnity, +and Egmont received the communion in the most devout manner, +manifesting the greatest contrition for his sins. He next inquired of +the bishop to what prayer he could best have recourse to sustain him +in this trying hour. The prelate recommended to him that prayer which +our Savior had commended to his disciples. The advice pleased the +count, who earnestly engaged in his devotions. But a host of tender +recollections crowded on his mind, and the images of his wife and +children drew his thoughts in another direction, till the kind +expostulations of the prelate again restored him to himself. + +Egmont asked whether it would be well to say anything on the scaffold +for the edification of the people. But the bishop discouraged him, +saying that he would be imperfectly heard, and that the people, in +their present excitement, would be apt to misinterpret what he said to +their own prejudice. + +Having attended to his spiritual concerns, Egmont called for writing +materials, and wrote a letter to his wife, whom he had not seen during +his long confinement; and to her he now bade a tender farewell. He +then addrest another letter, written in French, in a few brief and +touching sentences, to the King--which fortunately has been preserved +to us. "This morning," he says, "I have been made acquainted with the +sentence which it has pleased your majesty to pass upon me. And altho +it has never been my intent to do aught against the person or the +service of your majesty, or against our true, ancient, and Catholic +faith, yet I receive in patience what it has pleased God to send me. +If during these troubles I have counseled or permitted aught which +might seem otherwise, I have done so from a sincere regard for the +service of God and your majesty, and from what I believed the +necessity of the times. Wherefore I pray your majesty to pardon it, +and for the sake of my past services to take pity on my poor wife, my +children, and my servants. In this trust I commend myself to the mercy +of God." The letter is dated Brussels, "on the point of death," June +5th, 1568. + +Having time still left, the count made a fair copy of the two letters, +and gave them to the bishop, entreating him to deliver them according +to their destination. He accompanied that to Philip with a ring, to be +given at the same time to the monarch. It was of great value, and, as +it had been the gift of Philip himself during the count's late visit +to Madrid, it might soften the heart of the King by reminding him of +happier days, when he had looked with an eye of favor on his unhappy +vassal. + +Having completed all his arrangements, Egmont became impatient for the +hour of his departure; and he exprest the hope that there would be no +unnecessary delay. At ten in the morning the soldiers appeared who +were to conduct him to the scaffold. They brought with them cords, as +usual, to bind the prisoner's hands. But Egmont remonstrated, and +showed that he had himself cut off the collar of his doublet and +shirt, in order to facilitate the stroke of the executioner. This he +did to convince them that he meditated no resistance; and on his +promising that he would attempt none, they consented to his remaining +with his hands unbound. + +Egmont was drest in a crimson damask robe, over which was a Spanish +mantle fringed with gold. His breeches were of black silk, and his +hat, of the same material, was garnished with white and sable plumes. +In his hand, which, as we have seen, remained free, he held a white +handkerchief. On his way to the place of execution he was accompanied +by Julian de Romero, _maitre de camp_, by the captain, Salinas, who +had charge of the fortress of Ghent, and by the bishop of Ypres. As +the procession moved slowly forward, the count repeated some portion +of the fifty-first Psalm--"Have mercy on me, O God!"--in which the +good prelate joined with him. In the center of the square, on the spot +where so much of the best blood of the Netherlands had been shed, +stood the scaffold, covered with black cloth. On it were two velvet +cushions with a small table, shrouded likewise in black, and +supporting a silver crucifix. At the corners of the platform were two +poles, pointed at the end with steel, intimating the purpose for which +they were intended. + +In front of the scaffold was the provost of the court, mounted on +horseback, and bearing the red wand of office in his hand. The +executioner remained, as usual, below the platform, screened from +view, that he might not, by his presence before it was necessary, +outrage the feelings of the prisoners. The troops, who had been under +arms all night, were drawn up around in order of battle; and strong +bodies of arquebusiers were posted in the great avenues which led to +the square. The space left open by the soldiery was speedily occupied +by a crowd of eager spectators. Others thronged the roofs and windows +of the buildings that surrounded the market-place, some of which, +still standing at the present day, show, by their quaint and venerable +architecture, that they must have looked down on the tragic scene we +are now depicting. + +It was indeed a gloomy day for Brussels--so long the residence of the +two nobles, where their forms were as familiar and where they were +held in as much love and honor as in any of their own provinces. All +business was suspended. The shops were closed. The bells tolled in all +the churches. An air of gloom, as of some impending calamity, settled +on the city. "It seemed," says one residing there at the time, "as if +the day of judgment were at hand!" + +As the procession slowly passed through the ranks of the soldiers, +Egmont saluted the officers--some of them his ancient companions--with +such a sweet and dignified composure in his manner as was long +remembered by those who saw it. And few even of the Spaniards could +refrain from tears as they took their last look at the gallant noble +who was to perish so miserably. + +With a steady step he mounted the scaffold, and, as he crossed it, +gave utterance to the vain wish that, instead of meeting such a fate, +he had been allowed to die in the service of his King and country. He +quickly, however, turned to other thoughts, and, kneeling on one of +the cushions, with the bishop beside him on the other, he was soon +engaged earnestly in prayer. With his eyes raised toward heaven with a +look of unutterable sadness, he prayed so fervently and loud as to be +distinctly heard by the spectators. The prelate, much affected, put +into his hands the silver crucifix, which Egmont repeatedly kissed; +after which, having received absolution for the last time, he rose and +made a sign to the bishop to retire. He then stript off his mantle and +robe; and, again kneeling, he drew a silk cap, which he had brought +for the purpose, over his eyes, and, repeating the words, "Into Thy +hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," he calmly awaited the stroke of +the executioner. + +The low sounds of lamentation which from time to time had been heard +among the populace were now hushed into silence as the minister of +justice, appearing on the platform, approached his victim and with a +single blow of the sword severed the head from the body. A cry of +horror rose from the multitude, and some, frantic with grief, broke +through the ranks of the soldiers and wildly dipped their +handkerchiefs in the blood that streamed from the scaffold, treasuring +them up, says the chronicler, as precious memorials of love and +incitements to vengeance. The head was then set on one of the poles at +the end of the platform, while a mantle thrown over the mutilated +trunk hid it from the public gaze. + +It was near noon when orders were sent to lead forth the remaining +prisoner to execution. It had been assigned to the curate of La +Chapelle to acquaint Count Hoorne with his fate. That nobleman +received the awful tidings with less patience than was shown by his +friend. He gave way to a burst of indignation at the cruelty and +injustice of the sentence. It was a poor requital, he said, for +eight-and-twenty years of faithful service to his sovereign. Yet, he +added, he was not sorry to be released from a life of such incessant +fatigue. For some time he refused to confess, saying he had done +enough in the way of confession. When urged not to throw away the few +precious moments that were left to him, he at length consented. + +The count was drest in a plain suit of black, and wore a Milanese cap +upon his head. He was, at this time, about fifty years of age. He was +tall, with handsome features, and altogether of a commanding presence. +His form was erect, and as he passed with a steady step through the +files of soldiers, on his way to the place of execution, he frankly +saluted those of his acquaintance whom he saw among the spectators. +His look had in it less of sorrow than of indignation, like that of +one conscious of enduring wrong. He was spared one pang, in his last +hour, which had filled Egmont's cup with bitterness; tho, like him, he +had a wife, he was to leave no orphan family to mourn him. + +As he trod the scaffold, the apparatus of death seemed to have no +power to move him. He still repeated the declaration that, "often as +he had offended his Maker, he had never, to his knowledge, committed +any offense against the King." When his eyes fell on the bloody shroud +that enveloped the remains of Egmont, he inquired if it were the body +of his friend. Being answered in the affirmative, he made some remark +in Castilian, not understood. He then prayed for a few moments, but in +so low a tone that the words were not caught by the bystanders, and, +rising, he asked pardon of those around if he had ever offended any of +them, and earnestly besought their prayers. Then, without further +delay, he knelt down, and, repeating the words, "_In manus tuas, +Domine_," he submitted himself to his fate. + +His bloody head was set up opposite to that of his fellow sufferer. +For three hours these ghastly trophies remained exposed to the gaze of +the multitude. They were then taken down, and, with the bodies, placed +in leaden coffins, which were straightway removed--that containing the +remains of Egmont to the convent of Santa Clara, and that of Hoorne to +the ancient church of Ste. Gudule. To these places, especially to +Santa Clara, the people now flocked as to the shrine of a martyr. They +threw themselves on the coffin, kissing it and bedewing it with their +tears, as if it had contained the relics of some murdered saint; while +many of them, taking little heed of the presence of informers, +breathed vows of vengeance, some even swearing not to trim either hair +or beard till these vows were executed. The government seems to have +thought it prudent to take no notice of this burst of popular feeling. +But a funeral hatchment, blazoned with the arms of Egmont, which, as +usual after the master's death, had been fixt by his domestics on the +gates of his mansion, was ordered to be instantly removed--no doubt, +as tending to keep alive the popular excitement. The bodies were not +allowed to remain long in their temporary places of deposit, but were +transported to the family residences of the two lords in the country, +and laid in the vaults of their ancestors. + +Thus by the hand of the common executioner perished these two +unfortunate noblemen, who, by their rank, possessions, and personal +characters, were the most illustrious victims that could have been +selected in the Netherlands. Both had early enjoyed the favor of +Charles the Fifth, and both had been entrusted by Philip with some of +the highest offices in the state. Philip de Montmorency, Count Hoorne, +the elder of the two, came of the ancient house of Montmorency in +France. Besides filling the high post of Admiral of the Low Countries, +he was made governor of the provinces of Guelders and Zutphen, was a +councilor of state, and was created by the Emperor a knight of the +Golden Fleece. His fortune was greatly inferior to that of Count +Egmont; yet its confiscation afforded a supply by no means unwelcome +to the needy exchequer of the Duke of Alva. + +However nearly on a footing they might be in many respects, Hoorne was +altogether eclipsed by his friend in military renown. + + + + +II + +THE GENESIS OF "DON QUIXOTE"[69] + + +The age of chivalry, as depicted in romances, could never, of course, +have had any real existence; but the sentiments which are described as +animating that age have been found more or less operative in different +countries and different periods of society. In Spain, especially, this +influence is to be discerned from a very early date. Its inhabitants +may be said to have lived in a romantic atmosphere, in which all the +extravagances of chivalry were nourished by their peculiar situation. +Their hostile relations with the Moslem kept alive the full glow of +religious and patriotic feeling. Their history is one interminable +crusade. An enemy always on the borders invited perpetual displays of +personal daring and adventure. The refinement and magnificence of the +Spanish Arabs throw a luster over these contests such as could not be +reflected from the rude skirmishes with their Christian neighbors. +Lofty sentiments, embellished by the softer refinements of courtesy, +were blended in the martial bosom of the Spaniard, and Spain became +emphatically the land of romantic chivalry. + +[Footnote 69: From the "Biographical and Critical Miscellanies," which +were collected by the author for publication in England in 1845. This +essay, and the others in the volume, with one exception, had been +published originally in _The North American Review_.] + +The very laws themselves, conceived in this spirit, contributed +greatly to foster it. The ancient code of Alfonso X, in the thirteenth +century, after many minute regulations for the deportment of the good +knight, enjoins on him to "invoke the name of his mistress in the +fight, that it may infuse new ardor into his soul and preserve him +from the commission of unknightly actions." Such laws were not a dead +letter. The history of Spain shows that the sentiment of romantic +gallantry penetrated the nation more deeply and continued longer than +in any other quarter of Christendom.... + +The taste for these romantic extravagances naturally fostered a +corresponding taste for the perusal of tales of chivalry. Indeed, they +acted reciprocally on each other. These chimerical legends had once, +also, beguiled the long evenings of our Norman ancestors, but, in the +progress of civilization, had gradually given way to other and more +natural forms of composition. They still maintained their ground in +Italy, whither they had passed later, and where they were consecrated +by the hand of genius. But Italy was not the true soil of chivalry, +and the inimitable fictions of Bojardo, Pulci, and Ariosto were +composed with that lurking smile of half-supprest mirth which, far +from a serious tone, could raise only a corresponding smile of +incredulity in the reader. + +In Spain, however, the marvels of romance were all taken in perfect +good faith. Not that they were received as literally true; but the +reader surrendered himself up to the illusion, and was moved to +admiration by the recital of deeds which, viewed in any other light +than as a wild frolic of imagination, would be supremely ridiculous; +for these tales had not the merit of a seductive style and melodious +versification to relieve them. They were, for the most part, an +ill-digested mass of incongruities, in which there was as little +keeping and probability in the characters as in the incidents, while +the whole was told in that stilted "Hercles' vein" and with that +licentiousness of allusion and imagery which could not fail to debauch +both the taste and the morals of the youthful reader. The mind, +familiarized with these monstrous, over-colored pictures, lost all +relish for the chaste and sober productions of art. The love of the +gigantic and the marvelous indisposed the reader for the simple +delineations of truth in real history.... + +Cervantes brought forward a personage, in whom were embodied all those +generous virtues which belong to chivalry; disinterestedness, contempt +of danger, unblemished honor, knightly courtesy, and those aspirations +after ideal excellence which, if empty dreams, are the dreams of a +magnanimous spirit. They are, indeed, represented by Cervantes as too +ethereal for this world, and are successively dispelled as they come +in contact with the coarse realities of life. It is this view of the +subject which has led Sismondi, among other critics, to consider that +the principal end of the author was "the ridicule of enthusiasm--the +contrast of the heroic with the vulgar"--and he sees something +profoundly sad in the conclusions to which it leads. This sort of +criticism appears to be over-refined. It resembles the efforts of some +commentators to allegorize the great epics of Homer and Virgil, +throwing a disagreeable mistiness over the story by converting mere +shadows into substances, and substances into shadows. + +The great purpose of Cervantes was, doubtless, that expressly avowed +by himself, namely, to correct the popular taste for romances of +chivalry. It is unnecessary to look for any other in so plain a tale, +altho, it is true, the conduct of the story produces impressions on +the reader, to a certain extent, like those suggested by Sismondi. The +melancholy tendency, however, is in a great degree counteracted by the +exquisitely ludicrous character of the incidents. Perhaps, after all, +if we are to hunt for a moral as the key of the fiction, we may with +more reason pronounce it to be the necessity of proportioning our +undertakings to our capacities. + +The mind of the hero, Don Quixote, is an ideal world into which +Cervantes has poured all the rich stores of his own imagination, the +poet's golden dreams, high romantic exploit, and the sweet visions of +pastoral happiness; the gorgeous chimeras of the fancied age of +chivalry, which had so long entranced the world; splendid illusions, +which, floating before us like the airy bubbles which the child throws +off from his pipe, reflect, in a thousand variegated tints, the rude +objects around, until, brought into collision with these, they are +dashed in pieces and melt into air. These splendid images derive +tenfold beauty from the rich antique coloring of the author's +language, skilfully imitated from the old romances, but which +necessarily escapes in the translation into a foreign tongue. Don +Quixote's insanity operates both in mistaking the ideal for the real, +and the real for the ideal. Whatever he has found in romances he +believes to exist in the world; and he converts all he meets with in +the world into the visions of his romances. It is difficult to say +which of the two produces the most ludicrous results. + +For the better exposure of these mad fancies Cervantes has not only +put them into action in real life, but contrasted them with another +character which may be said to form the reverse side of his hero's. +Honest Sancho represents the material principle as perfectly as his +master does the intellectual or ideal. He is of the earth, earthy. +Sly, selfish, sensual, his dreams are not of glory, but of good +feeding. His only concern is for his carcass. His notions of honor +appear to be much the same with those of his jovial contemporary +Falstaff, as conveyed in his memorable soliloquy. In the sublime +night-piece which ends with the fulling-mills--truly sublime until we +reach the denouement--Sancho asks his master: "Why need you go about +this adventure? It is main dark, and there is never a living soul sees +us; we have nothing to do but to sheer off and get out of harm's way. +Who is there to take notice of our flinching?" Can anything be +imagined more exquisitely opposed to the true spirit of chivalry? The +whole compass of fiction nowhere displays the power of contrast so +forcibly as in these two characters; perfectly opposed to each other, +not only in their minds and general habits, but in the minutest +details of personal appearance. + +It was a great effort of art for Cervantes to maintain the dignity of +his hero's character in the midst of the whimsical and ridiculous +distresses in which he has perpetually involved him. His infirmity +leads us to distinguish between his character and his conduct, and to +absolve him from all responsibility for the latter. The author's art +is no less shown in regard to the other principal figure in the piece, +Sancho Panza, who, with the most contemptible qualities, contrives to +keep a strong hold on our interest by the kindness of his nature and +his shrewd understanding. He is far too shrewd a person, indeed, to +make it natural for him to have followed so crack-brained a master +unless bribed by the promise of a substantial recompense. He is a +personification, as it were, of the popular wisdom--a "bundle of +proverbs," as his master somewhere styles him; and proverbs are the +most compact form in which the wisdom of a people is digested. They +have been collected into several distinct works in Spain, where they +exceed in number those of any other, if not every other country in +Europe. As many of them are of great antiquity, they are of +inestimable price with the Castilian jurists, as affording rich +samples of obsolete idioms and the various mutations of the language. + +"Don Quixote" may be said to form an epoch in the history of letters, +as the original of that kind of composition, the novel of character, +which is one of the distinguishing peculiarities of modern literature. +When well executed, this sort of writing rises to the dignity of +history itself, and may be said to perform no insignificant part of +the functions of the latter. History describes men less as they are +than as they appear, as they are playing a part on the great +political theater--men in masquerade. It rests on state documents, +which too often cloak real purposes under an artful veil of policy, or +on the accounts of contemporaries blinded by passion or interest. Even +without these deductions, the revolutions of states, their wars, and +their intrigues do not present the only aspect, nor, perhaps, the most +interesting, under which human nature can be studied. It is man in his +domestic relations, around his own fireside, where alone his real +character can be truly disclosed; in his ordinary occupations in +society, whether for purposes of profit or pleasure; in his every-day +manner of living, his tastes and opinions, as drawn out in social +intercourse; it is, in short, under all those forms which make up the +interior of society that man is to be studied, if we would get the +true form and pressure of the age--if, in short, we would obtain clear +and correct ideas of the actual progress of civilization. + +But these topics do not fall within the scope of the historian. He can +not find authentic materials for them. They belong to the novelist, +who, indeed, contrives his incidents and creates his characters, but +who, if true to his art, animates them with the same tastes, +sentiments, and motives of action which belong to the period of his +fiction. His portrait is not the less true because no individual has +sat for it. He has seized the physiognomy of the times. Who is there +that does not derive a more distinct idea of the state of society and +manners in Scotland from the "Waverley Novels" than from the best of +its historians? Of the condition of the Middle Ages from the single +romance of "Ivanhoe" than from the volumes of Hume or Hallam? In like +manner, the pencil of Cervantes has given a far more distinct and a +richer portraiture of life in Spain in the sixteenth century than can +be gathered from a library of monkish chronicles. + + + + +GEORGE BANCROFT + + Born in Massachusetts in 1800; died in Washington in 1891; + graduated from Harvard in 1817; studied in Germany; taught + Greek in Harvard; established a private school at + Northampton in 1823; collector of the Port of Boston in + 1838; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts + in 1844; Secretary of the Navy in 1845; established the + Naval Academy at Annapolis; minister to England in 1846; + minister to Berlin in 1867; published his "History of the + United States" in 10 volumes in 1834-74. + + + + +THE FATE OF EVANGELINE'S COUNTRYMEN[70] + +(1755) + + +They [the French inhabitants of Acadia] still counted in their +villages "eight thousand" souls, and the English not more than "three +thousand"; they stood in the way of "the progress of the settlement"; +"by their non-compliance with the conditions of the treaty of Utrecht +they had forfeited their possessions to the crown"; after the +departure "of the fleet and troops, the province would not be in a +condition to drive them out." "Such a juncture as the present might +never occur"; so he [the chief justice, Belcher] advised "against +receiving any of the French inhabitants to take the oath," and for the +removal of "all" of them from the province. + +[Footnote 70: From Volume IV, Chapter VIII, of "The History of the +United States," as published in 1862. Acadia was the name of the +original French colony in the eastern part of Canada, including Nova +Scotia, New Brunswick and adjacent islands. It was first colonized by +the French in 1604. It is more particularly of the French settlers in +Nova Scotia that Bancroft writes. These were deported by the British +in 1755. Longfellow's poem "Evangeline" is founded on an incident in +this deportation, by which two lovers were hopelessly parted. +Hawthorne is said first to have heard this story and considered it as +the theme for a novel, but, unable to use it satisfactorily to +himself, he passed it on to Longfellow.] + +That the cruelty might have no palliation, letters arrived leaving no +doubt that the shores of the Bay of Fundy were entirely in the +possession of the British; and yet at a council, at which Vice-Admiral +Boscawen and Rear-Admiral Mostyn were present by invitation, it was +unanimously determined to send the French inhabitants out of the +province; and, after mature consideration, it was further unanimously +agreed that, to prevent their attempting to return and molest the +settlers that were to be set down on their lands, it would be most +proper to distribute them among the several colonies on the continent. + +To hunt them into the net was impracticable; artifice was therefore +resorted to. By a general proclamation, on one and the same day, the +scarcely conscious victims, "both old men and young men, as well as +all the lads of ten years of age," were peremptorily ordered to +assemble at their respective posts. On the appointed fifth of +September they obeyed. At Grand Pre, for example, four hundred and +eighteen unarmed men came together. They were marched into the church +and its avenues were closed, when Winslow, the American commander, +placed himself in their center, and spoke: + +"You are convened together to manifest to you his majesty's final +resolution to the French inhabitants of this his province. Your lands +and tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, are +forfeited to the crown, and you yourselves are to be removed from this +his province. I am, through his majesty's goodness, directed to allow +you liberty to carry off your money and household goods, as many as +you can, without discommoding the vessels you go in." + +And he then declared them the King's prisoners. Their wives and +families shared their lot; their sons, five hundred and twenty-seven +in number; their daughters, five hundred and seventy-six; in the +whole, women and babes and old men and children all included, nineteen +hundred and twenty-three souls. The blow was sudden; they had left +home but for the morning, and they never were to return. Their cattle +were to stay unfed in the stalls, their fires to die out on their +hearths. They had for that first day even no food for themselves or +their children, and were compelled to beg for bread. + +The tenth of September was the day for the embarkation of a part of +the exiles. They were drawn up six deep; and the young men, one +hundred and sixty-one in number, were ordered to march first on board +the vessel. They could leave their farms and cottages, the shady rocks +on which they had reclined, their herds, and their garners; but nature +yearned within them, and they would not be separated from their +parents. Yet of what avail was the frenzied despair of the unarmed +youth? They had not one weapon; the bayonet drove them to obey; and +they marched slowly and heavily from the chapel to the shore, between +women and children, who, kneeling, prayed for blessings on their +heads, they themselves weeping and praying and singing hymns. The +seniors went next; the wives and children must wait till other +transport vessels arrive. The delay had its horrors. The wretched +people left behind were kept together near the sea, without proper +food, or raiment, or shelter, till other ships came to take them away; +and December, with its appalling cold, had struck the shivering, +half-clad, broken-hearted sufferers, before the last of them were +removed. + +"The embarkation of the inhabitants goes on but slowly," wrote +Monckton, from Fort Cumberland, near which he had burned three +hamlets; "the most part of the wives of the men we have prisoners are +gone off with their children, in hopes I would not send off their +husbands without them." Their hope was vain. Near Annapolis a hundred +heads of families fled to the woods, and a party was detached on the +hunt to bring them in. "Our soldiers hate them," wrote an officer on +this occasion; "and, if they can but find a pretext to kill them, they +will." Did a prisoner seek to escape, he was shot down by the +sentinel. Yet some fled to Quebec; more than three thousand had +withdrawn to Miramachi and the region south of the Restigouche; some +found rest on the banks of the St. John's and its branches; some found +a lair in their native forests; some were charitably sheltered from +the English in the wigwams of the savages. But seven thousand of these +banished people were driven on board ships, and scattered among the +British colonies, from New Hampshire to Georgia--one thousand and +twenty to South Carolina alone. They were cast ashore without +resources, hating the poorhouse as a shelter for their offspring, and +abhorring the thought of selling themselves as laborers. Households, +too, were separated; the colonial newspapers contained advertisements +of members of families seeking their companions, of sons anxious to +reach and relieve their parents, of mothers moaning for their +children. + +The wanderers sighed for their native country; but, to prevent their +return, their villages, from Annapolis to the isthmus, were laid +waste. Their old homes were but ruins. In the district of Minas, for +instance, two hundred and fifty of their houses, and more than as many +barns, were consumed. The live stock which belonged to them, +consisting of great numbers of horned cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses, +were seized as spoils and disposed of by the English officials. A +beautiful and fertile tract of country was reduced to a solitude. +There was none left round the ashes of the cottages of the Acadians +but the faithful watch-dog, vainly seeking the hands that fed him. +Thickets of forest-trees choked their orchards; the ocean broke over +their neglected dikes, and desolated their meadows. + +Relentless misfortune pursued the exiles wherever they fled. Those +sent to Georgia, drawn by a love for the spot where they were born, as +strong as that of the captive Jews who wept by the rivers of Babylon +for their own temple and land, escaped to sea in boats, and went +coasting from harbor to harbor; but when they had reached New +England, just as they would have set sail for their native fields, +they were stopt by orders from Nova Scotia. Those who dwelt on the St. +John's were torn from their new homes. When Canada surrendered, hatred +with its worst venom pursued the fifteen hundred who remained south of +the Restigouche. Once those who dwelt in Pennsylvania presented a +humble petition to the Earl of Loudoun, then the British +commander-in-chief in America; and the cold-hearted peer, offended +that the prayer was made in French, seized their five principal men, +who in their own land had been persons of dignity and substance, and +shipped them to England, with the request that they might be kept from +ever again becoming troublesome by being consigned to service as +common sailors on board ships-of-war. No doubt existed of the King's +approbation. The lords of trade, more merciless than the savages and +than the wilderness in winter, wished very much that every one of the +Acadians should be driven out; and, when it seemed that the work was +done, congratulated the King that "the zealous endeavors of Lawrence +had been crowned with an entire success." + + + + +RALPH WALDO EMERSON + + Born in 1803, died In 1882, a Unitarian clergyman in Boston + in 1829-32; began a long career as lecturer in 1833; settled + in Concord in 1834; editor of _The Dial_ in 1842-44; + published "Nature" in 1836; "Essays," two series, in + 1841-44; "Poems" in 1846; "Representative Men" in 1850; + "English Traits" in 1856; "Conduct of Life" in 1860; + "Society and Solitude" in 1870; "Letters and Social Aims" in + 1876. + + + + +I + +THOREAU'S BROKEN TASK[71] + + +His robust common sense, armed with stout hands, keen perceptions, and +strong will, can not yet account for the superiority which shone in +his simple and hidden life. I must add the cardinal fact that there +was an excellent wisdom in him, proper to a rare class of men, which +showed him the material world as a means and symbol. This discovery, +which sometimes yields to poets a certain casual and interrupted +light, serving for the ornament of their writing, was in him an +unsleeping insight; and whatever faults or obstructions of temperament +might cloud it, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. In his +youth he said one day, "The other world is all my art: my pencils +will draw no other; my jack-knife will cut nothing else; I do not use +it as a means." This was the muse and genius that ruled his opinions, +conversation, studies, work and course of life. This made him a +searching judge of men. At first glance he measured his companion, +and, tho insensible to some fine traits of culture, could very well +report his weight and caliber. And this made the impression of genius +which his conversation often gave. + +[Footnote 71: From Emerson's address at the funeral of Thoreau, as +expanded for the _Atlantic Monthly_ of August, 1862; usually printed +since as an introduction to Thoreau's volume entitled "Excursions," +published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.] + +I think his fancy for referring everything to the meridian of Concord +did not grow out of any ignorance or depreciation of other longitudes +or latitudes, but was rather a playful expression of his conviction of +the indifferency of all places, and that the best place for each is +where he stands. He exprest it once in this wise: "I think nothing is +to be hoped from you, if this bit of mold under your feet is not +sweeter to you to eat than any other in this world, or in any world." + +The other weapon with which he conquered all obstacles in science was +patience. He knew how to sit immovable, a part of the rock he rested +on, until the bird, the reptile, the fish, which had retired from him, +should come back, and resume his habits, nay, moved by curiosity, +should come to him and watch him. + +It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the +country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths +of his own. He knew every track in the snow or on the ground, and what +creature had taken this path before him. One must submit abjectly to +such a guide, and the reward was great. Under his arm he carried an +old music-book to press plants; in his pocket his diary and pencil, a +spyglass for birds, microscope, jack-knife, and twine. He wore straw +hat, stout shoes, strong gray trousers, to brave shrub-oaks and +smilax, and to climb a tree for a hawk's or a squirrel's nest. He +waded into the pool for the water-plants, and his strong legs were no +insignificant part of his armor. + +No college ever offered him a diploma, or a professor's chair; no +academy made him its corresponding secretary, its discoverer, or even +its member. Perhaps these learned bodies feared the satire of his +presence. Yet so much knowledge of Nature's secret and genius few +others possest, none in a more large and religious synthesis. For not +a particle of respect had he to the opinions of any man or body of +men, but homage solely to the truth itself; and as he discovered +everywhere among doctors some leaning of courtesy, it discredited +them. He grew to be revered and admired by his townsmen, who had at +first known him only as an oddity. The farmers who employed him as a +surveyor soon discovered his rare accuracy and skill, his knowledge of +their lands, of trees, of birds, of Indian remains, and the like, +which enabled him to tell every farmer more than he knew before of his +own farm; so that he began to feel as if Mr. Thoreau had better rights +in his land than he. They felt, too, the superiority of character +which addrest all men with a native authority. + +His virtues, of course, sometimes ran into extremes. It was easy to +trace to the inexorable demand on all for exact truth that austerity +which made this willing hermit more solitary even than he wished. +Himself of a perfect probity, he required not less of others. He had a +disgust for crime, and no worldly success could cover it. He detected +paltering as readily in dignified and prosperous persons as in +beggars, and with equal scorn. Such dangerous frankness was in his +dealing that his admirers called him "that terrible Thoreau," as if he +spoke when silent, and was still present when he had departed. I think +the severity of his ideal interfered to deprive him of a healthy +sufficiency of human society. + +The habit of a realist to find things the reverse of their appearance +inclined him to put every statement in a paradox. A certain habit of +antagonism defaced his earlier writings--a trick of rhetoric not quite +outgrown in his later, of substituting for the obvious word and +thought its diametrical opposite. He praised wild mountains and winter +forests for their domestic air, in snow and ice he would find +sultriness, and commended the wilderness for resembling Rome and +Paris. "It was so dry that you might call it wet." + +The tendency to magnify the moment, to read all the laws of Nature in +the one object or one combination under your eye, is of course comic +to those who do not share the philosopher's perception of identity. To +him there was no such thing as size. The pond was a small ocean; the +Atlantic a large Walden Pond. He referred every minute fact to +cosmical laws. Tho he meant to be just, he seemed haunted by a certain +chronic assumption that the science of the day pretended +completeness, and he had just found out that the savants had neglected +to discriminate a particular botanical variety, had failed to describe +the seeds or count the sepals. "That is to say," we replied, "the +blockheads were not born in Concord; but who said they were? It was +their unspeakable misfortune to be born in London, or Paris, or Rome; +but, poor fellows, they did what they could, considering that they +never saw Bateman's Pond, or Nine-acre Corner, or Becky Stow's Swamp. +Besides, what were you sent into the world for but to add this +observation?" + +Had this genius been only contemplative, he had been fitted to his +life, but with his energy and practical ability he seemed born for +great enterprise and for command; and I so much regret the loss of his +rare powers of action that I can not help counting it a fault in him +that he had no ambition. Wanting this, instead of engineering for all +America, he was the captain of a huckleberry party. Pounding beans is +good to the end of pounding empires one of these days; but if, at the +end of years, it is still only beans! + +But these foibles, real or apparent, were fast vanishing in the +incessant growth of a spirit so robust and wise, and which effaced its +defeats with new triumphs. His study of nature was a perpetual +ornament to him, and inspired his friends with curiosity to see the +world through his eyes, and to hear his adventures. They possest every +kind of interest. + +He had many elegances of his own, while he scoffed at conventional +elegance. Thus, he could not bear to hear the sound of his own steps, the +grit of gravel; and therefore never willingly walked in the road, but in +the grass, on mountains and in woods. His senses were acute, and he +remarked that by night every dwelling-house gives out bad air, like a +slaughter-house. He liked the pure fragrance of melilot. He honored certain +plants with special regard, and, over all, the pond lily, then the gentian, +and the _Mikania scandens_, and "life-everlasting," and a bass-tree which +he visited every year when it bloomed, in the middle of July. He thought +the scent a more oracular inquisition than the sight--more oracular and +trustworthy. The scent, of course, reveals what it concealed from the other +senses. By it he detected earthiness. He delighted in echoes, and said they +were almost the only kind of kindred voices that he heard. He loved Nature +so well, was so happy in her solitude, that he became very jealous of +cities, and the sad work which their refinements and artifices made with +man and his dwelling. The ax was always destroying his forest. "Thank God," +he said, "they can not cut down the clouds!".... + +The scale on which his studies proceeded was so large as to require +longevity, and we were the less prepared for his sudden disappearance. +The country knows not yet, or in the least part, how great a son it +has lost. It seems an injury that he should leave in the midst his +broken task, which none else can finish--a kind of indignity to so +noble a soul, that it should depart out of Nature before yet he has +been really shown to his peers for what he is. But he, at least, is +content. His soul was made for the noblest society; he had in a short +life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is +knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will +find a home. + + + + +II + +THE INTELLECTUAL HONESTY OF MONTAIGNE[72] + + +A single odd volume of Cotton's translation of the Essays remained to +me from my father's library, when a boy. It lay long neglected, until, +after many years, when I was newly escaped from college, I read the +book, and procured the remaining volumes. I remember the delight and +wonder in which I lived with it. It seemed to me as if I had myself +written the book, in some former life, so sincerely it spoke to my +thought and experience. It happened, when in Paris, in 1833, that, in +the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, I came to a tomb of August Collignon, +who died in 1830, aged sixty-eight years, and who, said the monument, +"lived to do right, and had formed himself to virtue on the Essays of +Montaigne." Some years later, I became acquainted with an accomplished +English poet, John Sterling; and, in prosecuting my correspondence, I +found that, from a love of Montaigne, he had made a pilgrimage to his +chateau, still standing near Castellan, in Perigord, and, after two +hundred and fifty years, had copied from the walls of his library the +inscriptions which Montaigne had written there. That Journal of Mr +Sterling's, published in the _Westminster Review_, Mr. Hazlitt has +reprinted in the Prolegomena to his edition of the Essays. I heard +with pleasure that one of the newly-discovered autographs of William +Shakespeare was in a copy of Florio's translation of Montaigne. It is +the only book which we certainly know to have been in the poet's +library. And, oddly enough, the duplicate copy of Florio, which the +British Museum purchased with a view of protecting the Shakespeare +autograph (as I was informed in the Museum), turned out to have the +autograph of Ben Jonson in the fly-leaf. Leigh Hunt relates of Lord +Byron that Montaigne was the only great writer of past times whom he +read with avowed satisfaction. Other coincidences, not needful to be +mentioned here, concurred to make this old Gascon still new and +immortal for me. + +[Footnote 72: From "Montaigne; or The Skeptic," in "Representative +Men." Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.] + +In 1571, on the death of his father, Montaigne, then thirty-eight +years old, retired from the practise of law at Bordeaux, and settled +himself on his estate. Tho he had been a man of pleasure, and +sometimes a courtier, his studious habits now grew on him, and he +loved the compass, staidness, and independence of the country +gentleman's life. He took up his economy in good earnest, and made his +farms yield the most. Downright and plain-dealing, and abhorring to be +deceived or to deceive, he was esteemed in the country for his sense +and probity. In the civil wars of the League, which converted every +house into a fort, Montaigne kept his gates open, and his house +without defense. All parties freely came and went, his courage and +honor being universally esteemed. The neighboring lords and gentry +brought jewels and papers to him for safe-keeping. Gibbon reckons, in +these bigoted times, but two men of liberality in France--Henry IV and +Montaigne. + + + + +III + +HIS VISIT TO CARLYLE AT CRAIGEN-PUTTOCK[73] + +(1833) + + +From Edinburgh I went to the Highlands. On my return I came from +Glasgow to Dumfries, and being intent on delivering a letter which I +had brought from Rome, inquired for Craigen-puttock. It was a farm in +Nithsdale, in the parish of Dunscore, sixteen miles distant. No public +coach passed near it, so I took a private carriage from the inn. I +found the house amid desolate heathery hills, where the lonely scholar +nourished his mighty heart. Carlyle was a man from his youth, an +author who did not need to hide from his readers, and as absolute a +man of the world, unknown and exiled on that hill-farm, as if holding +on his own terms what is best in London. He was tall and gaunt, with +cliff-like brow, self-possest, and holding his extraordinary powers of +conversation in easy command; clinging to his northern accent with +evident relish; full of lively anecdote, and with a streaming humor, +which floated everything he looked upon. His talk playfully exalting +the familiar objects, put the companion at once into an acquaintance +with his Lars and Lemurs, and it was very pleasant to learn what was +predestined to be a pretty mythology. Few were the objects and lonely +the man, "not a person to speak to within sixteen miles except the +minister of Dunscore"; so that books inevitably made his topics. + +[Footnote 73: From Chapter I of "English Traits," published by +Houghton, Mifflin Company. At the time of this visit, Emerson had +published none of his books, but Carlyle was known as the author of +many of the "Essays" now included among his collected writings, and +had published the "Life of Schiller" and his translation of Goethe's +"Wilhelm Meister." "Sartor Resartus" in that year was beginning its +course through the monthly numbers of _Fraser's Magazine_.] + +He had names of his own for all the matters familiar to his discourse. +_Blackwood's_ was the "sand magazine"; _Fraser's_ nearer approach to +possibility of life was the "mud magazine"; a piece of road near by +that marked some failed enterprise was the "grave of the last +sixpence." When too much praise of any genius annoyed him, he profest +hugely to admire the talent shown by his pig. He had spent much time +and contrivance in confining the poor beast to one enclosure in his +pen, but pig, by great strokes of judgment, had found out how to let a +board down, and had foiled him. For all that, he still thought man the +most plastic little fellow in the planet, and he liked Nero's death, +"_Qualis artifex pereo!_" better than most history. He worships a man +that will manifest any truth to him. At one time he had inquired and +read a good deal about America. Landor's principle was mere rebellion, +and _that_ he feared was the American principle. The best thing he +knew of that country was that in it a man can have meat for his +labor. He had read in Stewart's book that, when he inquired in a New +York hotel for the Boots, he had been shown across the street and had +found Mungo in his own house dining on roast turkey. + +We talked of books. Plato he does not read, and he disparaged +Socrates; and, when prest, persisted in making Mirabeau a hero. Gibbon +he called the splendid bridge from the old world to the new. His own +reading had been multifarious. "Tristram Shandy" was one of his first +books after "Robinson Crusoe," and Robertson's "America" an early +favorite. Rousseau's "Confessions" had discovered to him that he was +not a dunce; and it was now ten years since he had learned German, by +the advice of a man who told him he would find in that language what +he wanted. + +He took despairing or satirical views of literature at this moment; +recounted the incredible sums paid in one year by the great +booksellers for puffing. Hence it comes that no newspaper is trusted +now, no books are bought, and the booksellers are on the eve of +bankruptcy. + +He still returned to English pauperism, the crowded country, the +selfish abdication by public men of all that public persons should +perform. "Government should direct poor men what to do. Poor Irish +folk come wandering over these moors. My dame makes it a rule to give +to every son of Adam bread to eat, and supplies his wants to the next +house. But here are thousands of acres which might give them all meat, +and nobody to bid these poor Irish go to the moor and till it. They +burned the stacks, and so found a way to force the rich people to +attend to them." + +We went out to walk over long hills, and looked at Criffel, then +without his cap, and down into Wordsworth's country. There we sat +down, and talked of the immortality of the soul. It was not Carlyle's +fault that we talked on that topic, for he had the natural +disinclination of every nimble spirit to bruise itself against walls, +and did not like to place himself where no step can be taken. But he +was honest and true, and cognizant of the subtile links that bind ages +together, and saw how every event affects all the future. "Christ died +on the tree: that built Dunscore kirk yonder: that brought you and me +together. Time had only a relative existence." + +He was already turning his eyes toward London with a scholar's +appreciation. London is the heart of the world, he said, wonderful +only from the mass of human beings. He liked the huge machine. Each +keeps its own round. The baker's boy brings muffins to the window at a +fixt hour every day, and that is all the Londoner knows or wishes to +know on the subject. But it turned out good men. He named certain +individuals, especially one man of letters, his friend, the best mind +he knew, whom London had well served. + + + + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE + + Born in Salem, Mass., in 1804; died in 1864; graduated from + Bowdoin College in 1825; served in the Custom House in + Boston; joined the Brook Farm community in 1841; surveyor of + the port of Salem in 1846-49; consul at Liverpool in + 1853-57; published "Fanshawe" at his own expense in 1826, + "Twice Told Tales" in 1837-42; "Mosses from an Old Manse" in + 1846, "The Scarlet Letter" in 1850, "House of the Seven + Gables" in 1851, "The Marble Faun" in 1860, "Our Old Home" + in 1863. + + + + +I + +OCCUPANTS OF AN OLD MANSE[74] + + +Between two tall gate-posts of rough-hewn stone (the gate itself +having fallen from its hinges at some unknown epoch) we beheld the +gray front of the old parsonage terminating the vista of an avenue of +black-ash trees. It was now a twelvemonth since the funeral procession +of the venerable clergyman, its last inhabitant, had turned from that +gateway toward the village burying-ground. The wheel track leading to +the door, as well as the whole breadth of the avenue, was almost +overgrown with grass, affording dainty mouthfuls to two or three +vagrant cows and an old white horse who had his own living to pick up +along the roadside. The glimmering shadows that lay half asleep +between the door of the house and the public highway were a kind of +spiritual medium, seen through which the edifice had not quite the +aspect of belonging to the material world. Certainly, it had little in +common with those ordinary abodes which stand so imminent upon the +road that every passer-by can thrust his head, as it were, into the +domestic circle. From these quiet windows the figures of passing +travelers look too remote and dim to disturb the sense of privacy. In +its near retirement and accessible seclusion, it was the very spot for +the residence of a clergyman--a man not estranged from human life, yet +enveloped, in the midst of it, with a veil woven of intermingled gloom +and brightness. It was worthy to have been one of the time-honored +parsonages of England, in which through many generations a succession +of holy occupants pass from youth to age, and bequeath each an +inheritance of sanctity to pervade the house and hover over it as with +an atmosphere. + +[Footnote 74: From the introductory chapter of "Mosses from an Old +Manse," published by Houghton, Mifflin Company. This house, built in +1765, is still standing in Concord. Emerson lived there while writing +his "Nature." Hawthorne made it his home soon after his marriage in +1842.] + +Nor, in truth, had the Old Manse ever been profaned by a lay occupant +until that memorable summer afternoon when I entered it as my home. A +priest had built it; a priest had succeeded to it; other priestly men +from time to time had dwelt in it; and children born in its chambers +had grown up to assume the priestly character. It was awful to reflect +how many sermons must have been written there. The latest inhabitant +alone--he by whose translation to paradise the dwelling was left +vacant--had penned nearly three thousand discourses, besides the +better if not the greater number that gushed living from his lips. How +often, no doubt, had he paced to and fro along the avenue, attuning +his meditations to the sighs and gentle murmurs and deep and solemn +peals of the wind among the tops of the lofty trees! In that variety +of natural utterances he could find something accordant with every +passage of his sermon, were it of tenderness or reverential fear. The +boughs over my head seemed shadowy with solemn thoughts, as well as +with rustling leaves. + +I took shame to myself for having been so long a writer of idle +stories, and ventured to hope that wisdom would descend upon me with +the falling leaves of the avenue, and that I should light upon an +intellectual treasure in the Old Manse well worth those hoards of +long-hidden gold which people seek for in moss-grown houses. Profound +treatises of morality, a layman's unprofessional and therefore +unprejudiced views of religion, histories (such as Bancroft might have +written had he taken up his abode here, as he once proposed) bright +with picture, gleaming over a depth of philosophic thought--these were +the works that might fitly have flowed from such a retirement. In the +humblest event, I resolved at least to achieve a novel that should +evolve some deep lesson, and should possess physical substance enough +to stand alone.... + +The study had three windows set with little old-fashioned panes of +glass, each with a crack across it. The two on the western side looked +or rather peeped between the willow branches down into the orchard, +with glimpses of the river through the trees. The third, facing +northward, commanded a broader view of the river at a spot where its +hitherto obscure waters gleam forth into the light of history. It was +at this window that the clergyman who then dwelt in the manse stood +watching the outbreak of a long and deadly struggle between two +nations.[75] He saw the irregular array of his parishioners on the +farther side of the river, and the glittering line of the British on +the hither bank; he awaited in an agony of suspense the rattle of the +musketry. It came; and there needed but a gentle wind to sweep the +battle smoke around this quiet house.... + +[Footnote 75: The bridge at Concord, where the battle of April, 1775, +was fought, stands only a short distance from the old manse.] + +When summer was dead and buried, the Old Manse became as lonely as a +hermitage. Not that ever--in my time at least--it had been thronged +with company; but at no rare intervals we welcomed some friend out of +the dusty glare and tumult of the world, and rejoiced to share with +him the transparent obscurity that was floating over us. In one +respect our precincts were like the Enchanted Ground through which the +pilgrim traveled on his way to the Celestial City. The guests, each +and all, felt a slumbrous influence upon them; they fell asleep in +chairs, or took a more deliberate siesta on the sofa, or were seen +stretched among the shadows of the orchard, looking up dreamily +through the boughs. They could not have paid a more acceptable +compliment to my abode, nor to my own qualities as a host. I held it +as a proof that they left their cares behind them as they passed +between the stone gate-posts at the entrance of our avenue, and that +the so powerful opiate was the abundance of peace and quiet within and +all around us.... + +Hobgoblins of flesh and blood were attracted thither by the +wide-spreading influence of a great original thinker, who had his +earthly abode at the opposite extremity of our village. His mind acted +upon other minds of a certain constitution with wonderful magnetism, +and drew many men upon long pilgrimages to speak with him face to +face. Young visionaries, to whom just so much of insight had been +imparted as to make life all a labyrinth around them, came to seek the +clue that should guide them out of their self-involved bewilderment. +Gray-headed theorists, whose systems, at first air, had finally +imprisoned them in an iron framework, traveled painfully to his door, +not to ask deliverance, but to invite the free spirit into their own +thraldom. People that had lighted on a new thought, or a thought that +they fancied new, came to Emerson, as the finder of a glittering gem +hastens to a lapidary to ascertain its quality and value. Uncertain, +troubled, earnest wanderers through the midnight of a moral world +beheld its intellectual fire as a beacon burning on a hill-top, and +climbing the difficult ascent, looked forth into the surrounding +obscurity more hopefully than hitherto. The light revealed objects +unseen before--mountains, gleaming lakes, glimpses of a creation among +the chaos; but also, as was unavoidable, it attracted bats and owls +and the whole host of night birds, which flapped their dusky wings +against the gazer's eyes, and sometimes were mistaken for fowls of +angelic feather. Such delusions always hover nigh whenever a +beacon-fire of truth is kindled. + +For myself, there had been epochs of my life when I too might have +asked of this prophet the master word that should solve me the riddle +of the universe; but now, being happy, I felt as if there were no +question to be put, and therefore admired Emerson as a poet of deep +beauty and austere tenderness, but sought nothing from him as a +philosopher. It was good nevertheless to meet him in the wood paths, +or sometimes in our avenue, with that pure intellectual gleam diffused +about his presence like the garment of a Shining One; and he so quiet, +so simple, so without pretension, encountering each man alike as if +expecting to receive more than he could impart. And in truth, the +heart of many an ordinary man had, perchance, inscriptions which he +could not read. + +But it was impossible to dwell in his vicinity without inhaling more +or less the mountain atmosphere of his lofty thought, which in the +brains of some people wrought a singular giddiness--new truth being as +heady as new wine. Never was a poor little country village infested +with such a variety of queer, strangely drest, oddly behaved mortals, +most of whom took upon themselves to be important agents of the +world's destiny, yet were simply bores of a very intense water. Such, +I imagine, is the invariable character of persons who crowd so closely +about an original thinker as to draw in his unuttered breath, and thus +to become imbued with a false originality. This triteness of novelty +is enough to make any man of common sense blaspheme at all ideas of +less than a century's standing, and pray that the world may be +petrified and rendered immovable in precisely the worst moral and +physical state that it ever yet arrived at, rather than be benefited +by such schemes of such philosophers.... + +Glancing back over what I have written, it seems but the scattered +reminiscences of a single summer. In fairyland there is no measurement +of time; and in a spot so sheltered from the turmoil of life's ocean, +three years hasten away with a noiseless flight, as the breezy +sunshine chases the cloud shadows across the depths of a still valley. +Now came hints, growing more and more distinct, that the owner of the +old house was pining for his native air. Carpenters next appeared, +making a tremendous racket among the outbuildings, strewing the green +grass with pine shavings and chips of chestnut joists, and vexing the +whole antiquity of the place with their discordant renovations. Soon, +moreover, they divested our abode of the veil of woodbine which had +crept over a large portion of its southern face. All the aged mosses +were cleared unsparingly away, and there were horrible whispers about +brushing up the external walls with a coat of paint--a purpose as +little to my taste as might be that of rouging the venerable cheeks of +one's grandmother. But the hand that renovates is always more +sacrilegious than that which destroys. In fine, we gathered up our +household goods, drank a farewell cup of tea in our pleasant little +breakfast-room--delicately fragrant tea, an unpurchasable luxury, one +of the many angel gifts that had fallen like dew upon us--and passed +forth between the tall stone gate-posts, as uncertain as the wandering +Arabs where our tent might next be pitched. Providence took me by the +hand, and--an oddity of dispensation which, I trust, there is no +irreverence in smiling at--has led me, as the newspapers announce, +while I am writing from the Old Manse, into a custom-house.[76] As a +story-teller I have often contrived strange vicissitudes for my +imaginary personages, but none like this. + +[Footnote 76: A reference to his appointment to a position in the +Boston Custom-house.] + + + + +II + +ARTHUR DIMMESDALE ON THE SCAFFOLD[77] + + +The crowd was in a tumult. The men of rank and dignity, who stood more +immediately around the clergyman, were so taken by surprize, and so +perplexed as to the purport of what they saw--unable to receive the +explanation which most readily presented itself, or to imagine any +other--that they remained silent and inactive spectators of the +judgment which Providence seemed about to work. They beheld the +minister, leaning on Hester's shoulder, and supported by her arm +around him, approach the scaffold, and ascend its steps; while still +the little hand of the sin-born child was clasped in his. Old Roger +Chillingworth followed, as one intimately connected with the drama of +guilt and sorrow in which they had all been actors, and well entitled, +therefore, to be present at its closing scene. + +[Footnote 77: From Chapters XIII and XIV of "The Scarlet Letter," +published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.] + +"Hadst thou sought the whole earth over," said he, looking darkly at +the clergyman, "there was no one place so secret--no high place nor +lowly place, where thou couldst have escaped me--save on this very +scaffold!" + +"Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" answered the minister. + +Yet he trembled, and turned to Hester with an expression of doubt and +anxiety in his eyes, not the less evidently betrayed that there was a +feeble smile upon his lips. + +"Is not this better," murmured he, "than what we dreamed of in the +forest?" + +"I know not! I know not!" she hurriedly replied. "Better? Yea; so we +may both die, and little Pearl die with us!" + +"For thee and Pearl, be it as God shall order," said the minister; +"and God is merciful! Let me now do the will which He hath made plain +before my sight. For, Hester, I am a dying man. So let me make haste +to take my shame upon me!" + +Partly supported by Hester Prynne, and holding one hand of little +Pearl's, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale turned to the dignified and +venerable rulers; to the holy ministers, who were his brethren; to the +people, whose great heart was thoroughly appalled, yet overflowing +with tearful sympathy, as knowing that some deep life-matter--which, +if full of sin, was full of anguish and repentance likewise--was now +to be laid open to them. The sun, but little past its meridian, shone +down upon the clergyman, and gave a distinctness to his figure as he +stood out from all the earth to put in his plea of guilty at the bar +of Eternal Justice. + +"People of New England!" cried he, with a voice that rose over them, +high, solemn, and majestic--yet had always a tremor through it, and +sometimes a shriek, struggling up out of a fathomless depth of remorse +and wo--"ye that have loved me!--ye that have deemed me holy!--behold +me here, the one sinner of the world! At last!--at last!--I stand upon +the spot where, seven years since, I should have stood; here, with +this woman, whose arm, more than the little strength wherewith I have +crept hitherward, sustains me, at this dreadful moment, from groveling +down upon my face! Lo, the scarlet letter which Hester wears! Ye have +all shuddered at it! Wherever her walk hath been--wherever, so +miserably burdened, she may have hoped to find repose--it hath cast a +lurid gleam of awe and horrible repugnance round about her. But there +stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye +have not shuddered!" + +It seemed, at this point, as if the minister must leave the remainder +of his secret undisclosed. But he fought back the bodily +weakness--and, still more, the faintness of heart--that was striving +for the mastery with him. He threw off all assistance, and stept +passionately forward a pace before the woman and the child. + +"It was on him!" he continued, with a kind of fierceness--so +determined was he to speak out the whole. "God's eye beheld it! The +angels were forever pointing at it! The devil knew it well, and +fretted it continually with the touch of his burning finger! But he +hid it cunningly from men, and walked among you with the mien of a +spirit, mournful, because so pure in a sinful world--and sad, because +he missed his heavenly kindred! Now, at the death-hour, he stands up +before you! He bids you look again at Hester's scarlet letter! He +tells you that, with all its mysterious horror, it is but the shadow +of what he bears on his own breast, and that even this, his own red +stigma, is no more than the type of what has seared his inmost heart! +Stand any here that question God's judgment on a sinner? Behold! +Behold a dreadful witness of it!" + +With a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band from his +breast. It was revealed! But it were irreverent to describe that +revelation. For an instant the gaze of the horror-stricken multitude +was concentrated on the ghastly miracle; while the minister stood, +with a flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of +acutest pain, had won a victory. Then, down he sank upon the scaffold! +Hester partly raised him, and supported his head against her bosom. +Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him, with a blank, dull +countenance, out of which the life seemed to have departed. + +"Thou hast escaped me!" he repeated more than once. "Thou hast escaped +me!" + +"May God forgive thee!" said the minister. "Thou, too, hast deeply +sinned!" + +He withdrew his dying eyes from the old man, and fixt them on the +woman and the child. + +"My little Pearl," said he, feebly--and there was a sweet and gentle +smile over his face, as of a spirit sinking into deep repose; nay, now +that the burden was removed, it seemed almost as if he would be +sportive with the child--"dear little Pearl, wilt thou kiss me now? +Thou wouldst not yonder, in the forest! But now thou wilt?" + +Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken. The great scene of grief, +in which the wild infant bore a part, had developed all her +sympathies; and as her tears fell upon her father's cheek, they were +the pledge that she would grow up amid human joy and sorrow, nor +forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it. Toward her +mother, too, Pearl's errand as a messenger of anguish was all +fulfilled. + +"Hester," said the clergyman, "farewell!" + +"Shall we not meet again?" whispered she, bending her face down close +to his. "Shall we not spend our immortal life together? Surely, +surely, we have ransomed one another with all this wo! Thou lookest +far into eternity, with those bright dying eyes! Then tell me what +thou seest?" + +"Hush, Hester, hush!" said he, with tremulous solemnity. "The law we +broke!--the sin here so awfully revealed!--let these be in thy +thoughts! I fear! I fear! It may be that, when we forgot our God--when +we violated our reverence each for the other's soul--it was +thenceforth vain to hope that we could meet hereafter, in an +everlasting and pure reunion. God knows; and He is merciful! He hath +proved His mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this +burning torture to bear upon my breast! By sending yonder dark and +terrible old man, to keep the torture always at red heat! By bringing +me hither to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people! +Had either of these agonies been wanting, I had been lost forever! +Praised be His name! His will be done! Farewell!" + +That final word came forth with the minister's expiring breath. The +multitude, silent till then, broke out in a strange, deep voice of awe +and wonder, which could not as yet find utterance save in this murmur +that rolled so heavily after the departed spirit. + +After many days, when time sufficed for the people to arrange their +thoughts in reference to the foregoing scene, there was more than one +account of what had been witnessed on the scaffold. + +Most of the spectators testified to having seen on the breast of the +unhappy minister a SCARLET LETTER--the very semblance of that worn by +Hester Prynne--imprinted in the flesh. As regarded its origin, there +were various explanations, all of which must necessarily have been +conjectural. Some affirmed that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the +very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had +begun a course of penance--which he afterward, in so many futile +methods, followed out--by inflicting a hideous torture on himself. +Others contended that the stigma had not been produced until a long +time subsequent, when old Roger Chillingworth, being a potent +necromancer, had caused it to appear, through the agency of magic and +poisonous drugs. Others, again--and those best able to appreciate the +minister's peculiar sensibility, and the wonderful operation of his +spirit upon the body--whispered their belief that the awful symbol was +the effect of the ever-active tooth of remorse, gnawing from the +inmost heart outwardly, and at last manifesting Heaven's dreadful +judgment by the visible presence of the letter. The reader may choose +among these theories. We have thrown all the light we could acquire +upon the portent, and would gladly, now that it has done its office, +erase its deep print out of our own brain, where long meditation has +fixt it in very undesirable distinctness. + + + + +III + +OF LIFE AT BROOK FARM[78] + + +We had very young people with us, it is true--downy lads, rosy girls +in their first teens, and children of all heights above one's knee; +but these had chiefly been sent hither for education, which it was one +of the objects and methods of our institution to supply. Then we had +boarders from town and elsewhere, who lived with us in a familiar way, +sympathized more or less in our theories, and sometimes shared in our +labors. + +[Footnote 78: From "The Blithedale Romance," published by Houghton, +Mifflin Company. Hawthorne was a member of the Brook Farm Community of +Roxbury, Mass., and from it derived at least suggestions for the scene +and action of this story.] + +On the whole, it was a society such as has seldom met together; nor, +perhaps, could it reasonably be expected to hold together long. +Persons of marked individuality--crooked sticks, as some of us might +be called--are not exactly the easiest to bind up into a fagot. But, +so long as our union should subsist, a man of intellect and feeling, +with a free nature in him, might have sought far and near without +finding so many points of attraction as would allure him hitherward. +We were of all creeds and opinions, and generally tolerant of all, on +every imaginable subject. Our bond, it seems to me, was not +affirmative, but negative. We had individually found one thing or +another to quarrel with in our past life, and were pretty well agreed +as to the inexpediency of lumbering along with the old system any +further. As to what should be substituted there was much less +unanimity. We did not greatly care--at least, I never did--for the +written constitution under which our millennium had commenced. My hope +was that, between theory and practise, a true and available mode of +life might be struck out; and that, even should we ultimately fail, +the months or years spent in the trial would not have been wasted, +either as regarded passing enjoyment, or the experience which makes +men wise. + +Arcadians tho we were, our costume bore no resemblance to the +beribboned doublets, silk breeches and stockings, and slippers +fastened with artificial roses, that distinguish the pastoral people +of poetry and the stage. In outward show, I humbly conceive, we looked +rather like a gang of beggars, or banditti, than either a company of +honest laboring-men, or a conclave of philosophers. Whatever might be +our points of difference, we all of us seemed to have come to +Blithedale with the one thrifty and laudable idea of wearing out our +old clothes. Such garments as had an airing whenever we strode afield! +Coats with high collars and with no collars, broad-skirted or +swallow-tailed, and with the waist at every point between the hip and +the armpit; pantaloons of a dozen successive epochs, and greatly +defaced at the knees by the humiliations of the wearer before his +lady-love--in short, we were a living epitome of defunct fashions, and +the very raggedest presentment of men who had seen better days. It was +gentility in tatters. Often retaining a scholarlike or clerical air, +you might have taken us for the denizens of Grub street, intent on +getting a comfortable livelihood by agricultural labor; or, +Coleridge's projected Pantisocracy in full experiment; or Candide and +his motley associates, at work in their cabbage-garden; or anything +else that was miserably out at elbows, and most clumsily patched in +the rear. We might have been sworn comrades to Falstaff's ragged +regiment. Little skill as we boasted in other points of husbandry, +every mother's son of us would have served admirably to stick up for a +scarecrow. And the worst of the matter was that the first energetic +movement essential to one downright stroke of real labor was sure to +put a finish to these poor habiliments. So we gradually flung them all +aside, and took to honest homespun and linsey-woolsey, as preferable, +on the whole, to the plan recommended, I think, by Virgil--"_Ara +nudus; sere nudus_,"--which, as Silas Foster remarked, when I +translated the maxim, would be apt to astonish the women-folks. + +After a reasonable training, the yeoman life throve well with us. Our +faces took the sunburn kindly; our chests gained in compass, and our +shoulders in breadth and squareness; our great brown fists looked as +if they had never been capable of kid gloves. The plow, the hoe, the +scythe, and the hay-fork grew familiar to our grasp. The oxen +responded to our voices. We could do almost as fair a day's work as +Silas Foster himself, sleep dreamlessly after it, and awake at +daybreak with only a little stiffness of the joints, which was usually +quite gone by breakfast-time. + +To be sure, our next neighbors pretended to be incredulous as to our +real proficiency in the business which we had taken in hand. They told +slanderous fables about our inability to yoke our own oxen, or to +drive them afield when yoked, or to release the poor brutes from their +conjugal bond at nightfall. They had the face to say, too, that the +cows laughed at our awkwardness at milking-time, and invariably kicked +over the pails; partly in consequence of our putting the stool on the +wrong side, and partly because, taking offense at the whisking of +their tails, we were in the habit of holding these natural +fly-flappers with one hand, and milking with the other. They further +averred that we hoed up whole acres of Indian corn and other crops, +and drew the earth carefully about the weeds; and that we raised five +hundred tufts of burdock, mistaking them for cabbages; and that, by +dint of unskilful planting, few of our seeds ever came up at all, or, +if they did come up, it was stern-foremost; and that we spent the +better part of the month of June in reversing a field of beans, which +had thrust themselves out of the ground in this unseemly way. They +quoted it as nothing more than an ordinary occurrence for one or other +of us to crop off two or three fingers, of a morning, by our clumsy +use of the hay-cutter. Finally, and as an ultimate catastrophe, these +mendacious rogues circulated a report that we communitarians were +exterminated, to the last man, by severing ourselves asunder with the +sweep of our own scythes!--and that the world had lost nothing by this +little accident. + + + + +IV + +THE DEATH OF JUDGE PYNCHEON[79] + + +Meanwhile the twilight is glooming upward out of the corners of the +room. The shadows of the tall furniture grow deeper, and at first +become more definite; then, spreading wider, they lose their +distinctness of outline in the dark gray tide of oblivion, as it were, +that creeps slowly over the various objects, and the one human figure +sitting in the midst of them. The gloom has not entered from without; +it has brooded here all day, and now, taking its own inevitable time, +will possess itself of everything. The Judge's face, indeed, rigid, +and singularly white, refuses to melt into this universal solvent. +Fainter and fainter grows the light. It is as if another +double-handful of darkness had been scattered through the air. Now it +is no longer gray, but sable. There is still a faint appearance at +the window; neither a glow, nor a gleam, nor a glimmer--any phrase of +light would express something far brighter than this doubtful +perception, or sense, rather, that there is a window there. Has it yet +vanished? No!--yes!--not quite! And there is still the swarthy +whiteness--we shall venture to marry these ill-agreeing words--the +swarthy whiteness of Judge Pyncheon's face. The features are all gone: +there is only the paleness of them left. And how looks it now? There +is no window! There is no face! An infinite, inscrutable blackness has +annihilated sight! Where is our universe? All crumbled away from us; +and we, adrift in chaos, may harken to the gusts of homeless wind, +that go sighing and murmuring about, in quest of what was once a +world! + +[Footnote 79: From Chapter XVIII of "The House of the Seven Gables." +Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company.] + +Is there no other sound? One other, and a fearful one. It is the +ticking of the Judge's watch, which, ever since Hepzibah left the room +in search of Clifford, he has been holding in his hand. Be the cause +what it may, this little, quiet, never-ceasing throb of Time's pulse, +repeating its small strokes with such busy regularity, in Judge +Pyncheon's motionless hand, has an effect of terror, which we do not +find in any other accompaniment of the scene. + +But, listen! That puff of the breeze was louder; it had a tone unlike +the dreary and sullen one which has bemoaned itself, and afflicted all +mankind with miserable sympathy, for five days past. The wind has +veered about! It now comes boisterously from the northwest, and, +taking hold of the aged framework of the Seven Gables, gives it a +shake, like a wrestler that would try strength with his antagonist. +Another and another sturdy tussle with the blast! The old house creaks +again, and makes a vociferous but somewhat unintelligible bellowing in +its sooty throat (the big flue, we mean, of its wide chimney), partly +in complaint at the rude wind, but rather, as befits their century and +a half of hostile intimacy, in tough defiance. A rumbling kind of a +bluster roars behind the fireboard. A door has slammed above stairs. A +window, perhaps, has been left open, or else is driven in by an unruly +gust. It is not to be conceived, beforehand, what wonderful +wind-instruments are these old timber mansions, and how haunted with +the strangest noises, which immediately begin to sing, and sigh, and +sob, and shriek--and to smite with sledge-hammers, airy but ponderous, +in some distant chamber--and to tread along the entries as with +stately footsteps, and rustle up and down the staircase, as with silks +miraculously stiff--whenever the gale catches the house with a window +open, and gets fairly into it. Would that we were not an attendant +spirit here! It is too awful! This clamor of the wind through the +lonely house; the Judge's quietude, as he sits invisible; and that +pertinacious ticking of his watch!... + +Yonder leaden Judge sits immovably upon our soul. Will he never stir +again? We shall go mad unless he stirs! You may the better estimate +his quietude by the fearlessness of a little mouse, which sits on its +hind legs, in a streak of moonlight, close by Judge Pyncheon's foot, +and seems to meditate a journey of exploration over this great black +bulk. Ha! what has startled the nimble little mouse? It is the visage +of grimalkin, outside of the window, where he appears to have posted +himself for a deliberate watch. This grimalkin has a very ugly look. +Is it a cat watching for a mouse, or the devil for a human soul? Would +we could scare him from the window! + +Thank heaven, the night is well-nigh past! The moonbeams have no +longer so silvery a gleam, nor contrast so strongly with the blackness +of the shadows among which they fall. They are paler, now; the shadows +look gray, not black. The boisterous wind is hushed. What is the hour? +Ah! the watch has at last ceased to tick; for the Judge's forgetful +fingers neglected to wind it up, as usual, at ten o'clock, being half +an hour or so before his ordinary bedtime--and it has run down, for +the first time in five years. But the great world-clock of Time still +keeps its beat. The dreary night--for, oh, how dreary seems its +haunted waste, behind us--gives place to a fresh, transparent +cloudless morn. Blest, blest radiance! The day-beam--even what little +of it finds its way into this always dusky parlor--seems part of the +universal benediction, annulling evil, and rendering all goodness +possible and happiness attainable. Will Judge Pyncheon now rise up +from his chair? Will he go forth, and receive the early sunbeams on +his brow? Will he begin this new day--which God has smiled upon, and +blest, and given to mankind--will he begin it with better purposes +than the many that have been spent amiss? Or are all the deep-laid +schemes of yesterday as stubborn in his heart, and as busy in his +brain, as ever?... + +The morning sunshine glimmers through the foliage, and, beautiful and +holy as it is, shuns not to kindle up your face. Rise up, thou subtle, +worldly, selfish, iron-hearted hypocrite, and make thy choice whether +still to be subtle, worldly, selfish, iron-hearted, and hypocritical, +or to tear these sins out of thy nature, tho they bring the life-blood +with them! The Avenger is upon thee! Rise up, before it be too late! + +What! Thou art not stirred by this last appeal? No, not a jot! And +there we see a fly--one of your common house-flies, such as are always +buzzing on the window-pane--which has smelt out Governor Pyncheon, and +alights, now on his forehead, now on his chin, and now, heaven help +us! is creeping over the bridge of his nose, toward the would-be chief +magistrate's wide-open eyes! Canst thou not brush the fly away? Art +thou too sluggish? Thou man, that hadst so many busy projects +yesterday! Art thou too weak, that wast so powerful? Not brush away a +fly? Nay, then, we give thee up! + +And hark! the shop-bell rings. After hours like these latter ones, +through which we have borne our heavy tale, it is good to be made +sensible that there is a living world, and that even this old, lonely +mansion retains some manner of connection with it. We breathe more +freely, emerging from Judge Pyncheon's presence into the street before +the Seven Gables. + + +END OF VOLUME IX + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best of the World's Classics, +Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEST OF THE WORLD'S CLASSICS *** + +***** This file should be named 28653.txt or 28653.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/5/28653/ + +Produced by Joseph R. 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