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diff --git a/30598.txt b/30598.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c495bc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/30598.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10302 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume +9, by Robert Louis Stevenson + +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 Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume 9 + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + +Other: Andrew Lang + +Release Date: December 4, 2009 [EBook #30598] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS OF R.L. STEVENSON, VOL. 9 *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Marius Borror and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber's note: Hyphenation inconsistencies were left unchanged. + + + + + THE WORKS OF + + ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON + + SWANSTON EDITION + + VOLUME IX + + + _Of this SWANSTON EDITION in Twenty-five + Volumes of the Works of ROBERT LOUIS + STEVENSON Two Thousand and Sixty Copies + have been printed, of which only Two Thousand + Copies are for sale._ + + _This is No._ ........ + + + [Illustration: FACSIMILE OF NOTE FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF R. L. S. + [_See also overleaf._]] + + [Illustration] + + + + + THE WORKS OF + + ROBERT LOUIS + + STEVENSON + + VOLUME NINE + + + LONDON : PUBLISHED BY CHATTO AND + WINDUS : IN ASSOCIATION WITH CASSELL + AND COMPANY LIMITED : WILLIAM + HEINEMANN : AND LONGMANS GREEN + AND COMPANY MDCCCCXI + + + + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + +CONTENTS + + +MEMORIES AND PORTRAITS + + PAGE + I. THE FOREIGNER AT HOME 7 + + II. SOME COLLEGE MEMORIES 19 + + III. OLD MORTALITY 26 + + IV. A COLLEGE MAGAZINE 36 + + V. AN OLD SCOTS GARDENER 46 + + VI. PASTORAL 53 + + VII. THE MANSE 61 + + VIII. MEMOIRS OF AN ISLET 68 + + IX. THOMAS STEVENSON 75 + + X. TALK AND TALKERS: I. 81 + + XI. TALK AND TALKERS: II. 94 + + XII. THE CHARACTER OF DOGS 105 + + XIII. A PENNY PLAIN AND TWOPENCE COLOURED 116 + + XIV. A GOSSIP ON A NOVEL OF DUMAS'S 124 + + XV. A GOSSIP ON ROMANCE 134 + + XVI. A HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE 148 + + +MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN + + CHAPTER I + PAGE + The Jenkins of Stowting--Fleeming's grandfather--Mrs. Buckner's + fortune--Fleeming's father; goes to sea; at St. Helena; meets + King Tom; service in the West Indies; end of his career--The + Campbell-Jacksons--Fleeming's mother--Fleeming's uncle John 165 + + CHAPTER II + + 1833-1851 + + Birth and childhood--Edinburgh--Frankfort-on-the-Main--Paris--The + Revolution of 1848--The Insurrection--Flight to Italy--Sympathy + with Italy--The insurrection in Genoa--A student in Genoa--The + lad and his mother 184 + + CHAPTER III + + 1851-1858 + + Return to England--Fleeming at Fairbairn's--Experience in a + strike--Dr. Bell and Greek architecture--The Gaskells--Fleeming + at Greenwich--The Austins--Fleeming and the Austins--His + engagement--Fleeming and Sir W. Thomson 203 + + CHAPTER IV + + 1859-1868 + + Fleeming's marriage--His married life--Professional + difficulties--Life at Claygate--Illness of Mrs. F. Jenkin--and + of Fleeming--Appointment to the Chair at Edinburgh 220 + + CHAPTER V + + Notes of Telegraph Voyages, 1858-1873 231 + + CHAPTER VI + + 1869-1885 + + Edinburgh--Colleagues--_Farrago vitae_--I. The family + circle--Fleeming and his sons--Highland life--The cruise of the + steam-launch--Summer in Styria--Rustic manners--II. The + Drama--Private theatricals--III. Sanitary associations--The + phonograph--IV. Fleeming's acquaintance with a student--His late + maturity of mind--Religion and morality--His love of + heroism--Taste in literature--V. His talk--His late + popularity--Letter from M. Trelat 260 + + CHAPTER VII + + 1875-1885 + + Mrs. Jenkin's illness--Captain Jenkin--The golden wedding--Death + of Uncle John--Death of Mr. and Mrs. Austin--Illness and death + of the Captain--Death of Mrs. Jenkin--Effect on + Fleeming--Telpherage--The end 293 + + + + + MEMORIES AND PORTRAITS + + + + + TO + MY MOTHER + + IN THE NAME OF PAST JOY + AND PRESENT SORROW + + I DEDICATE + + THESE MEMORIES AND PORTRAITS + +_SS. "Ludgate Hill," + within sight of Cape Race_ + + + + + _NOTE_ + + +_This volume of papers, unconnected as they are, it will be better to +read through from the beginning, rather than dip into at random. A +certain thread of meaning binds them. Memories of childhood and youth, +portraits of those who have gone before us in the battle,--taken +together, they build up a face that "I have loved long since and lost +awhile," the face of what was once myself. This has come by accident; I +had no design at first to be autobiographical; I was but led away by the +charm of beloved memories and by regret for the irrevocable dead; and +when my own young face (which is a face of the dead also) began to +appear in the well as by a kind of magic, I was the first to be +surprised at the occurrence._ + +_My grandfather the pious child, my father the idle eager sentimental +youth, I have thus unconsciously exposed. Of their descendant, the +person of to-day, I wish to keep the secret; not because I love him +better, but because with him I am still in a business partnership, and +cannot divide interests._ + +_Of the papers which make up the volume, some have appeared already in +"The Cornhill," "Longman's," "Scribner," "The English Illustrated," "The +Magazine of Art," "The Contemporary Review"; three are here in print for +the first time; and two others have enjoyed only what may be regarded as +a private circulation._ + + _R. L. S._ + + + + + MEMORIES AND PORTRAITS + + + I + + THE FOREIGNER AT HOME + + "This is no' my ain house; + I ken by the biggin' o't." + + +Two recent books,[1] one by Mr. Grant White on England, one on France by +the diabolically clever Mr. Hillebrand, may well have set people +thinking on the divisions of races and nations. Such thoughts should +arise with particular congruity and force to inhabitants of that United +Kingdom, peopled from so many different stocks, babbling so many +different dialects, and offering in its extent such singular contrasts, +from the busiest over-population to the unkindliest desert, from the +Black Country to the Moor of Rannoch. It is not only when we cross the +seas that we go abroad; there are foreign parts of England; and the race +that has conquered so wide an empire has not yet managed to assimilate +the islands whence she sprang. Ireland, Wales, and the Scottish +mountains still cling, in part, to their old Gaelic speech. It was but +the other day that English triumphed in Cornwall, and they still show in +Mousehole, on St. Michael's Bay, the house of the last Cornish-speaking +woman. English itself, which will now frank the traveller through the +most of North America, through the greater South Sea Islands, in India, +along much of the coast of Africa, and in the ports of China and Japan, +is still to be heard, in its home country, in half a hundred varying +stages of transition. You may go all over the States, and--setting aside +the actual intrusion and influence of foreigners, negro, French, or +Chinese--you shall scarce meet with so marked a difference of accent as +in the forty miles between Edinburgh and Glasgow, or of dialect as in +the hundred miles between Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Book English has gone +round the world, but at home we still preserve the racy idioms of our +fathers, and every county, in some parts every dale, has its own quality +of speech, vocal or verbal. In like manner, local custom and prejudice, +even local religion and local law, linger on into the latter end of the +nineteenth century--_imperia in imperio_, foreign things at home. + +In spite of these promptings to reflection, ignorance of his neighbours +is the character of the typical John Bull. His is a domineering nature, +steady in fight, imperious to command, but neither curious nor quick +about the life of others. In French colonies, and still more in the +Dutch, I have read that there is an immediate and lively contact between +the dominant and the dominated race, that a certain sympathy is +begotten, or at the least a transfusion of prejudices, making life +easier for both. But the Englishman sits apart, bursting with pride and +ignorance. He figures among his vassals in the hour of peace with the +same disdainful air that led him on to victory. A passing enthusiasm for +some foreign art or fashion may deceive the world, it cannot impose upon +his intimates. He may be amused by a foreigner as by a monkey, but he +will never condescend to study him with any patience. Miss Bird, an +authoress with whom I profess myself in love, declares all the viands of +Japan to be uneatable--a staggering pretension. So, when the Prince of +Wales's marriage was celebrated at Mentone by a dinner to the Mentonese, +it was proposed to give them solid English fare--roast beef and plum +pudding, and no tomfoolery. Here we have either pole of the Britannic +folly. We will not eat the food of any foreigner; nor, when we have the +chance, will we suffer him to eat of it himself. The same spirit +inspired Miss Bird's American missionaries, who had come thousands of +miles to change the faith of Japan, and openly professed their ignorance +of the religions they were trying to supplant. + +I quote an American in this connection without scruple. Uncle Sam is +better than John Bull, but he is tarred with the English stick. For Mr. +Grant White the States are the New England States and nothing more. He +wonders at the amount of drinking in London; let him try San Francisco. +He wittily reproves English ignorance as to the status of women in +America; but has he not himself forgotten Wyoming? The name Yankee, of +which he is so tenacious, is used over the most of the great Union as a +term of reproach. The Yankee States, of which he is so staunch a +subject, are but a drop in the bucket. And we find in his book a vast +virgin ignorance of the life and prospects of America; every view +partial, parochial, not raised to the horizon; the moral feeling proper, +at the largest, to a clique of States; and the whole scope and +atmosphere not American, but merely Yankee. I will go far beyond him in +reprobating the assumption and the incivility of my countryfolk to their +cousins from beyond the sea; I grill in my blood over the silly rudeness +of our newspaper articles; and I do not know where to look when I find +myself in company with an American and see my countrymen unbending to +him as to a performing dog. But in the case of Mr. Grant White example +were better than precept. Wyoming is, after all, more readily accessible +to Mr. White than Boston to the English, and the New England +self-sufficiency no better justified than the Britannic. + +It is so, perhaps, in all countries; perhaps in all, men are most +ignorant of the foreigners at home. John Bull is ignorant of the States; +he is probably ignorant of India, but, considering his opportunities, he +is far more ignorant of countries nearer his own door. There is one +country, for instance--its frontier not so far from London, its people +closely akin, its language the same in all essentials with the +English--of which I will go bail he knows nothing. His ignorance of the +sister kingdom cannot be described; it can only be illustrated by +anecdote. I once travelled with a man of plausible manners and good +intelligence--a University man, as the phrase goes--a man, besides, who +had taken his degree in life and knew a thing or two about the age we +live in. We were deep in talk, whirling between Peterborough and London; +among other things, he began to describe some piece of legal injustice +he had recently encountered, and I observed in my innocence that things +were not so in Scotland. "I beg your pardon," said he, "this is a matter +of law." He had never heard of the Scots law; nor did he choose to be +informed. The law was the same for the whole country, he told me +roundly; every child knew that. At last, to settle matters, I explained +to him that I was a member of a Scottish legal body, and had stood the +brunt of an examination in the very law in question. Thereupon he looked +me for a moment full in the face and dropped the conversation. This is a +monstrous instance, if you like, but it does not stand alone in the +experience of Scots. + +England and Scotland differ, indeed, in law, in history, in religion, in +education, and in the very look of nature and men's faces, not always +widely, but always trenchantly. Many particulars that struck Mr. Grant +White, a Yankee, struck me, a Scot, no less forcibly; he and I felt +ourselves foreigners on many common provocations.[2] + +A Scotsman may tramp the better part of Europe and the United States, +and never again receive so vivid an impression of foreign travel and +strange lands and manners as on his first excursion into England. The +change from a hilly to a level country strikes him with delighted +wonder. Along the flat horizon there arise the frequent venerable towers +of churches. He sees at the end of airy vistas the revolution of the +windmill sails. He may go where he pleases in the future; he may see +Alps, and Pyramids, and lions; but it will be hard to beat the pleasure +of that moment. There are, indeed, few merrier spectacles than that of +many windmills bickering together in a fresh breeze over a woody +country; their halting alacrity of movement, their pleasant busyness, +making bread all day with uncouth gesticulations, their air, +gigantically human, as of a creature half alive, put a spirit of romance +into the tamest landscape. When the Scottish child sees them first he +falls immediately in love; and from that time forward windmills keep +turning in his dreams. And so, in their degree, with every feature of +the life and landscape. The warm, habitable age of towns and hamlets; +the green, settled, ancient look of the country; the lush hedgerows, +stiles, and privy pathways in the fields; the sluggish, brimming rivers; +chalk and smock-frocks; chimes of bells and the rapid, pertly-sounding +English speech--they are all new to the curiosity; they are all set to +English airs in the child's story that he tells himself at night. The +sharp edge of novelty wears off; the feeling is blunted, but I doubt +whether it is ever killed. Rather it keeps returning, ever the more +rarely and strangely, and even in scenes to which you have been long +accustomed suddenly awakes and gives a relish to enjoyment or heightens +the sense of isolation. + +One thing especially continues unfamiliar to the Scotsman's eye--the +domestic architecture, the look of streets and buildings; the quaint, +venerable age of many, and the thin walls and warm colouring of all. We +have, in Scotland, far fewer ancient buildings, above all in country +places; and those that we have are all of hewn or harled masonry. Wood +has been sparingly used in their construction; the window-frames are +sunken in the wall, not flat to the front, as in England; the roofs are +steeper-pitched; even a hill farm will have a massy, square, cold and +permanent appearance. English houses, in comparison, have the look of +cardboard toys, such as a puff might shatter. And to this the Scotsman +never becomes used. His eye can never rest consciously on one of these +brick houses--rickles of brick, as he might call them--or on one of +these flat-chested streets, but he is instantly reminded where he is, +and instantly travels back in fancy to his home. "This is no' my ain +house; I ken by the biggin' o't." And yet perhaps it is his own, bought +with his own money, the key of it long polished in his pocket; but it +has not yet been, and never will be, thoroughly adopted by his +imagination; nor does he cease to remember that, in the whole length and +breadth of his native country, there was no building even distantly +resembling it. + +But it is not alone in scenery and architecture that we count England +foreign. The constitution of society, the very pillars of the empire, +surprise and even pain us. The dull, neglected peasant, sunk in matter, +insolent, gross and servile, makes a startling contrast with our own +long-legged, long-headed, thoughtful, Bible-quoting ploughman. A week or +two in such a place as Suffolk leaves the Scotsman gasping. It seems +incredible that within the boundaries of his own island a class should +have been thus forgotten. Even the educated and intelligent, who hold +our own opinions and speak in our own words, yet seem to hold them with +a difference or from another reason, and to speak on all things with +less interest and conviction. The first shock of English society is like +a cold plunge. It is possible that the Scot comes looking for too much, +and to be sure his first experiment will be in the wrong direction. Yet +surely his complaint is grounded; surely the speech of Englishmen is too +often lacking in generous ardour, the better part of the man too often +withheld from the social commerce, and the contact of mind with mind +evaded as with terror. A Scottish peasant will talk more liberally out +of his own experience. He will not put you by with conversational +counters and small jests; he will give you the best of himself, like one +interested in life and man's chief end. A Scotsman is vain, interested +in himself and others, eager for sympathy, setting forth his thoughts +and experience in the best light. The egoism of the Englishman is +self-contained. He does not seek to proselytise. He takes no interest in +Scotland or the Scots, and, what is the unkindest cut of all, he does +not care to justify his indifference. Give him the wages of going on and +being an Englishman, that is all he asks; and in the meantime, while you +continue to associate, he would rather be reminded of your baser origin. +Compared with the grand, tree-like self-sufficiency of his demeanour, +the vanity and curiosity of the Scot seem uneasy, vulgar, and immodest. +That you should continually try to establish human and serious +relations, that you should actually feel an interest in John Bull, and +desire and invite a return of interest from him, may argue something +more awake and lively in your mind, but it still puts you in the +attitude of a suitor and a poor relation. Thus even the lowest class of +the educated English towers over a Scotsman by the head and shoulders. + +Different indeed is the atmosphere in which Scottish and English youth +begin to look about them, come to themselves in life, and gather up +those first apprehensions which are the material of future thought and, +to a great extent, the rule of future conduct. I have been to school in +both countries, and I found, in the boys of the North, something at once +rougher and more tender, at once more reserve and more expansion, a +greater habitual distance chequered by glimpses of a nearer intimacy, +and on the whole wider extremes of temperament and sensibility. The boy +of the South seems more wholesome, but less thoughtful; he gives himself +to games as to a business, striving to excel, but is not readily +transported by imagination; the type remains with me as cleaner in mind +and body, more active, fonder of eating, endowed with a lesser and a +less romantic sense of life and of the future, and more immersed in +present circumstances. And certainly, for one thing, English boys are +younger for their age. Sabbath observance makes a series of grim, and +perhaps serviceable, pauses in the tenor of Scottish boyhood--days of +great stillness and solitude for the rebellious mind, when in the dearth +of books and play, and in the intervals of studying the Shorter +Catechism, the intellect and senses prey upon and test each other. The +typical English Sunday, with a huge midday dinner and the plethoric +afternoon, leads perhaps to different results. About the very cradle of +the Scot there goes a hum of metaphysical divinity; and the whole of two +divergent systems is summed up, not merely speciously, in the two first +questions of the rival catechisms, the English tritely inquiring, "What +is your name?" the Scottish striking at the very roots of life with, +"What is the chief end of man?" and answering nobly, if obscurely, "To +glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever." I do not wish to make an idol +of the Shorter Catechism; but the fact of such a question being asked +opens to us Scots a great field of speculation; and the fact that it is +asked of all of us, from the peer to the ploughboy, binds us more nearly +together. No Englishman of Byron's age, character, and history would +have had patience for long theological discussions on the way to fight +for Greece; but the daft Gordon blood and the Aberdonian school-days +kept their influence to the end. We have spoken of the material +conditions; nor need much more be said of these: of the land lying +everywhere more exposed, of the wind always louder and bleaker, of the +black, roaring winters, of the gloom of high-lying, old stone cities, +imminent on the windy seaboard; compared with the level streets, the +warm colouring of the brick, the domestic quaintness of the +architecture, among which English children begin to grow up and come to +themselves in life. As the stage of the University approaches, the +contrast becomes more express. The English lad goes to Oxford or +Cambridge; there, in an ideal world of gardens, to lead a semi-scenic +life, costumed, disciplined, and drilled by proctors. Nor is this to be +regarded merely as a stage of education; it is a piece of privilege +besides, and a step that separates him further from the bulk of his +compatriots. At an earlier age the Scottish lad begins his greatly +different experience of crowded class-rooms, of a gaunt quadrangle, of a +bell hourly booming over the traffic of the city to recall him from the +public-house where he has been lunching, or the streets where he has +been wandering fancy-free. His college life has little of restraint, and +nothing of necessary gentility. He will find no quiet clique of the +exclusive, studious and cultured; no rotten borough of the arts. All +classes rub shoulders on the greasy benches. The raffish young gentleman +in gloves must measure his scholarship with the plain, clownish laddie +from the parish school. They separate, at the session's end, one to +smoke cigars about a watering-place, the other to resume the labours of +the field beside his peasant family. The first muster of a college class +in Scotland is a scene of curious and painful interest; so many lads, +fresh from the heather, hang round the stove in cloddish embarrassment, +ruffled by the presence of their smarter comrades, and afraid of the +sound of their own rustic voices. It was in these early days, I think, +that Professor Blackie won the affection of his pupils, putting these +uncouth, umbrageous students at their ease with ready human geniality. +Thus, at least, we have a healthy democratic atmosphere to breathe in +while at work; even when there is no cordiality there is always a +juxtaposition of the different classes, and in the competition of study +the intellectual power of each is plainly demonstrated to the other. Our +tasks ended, we of the North go forth as freemen into the humming, +lamplit city. At five o'clock you may see the last of us hiving from the +college gates, in the glare of the shop-windows, under the green glimmer +of the winter sunset. The frost tingles in our blood; no proctor lies in +wait to intercept us; till the bell sounds again, we are the masters of +the world; and some portion of our lives is always Saturday, _la treve +de Dieu_. + +Nor must we omit the sense of the nature of his country and his +country's history gradually growing in the child's mind from story and +from observation. A Scottish child hears much of shipwreck, outlying +iron skerries, pitiless breakers, and great sea-lights; much of heathery +mountains, wild clans, and hunted Covenanters. Breaths come to him in +song of the distant Cheviots and the ring of foraying hoofs. He glories +in his hard-fisted forefathers, of the iron girdle and the handful of +oatmeal, who rode so swiftly and lived so sparely on their raids. +Poverty, ill-luck, enterprise, and constant resolution are the fibres of +the legend of his country's history. The heroes and kings of Scotland +have been tragically fated; the most marking incidents in Scottish +history--Flodden, Darien, or the Forty-five--were still either failures +or defeats; and the fall of Wallace and the repeated reverses of the +Bruce combine with the very smallness of the country to teach rather a +moral than a material criterion for life. Britain is altogether small, +the mere taproot of her extended empire; Scotland, again, which alone +the Scottish boy adopts in his imagination, is but a little part of +that, and avowedly cold, sterile, and unpopulous. It is not so for +nothing. I once seemed to have perceived in an American boy a greater +readiness of sympathy for lands that are great, and rich, and growing, +like his own. It proved to be quite otherwise: a mere dumb piece of +boyish romance, that I had lacked penetration to divine. But the error +serves the purpose of my argument; for I am sure, at least, that the +heart of young Scotland will be always touched more nearly by paucity of +number and Spartan poverty of life. + +So we may argue, and yet the difference is not explained. That Shorter +Catechism which I took as being so typical of Scotland, was yet composed +in the city of Westminster. The division of races is more sharply marked +within the borders of Scotland itself than between the countries. +Galloway and Buchan, Lothian and Lochaber, are like foreign parts; yet +you may choose a man from any of them, and, ten to one, he shall prove +to have the headmark of a Scot. A century and a half ago the Highlander +wore a different costume, spoke a different language, worshipped in +another church, held different morals, and obeyed a different social +constitution from his fellow-countrymen either of the south or north. +Even the English, it is recorded, did not loathe the Highlander and the +Highland costume as they were loathed by the remainder of the Scots. Yet +the Highlander felt himself a Scot. He would willingly raid into the +Scottish lowlands; but his courage failed him at the border, and he +regarded England as a perilous, unhomely land. When the Black Watch, +after years of foreign service, returned to Scotland, veterans leaped +out and kissed the earth at Portpatrick. They had been in Ireland, +stationed among men of their own race and language, where they were well +liked and treated with affection; but it was the soil of Galloway that +they kissed, at the extreme end of the hostile lowlands, among a people +who did not understand their speech, and who had hated, harried, and +hanged them since the dawn of history. Last, and perhaps most curious, +the sons of chieftains were often educated on the continent of Europe. +They went abroad speaking Gaelic; they returned speaking, not English, +but the broad dialect of Scotland. Now, what idea had they in their +minds when they thus, in thought, identified themselves with their +ancestral enemies? What was the sense in which they were Scottish and +not English, or Scottish and not Irish? Can a bare name be thus +influential on the minds and affections of men, and a political +aggregation blind them to the nature of facts? The story of the Austrian +Empire would seem to answer No; the far more galling business of Ireland +clinches the negative from nearer home. Is it common education, common +morals, a common language, or a common faith, that join men into +nations? There were practically none of these in the case we are +considering. + +The fact remains: in spite of the difference of blood and language, the +Lowlander feels himself the sentimental countryman of the Highlander. +When they meet abroad, they fall upon each other's necks in spirit; even +at home there is a kind of clannish intimacy in their talk. But from his +compatriot in the South the Lowlander stands consciously apart. He has +had a different training; he obeys different laws; he makes his will in +other terms, is otherwise divorced and married; his eyes are not at home +in an English landscape or with English houses; his ear continues to +remark the English speech; and even though his tongue acquire the +Southern knack, he will still have a strong Scots accent of the mind. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] 1881. + + [2] The previous pages, from the opening of this essay down to + "provocations," are reprinted from the original edition of 1881; in + the reprints of which they still stand. In the Edinburgh Edition + they were omitted, and the essay began with "A Scotsman."--ED. + + + + + II + + SOME COLLEGE MEMORIES + + +I am asked to write something (it is not specifically stated what) to +the profit and glory of my _Alma Mater_;[3] and the fact is I seem to be +in very nearly the same case with those who addressed me, for while I am +willing enough to write something, I know not what to write. Only one +point I see, that if I am to write at all, it should be of the +University itself and my own days under its shadow; of the things that +are still the same and of those that are already changed: such talk, in +short, as would pass naturally between a student of to-day and one of +yesterday, supposing them to meet and grow confidential. + +The generations pass away swiftly enough on the high seas of life; more +swiftly still in the little bubbling back-water of the quadrangle; so +that we see there, on a scale startlingly diminished, the flight of time +and the succession of men. I looked for my name the other day in last +year's case-book of the Speculative. Naturally enough I looked for it +near the end; it was not there, nor yet in the next column, so that I +began to think it had been dropped at press; and when at last I found +it, mounted on the shoulders of so many successors, and looking in that +posture like the name of a man of ninety, I was conscious of some of the +dignity of years. This kind of dignity of temporal precession is likely, +with prolonged life, to become more familiar, possibly less welcome; but +I felt it strongly then, it is strongly on me now, and I am the more +emboldened to speak with my successors in the tone of a parent and a +praiser of things past. + +For, indeed, that which they attend is but a fallen University; it has +doubtless some remains of good, for human institutions decline by +gradual stages; but decline, in spite of all seeming embellishments, it +does; and, what is perhaps more singular, began to do so when I ceased +to be a student. Thus, by an odd chance, I had the very last of the very +best of _Alma Mater_; the same thing, I hear (which makes it the more +strange), had previously happened to my father; and if they are good and +do not die, something not at all unsimilar will be found in time to have +befallen my successors of to-day. Of the specific points of change, of +advantage in the past, of shortcoming in the present, I must own that, +on a near examination, they look wondrous cloudy. The chief and far the +most lamentable change is the absence of a certain lean, ugly, idle, +unpopular student, whose presence was for me the gist and heart of the +whole matter; whose changing humours, fine occasional purposes of good, +flinching acceptance of evil, shiverings on wet, east-windy, morning +journeys up to class, infinite yawnings during lecture and unquenchable +gusto in the delights of truantry, made up the sunshine and shadow of my +college life. You cannot fancy what you missed in missing him; his +virtues, I make sure, are inconceivable to his successors, just as they +were apparently concealed from his contemporaries, for I was practically +alone in the pleasure I had in his society. Poor soul, I remember how +much he was cast down at times, and how life (which had not yet begun) +seemed to be already at an end, and hope quite dead, and misfortune and +dishonour, like physical presences, dogging him as he went. And it may +be worth while to add that these clouds rolled away in their season, and +that all clouds roll away at last, and the troubles of youth in +particular are things but of a moment. So this student, whom I have in +my eye, took his full share of these concerns, and that very largely by +his own fault; but he still clung to his fortune, and in the midst of +much misconduct, kept on in his own way learning how to work; and at +last, to his wonder, escaped out of the stage of studentship not openly +shamed; leaving behind him the University of Edinburgh shorn of a good +deal of its interest for myself. + +But while he is (in more senses than one) the first person, he is by no +means the only one whom I regret, or whom the students of to-day, if +they knew what they had lost, would regret also. They have still Tait, +to be sure--long may they have him!--and they have still Tait's +class-room, cupola and all; but think of what a different place it was +when this youth of mine (at least on roll days) would be present on the +benches, and, at the near end of the platform, Lindsay senior[4] was +airing his robust old age. It is possible my successors may have never +even heard of Old Lindsay; but when he went, a link snapped with the +last century. He had something of a rustic air, sturdy and fresh and +plain; he spoke with a ripe east-country accent, which I used to admire; +his reminiscences were all of journeys on foot or highways busy with +post-chaises--a Scotland before steam; he had seen the coal fire on the +Isle of May, and he regaled me with tales of my own grandfather. Thus he +was for me a mirror of things perished; it was only in his memory that I +could see the huge shock of flames of the May beacon stream to leeward, +and the watchers, as they fed the fire, lay hold unscorched of the +windward bars of the furnace; it was only thus that I could see my +grandfather driving swiftly in a gig along the seaboard road from +Pittenweem to Crail, and for all his business hurry, drawing up to speak +good-humouredly with those he met. And now, in his turn, Lindsay is gone +also; inhabits only the memories of other men, till these shall follow +him; and figures in my reminiscences as my grandfather figured in his. + +To-day, again, they have Professor Butcher, and I hear he has a +prodigious deal of Greek; and they have Professor Chrystal, who is a man +filled with the mathematics. And doubtless these are set-offs. But they +cannot change the fact that Professor Blackie has retired, and that +Professor Kelland is dead. No man's education is complete or truly +liberal who knew not Kelland. There were unutterable lessons in the mere +sight of that frail old clerical gentleman, lively as a boy, kind like a +fairy godfather, and keeping perfect order in his class by the spell of +that very kindness. I have heard him drift into reminiscences in class +time, though not for long, and give us glimpses of old-world life in +out-of-the-way English parishes when he was young; thus playing the same +part as Lindsay--the part of the surviving memory, signalling out of the +dark backward and abysm of time the images of perished things. But it +was a part that scarce became him; he somehow lacked the means: for all +his silver hair and worn face, he was not truly old; and he had too much +of the unrest and petulant fire of youth, and too much invincible +innocence of mind, to play the veteran well. The time to measure him +best, to taste (in the old phrase) his gracious nature, was when he +received his class at home. What a pretty simplicity would he then show, +trying to amuse us like children with toys; and what an engaging +nervousness of manner, as fearing that his efforts might not succeed! +Truly, he made us all feel like children, and like children embarrassed, +but at the same time filled with sympathy for the conscientious, +troubled elder-boy who was working so hard to entertain us. A theorist +has held the view that there is no feature in man so tell-tale as his +spectacles; that the mouth may be compressed and the brow smoothed +artificially, but the sheen of the barnacles is diagnostic. And truly it +must have been thus with Kelland; for as I still fancy I behold him +frisking actively about the platform, pointer in hand, that which I seem +to see most clearly is the way his glasses glittered with affection. I +never knew but one other man who had (if you will permit the phrase) so +kind a spectacle, and that was Dr. Appleton.[5] But the light in his +case was tempered and passive; in Kelland's it danced, and changed, and +flashed vivaciously among the students, like a perpetual challenge to +goodwill. + +I cannot say so much about Professor Blackie, for a good reason. +Kelland's class I attended, once even gained there a certificate of +merit, the only distinction of my University career. But although I am +the holder of a certificate of attendance in the professor's own hand, I +cannot remember to have been present in the Greek class above a dozen +times. Professor Blackie was even kind enough to remark (more than once) +while in the very act of writing the document above referred to, that he +did not know my face. Indeed, I denied myself many opportunities; acting +upon an extensive and highly rational system of truantry, which cost me +a great deal of trouble to put in exercise--perhaps as much as would +have taught me Greek--and sent me forth into the world and the +profession of letters with the merest shadow of an education. But they +say it is always a good thing to have taken pains, and that success is +its own reward, whatever be its nature; so that, perhaps, even upon this +I should plume myself, that no one ever played the truant with more +deliberate care, and none ever had more certificates for less education. +One consequence, however, of my system is that I have much less to say +of Professor Blackie than I had of Professor Kelland; and as he is still +alive, and will long, I hope, continue to be so, it will not surprise +you very much that I have no intention of saying it. + +Meanwhile, how many others have gone--Jenkin, Hodgson, and I know not +who besides; and of that tide of students that used to throng the arch +and blacken the quadrangle, how many are scattered into the remotest +parts of the earth, and how many more have lain down beside their +fathers in their "resting-graves"! And again, how many of these last +have not found their way there, all too early, through the stress of +education! That was one thing, at least, from which my truantry +protected me. I am sorry indeed that I have no Greek, but I should be +sorrier still if I were dead; nor do I know the name of that branch of +knowledge which is worth acquiring at the price of a brain fever. There +are many sordid tragedies in the life of the student, above all if he be +poor, or drunken, or both; but nothing more moves a wise man's pity than +the case of the lad who is in too much hurry to be learned. And so, for +the sake of a moral at the end, I will call up one more figure, and have +done. A student, ambitious of success by that hot, intemperate manner of +study that now grows so common, read night and day for an examination. +As he went on, the task became more easy to him, sleep was more easily +banished, his brain grew hot and clear and more capacious, the necessary +knowledge daily fuller and more orderly. It came to the eve of the +trial, and he watched all night in his high chamber, reviewing what he +knew, and already secure of success. His window looked eastward, and +being (as I said) high up, and the house itself standing on a hill, +commanded a view over dwindling suburbs to a country horizon. At last my +student drew up his blind, and still in quite a jocund humour, looked +abroad. Day was breaking, the east was tinging with strange fires, the +clouds breaking up for the coming of the sun; and at the sight, nameless +terror seized upon his mind. He was sane, his senses were undisturbed; +he saw clearly, and knew what he was seeing, and knew that it was +normal; but he could neither bear to see it nor find the strength to +look away, and fled in panic from his chamber into the enclosure of the +street. In the cool air and silence, and among the sleeping houses, his +strength was renewed. Nothing troubled him but the memory of what had +passed, and an abject fear of its return. + + "Gallo canente, spes redit, + Aegris salus refunditur, + Lapsis fides revertitur," + +as they sang of old in Portugal in the Morning Office. But to him that +good hour of cockcrow, and the changes of the dawn, had brought panic, +and lasting doubt, and such terror as he still shook to think of. He +dared not return to his lodging; he could not eat; he sat down, he rose +up, he wandered; the city woke about him with its cheerful bustle, the +sun climbed overhead; and still he grew but the more absorbed in the +distress of his recollection and the fear of his past fear. At the +appointed hour he came to the door of the place of examination; but when +he was asked, he had forgotten his name. Seeing him so disordered, they +had not the heart to send him away, but gave him a paper and admitted +him, still nameless, to the Hall. Vain kindness, vain efforts. He could +only sit in a still growing horror, writing nothing, ignorant of all, +his mind filled with a single memory of the breaking day and his own +intolerable fear. And that same night he was tossing in a brain fever. + +People are afraid of war and wounds and dentists, all with excellent +reason; but these are not to be compared with such chaotic terrors of +the mind as fell on this young man. We all have by our bedsides the box +of the Merchant Abudah, thank God, securely enough shut; but when a +young man sacrifices sleep to labour, let him have a care, for he is +playing with the lock. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [3] For the "Book" of the Edinburgh University Union Fancy Fair, 1886. + + [4] Professor Tait's laboratory assistant. + + [5] Charles Edward Appleton, D.C.L., Fellow of St. John's College, + Oxford, founder and first editor of the _Academy_: born 1841, died + 1879. + + + + + III + + OLD MORTALITY + + + I + +There is a certain graveyard, looked upon on the one side by a prison, +on the other by the windows of a quiet hotel; below, under a steep +cliff, it beholds the traffic of many lines of rail, and the scream of +the engine and the shock of meeting buffers mount to it all day long. +The aisles are lined with the enclosed sepulchres of families, door +beyond door, like houses in a street; and in the morning the shadows of +the prison turrets, and of many tall memorials, fall upon the graves. +There, in the hot fits of youth, I came to be unhappy. Pleasant +incidents are woven with my memory of the place. I here made friends +with a certain plain old gentleman, a visitor on sunny mornings, gravely +cheerful, who, with one eye upon the place that awaited him, chirped +about his youth like winter sparrows; a beautiful housemaid of the hotel +once, for some days together, dumbly flirted with me from a window and +kept my wild heart flying; and once--she possibly remembers--the wise +Eugenia followed me to that austere enclosure. Her hair came down, and +in the shelter of a tomb my trembling fingers helped her to repair the +braid. But for the most part I went there solitary, and, with +irrevocable emotion, pored on the names of the forgotten. Name after +name, and to each the conventional attributions and the idle dates: a +regiment of the unknown that had been the joy of mothers, and had +thrilled with the illusions of youth, and at last, in the dim sick-room, +wrestled with the pangs of old mortality. In that whole crew of the +silenced there was but one of whom my fancy had received a picture; and +he, with his comely, florid countenance, bewigged and habited in +scarlet, and in his day combining fame and popularity, stood forth, like +a taunt, among that company of phantom appellations. It was possible, +then, to leave behind us something more explicit than these severe, +monotonous, and lying epitaphs; and the thing left, the memory of a +painted picture and what we call the immortality of a name, was hardly +more desirable than mere oblivion. Even David Hume, as he lay composed +beneath that "circular idea," was fainter than a dream; and when the +housemaid, broom in hand, smiled and beckoned from the open window, the +fame of that bewigged philosopher melted like a raindrop in the sea. + +And yet in soberness I cared as little for the housemaid as for David +Hume. The interests of youth are rarely frank; his passions, like Noah's +dove, come home to roost. The fire, sensibility, and volume of his own +nature, that is all that he has learned to recognise. The tumultuary and +grey tide of life, the empire of routine, the unrejoicing faces of his +elders, fill him with contemptuous surprise; there also he seems to walk +among the tombs of spirits: and it is only in the course of years, and +after much rubbing with his fellow-men, that he begins by glimpses to +see himself from without and his fellows from within: to know his own +for one among the thousand undenoted countenances of the city street, +and to divine in others the throb of human agony and hope. In the +meantime he will avoid the hospital doors, the pale faces, the cripple, +the sweet whiff of chloroform--for there, on the most thoughtless, the +pains of others are burned home; but he will continue to walk, in a +divine self-pity, the aisles of the forgotten graveyard. The length of +man's life, which is endless to the brave and busy, is scorned by his +ambitious thought. He cannot bear to have come for so little, and to go +again so wholly. He cannot bear, above all, in that brief scene, to be +still idle, and by way of cure, neglects the little that he has to do. +The parable of the talent is the brief epitome of youth. To believe in +immortality is one thing, but it is first needful to believe in life. +Denunciatory preachers seem not to suspect that they may be taken +gravely and in evil part; that young men may come to think of time as of +a moment, and with the pride of Satan wave back the inadequate gift. Yet +here is a true peril; this it is that sets them to pace the graveyard +alleys and to read, with strange extremes of pity and derision, the +memorials of the dead. + +Books were the proper remedy: books of vivid human import, forcing upon +their minds the issues, pleasures, busyness, importance, and immediacy +of that life in which they stand; books of smiling or heroic temper, to +excite or to console; books of a large design, shadowing the complexity +of that game of consequences to which we all sit down, the hanger-back +not least. But the average sermon flees the point, disporting itself in +that eternity of which we know, and need to know, so little; avoiding +the bright, crowded, and momentous fields of life where destiny awaits +us. Upon the average book a writer may be silent; he may set it down to +his ill-hap that when his own youth was in the acrid fermentation, he +should have fallen and fed upon the cheerless fields of Obermann. Yet to +Mr. Matthew Arnold, who led him to these pastures, he still bears a +grudge. The day is perhaps not far off when people will begin to count +"Moll Flanders," ay, or "The Country Wife," more wholesome and more +pious diet than these guide-books to consistent egoism. + +But the most inhuman of boys soon wearies of the inhumanity of Obermann. +And even while I still continued to be a haunter of the graveyard, I +began insensibly to turn my attention to the grave-diggers, and was +weaned out of myself to observe the conduct of visitors. This was +day-spring, indeed, to a lad in such great darkness. Not that I began to +see men, or to try to see them, from within, nor to learn charity and +modesty and justice from the sight; but still stared at them externally +from the prison windows of my affectation. Once I remember to have +observed two working women with a baby halting by a grave; there was +something monumental in the grouping, one upright carrying the child, +the other with bowed face crouching by her side. A wreath of immortelles +under a glass dome had thus attracted them; and, drawing near, I +overheard their judgment on that wonder: "Eh! what extravagance!" To a +youth afflicted with the callosity of sentiment, this quaint and +pregnant saying appeared merely base. + +My acquaintance with grave-diggers, considering its length, was +unremarkable. One, indeed, whom I found plying his spade in the red +evening, high above Allan Water and in the shadow of Dunblane Cathedral, +told me of his acquaintance with the birds that still attended on his +labours; how some would even perch about him, waiting for their prey; +and, in a true Sexton's Calendar, how the species varied with the season +of the year. But this was the very poetry of the profession. The others +whom I knew were somewhat dry. A faint flavour of the gardener hung +about them, but sophisticated and disbloomed. They had engagements to +keep, not alone with the deliberate series of the seasons, but with +mankind's clocks and hour-long measurement of time. And thus there was +no leisure for the relishing pinch, or the hour-long gossip, foot on +spade. They were men wrapped up in their grim business; they liked well +to open long-closed family vaults, blowing in the key and throwing wide +the grating; and they carried in their minds a calendar of names and +dates. It would be "in fifty-twa" that such a tomb was last opened, for +"Miss Jemimy." It was thus they spoke of their past patients--familiarly +but not without respect, like old family servants. Here is indeed a +servant, whom we forget that we possess; who does not wait at the bright +table, or run at the bell's summons, but patiently smokes his pipe +beside the mortuary fire, and in his faithful memory notches the +burials of our race. To suspect Shakespeare in his maturity of a +superficial touch savours of paradox; yet he was surely in error when he +attributed insensibility to the digger of the grave. But perhaps it is +on Hamlet that the charge should lie; or perhaps the English sexton +differs from the Scottish. The "goodman delver," reckoning up his years +of office, might have at least suggested other thoughts. It is a pride +common among sextons. A cabinet-maker does not count his cabinets, nor +even an author his volumes, save when they stare upon him from the +shelves; but the grave-digger numbers his graves. He would indeed be +something different from human if his solitary open-air and tragic +labours left not a broad mark upon his mind. There, in his tranquil +isle, apart from city clamour, among the cats and robins and the ancient +effigies and legends of the tomb, he waits the continual passage of his +contemporaries, falling like minute drops into eternity. As they fall, +he counts them; and this enumeration, which was at first perhaps +appalling to his soul, in the process of years and by the kindly +influence of habit grows to be his pride and pleasure. There are many +common stories telling how he piques himself on crowded cemeteries. But +I will rather tell of the old grave-digger of Monkton, to whose +unsuffering bedside the minister was summoned. He dwelt in a cottage +built into the wall of the churchyard; and through a bull's-eye pane +above his bed he could see, as he lay dying, the rank grasses and the +upright and recumbent stones. Dr. Laurie was, I think, a Moderate; 'tis +certain, at least, that he took a very Roman view of death-bed +dispositions; for he told the old man that he had lived beyond man's +natural years, that his life had been easy and reputable, that his +family had all grown up and been a credit to his care, and that it now +behoved him unregretfully to gird his loins and follow the majority. The +grave-digger heard him out; then he raised himself up on one elbow, and +with the other hand pointed through the window to the scene of his +lifelong labours. "Doctor," he said, "I hae laid three hunner and +fower-score in that kirkyaird; an it had been His wull," indicating +Heaven, "I would hae likit weel to hae made out the fower hunner." But +it was not to be; this tragedian of the fifth act had now another part +to play; and the time had come when others were to gird and carry him. + + + II + +I would fain strike a note that should be more heroical; but the ground +of all youth's suffering, solitude, hysteria, and haunting of the grave, +is nothing else than naked, ignorant selfishness. It is himself that he +sees dead; those are his virtues that are forgotten; his is the vague +epitaph. Pity him but the more, if pity be your cue; for where a man is +all pride, vanity, and personal aspiration, he goes through fire +unshielded. In every part and corner of our life, to lose oneself is to +be gainer; to forget oneself is to be happy; and this poor, laughable, +and tragic fool has not yet learned the rudiments; himself, giant +Prometheus, is still ironed on the peaks of Caucasus. But by and by his +truant interests will leave that tortured body, slip abroad, and gather +flowers. Then shall death appear before him in an altered guise; no +longer as a doom peculiar to himself, whether fate's crowning injustice +or his own last vengeance upon those who fail to value him; but now as a +power that wounds him far more tenderly, not without solemn +compensations, taking and giving, bereaving and yet storing up. + +The first step for all is to learn to the dregs our own ignoble +fallibility. When we have fallen through story after story of our vanity +and aspiration, and sit rueful among the ruins, then it is that we begin +to measure the stature of our friends: how they stand between us and our +own contempt, believing in our best; how, linking us with others, and +still spreading wide the influential circle, they weave us in and in +with the fabric of contemporary life; and to what petty size they dwarf +the virtues and the vices that appeared gigantic in our youth. So that +at the last, when such a pin falls out--when there vanishes in the least +breath of time one of those rich magazines of life on which we drew for +our supply--when he who had first dawned upon us as a face among the +faces of the city, and, still growing, came to bulk on our regard with +those clear features of the loved and living man, falls in a breath to +memory and shadow, there falls along with him a whole wing of the palace +of our life. + + + III + +One such face I now remember; one such blank some half a dozen of us +labour to dissemble. In his youth he was most beautiful in person, most +serene and genial by disposition; full of racy words and quaint +thoughts. Laughter attended on his coming. He had the air of a great +gentleman, jovial and royal with his equals, and to the poorest student +gentle and attentive. Power seemed to reside in him exhaustless; we saw +him stoop to play with us, but held him marked for higher destinies; we +loved his notice; and I have rarely had my pride more gratified than +when he sat at my father's table, my acknowledged friend. So he walked +among us, both hands full of gifts, carrying with nonchalance the seeds +of a most influential life. + +The powers and the ground of friendship is a mystery; but, looking back, +I can discern that, in part, we loved the thing he was, for some shadow +of what he was to be. For with all his beauty, power, breeding, +urbanity, and mirth, there was in those days something soulless in our +friend. He would astonish us by sallies, witty, innocent, and inhumane; +and by a misapplied Johnsonian pleasantry demolish honest sentiment. I +can still see and hear him, as he went his way along the lamplit +streets, "La ci darem la mano" on his lips, a noble figure of a youth, +but following vanity and incredulous of good; and sure enough, somewhere +on the high seas of life, with his health, his hopes, his patrimony, and +his self-respect miserably went down. + +From this disaster, like a spent swimmer, he came desperately ashore, +bankrupt of money and consideration; creeping to the family he had +deserted; with broken wing, never more to rise. But in his face there +was a light of knowledge that was new to it. Of the wounds of his body +he was never healed; died of them gradually, with clear-eyed +resignation; of his wounded pride, we knew only from his silence. He +returned to that city where he had lorded it in his ambitious youth; +lived there alone, seeing few; striving to retrieve the irretrievable; +at times still grappling with that mortal frailty that had brought him +down; still joying in his friend's successes; his laugh still ready, but +with a kindlier music; and over all his thoughts the shadow of that +unalterable law which he had disavowed and which had brought him low. +Lastly, when his bodily evils had quite disabled him, he lay a great +while dying, still without complaint, still finding interests; to his +last step gentle, urbane, and with the will to smile. + +The tale of this great failure is, to those who remained true to him, +the tale of a success. In his youth he took thought for no one but +himself; when he came ashore again, his whole armada lost, he seemed to +think of none but others. Such was his tenderness for others, such his +instinct of fine courtesy and pride, that of that impure passion of +remorse he never breathed a syllable; even regret was rare with him, and +pointed with a jest. You would not have dreamed, if you had known him +then, that this was that great failure, that beacon to young men, over +whose fall a whole society had hissed and pointed fingers. Often have we +gone to him, red-hot with our own hopeful sorrows, railing on the +rose-leaves in our princely bed of life, and he would patiently give ear +and wisely counsel; and it was only upon some return of our own thoughts +that we were reminded what manner of man this was to whom we +disembosomed: a man, by his own fault, ruined; shut out of the garden of +his gifts; his whole city of hope both ploughed and salted; silently +awaiting the deliverer. Then something took us by the throat; and to see +him there, so gentle, patient, brave, and pious, oppressed but not cast +down, sorrow was so swallowed up in admiration that we could not dare to +pity him. Even if the old fault flashed out again, it but awoke our +wonder that, in that lost battle, he should have still the energy to +fight. He had gone to ruin with a kind of kingly _abandon_, like one who +condescended; but once ruined, with the lights all out, he fought as for +a kingdom. Most men, finding themselves the authors of their own +disgrace, rail the louder against God or destiny. Most men, when they +repent, oblige their friends to share the bitterness of that repentance. +But he had held an inquest and passed sentence: _mene, mene_; and +condemned himself to smiling silence. He had given trouble enough; had +earned misfortune amply, and foregone the right to murmur. + +Thus was our old comrade, like Samson, careless in his days of strength; +but on the coming of adversity, and when that strength was gone that had +betrayed him--"for our strength is weakness"--he began to blossom and +bring forth. Well, now, he is out of the fight: the burden that he bore +thrown down before the great deliverer. We + + "in the vast cathedral leave him; + God accept him, + Christ receive him!" + + + IV + +If we go now and look on these innumerable epitaphs, the pathos and the +irony are strangely fled. They do not stand merely to the dead, these +foolish monuments; they are pillars and legends set up to glorify the +difficult but not desperate life of man. This ground is hallowed by the +heroes of defeat. + +I see the indifferent pass before my friend's last resting-place; pause, +with a shrug of pity, marvelling that so rich an argosy had sunk. A +pity, now that he is done with suffering, a pity most uncalled for, and +an ignorant wonder. Before those who loved him, his memory shines like a +reproach; they honour him for silent lessons; they cherish his example; +and, in what remains before them of their toil, fear to be unworthy of +the dead. For this proud man was one of those who prospered in the +valley of humiliation;--of whom Bunyan wrote that, "Though Christian had +the hard hap to meet in the valley with Apollyon, yet I must tell you, +that in former times men have met with angels here, have found pearls +here, and have in this place found the words of life." + + + + + IV + + A COLLEGE MAGAZINE + + + I + +All through my boyhood and youth I was known and pointed out for the +pattern of an idler; and yet I was always busy on my own private end, +which was to learn to write. I kept always two books in my pocket, one +to read, one to write in. As I walked, my mind was busy fitting what I +saw with appropriate words; when I sat by the roadside, I would either +read, or a pencil and a penny version-book would be in my hand, to note +down the features of the scene or commemorate some halting stanzas. Thus +I lived with words. And what I thus wrote was for no ulterior use, it +was written consciously for practice. It was not so much that I wished +to be an author (though I wished that too) as that I had vowed that I +would learn to write. That was a proficiency that tempted me; and I +practised to acquire it, as men learn to whittle, in a wager with +myself. Description was the principal field of my exercise; for to any +one with senses there is always something worth describing, and town and +country are but one continuous subject. But I worked in other ways also; +often accompanied my walks with dramatic dialogues, in which I played +many parts; and often exercised myself in writing down conversations +from memory. + +This was all excellent, no doubt; so were the diaries I sometimes tried +to keep, but always and very speedily discarded, finding them a school +of posturing and melancholy self-deception. And yet this was not the +most efficient part of my training. Good though it was, it only taught +me (so far as I have learned them at all) the lower and less +intellectual elements of the art, the choice of the essential note and +the right word: things that to a happier constitution had perhaps come +by nature. And regarded as training, it had one grave defect; for it set +me no standard of achievement. So that there was perhaps more profit, as +there was certainly more effort, in my secret labours at home. Whenever +I read a book or a passage that particularly pleased me, in which a +thing was said or an effect rendered with propriety, in which there was +either some conspicuous force or some happy distinction in the style, I +must sit down at once and set myself to ape that quality. I was +unsuccessful, and I knew it; and tried again, and was again +unsuccessful, and always unsuccessful; but at least in these vain bouts +I got some practice in rhythm, in harmony, in construction and the +co-ordination of parts. I have thus played the sedulous ape to Hazlitt, +to Lamb, to Wordsworth, to Sir Thomas Browne, to Defoe, to Hawthorne, to +Montaigne, to Baudelaire, and to Obermann. I remember one of these +monkey tricks, which was called "The Vanity of Morals": it was to have +had a second part, "The Vanity of Knowledge"; and as I had neither +morality nor scholarship, the names were apt; but the second part was +never attempted, and the first part was written (which is my reason for +recalling it, ghostlike, from its ashes) no less than three times: first +in the manner of Hazlitt, second in the manner of Ruskin, who had cast +on me a passing spell, and third, in a laborious pasticcio of Sir Thomas +Browne. So with my other works: "Cain," an epic, was (save the mark!) an +imitation of "Sordello": "Robin Hood," a tale in verse, took an eclectic +middle course among the fields of Keats, Chaucer, and Morris: in +_Monmouth_, a tragedy, I reclined on the bosom of Mr. Swinburne; in my +innumerable gouty-footed lyrics, I followed many masters; in the first +draft of _The King's Pardon_, a tragedy, I was on the trail of no less a +man than John Webster; in the second draft of the same piece, with +staggering versatility, I had shifted my allegiance to Congreve, and of +course conceived my fable in a less serious vein--for it was not +Congreve's verse, it was his exquisite prose, that I admired and sought +to copy. Even at the age of thirteen I had tried to do justice to the +inhabitants of the famous city of Peebles in the style of "The Book of +Snobs." So I might go on for ever, through all my abortive novels, and +down to my later plays, of which I think more tenderly, for they were +not only conceived at first under the bracing influence of old Dumas, +but have met with resurrections: one, strangely bettered by another +hand, came on the stage itself and was played by bodily actors; the +other, originally known as _Semiramis: a Tragedy_, I have observed on +bookstalls under the _alias_ of "Prince Otto." But enough has been said +to show by what arts of impersonation and in what purely ventriloquial +efforts I first saw my words on paper. + +That, like it or not, is the way to learn to write; whether I have +profited or not, that is the way. It was so Keats learned, and there was +never a finer temperament for literature than Keats's; it was so, if we +could trace it out, that all men have learned; and that is why a revival +of letters is always accompanied or heralded by a cast back to earlier +and fresher models. Perhaps I hear some one cry out: "But this is not +the way to be original!" It is not; nor is there any way but to be born +so. Nor yet, if you are born original, is there anything in this +training that shall clip the wings of your originality. There can be +none more original than Montaigne, neither could any be more unlike +Cicero; yet no craftsman can fail to see how much the one must have +tried in his time to imitate the other. Burns is the very type of a +prime force in letters: he was of all men the most imitative. +Shakespeare himself, the imperial, proceeds directly from a school. It +is only from a school that we can expect to have good writers, it is +almost invariably from a school that great writers, these lawless +exceptions, issue. Nor is there anything here that should astonish the +considerate. Before he can tell what cadences he truly prefers, the +student should have tried all that are possible; before he can choose +and preserve a fitting key of language, he should long have practised +the literary scales; and it is only after years of such gymnastic that +he can sit down at last, legions of words swarming to his call, dozens +of turns of phrase simultaneously bidding for his choice, and he himself +knowing what he wants to do and (within the narrow limit of a man's +ability) able to do it. + +And it is the great point of these imitations that there still shines +beyond the student's reach his inimitable model. Let him try as he +please, he is still sure of failure; and it is a very old and a very +true saying that failure is the only highroad to success. I must have +had some disposition to learn; for I clear-sightedly condemned my own +performances. I liked doing them indeed; but when they were done, I +could see they were rubbish. In consequence, I very rarely showed them +even to my friends; and such friends as I chose to be my confidants I +must have chosen well, for they had the friendliness to be quite plain +with me. "Padding," said one. Another wrote: "I cannot understand why +you do lyrics so badly." No more could I! Thrice I put myself in the way +of a more authoritative rebuff, by sending a paper to a magazine. These +were returned; and I was not surprised or even pained. If they had not +been looked at, as (like all amateurs) I suspected was the case, there +was no good in repeating the experiment; if they had been looked +at--well, then I had not yet learned to write, and I must keep on +learning and living. Lastly, I had a piece of good fortune which is the +occasion of this paper, and by which I was able to see my literature in +print, and to measure experimentally how far I stood from the favour of +the public. + + + II + +The Speculative Society is a body of some antiquity, and has counted +among its members Scott, Brougham, Jeffrey, Horner, Benjamin Constant, +Robert Emmet, and many a legal and local celebrity besides. By an +accident, variously explained, it has its rooms in the very buildings of +the University of Edinburgh: a hall, Turkey-carpeted, hung with +pictures, looking, when lighted up at night with fire and candle, like +some goodly dining-room; a passage-like library, walled with books in +their wire cages; and a corridor with a fireplace, benches, a table, +many prints of famous members, and a mural tablet to the virtues of a +former secretary. Here a member can warm himself and loaf and read; +here, in defiance of Senatus-consults, he can smoke. The Senatus looks +askance at these privileges; looks even with a somewhat vinegar aspect +on the whole society; which argues a lack of proportion in the learned +mind, for the world, we may be sure, will prize far higher this haunt of +dead lions than all the living dogs of the professoriate. + +I sat one December morning in the library of the Speculative; a very +humble-minded youth, though it was a virtue I never had much credit for; +yet proud of my privileges as a member of the Spec.; proud of the pipe I +was smoking in the teeth of the Senatus; and, in particular, proud of +being in the next room to three very distinguished students, who were +then conversing beside the corridor fire. One of these has now his name +on the back of several volumes, and his voice, I learn, is influential +in the law courts. Of the death of the second, you have just been +reading what I had to say. And the third also has escaped out of that +battle of life in which he fought so hard, it may be so unwisely. They +were all three, as I have said, notable students; but this was the most +conspicuous. Wealthy, handsome, ambitious, adventurous, diplomatic, a +reader of Balzac, and of all men that I have known, the most like to +one of Balzac's characters, he led a life, and was attended by an ill +fortune, that could be properly set forth only in the _Comedie Humaine_. +He had then his eye on Parliament; and soon after the time of which I +write, he made a showy speech at a political dinner, was cried up to +heaven next day in the _Courant_, and the day after was dashed lower +than earth with a charge of plagiarism in the _Scotsman_. Report would +have it (I daresay very wrongly) that he was betrayed by one in whom he +particularly trusted, and that the author of the charge had learned its +truth from his own lips. Thus, at least, he was up one day on a +pinnacle, admired and envied by all; and the next, though still but a +boy, he was publicly disgraced. The blow would have broken a less finely +tempered spirit; and even him I suppose it rendered reckless; for he +took flight to London, and there, in a fast club, disposed of the bulk +of his considerable patrimony in the space of one winter. For years +thereafter he lived I know not how; always well dressed, always in good +hotels and good society, always with empty pockets. The charm of his +manner may have stood him in good stead; but though my own manners are +very agreeable, I have never found in them a source of livelihood; and +to explain the miracle of his continued existence, I must fall back upon +the theory of the philosopher, that in his case, as in all of the same +kind, "there was a suffering relative in the background." From this +genteel eclipse he reappeared upon the scene, and presently sought me +out in the character of a generous editor. It is in this part that I +best remember him; tall, slender, with a not ungraceful stoop; looking +quite like a refined gentleman, and quite like an urbane adventurer; +smiling with an engaging ambiguity; cocking at you one peaked eyebrow +with a great appearance of finesse; speaking low and sweet and thick, +with a touch of burr; telling strange tales with singular deliberation +and, to a patient listener, excellent effect. After all these ups and +downs, he seemed still, like the rich student that he was of yore, to +breathe of money; seemed still perfectly sure of himself and certain of +his end. Yet he was then upon the brink of his last overthrow. He had +set himself to found the strangest thing in our society: one of those +periodical sheets from which men suppose themselves to learn opinions; +in which young gentlemen from the Universities are encouraged, at so +much a line, to garble facts, insult foreign nations, and calumniate +private individuals; and which are now the source of glory, so that if a +man's name be often enough printed there, he becomes a kind of demigod; +and people will pardon him when he talks back and forth, as they do for +Mr. Gladstone; and crowd him to suffocation on railway platforms, as +they did the other day to General Boulanger; and buy his literary works, +as I hope you have just done for me. Our fathers, when they were upon +some great enterprise, would sacrifice a life; building, it may be, a +favourite slave into the foundations of their palace. It was with his +own life that my companion disarmed the envy of the gods. He fought his +paper single-handed; trusting no one, for he was something of a cynic; +up early and down late, for he was nothing of a sluggard; daily +ear-wigging influential men, for he was a master of ingratiation. In +that slender and silken fellow there must have been a rare vein of +courage, that he should thus have died at his employment; and doubtless +ambition spoke loudly in his ear, and doubtless love also, for it seems +there was a marriage in his view had he succeeded. But he died, and his +paper died after him; and of all this grace, and tact, and courage, it +must seem to our blind eyes as if there had come literally nothing. + +These three students sat, as I was saying, in the corridor, under the +mural tablet that records the virtues of Macbean, the former secretary. +We would often smile at that ineloquent memorial, and thought it a poor +thing to come into the world at all and leave no more behind one than +Macbean. And yet of these three, two are gone and have left less; and +this book, perhaps, when it is old and foxy, and some one picks it up in +a corner of a book-shop, and glances through it, smiling at the old, +graceless turns of speech, and perhaps for the love of _Alma Mater_ +(which may be still extant and flourishing) buys it, not without +haggling, for some pence--this book may alone preserve a memory of James +Walter Ferrier and Robert Glasgow Brown. + +Their thoughts ran very differently on that December morning; they were +all on fire with ambition; and when they had called me in to them, and +made me a sharer in their design, I too became drunken with pride and +hope. We were to found a University magazine. A pair of little, active +brothers--Livingstone by name, great skippers on the foot, great rubbers +of the hands, who kept a book-shop over against the University +building--had been debauched to play the part of publishers. We four +were to be conjunct editors, and, what was the main point of the +concern, to print our own works; while, by every rule of +arithmetic--that flatterer of credulity--the adventure must succeed and +bring great profit. Well, well: it was a bright vision. I went home that +morning walking upon air. To have been chosen by these three +distinguished students was to me the most unspeakable advance; it was my +first draught of consideration; it reconciled me to myself and to my +fellow-men; and as I steered round the railings at the Tron, I could not +withhold my lips from smiling publicly. Yet, in the bottom of my heart, +I knew that magazine would be a grim fiasco; I knew it would not be +worth reading; I knew, even if it were, that nobody would read it; and I +kept wondering how I should be able, upon my compact income of twelve +pounds per annum, payable monthly, to meet my share in the expense. It +was a comfortable thought to me that I had a father. + +The magazine appeared, in a yellow cover, which was the best part of it, +for at least it was unassuming; it ran four months in undisturbed +obscurity, and died without a gasp. The first number was edited by all +four of us with prodigious bustle; the second fell principally into the +hands of Ferrier and me; the third I edited alone; and it has long been +a solemn question who it was that edited the fourth. It would perhaps be +still more difficult to say who read it. Poor yellow sheet, that looked +so hopefully in the Livingstones' window! Poor, harmless paper, that +might have gone to print a "Shakespeare" on, and was instead so clumsily +defaced with nonsense! And, shall I say, Poor Editors? I cannot pity +myself, to whom it was all pure gain. It was no news to me, but only the +wholesome confirmation of my judgment, when the magazine struggled into +half-birth, and instantly sickened and subsided into night. I had sent a +copy to the lady with whom my heart was at that time somewhat engaged, +and who did all that in her lay to break it; and she, with some tact, +passed over the gift and my cherished contributions in silence. I will +not say that I was pleased at this; but I will tell her now, if by any +chance she takes up the work of her former servant, that I thought the +better of her taste. I cleared the decks after this lost engagement; had +the necessary interview with my father, which passed off not amiss; paid +over my share of the expense to the two little, active brothers, who +rubbed their hands as much, but methought skipped rather less than +formerly, having perhaps, these two also, embarked upon the enterprise +with some graceful illusions; and then, reviewing the whole episode, I +told myself that the time was not yet ripe, nor the man ready; and to +work I went again with my penny version-books, having fallen back in one +day from the printed author to the manuscript student. + + + III + +From this defunct periodical I am going to reprint one of my own papers. +The poor little piece is all tail-foremost. I have done my best to +straighten its array, I have pruned it fearlessly, and it remains +invertebrate and wordy. No self-respecting magazine would print the +thing; and here you behold it in a bound volume, not for any worth of +its own, but for the sake of the man whom it purports dimly to represent +and some of whose sayings it preserves; so that in this volume of +Memories and Portraits, Robert Young, the Swanston gardener, may stand +alongside of John Todd, the Swanston shepherd. Not that John and Robert +drew very close together in their lives; for John was rough--he smelt of +the windy brae; and Robert was gentle, and smacked of the garden in the +hollow. Perhaps it is to my shame that I liked John the better of the +two; he had grit and dash, and that salt of the old Adam that pleases +men with any savage inheritance of blood; and he was a wayfarer besides, +and took my gipsy fancy. But however that may be, and however Robert's +profile may be blurred in the boyish sketch that follows, he was a man +of a most quaint and beautiful nature, whom, if it were possible to +recast a piece of work so old, I should like well to draw again with a +maturer touch. And as I think of him and of John, I wonder in what other +country two such men would be found dwelling together, in a hamlet of +some twenty cottages, in the woody fold of a green hill. + + + + + V + + AN OLD SCOTS GARDENER + + +I think I might almost have said the last: somewhere, indeed, in the +uttermost glens of the Lammermuir or among the south-western hills there +may yet linger a decrepit representative of this bygone good fellowship; +but as far as actual experience goes, I have only met one man in my life +who might fitly be quoted in the same breath with Andrew +Fairservice,--though without his vices. He was a man whose very presence +could impart a savour of quaint antiquity to the baldest and most modern +flower-plots. There was a dignity about his tall, stooping form, and an +earnestness in his wrinkled face, that recalled Don Quixote; but a Don +Quixote who had come through the training of the Covenant, and been +nourished in his youth on "Walker's Lives" and "The Hind let Loose." + +Now, as I could not bear to let such a man pass away with no sketch +preserved of his old-fashioned virtues, I hope the reader will take this +as an excuse for the present paper, and judge as kindly as he can the +infirmities of my description. To me, who find it so difficult to tell +the little that I know, he stands essentially as a _genius loci_. It is +impossible to separate his spare form and old straw hat from the garden +in the lap of the hill, with its rocks overgrown with clematis, its +shadowy walks, and the splendid breadth of champaign that one saw from +the north-west corner. The garden and gardener seem part and parcel of +each other. When I take him from his right surroundings and try to make +him appear for me on paper, he looks unreal and phantasmal: the best +that I can say may convey some notion to those that never saw him, but +to me it will be ever impotent. + +The first time that I saw him, I fancy Robert was pretty old already: he +had certainly begun to use his years as a stalking-horse. Latterly he +was beyond all the impudencies of logic, considering a reference to the +parish register worth all the reasons in the world. "_I am old and well +stricken in years_," he was wont to say; and I never found any one bold +enough to answer the argument. Apart from this vantage that he kept over +all who were not yet octogenarian, he had some other drawbacks as a +gardener. He shrank the very place he cultivated. The dignity and +reduced gentility of his appearance made the small garden cut a sorry +figure. He was full of tales of greater situations in his younger days. +He spoke of castles and parks with a humbling familiarity. He told of +places where under-gardeners had trembled at his looks, where there were +meres and swanneries, labyrinths of walk and wildernesses of sad +shrubbery in his control, till you could not help feeling that it was +condescension on his part to dress your humbler garden plots. You were +thrown at once into an invidious position. You felt that you were +profiting by the needs of dignity, and that his poverty and not his will +consented to your vulgar rule. Involuntarily you compared yourself with +the swineherd that made Alfred watch his cakes, or some bloated citizen +who may have given his sons and his condescension to the fallen +Dionysius. Nor were the disagreeables purely fanciful and metaphysical, +for the sway that he exercised over your feelings he extended to your +garden, and, through the garden, to your diet. He would trim a hedge, +throw away a favourite plant, or fill the most favoured and fertile +section of the garden with a vegetable that none of us could eat, in +supreme contempt for our opinion. If you asked him to send you in one of +your own artichokes, "_That I wull, mem_," he would say, "_with +pleesure, for it is mair blessed to give than to receive_." Ay, and +even when, by extra twisting of the screw, we prevailed on him to prefer +our commands to his own inclination, and he went away, stately and sad, +professing that "_our wull was his pleesure_," but yet reminding us that +he would do it "_with feelin's_,"--even then, I say, the triumphant +master felt humbled in his triumph, felt that he ruled on sufferance +only, that he was taking a mean advantage of the other's low estate, and +that the whole scene had been one of those "slights that patient merit +of the unworthy takes." + +In flowers his taste was old-fashioned and catholic; affecting +sunflowers and dahlias, wallflowers and roses, and holding in supreme +aversion whatsoever was fantastic, new-fashioned, or wild. There was one +exception to this sweeping ban. Foxgloves, though undoubtedly guilty on +the last count, he not only spared, but loved; and when the shrubbery +was being thinned, he stayed his hand and dexterously manipulated his +bill in order to save every stately stem. In boyhood, as he told me +once, speaking in that tone that only actors and the old-fashioned +common folk can use nowadays, his heart grew "_proud_" within him when +he came on a burn-course among the braes of Manor that shone purple with +their graceful trophies; and not all his apprenticeship and practice for +so many years of precise gardening had banished these boyish +recollections from his heart. Indeed, he was a man keenly alive to the +beauty of all that was bygone. He abounded in old stories of his +boyhood, and kept pious account of all his former pleasures, and when he +went (on a holiday) to visit one of the fabled great places of the earth +where he had served before, he came back full of little pre-Raphaelite +reminiscences that showed real passion for the past, such as might have +shaken hands with Hazlitt or Jean-Jacques. + +But however his sympathy with his old feelings might affect his liking +for the foxgloves, the very truth was that he scorned all flowers +together. They were but garnishings, childish toys, trifling ornaments +for ladies' chimney-shelves. It was towards his cauliflowers and peas +and cabbage that his heart grew warm. His preference for the more useful +growths was such that cabbages were found invading the flower-plots, and +an outpost of savoys was once discovered in the centre of the lawn. He +would prelect over some thriving plant with wonderful enthusiasm, piling +reminiscence on reminiscence of former and perhaps yet finer specimens. +Yet even then he did not let the credit leave himself. He had, indeed, +raised "_finer o' them_"; but it seemed that no one else had been +favoured with a like success. All other gardeners, in fact, were mere +foils to his own superior attainments; and he would recount, with +perfect soberness of voice and visage, how so-and-so had wondered, and +such another could scarcely give credit to his eyes. Nor was it with his +rivals only that he parted praise and blame. If you remarked how well a +plant was looking, he would gravely touch his hat and thank you with +solemn unction; all credit in the matter falling to him. If, on the +other hand, you called his attention to some back-going vegetable, he +would quote Scripture: "_Paul may plant, and Apollos may water_"; all +blame being left to Providence, on the score of deficient rain or +untimely frosts. + +There was one thing in the garden that shared his preference with his +favourite cabbages and rhubarb, and that other was the bee-hive. Their +sound, their industry, perhaps their sweet product also, had taken hold +of his imagination and heart, whether by way of memory or no I cannot +say, although perhaps the bees too were linked to him by some +recollection of Manor braes and his country childhood. Nevertheless, he +was too chary of his personal safety or (let me rather say) his personal +dignity to mingle in any active office towards them. But he could stand +by while one of the contemned rivals did the work for him, and protest +that it was quite safe in spite of his own considerate distance and the +cries of the distressed assistant. In regard to bees, he was rather a +man of word than deed, and some of his most striking sentences had the +bees for text. "_They are indeed wonderfu' creatures, mem_," he said +once. "_They just mind me o' what the Queen of Sheba said to +Solomon--and I think she said it wi' a sigh,--'The half of it hath not +been told unto me.'_" + +As far as the Bible goes, he was deeply read. Like the old Covenanters, +of whom he was the worthy representative, his mouth was full of sacred +quotations; it was the book that he had studied most and thought upon +most deeply. To many people in his station the Bible, and perhaps Burns, +are the only books of any vital literary merit that they read, feeding +themselves, for the rest, on the draff of country newspapers, and the +very instructive but not very palatable pabulum of some cheap +educational series. This was Robert's position. All day long he had +dreamed of the Hebrew stories, and his head had been full of Hebrew +poetry and Gospel ethics; until they had struck deep root into his +heart, and the very expressions had become a part of him; so that he +rarely spoke without some antique idiom or Scripture mannerism that gave +a raciness to the merest trivialities of talk. But the influence of the +Bible did not stop here. There was more in Robert than quaint phrase and +ready store of reference. He was imbued with a spirit of peace and love: +he interposed between man and wife: he threw himself between the angry, +touching his hat the while with all the ceremony of an usher. He +protected the birds from everybody but himself, seeing, I suppose, a +great difference between official execution and wanton sport. His +mistress telling him one day to put some ferns into his master's +particular corner, and adding, "Though, indeed, Robert, he doesn't +deserve them, for he wouldn't help me to gather them," "_Eh, mem_," +replied Robert, "_but I wouldna say that, for I think he's just a most +deservin' gentleman_." Again, two of our friends, who were on intimate +terms, and accustomed to use language to each other somewhat without the +bounds of the parliamentary, happened to differ about the position of a +seat in the garden. The discussion, as was usual when these two were at +it, soon waxed tolerably insulting on both sides. Every one accustomed +to such controversies several times a day was quietly enjoying this +prize-fight of somewhat abusive wit--every one but Robert, to whom the +perfect good faith of the whole quarrel seemed unquestionable, and who, +after having waited till his conscience would suffer him to wait no +more, and till he expected every moment that the disputants would fall +to blows, cut suddenly in with tones of almost tearful entreaty: "_Eh, +but, gentlemen, I wad hae nae mair words about it!_" One thing was +noticeable about Robert's religion: it was neither dogmatic nor +sectarian. He never expatiated (at least, in my hearing) on the +doctrines of his creed, and he never condemned anybody else. I have no +doubt that he held all Roman Catholics, Atheists, and Mahometans as +considerably out of it; I don't believe he had any sympathy for Prelacy; +and the natural feelings of man must have made him a little sore about +Free-Churchism; but, at least, he never talked about these views, never +grew controversially noisy, and never openly aspersed the belief or +practice of anybody. Now all this is not generally characteristic of +Scots piety; Scots sects being churches militant with a vengeance, and +Scots believers perpetual crusaders the one against the other, and +missionaries the one to the other. Perhaps Robert's originally tender +heart was what made the difference; or, perhaps, his solitary and +pleasant labour among fruits and flowers had taught him a more sunshiny +creed than those whose work is among the tares of fallen humanity; and +the soft influences of the garden had entered deep into his spirit, + + "Annihilating all that's made + To a green thought in a green shade." + +But I could go on for ever chronicling his golden sayings or telling of +his innocent and living piety. I had meant to tell of his cottage, with +the German pipe hung reverently above the fire, and the shell box that +he had made for his son, and of which he would say pathetically: "_He +was real pleased wi' it at first, but I think he's got a kind o' tired +o' it now_"--the son being then a man of about forty. But I will let all +these pass. "'Tis more significant: he's dead." The earth, that he had +digged so much in his life, was dug out by another for himself; and the +flowers that he had tended drew their life still from him, but in a new +and nearer way. A bird flew about the open grave, as if it too wished to +honour the obsequies of one who had so often quoted Scripture in favour +of its kind: "Are not two sparrows sold for one farthing? and yet not +one of them falleth to the ground." + +Yes, he is dead. But the kings did not rise in the place of death to +greet him "with taunting proverbs" as they rose to greet the haughty +Babylonian; for in his life he was lowly, and a peacemaker and a servant +of God. + + + + + VI + + PASTORAL + + +To leave home in early life is to be stunned and quickened with +novelties; but to leave it when years have come only casts a more +endearing light upon the past. As in those composite photographs of Mr. +Galton's, the image of each new sitter brings out but the more clearly +the central features of the race; when once youth has flown, each new +impression only deepens the sense of nationality and the desire of +native places. So may some cadet of Royal Ecossais or the Albany +Regiment, as he mounted guard about French citadels, so may some officer +marching his company of the Scots-Dutch among the polders, have felt the +soft rains of the Hebrides upon his brow, or started in the ranks at the +remembered aroma of peat-smoke. And the rivers of home are dear in +particular to all men. This is as old as Naaman, who was jealous for +Abana and Pharpar; it is confined to no race nor country, for I know one +of Scottish blood but a child of Suffolk, whose fancy still lingers +about the lilied lowland waters of that shire. But the streams of +Scotland are incomparable in themselves--or I am only the more Scottish +to suppose so--and their sound and colour dwell for ever in the memory. +How often and willingly do I not look again in fancy on Tummel, or +Manor, or the talking Airdle, or Dee swirling in its Lynn; on the bright +burn of Kinnaird, or the golden burn that pours and sulks in the den +behind Kingussie! I think shame to leave out one of these enchantresses, +but the list would grow too long if I remembered all; only I may not +forget Allan Water, nor birch-wetting Rogie, nor yet Almond; nor, for +all its pollutions, that Water of Leith of the many and well-named +mills--Bell's Mills, and Canon Mills, and Silver Mills; nor Redford Burn +of pleasant memories; nor yet, for all its smallness, that nameless +trickle that springs in the green bosom of Allermuir, and is fed from +Halkerside with a perennial teacupful, and threads the moss under the +Shearer's Knowe, and makes one pool there, overhung by a rock, where I +loved to sit and make bad verses, and is then kidnapped in its infancy +by subterranean pipes for the service of the sea-beholding city in the +plain. From many points in the moss you may see at one glance its whole +course and that of all its tributaries; the geographer of this Lilliput +may visit all its corners without sitting down, and not yet begin to be +breathed; Shearer's Knowe and Halkerside are but names of adjacent +cantons on a single shoulder of a hill, as names are squandered (it +would seem to the inexpert, in superfluity) upon these upland +sheepwalks; a bucket would receive the whole discharge of the toy river; +it would take it an appreciable time to fill your morning bath; for the +most part, besides, it soaks unseen through the moss; and yet for the +sake of auld lang syne, and the figure of a certain _genius loci_, I am +condemned to linger awhile in fancy by its shores; and if the nymph (who +cannot be above a span in stature) will but inspire my pen, I would +gladly carry the reader along with me. + +John Todd, when I knew him, was already "the oldest herd on the +Pentlands," and had been all his days faithful to that curlew-scattering, +sheep-collecting life. He remembered the droving days, when the +drove-roads, that now lie green and solitary through the heather, were +thronged thoroughfares. He had himself often marched flocks into England, +sleeping on the hillsides with his caravan; and by his account it was a +rough business, not without danger. The drove-roads lay apart from +habitation; the drovers met in the wilderness, as to-day the deep-sea +fishers meet off the banks in the solitude of the Atlantic; and in the +one as in the other case rough habits and fist-law were the rule. Crimes +were committed, sheep filched, and drovers robbed and beaten; most of +which offences had a moorland burial, and were never heard of in the +courts of justice. John, in those days, was at least once attacked,--by +two men after his watch,--and at least once, betrayed by his habitual +anger, fell under the danger of the law and was clapped into some rustic +prison-house, the doors of which he burst in the night and was no more +heard of in that quarter. When I knew him, his life had fallen in quieter +places, and he had no cares beyond the dulness of his dogs and the +inroads of pedestrians from town. But for a man of his propensity to +wrath these were enough; he knew neither rest nor peace, except by +snatches; in the grey of the summer morning, and already from far up the +hill, he would wake the "toun" with the sound of his shoutings; and in +the lambing-time, his cries were not yet silenced late at night. This +wrathful voice of a man unseen might be said to haunt that quarter of the +Pentlands, an audible bogie; and no doubt it added to the fear in which +men stood of John a touch of something legendary. For my own part he was +at first my enemy, and I, in my character of a rambling boy, his natural +abhorrence. It was long before I saw him near at hand, knowing him only +by some sudden blast of bellowing from far above, bidding me "c'way oot +amang the sheep." The quietest recesses of the hill harboured this ogre; +I skulked in my favourite wilderness like a Cameronian of the Killing +Time, and John Todd was my Claverhouse, and his dogs my questing +dragoons. Little by little we dropped into civilities: his hail at sight +of me began to have less of the ring of a war-slogan; soon, we never met +but he produced his snuff-box, which was with him, like the calumet with +the Red Indian, a part of the heraldry of peace; and at length, in the +ripeness of time, we grew to be a pair of friends, and when I lived alone +in these parts in the winter, it was a settled thing for John to "give me +a cry" over the garden wall as he set forth upon his evening round, and +for me to overtake and bear him company. + +That dread voice of his that shook the hills when he was angry, fell in +ordinary talk very pleasantly upon the ear, with a kind of honeyed, +friendly whine, not far off singing, that was eminently Scottish. He +laughed not very often, and when he did, with a sudden, loud haw-haw, +hearty but somehow joyless, like an echo from a rock. His face was +permanently set and coloured; ruddy and stiff with weathering; more like +a picture than a face; yet with a certain strain, and a threat of latent +anger in the expression, like that of a man trained too fine and +harassed with perpetual vigilance. He spoke in the richest dialect of +Scots I ever heard; the words in themselves were a pleasure and often a +surprise to me, so that I often came back from one of our patrols with +new acquisitions; and this vocabulary he would handle like a master, +stalking a little before me, "beard on shoulder," the plaid hanging +loosely about him, the yellow staff clapped under his arm, and guiding +me uphill by that devious, tactical ascent which seems peculiar to men +of his trade. I might count him with the best talkers; only that talking +Scots and talking English seem incomparable acts. He touched on nothing +at least but he adorned it; when he narrated, the scene was before you; +when he spoke (as he did mostly) of his own antique business, the thing +took on a colour of romance and curiosity that was surprising. The clans +of sheep with their particular territories on the hill, and how, in the +yearly killings and purchases, each must be proportionately thinned and +strengthened; the midnight busyness of animals, the signs of the +weather, the cares of the snowy season, the exquisite stupidity of +sheep, the exquisite cunning of dogs: all these he could present so +humanly, and with so much old experience and living gusto, that +weariness was excluded. And in the midst he would suddenly straighten +his bowed back, the stick would fly abroad in demonstration, and the +sharp thunder of his voice roll out a long itinerary for the dogs, so +that you saw at last the use of that great wealth of names for every +knowe and howe upon the hillside; and the dogs, having hearkened with +lowered tails and raised faces, would run up their flags again to the +masthead and spread themselves upon the indicated circuit. It used to +fill me with wonder how they could follow and retain so long a story. +But John denied these creatures all intelligence; they were the constant +butt of his passion and contempt; it was just possible to work with the +like of them, he said,--not more than possible. And then he would expand +upon the subject of the really good dogs that he had known, and the one +really good dog that he had himself possessed. He had been offered forty +pounds for it; but a good collie was worth more than that, more than +anything, to a "herd"; he did the herd's work for him. "As for the like +of them!" he would cry, and scornfully indicate the scouring tails of +his assistants. + +Once--I translate John's Lallan, for I cannot do it justice, being born +_Britannis in montibus_, indeed, but alas! _inerudito saeculo_--once, in +the days of his good dog, he had bought some sheep in Edinburgh, and on +the way out, the road being crowded, two were lost. This was a reproach +to John, and a slur upon the dog; and both were alive to their +misfortune. Word came, after some days, that a farmer about Braid had +found a pair of sheep; and thither went John and the dog to ask for +restitution. But the farmer was a hard man and stood upon his rights. +"How were they marked?" he asked; and since John had bought right and +left from many sellers, and had no notion of the marks--"Very well," +said the farmer, "then it's only right that I should keep +them."--"Well," said John, "it's a fact that I canna tell the sheep; but +if my dog can, will ye let me have them?" The farmer was honest as well +as hard, and besides I daresay he had little fear of the ordeal; so he +had all the sheep upon his farm into one large park, and turned John's +dog into the midst. That hairy man of business knew his errand well; he +knew that John and he had bought two sheep and (to their shame) lost +them about Boroughmuirhead; he knew besides (the Lord knows how, unless +by listening) that they were come to Braid for their recovery; and +without pause or blunder singled out, first one and then the other, the +two waifs. It was that afternoon the forty pounds were offered and +refused. And the shepherd and his dog--what do I say? the true shepherd +and his man--set off together by Fairmilehead in jocund humour, and +"smiled to ither" all the way home, with the two recovered ones before +them. So far, so good; but intelligence may be abused. The dog, as he is +by little man's inferior in mind, is only by little his superior in +virtue; and John had another collie tale of quite a different +complexion. At the foot of the moss behind Kirk Yetton (Caer Ketton, +wise men say) there is a scrog of low wood and a pool with a dam for +washing sheep. John was one day lying under a bush in the scrog, when he +was aware of a collie on the far hillside skulking down through the +deepest of the heather with obtrusive stealth. He knew the dog; knew him +for a clever, rising practitioner from quite a distant farm; one whom +perhaps he had coveted as he saw him masterfully steering flocks to +market. But what did the practitioner so far from home? and why this +guilty and secret manoeuvring towards the pool?--for it was towards the +pool that he was heading. John lay the closer under his bush, and +presently saw the dog come forth upon the margin, look all about to see +if he were anywhere observed, plunge in and repeatedly wash himself over +head and ears, and then (but now openly and with tail in air) strike +homeward over the hills. That same night word was sent his master, and +the rising practitioner, shaken up from where he lay, all innocence +before the fire, was had out to a dykeside and promptly shot; for alas! +he was that foulest of criminals under trust, a sheep-eater; and it was +from the maculation of sheep's blood that he had come so far to cleanse +himself in the pool behind Kirk Yetton. + +A trade that touches nature, one that lies at the foundations of life, +in which we have all had ancestors employed, so that on a hint of it +ancestral memories revive, lends itself to literary use, vocal or +written. The fortune of a tale lies not alone in the skill of him that +writes, but as much, perhaps, in the inherited experience of him who +reads; and when I hear with a particular thrill of things that I have +never done or seen, it is one of that innumerable army of my ancestors +rejoicing in past deeds. Thus novels begin to touch not the fine +_dilettante_, but the gross mass of mankind, when they leave off to +speak of parlours and shades of manner and still-born niceties of +motive, and begin to deal with fighting, sailoring, adventure, death, or +childbirth; and thus ancient out-door crafts and occupations, whether +Mr. Hardy wields the shepherd's crook or Count Tolstoi swings the +scythe, lift romance into a near neighbourhood with epic. These aged +things have on them the dew of man's morning; they lie near, not so much +to us, the semi-artificial flowerets, as to the trunk and aboriginal +taproot of the race. A thousand interests spring up in the process of +the ages, and a thousand perish; that is now an eccentricity or a lost +art which was once the fashion of an empire; and those only are +perennial matters that rouse us to-day, and that roused men in all +epochs of the past. There is a certain critic, not indeed of execution +but of matter, whom I dare be known to set before the best: a certain +low-browed, hairy gentleman, at first a percher in the fork of trees, +next (as they relate) a dweller in caves, and whom I think I see +squatting in cave-mouths, of a pleasant afternoon, to munch his +berries--his wife, that accomplished lady, squatting by his side: his +name I never heard, but he is often described as Probably Arboreal, +which may serve for recognition. Each has his own tree of ancestors, but +at the top of all sits Probably Arboreal; in all our veins there run +some minims of his old, wild, tree-top blood; our civilised nerves still +tingle with his rude terrors and pleasures; and to that which would have +moved our common ancestor, all must obediently thrill. + +We have not so far to climb to come to shepherds; and it may be I had +one for an ascendant who has largely moulded me. But yet I think I owe +my taste for that hillside business rather to the art and interest of +John Todd. He it was that made it live for me as the artist can make all +things live. It was through him the simple strategy of massing sheep +upon a snowy evening, with its attendant scampering of earnest, shaggy +aides-de-camp, was an affair that I never wearied of seeing, and that I +never weary of recalling to mind; the shadow of the night darkening on +the hills, inscrutable black blots of snow-shower moving here and there +like night already come, huddles of yellow sheep and dartings of black +dogs upon the snow, a bitter air that took you by the throat, unearthly +harpings of the wind along the moors; and for centre-piece to all these +features and influences, John winding up the brae, keeping his captain's +eye upon all sides, and breaking, ever and again, into a spasm of +bellowing that seemed to make the evening bleaker. It is thus that I +still see him in my mind's eye, perched on a hump of the declivity not +far from Halkerside, his staff in airy flourish, his great voice taking +hold upon the hills and echoing terror to the lowlands; I, meanwhile, +standing somewhat back, until the fit should be over, and, with a pinch +of snuff, my friend relapse into his easy, even conversation. + + + + + VII + + THE MANSE + + +I have named, among many rivers that make music in my memory, that dirty +Water of Leith. Often and often I desire to look upon it again; and the +choice of a point of view is easy to me. It should be at a certain +water-door, embowered in shrubbery. The river is there dammed back for +the service of the flour-mill just below, so that it lies deep and +darkling, and the sand slopes into brown obscurity with a glint of gold; +and it has but newly been recruited by the borrowings of the snuff-mill +just above, and these, tumbling merrily in, shake the pool to its black +heart, fill it with drowsy eddies, and set the curded froth of many +other mills solemnly steering to and fro upon the surface. Or so it was +when I was young; for change, and the masons, and the pruning-knife, +have been busy; and if I could hope to repeat a cherished experience, it +must be on many and impossible conditions. I must choose, as well as the +point of view, a certain moment in my growth, so that the scale may be +exaggerated, and the trees on the steep opposite side may seem to climb +to heaven, and the sand by the water-door, where I am standing, seem as +low as Styx. And I must choose the season also, so that the valley may +be brimmed like a cup with sunshine and the songs of birds;--and the +year of grace, so that when I turn to leave the river-side I may find +the old manse and its inhabitants unchanged. + +It was a place in that time like no other: the garden cut into provinces +by a great hedge of beech, and overlooked by the church and the terrace +of the churchyard, where the tombstones were thick, and after nightfall +"spunkies" might be seen to dance, at least by children; flower-plots +lying warm in sunshine; laurels and the great yew making elsewhere a +pleasing horror of shade; the smell of water rising from all round, with +an added tang of paper-mills; the sound of water everywhere, and the +sound of mills--the wheel and the dam singing their alternate strain; +the birds on every bush and from every corner of the overhanging woods +pealing out their notes until the air throbbed with them; and in the +midst of this, the manse. I see it, by the standard of my childish +stature, as a great and roomy house. In truth, it was not so large as I +supposed, nor yet so convenient, and, standing where it did, it is +difficult to suppose that it was healthful. Yet a large family of +stalwart sons and tall daughters was housed and reared, and came to man +and woman-hood, in that nest of little chambers; so that the face of the +earth was peppered with the children of the manse, and letters with +outlandish stamps became familiar to the local postman, and the walls of +the little chambers brightened with the wonders of the East. The dullest +could see this was a house that had a pair of hands in divers foreign +places: a well-beloved house--its image fondly dwelt on by many +travellers. + +Here lived an ancestor of mine, who was a herd of men. I read him, +judging with older criticism the report of childish observation, as a +man of singular simplicity of nature; unemotional, and hating the +display of what he felt; standing contented on the old ways; a lover of +his life and innocent habits to the end. We children admired him: partly +for his beautiful face and silver hair, for none more than children are +concerned for beauty, and above all for beauty in the old; partly for +the solemn light in which we beheld him once a week, the observed of all +observers, in the pulpit. But his strictness and distance, the effect, I +now fancy, of old age, slow blood, and settled habit, oppressed us with +a kind of terror. When not abroad, he sat much alone, writing sermons +or letters to his scattered family in a dark and cold room with a +library of bloodless books--or so they seemed in those days, although I +have some of them now on my own shelves and like well enough to read +them; and these lonely hours wrapped him in the greater gloom for our +imaginations. But the study had a redeeming grace in many Indian +pictures, gaudily coloured and dear to young eyes. I cannot depict (for +I have no such passions now) the greed with which I beheld them; and +when I was once sent in to say a psalm to my grandfather, I went, +quaking indeed with fear, but at the same time glowing with hope that, +if I said it well, he might reward me with an Indian picture. + + "Thy foot He'll not let slide, nor will + He slumber that thee keeps," + +it ran: a strange conglomerate of the unpronounceable, a sad model to +set in childhood before one who was himself to be a versifier, and a +task in recitation that really merited reward. And I must suppose the +old man thought so too, and was either touched or amused by the +performance; for he took me in his arms with most unwonted tenderness, +and kissed me, and gave me a little kindly sermon for my psalm; so that, +for that day, we were clerk and parson. I was struck by this reception +into so tender a surprise that I forgot my disappointment. And indeed +the hope was one of those that childhood forges for a pastime, and with +no design upon reality. Nothing was more unlikely than that my +grandfather should strip himself of one of those pictures, love-gifts +and reminders of his absent sons; nothing more unlikely than that he +should bestow it upon me. He had no idea of spoiling children, leaving +all that to my aunt; he had fared hard himself, and blubbered under the +rod in the last century; and his ways were still Spartan for the young. +The last word I heard upon his lips was in this Spartan key. He had +over-walked in the teeth of an east wind, and was now near the end of +his many days. He sat by the dining-room fire, with his white hair, pale +face, and bloodshot eyes, a somewhat awful figure; and my aunt had given +him a dose of our good old Scots medicine, Dr. Gregory's powder. Now +that remedy, as the work of a near kinsman of Rob Roy himself, may have +a savour of romance for the imagination; but it comes uncouthly to the +palate. The old gentleman had taken it with a wry face; and that being +accomplished, sat with perfect simplicity, like a child's, munching a +"barley-sugar kiss." But when my aunt, having the canister open in her +hands, proposed to let me share in the sweets, he interfered at once. I +had had no Gregory; then I should have no barley-sugar kiss: so he +decided with a touch of irritation. And just then the phaeton coming +opportunely to the kitchen door--for such was our unlordly fashion--I +was taken for the last time from the presence of my grandfather. + +Now I often wonder what I have inherited from this old minister. I must +suppose, indeed, that he was fond of preaching sermons, and so am I, +though I never heard it maintained that either of us loved to hear them. +He sought health in his youth in the Isle of Wight, and I have sought it +in both hemispheres; but whereas he found and kept it, I am still on the +quest. He was a great lover of Shakespeare, whom he read aloud, I have +been told, with taste; well, I love my Shakespeare also and am persuaded +I can read him well, though I own I never have been told so. He made +embroidery, designing his own patterns; and in that kind of work I never +made anything but a kettle-holder in Berlin wool, and an odd garter of +knitting, which was as black as the chimney before I had done with it. +He loved port, and nuts, and porter; and so do I, but they agreed better +with my grandfather, which seems to me a breach of contract. He had +chalk-stones in his fingers; and these, in good time, I may possibly +inherit, but I would much rather have inherited his noble presence. Try +as I please, I cannot join myself on with the reverend doctor; and all +the while, no doubt, and even as I write the phrase, he moves in my +blood, and whispers words to me, and sits efficient in the very knot and +centre of my being. In his garden, as I played there, I learned the love +of mills--or had I an ancestor a miller?--and a kindness for the +neighbourhood of graves, as homely things not without their poetry--or +had I an ancestor a sexton? But what of the garden where he played +himself?--for that, too, was a scene of my education. Some part of me +played there in the eighteenth century, and ran races under the green +avenue at Pilrig; some part of me trudged up Leith Walk, which was still +a country place, and sat on the High School benches, and was thrashed, +perhaps, by Dr. Adam. The house where I spent my youth was not yet +thought upon; but we made holiday parties among the cornfields on its +site, and ate strawberries and cream near by at a gardener's. All this I +had forgotten; only my grandfather remembered and once reminded me. I +have forgotten, too, how we grew up, and took orders, and went to our +first Ayrshire parish, and fell in love with and married a daughter of +Burns's Dr. Smith--"Smith opens out his cauld harangues." I have +forgotten, but I was there all the same, and heard stories of Burns at +first hand. + +And there is a thing stranger than all that; for this _homunculus_ or +part-man of mine that walked about the eighteenth century with Dr. +Balfour in his youth, was in the way of meeting other _homunculi_ or +part-men, in the persons of my other ancestors. These were of a lower +order, and doubtless we looked down upon them duly. But as I went to +college with Dr. Balfour, I may have seen the lamp and oil man taking +down the shutters from his shop beside the Tron;--we may have had a +rabbit-hutch or a bookshelf made for us by a certain carpenter in I +know not what wynd of the old smoky city; or, upon some holiday +excursion, we may have looked into the windows of a cottage in a +flower-garden and seen a certain weaver plying his shuttle. And these +were all kinsmen of mine upon the other side; and from the eyes of the +lamp and oil man one-half of my unborn father, and one-quarter of +myself, looked out upon us as we went by to college. Nothing of all this +would cross the mind of the young student, as he posted up the Bridges +with trim, stockinged legs, in that city of cocked hats and good Scots +still unadulterated. It would not cross his mind that he should have a +daughter; and the lamp and oil man, just then beginning, by a not +unnatural metastasis, to bloom into a lighthouse-engineer, should have a +grandson; and that these two, in the fulness of time, should wed; and +some portion of that student himself should survive yet a year or two +longer in the person of their child. + +But our ancestral adventures are beyond even the arithmetic of fancy; +and it is the chief recommendation of long pedigrees, that we can follow +backward the careers of our _homunculi_ and be reminded of our antenatal +lives. Our conscious years are but a moment in the history of the +elements that build us. Are you a bank-clerk, and do you live at +Peckham? It was not always so. And though to-day I am only a man of +letters, either tradition errs or I was present when there landed at St. +Andrews a French barber-surgeon, to tend the health and the beard of the +great Cardinal Beaton; I have shaken a spear in the Debateable Land and +shouted the slogan of the Elliots; I was present when a skipper, plying +from Dundee, smuggled Jacobites to France after the '15; I was in a West +India merchant's office, perhaps next door to Bailie Nicol Jarvie's, and +managed the business of a plantation in St. Kitt's; I was with my +engineer-grandfather (the son-in-law of the lamp and oil man) when he +sailed north about Scotland on the famous cruise that gave us "The +Pirate" and "The Lord of the Isles"; I was with him, too, on the Bell +Rock, in the fog, when the _Smeaton_ had drifted from her moorings, and +the Aberdeen men, pick in hand, had seized upon the only boats, and he +must stoop and lap sea-water before his tongue could utter audible +words; and once more with him when the Bell Rock beacon took a "thrawe," +and his workmen fled into the tower, then nearly finished, and he sat +unmoved reading in his Bible--or affecting to read--till one after +another slunk back with confusion of countenance to their engineer. Yes, +parts of me have seen life, and met adventures, and sometimes met them +well. And away in the still cloudier past, the threads that make me up +can be traced by fancy into the bosoms of thousands and millions of +ascendants: Picts who rallied round Macbeth and the old (and highly +preferable) system of descent by females, fleers from before the legions +of Agricola, marchers in Pannonian morasses, star-gazers on Chaldaean +plateaus; and, furthest of all, what face is this that fancy can see +peering through the disparted branches? What sleeper in green tree-tops, +what muncher of nuts, concludes my pedigree? Probably arboreal in his +habits.... + +And I know not which is the more strange, that I should carry about with +me some fibres of my minister-grandfather; or that in him, as he sat in +his cool study, grave, reverend, contented gentleman, there was an +aboriginal frisking of the blood that was not his; tree-top memories, +like undeveloped negatives, lay dormant in his mind; tree-top instincts +awoke and were trod down; and Probably Arboreal (scarce to be +distinguished from a monkey) gambolled and chattered in the brain of the +old divine. + + + + + VIII + + MEMOIRS OF AN ISLET + + +Those who try to be artists use, time after time, the matter of their +recollections, setting and resetting little coloured memories of men and +scenes, rigging up (it may be) some especial friend in the attire of a +buccaneer, and decreeing armies to manoeuvre, or murder to be done, on +the playground of their youth. But the memories are a fairy gift which +cannot be worn out in using. After a dozen services in various tales, +the little sun-bright pictures of the past still shine in the mind's eye +with not a lineament defaced, not a tint impaired. _Glueck und unglueck +wird gesang_, if Goethe pleases; yet only by endless avatars, the +original re-embodying after each. So that a writer, in time, begins to +wonder at the perdurable life of these impressions; begins, perhaps, to +fancy that he wrongs them when he weaves them in with fiction; and +looking back on them with ever-growing kindness, puts them at last, +substantive jewels, in a setting of their own. + +One or two of these pleasant spectres I think I have laid. I used one +but the other day: a little eyot of dense, freshwater sand, where I once +waded deep in butterburrs, delighting to hear the song of the river on +both sides, and to tell myself that I was indeed and at last upon an +island. Two of my puppets lay there a summer's day, hearkening to the +shearers at work in riverside fields and to the drums of the grey old +garrison upon the neighbouring hill. And this was, I think, done +rightly: the place was rightly peopled--and now belongs not to me but to +my puppets--for a time at least. In time, perhaps, the puppets will +grow faint; the original memory swim up instant as ever; and I shall +once more lie in bed, and see the little sandy isle in Allan Water as it +is in nature, and the child (that once was me) wading there in +butterburrs; and wonder at the instancy and virgin freshness of that +memory; and be pricked again, in season and out of season, by the desire +to weave it into art. + +There is another isle in my collection, the memory of which besieges me. +I put a whole family there, in one of my tales; and later on, threw upon +its shores, and condemned to several days of rain and shellfish on its +tumbled boulders, the hero of another. The ink is not yet faded; the +sound of the sentences is still in my mind's ear; and I am under a spell +to write of that island again. + + + I + +The little isle of Earraid lies close in to the south-west corner of the +Ross of Mull: the sound of Iona on one side, across which you may see +the isle and church of Columba; the open sea to the other, where you +shall be able to mark on a clear surfy day the breakers running white on +many sunken rocks. I first saw it, or first remember seeing it, framed +in the round bull's-eye of a cabin port, the sea lying smooth along its +shores like the waters of a lake, the colourless, clear light of the +early morning making plain its heathery and rocky hummocks. There stood +upon it, in those days, a single rude house of uncemented stones, +approached by a pier of wreckwood. It must have been very early, for it +was then summer, and in summer, in that latitude, day scarcely +withdraws; but even at that hour the house was making a sweet smoke of +peats which came to me over the bay, and the bare-legged daughters of +the cotter were wading by the pier. The same day we visited the shores +of the isle in the ship's boats; rowed deep into Fiddler's Hole, +sounding as we went; and, having taken stock of all possible +accommodation, pitched on the northern inlet as the scene of operations. +For it was no accident that had brought the lighthouse steamer to anchor +in the Bay of Earraid. Fifteen miles away to seaward, a certain black +rock stood environed by the Atlantic rollers, the outpost of the Torran +reefs. Here was a tower to be built, and a star lighted, for the conduct +of seamen. But as the rock was small, and hard of access, and far from +land, the work would be one of years; and my father was now looking for +a shore station where the stones might be quarried and dressed, the men +live, and the tender, with some degree of safety, lie at anchor. + +I saw Earraid next from the stern-thwart of an Iona lugger, Sam Bough +and I sitting there cheek by jowl, with our feet upon our baggage, in a +beautiful, clear, northern summer eve. And behold! there was now a pier +of stone, there were rows of sheds, railways, travelling-cranes, a +street of cottages, an iron house for the resident engineer, wooden +bothies for the men, a stage where the courses of the tower were put +together experimentally, and behind the settlement a great gash in the +hillside where granite was quarried. In the bay, the steamer lay at her +moorings. All day long there hung about the place the music of chinking +tools; and even in the dead of night, the watchman carried his lantern +to and fro, in the dark settlement, and could light the pipe of any +midnight muser. It was, above all, strange to see Earraid on the Sunday, +when the sound of the tools ceased, and there fell a crystal quiet. All +about the green compound men would be sauntering in their Sunday's best, +walking with those lax joints of the reposing toiler, thoughtfully +smoking, talking small, as if in honour of the stillness, or hearkening +to the wailing of the gulls. And it was strange to see our Sabbath +services, held, as they were, in one of the bothies, with Mr. Brebner +reading at a table, and the congregation perched about in the double +tier of sleeping-bunks; and to hear the singing of the psalms, "the +chapters," the inevitable Spurgeon's sermon, and the old, eloquent +lighthouse prayer. + +In fine weather, when by the spy-glass on the hill the sea was observed +to run low upon the reef, there would be a sound of preparation in the +very early morning; and before the sun had risen from behind Ben More, +the tender would steam out of the bay. Over fifteen sea-miles of the +great blue Atlantic rollers she ploughed her way, trailing at her tail a +brace of wallowing stone-lighters. The open ocean widened upon either +board, and the hills of the mainland began to go down on the horizon, +before she came to her unhomely destination, and lay-to at last where +the rock clapped its black head above the swell, with the tall iron +barrack on its spider legs, and the truncated tower, and the cranes +waving their arms, and the smoke of the engine-fire rising in the +mid-sea. An ugly reef is this of the Dhu Heartach; no pleasant +assemblage of shelves, and pools, and creeks, about which a child might +play for a whole summer without weariness, like the Bell Rock or the +Skerryvore, but one oval nodule of black-trap, sparsely bedabbled with +an inconspicuous fucus, and alive in every crevice with a dingy insect +between a slater and a bug. No other life was there but that of +sea-birds, and of the sea itself, that here ran like a mill-race and +growled about the outer reef for ever, and ever and again, in the +calmest weather, roared and spouted on the rock itself. Times were +different upon Dhu Heartach when it blew, and the night fell dark, and +the neighbour lights of Skerryvore and Rhu-val were quenched in fog, and +the men sat prisoned high up in their iron drum, that then resounded +with the lashing of the sprays. Fear sat with them in their +sea-beleaguered dwelling; and the colour changed in anxious faces when +some greater billow struck the barrack, and its pillars quivered and +sprang under the blow. It was then that the foreman builder, Mr. +Goodwillie, whom I see before me still in his rock-habit of +undecipherable rags, would get his fiddle down and strike up human +minstrelsy amid the music of the storm. But it was in sunshine only that +I saw Dhu Heartach; and it was in sunshine, or the yet lovelier summer +afterglow, that the steamer would return to Earraid, ploughing an +enchanted sea; the obedient lighters, relieved of their deck cargo, +riding in her wake more quietly; and the steersman upon each, as she +rose on the long swell, standing tall and dark against the shining west. + + + II + +But it was in Earraid itself that I delighted chiefly. The lighthouse +settlement scarce encroached beyond its fences; over the top of the +first brae the ground was all virgin, the world all shut out, the face +of things unchanged by any of man's doings. Here was no living presence, +save for the limpets on the rocks, for some old, grey, rain-beaten ram +that I might rouse out of a ferny den betwixt two boulders, or for the +haunting and the piping of the gulls. It was older than man; it was +found so by incoming Celts, and seafaring Norsemen, and Columba's +priests. The earthy savour of the bog plants, the rude disorder of the +boulders, the inimitable seaside brightness of the air, the brine and +the iodine, the lap of the billows among the weedy reefs, the sudden +springing up of a great run of dashing surf along the sea-front of the +isle,--all that I saw and felt my predecessors must have seen and felt +with scarce a difference. I steeped myself in open air and in past ages. + + "Delightful would it be to me to be in _Uchd Ailiun_ + On the pinnacle of a rock, + That I might often see + The face of the ocean; + That I might hear the song of the wonderful birds, + Source of happiness; + That I might hear the thunder of the crowding waves + Upon the rocks: + At times at work without compulsion-- + This would be delightful; + At times plucking dulse from the rocks; + At times at fishing." + +So, about the next island of Iona, sang Columba himself twelve hundred +years before. And so might I have sung of Earraid. + +And all the while I was aware that this life of sea-bathing and +sun-burning was for me but a holiday. In that year cannon were roaring +for days together on French battle-fields; and I would sit in my isle (I +call it mine, after the use of lovers) and think upon the war, and the +loudness of these far-away battles, and the pain of the men's wounds, +and the weariness of their marching. And I would think too of that other +war which is as old as mankind, and is indeed the life of man; the +unsparing war, the grinding slavery of competition; the toil of seventy +years, dear-bought bread, precarious honour, the perils and pitfalls, +and the poor rewards. It was a long look forward; the future summoned me +as with trumpet calls, it warned me back as with a voice of weeping and +beseeching; and I thrilled and trembled on the brink of life, like a +childish bather on the beach. + +There was another young man on Earraid in these days, and we were much +together, bathing, clambering on the boulders, trying to sail a boat and +spinning round instead in the oily whirlpools of the roost. But the most +part of the time we spoke of the great uncharted desert of our futures; +wondering together what should there befall us; hearing with surprise +the sound of our own voices in the empty vestibule of youth. As far, and +as hard, as it seemed then to look forward to the grave, so far it seems +now to look backward upon these emotions; so hard to recall justly that +loath submission, as of the sacrificial bull, with which we stooped our +necks under the yoke of destiny. I met my old companion but the other +day; I cannot tell of course what he was thinking; but, upon my part, I +was wondering to see us both so much at home, and so composed and +sedentary in the world; and how much we had gained, and how much we had +lost, to attain to that composure; and which had been upon the whole our +best estate: when we sat there prating sensibly like men of some +experience, or when we shared our timorous and hopeful counsels in a +western islet. + + + + + IX + + THOMAS STEVENSON + + CIVIL ENGINEER + + +The death of Thomas Stevenson will mean not very much to the general +reader. His service to mankind took on forms of which the public knows +little and understands less. He came seldom to London, and then only as +a task, remaining always a stranger and a convinced provincial; putting +up for years at the same hotel where his father had gone before him; +faithful for long to the same restaurant, the same church, and the same +theatre, chosen simply for propinquity; steadfastly refusing to dine +out. He had a circle of his own, indeed, at home; few men were more +beloved in Edinburgh, where he breathed an air that pleased him; and +wherever he went, in railway carriages or hotel smoking-rooms, his +strange, humorous vein of talk, and his transparent honesty, raised him +up friends and admirers. But to the general public and the world of +London, except about the parliamentary committee-rooms, he remained +unknown. All the time, his lights were in every part of the world, +guiding the mariner; his firm were consulting engineers to the Indian, +the New Zealand, and the Japanese Lighthouse Boards, so that Edinburgh +was a world-centre for that branch of applied science; in Germany, he +had been called "the Nestor of lighthouse illumination"; even in France, +where his claims were long denied, he was at last, on the occasion of +the late Exposition, recognised and medalled. And to show by one +instance the inverted nature of his reputation, comparatively small at +home, yet filling the world, a friend of mine was this winter on a +visit to the Spanish main, and was asked by a Peruvian if he "knew Mr. +Stevenson the author, because his works were much esteemed in Peru." My +friend supposed the reference was to the writer of tales; but the +Peruvian had never heard of "Dr. Jekyll"; what he had in his eye, what +was esteemed in Peru, were the volumes of the engineer. + +Thomas Stevenson was born at Edinburgh in the year 1818; the grandson of +Thomas Smith, first engineer to the Board of Northern Lights, son of +Robert Stevenson, brother of Alan and David; so that his nephew, David +Alan Stevenson, joined with him at the time of his death in the +engineership, is the sixth of the family who has held, successively or +conjointly, that office. The Bell Rock, his father's great triumph, was +finished before he was born; but he served under his brother Alan in the +building of Skerryvore, the noblest of all extant deep-sea lights; and, +in conjunction with his brother David, he added two--the Chickens and +Dhu Heartach--to that small number of man's extreme outposts in the +ocean. Of shore lights, the two brothers last named erected no fewer +than twenty-seven; of beacons,[6] about twenty-five. Many harbours were +successfully carried out: one, the harbour of Wick, the chief disaster +of my father's life, was a failure; the sea proved too strong for man's +arts; and after expedients hitherto unthought of, and on a scale +hyper-cyclopean, the work must be deserted, and now stands a ruin in +that bleak, God-forsaken bay, ten miles from John-o'-Groat's. In the +improvement of rivers the brothers were likewise in a large way of +practice over both England and Scotland, nor had any British engineer +anything approaching their experience. + +It was about this nucleus of his professional labours that all my +father's scientific inquiries and inventions centred; these proceeded +from, and acted back upon, his daily business. Thus it was as a harbour +engineer that he became interested in the propagation and reduction of +waves; a difficult subject, in regard to which he has left behind him +much suggestive matter and some valuable approximate results. Storms +were his sworn adversaries, and it was through the study of storms that +he approached that of meteorology at large. Many who knew him not +otherwise, knew--perhaps have in their gardens--his louvre-boarded +screen for instruments. But the great achievement of his life was, of +course, in optics as applied to lighthouse illumination. Fresnel had +done much; Fresnel had settled the fixed light apparatus on a principle +that still seems unimprovable; and when Thomas Stevenson stepped in and +brought to a comparable perfection the revolving light, a not unnatural +jealousy and much painful controversy rose in France. It had its hour; +and, as I have told already, even in France it has blown by. Had it not, +it would have mattered the less, since all through his life my father +continued to justify his claim by fresh advances. New apparatus for +lights in new situations was continually being designed with the same +unwearied search after perfection, the same nice ingenuity of means; and +though the holophotal revolving light perhaps still remains his most +elegant contrivance, it is difficult to give it the palm over the much +later condensing system, with its thousand possible modifications. The +number and the value of these improvements entitle their author to the +name of one of mankind's benefactors. In all parts of the world a safer +landfall awaits the mariner. Two things must be said: and, first, that +Thomas Stevenson was no mathematician. Natural shrewdness, a sentiment +of optical laws, and a great intensity of consideration, led him to just +conclusions; but to calculate the necessary formulae for the instruments +he had conceived was often beyond him, and he must fall back on the help +of others, notably on that of his cousin and lifelong intimate friend, +_emeritus_ Professor Swan,[7] of St. Andrews, and his later friend, +Professor P. G. Tait. It is a curious enough circumstance, and a great +encouragement to others, that a man so ill equipped should have +succeeded in one of the most abstract and arduous walks of applied +science. The second remark is one that applies to the whole family, and +only particularly to Thomas Stevenson from the great number and +importance of his inventions: holding as the Stevensons did a Government +appointment, they regarded their original work as something due already +to the nation, and none of them has ever taken out a patent. It is +another cause of the comparative obscurity of the name; for a patent not +only brings in money, it infallibly spreads reputation; and my father's +instruments enter anonymously into a hundred light-rooms, and are passed +anonymously over in a hundred reports, where the least considerable +patent would stand out and tell its author's story. + +But the life-work of Thomas Stevenson remains; what we have lost, what +we now rather try to recall, is the friend and companion. He was a man +of a somewhat antique strain: with a blended sternness and softness that +was wholly Scottish, and at first somewhat bewildering; with a profound +essential melancholy of disposition and (what often accompanies it) the +most humorous geniality in company; shrewd and childish; passionately +attached, passionately prejudiced; a man of many extremes, many faults +of temper, and no very stable foothold for himself among life's +troubles. Yet he was a wise adviser; many men, and these not +inconsiderable, took counsel with him habitually. "I sat at his feet," +writes one of these, "when I asked his advice, and when the broad brow +was set in thought and the firm mouth said his say, I always knew that +no man could add to the worth of the conclusion." He had excellent +taste, though whimsical and partial; collected old furniture and +delighted specially in sunflowers long before the days of Mr. Oscar +Wilde; took a lasting pleasure in prints and pictures; was a devout +admirer of Thomson of Duddingston at a time when few shared the taste; +and though he read little, was constant to his favourite books. He had +never any Greek; Latin he happily re-taught himself after he had left +school, where he was a mere consistent idler: happily, I say, for +Lactantius, Vossius, and Cardinal Bona were his chief authors. The first +he must have read for twenty years uninterruptedly, keeping it near him +in his study, and carrying it in his bag on journeys. Another old +theologian, Brown of Wamphray, was often in his hands. When he was +indisposed, he had two books, "Guy Mannering" and "The Parent's +Assistant," of which he never wearied. He was a strong Conservative, or, +as he preferred to call himself, a Tory; except in so far as his views +were modified by a hot-headed chivalrous sentiment for women. He was +actually in favour of a marriage law under which any woman might have a +divorce for the asking, and no man on any ground whatever; and the same +sentiment found another expression in a Magdalen Mission in Edinburgh, +founded and largely supported by himself. This was but one of the many +channels of his public generosity; his private was equally unstrained. +The Church of Scotland, of which he held the doctrines (though in a +sense of his own) and to which he bore a clansman's loyalty, profited +often by his time and money; and though, from a morbid sense of his own +unworthiness, he would never consent to be an office-bearer, his advice +was often sought, and he served the Church on many committees. What he +perhaps valued highest in his work were his contributions to the defence +of Christianity; one of which, in particular, was praised by Hutchison +Stirling and reprinted at the request of Professor Crawford. + +His sense of his own unworthiness I have called morbid; morbid, too, +were his sense of the fleetingness of life and his concern for death. +He had never accepted the conditions of man's life or his own character; +and his inmost thoughts were ever tinged with the Celtic melancholy. +Cases of conscience were sometimes grievous to him, and that delicate +employment of a scientific witness cost him many qualms. But he found +respite from these troublesome humours in his work, in his lifelong +study of natural science, in the society of those he loved, and in his +daily walks, which now would carry him far into the country with some +congenial friend, and now keep him dangling about the town from one old +book-shop to another, and scraping romantic acquaintance with every dog +that passed. His talk, compounded of so much sterling sense and so much +freakish humour, and clothed in language so apt, droll, and emphatic, +was a perpetual delight to all who knew him before the clouds began to +settle on his mind. His use of language was both just and picturesque; +and when at the beginning of his illness he began to feel the ebbing of +this power, it was strange and painful to hear him reject one word after +another as inadequate, and at length desist from the search and leave +his phrase unfinished rather than finish it without propriety. It was +perhaps another Celtic trait that his affections and emotions, +passionate as these were, and liable to passionate ups and downs, found +the most eloquent expression both in words and gestures. Love, anger, +and indignation shone through him and broke forth in imagery, like what +we read of Southern races. For all these emotional extremes, and in +spite of the melancholy ground of his character, he had upon the whole a +happy life; nor was he less fortunate in his death, which at the last +came to him unaware. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [6] In Dr. Murray's admirable new dictionary, I have remarked a flaw + _sub voce_ Beacon. In its express, technical sense, a beacon may be + defined as "a founded, artificial sea-mark, not lighted." + + [7] William Swan, LL. D., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the + University of St. Andrews, 1859-80: born 1818, died 1894. + + + + + X + + TALK AND TALKERS + + Sir, we had a good talk.--JOHNSON. + + As we must account for every idle word, so we must for every idle + silence.--FRANKLIN. + + + I + +There can be no fairer ambition than to excel in talk; to be affable, +gay, ready, clear and welcome; to have a fact, a thought, or an +illustration, pat to every subject; and not only to cheer the flight of +time among our intimates, but bear our part in that great international +congress, always sitting, where public wrongs are first declared, public +errors first corrected, and the course of public opinion shaped, day by +day, a little nearer to the right. No measure comes before Parliament +but it has been long ago prepared by the grand jury of the talkers; no +book is written that has not been largely composed by their assistance. +Literature in many of its branches is no other than the shadow of good +talk; but the imitation falls far short of the original in life, +freedom, and effect. There are always two to a talk, giving and taking, +comparing experience and according conclusions. Talk is fluid, +tentative, continually "in further search and progress"; while written +words remain fixed, become idols even to the writer, found wooden +dogmatisms, and preserve flies of obvious error in the amber of the +truth. Last and chief, while literature, gagged with linsey-woolsey, can +only deal with a fraction of the life of man, talk goes fancy free and +may call a spade a spade. Talk has none of the freezing immunities of +the pulpit. It cannot, even if it would, become merely aesthetic or +merely classical like literature. A jest intervenes, the solemn humbug +is dissolved in laughter, and speech runs forth out of the contemporary +groove into the open fields of nature, cheery and cheering, like +schoolboys out of school. And it is in talk alone that we can learn our +period and ourselves. In short, the first duty of a man is to speak; +that is his chief business in this world; and talk, which is the +harmonious speech of two or more, is by far the most accessible of +pleasures. It costs nothing in money; it is all profit; it completes our +education, founds and fosters our friendships, and can be enjoyed at any +age and in almost any state of health. + +The spice of life is battle; the friendliest relations are still a kind +of contest; and if we would not forego all that is valuable in our lot, +we must continually face some other person, eye to eye, and wrestle a +fall whether in love or enmity. It is still by force of body, or power +of character or intellect, that we attain to worthy pleasures. Men and +women contend for each other in the lists of love, like rival +mesmerists; the active and adroit decide their challenges in the sports +of the body; and the sedentary sit down to chess or conversation. All +sluggish and pacific pleasures are, to the same degree, solitary and +selfish; and every durable bond between human beings is founded in or +heightened by some element of competition. Now, the relation that has +the least root in matter is undoubtedly that airy one of friendship; and +hence, I suppose, it is that good talk most commonly arises among +friends. Talk is, indeed, both the scene and instrument of friendship. +It is in talk alone that the friends can measure strength, and enjoy +that amicable counter-assertion of personality which is the gauge of +relations and the sport of life. + +A good talk is not to be had for the asking. Humours must first be +accorded in a kind of overture or prologue; hour, company, and +circumstance be suited; and then, at a fit juncture, the subject, the +quarry of two heated minds, spring up like a deer out of the wood. Not +that the talker has any of the hunter's pride, though he has all and +more than all his ardour. The genuine artist follows the stream of +conversation as an angler follows the windings of a brook, not dallying +where he fails to "kill." He trusts implicitly to hazard; and he is +rewarded by continual variety, continual pleasure, and those changing +prospects of the truth that are the best of education. There is nothing +in a subject, so called, that we should regard it as an idol or follow +it beyond the promptings of desire. Indeed, there are few subjects; and +so far as they are truly talkable, more than the half of them may be +reduced to three: that I am I, that you are you, and that there are +other people dimly understood to be not quite the same as either. +Wherever talk may range, it still runs half the time on these eternal +lines. The theme being set, each plays on himself as on an instrument; +asserts and justifies himself; ransacks his brain for instances and +opinions, and brings them forth new-minted, to his own surprise and the +admiration of his adversary. All natural talk is a festival of +ostentation; and by the laws of the game each accepts and fans the +vanity of the other. It is from that reason that we venture to lay +ourselves so open, that we dare to be so warmly eloquent, and that we +swell in each other's eyes to such a vast proportion. For talkers, once +launched, begin to overflow the limits of their ordinary selves, tower +up to the height of their secret pretensions, and give themselves out +for the heroes, brave, pious, musical, and wise, that in their most +shining moments they aspire to be. So they weave for themselves with +words and for a while inhabit a palace of delights, temple at once and +theatre, where they fill the round of the world's dignities, and feast +with the gods, exulting in Kudos. And when the talk is over, each goes +his way, still flushed with vanity and admiration, still trailing clouds +of glory; each declines from the height of his ideal orgie, not in a +moment, but by slow declension. I remember, in the _entr'acte_ of an +afternoon performance, coming forth into the sunshine in a beautiful +green, gardened corner of a romantic city; and as I sat and smoked, the +music moving in my blood, I seemed to sit there and evaporate _The +Flying Dutchman_ (for it was that I had been hearing) with a wonderful +sense of life, warmth, well-being and pride; and the noises of the city, +voices, bells, and marching feet, fell together in my ears like a +symphonious orchestra. In the same way, the excitement of a good talk +lives for a long while after in the blood, the heart still hot within +you, the brain still simmering, and the physical earth swimming around +you with the colours of the sunset. + +Natural talk, like ploughing, should turn up a large surface of life, +rather than dig mines into geological strata. Masses of experience, +anecdote, incident, cross-lights, quotation, historical instances, the +whole flotsam and jetsam of two minds forced in and in upon the matter +in hand from every point of the compass, and from every degree of mental +elevation and abasement--these are the material with which talk is +fortified, the food on which the talkers thrive. Such argument as is +proper to the exercise should still be brief and seizing. Talk should +proceed by instances; by the apposite, not the expository. It should +keep close along the lines of humanity, near the bosoms and businesses +of men, at the level where history, fiction, and experience intersect +and illuminate each other. I am I, and you are you, with all my heart; +but conceive how these lean propositions change and brighten when, +instead of words, the actual you and I sit cheek by jowl, the spirit +housed in the live body, and the very clothes uttering voices to +corroborate the story in the face. Not less surprising is the change +when we leave off to speak of generalities--the bad, the good, the +miser, and all the characters of Theophrastus--and call up other men, by +anecdote or instance, in their very trick and feature; or, trading on a +common knowledge, toss each other famous names, still glowing with the +hues of life. Communication is no longer by words, but by the instancing +of whole biographies, epics, systems of philosophy, and epochs of +history, in bulk. That which is understood excels that which is spoken +in quantity and quality alike; ideas thus figured and personified, +change hands, as we may say, like coin; and the speakers imply without +effort the most obscure and intricate thoughts. Strangers who have a +large common ground of reading will, for this reason, come the sooner to +the grapple of genuine converse. If they know Othello and Napoleon, +Consuelo and Clarissa Harlowe, Vautrin and Steenie Steenson, they can +leave generalities and begin at once to speak by figures. + +Conduct and art are the two subjects that arise most frequently and that +embrace the widest range of facts. A few pleasures bear discussion for +their own sake, but only those which are most social or most radically +human; and even these can only be discussed among their devotees. A +technicality is always welcome to the expert, whether in athletics, art, +or law; I have heard the best kind of talk on technicalities from such +rare and happy persons as both know and love their business. No human +being ever spoke of scenery for above two minutes at a time, which makes +me suspect we hear too much of it in literature. The weather is regarded +as the very nadir and scoff of conversational topics. And yet the +weather, the dramatic element in scenery, is far more tractable in +language, and far more human both in import and suggestion, than the +stable features of the landscape. Sailors and shepherds and the people +generally of coast and mountain, talk well of it; and it is often +excitingly presented in literature. But the tendency of all living talk +draws it back and back into the common focus of humanity. Talk is a +creature of the street and market-place, feeding on gossip; and its last +resort is still in a discussion on morals. That is the heroic form of +gossip; heroic in virtue of its high pretensions; but still gossip, +because it turns on personalities. You can keep no men long, nor +Scotsmen at all, off moral or theological discussion. These are to all +the world what law is to lawyers; they are everybody's technicalities; +the medium through which all consider life, and the dialect in which +they express their judgments. I knew three young men who walked together +daily for some two months in a solemn and beautiful forest and in +cloudless summer weather; daily they talked with unabated zest, and yet +scarce wandered that whole time beyond two subjects--theology and love. +And perhaps neither a court of love nor an assembly of divines would +have granted their premisses or welcomed their conclusions. + +Conclusions, indeed, are not often reached by talk any more than by +private thinking. That is not the profit. The profit is in the exercise, +and above all in the experience; for when we reason at large on any +subject, we review our state and history in life. From time to time, +however, and specially, I think, in talking art, talk becomes effective, +conquering like war, widening the boundaries of knowledge like an +exploration. A point arises; the question takes a problematical, a +baffling, yet a likely air; the talkers begin to feel lively +presentiments of some conclusion near at hand; towards this they strive +with emulous ardour, each by his own path, and struggling for first +utterance; and then one leaps upon the summit of that matter with a +shout, and almost at the same moment the other is beside him; and behold +they are agreed. Like enough, the progress is illusory, a mere cat's +cradle having been wound and unwound out of words. But the sense of +joint discovery is none the less giddy and inspiriting. And in the life +of the talker such triumphs, though imaginary, are neither few nor far +apart; they are attained with speed and pleasure, in the hour of mirth; +and by the nature of the process, they are always worthily shared. + +There is a certain attitude, combative at once and deferential, eager to +fight yet most averse to quarrel, which marks out at once the talkable +man. It is not eloquence, not fairness, not obstinacy, but a certain +proportion of all of these that I love to encounter in my amicable +adversaries. They must not be pontiffs holding doctrine, but huntsmen +questing after elements of truth. Neither must they be boys to be +instructed, but fellow-teachers with whom I may wrangle and agree on +equal terms. We must reach some solution, some shadow of consent; for +without that, eager talk becomes a torture. But we do not wish to reach +it cheaply, or quickly, or without the tussle and effort wherein +pleasure lies. + +The very best talker, with me, is one whom I shall call Spring-Heel'd +Jack.[8] I say so, because I never knew any one who mingled so largely +the possible ingredients of converse. In the Spanish proverb, the fourth +man necessary to compound a salad is a madman to mix it: Jack is that +madman. I know not which is more remarkable: the insane lucidity of his +conclusions, the humorous eloquence of his language, or his power of +method, bringing the whole of life into the focus of the subject +treated, mixing the conversational salad like a drunken god. He doubles +like the serpent, changes and flashes like the shaken kaleidoscope, +transmigrates bodily into the views of others, and so, in the twinkling +of an eye and with a heady rapture, turns questions inside out and +flings them empty before you on the ground, like a triumphant conjuror. +It is my common practice when a piece of conduct puzzles me, to attack +it in the presence of Jack with such grossness, such partiality, and +such wearing iteration, as at length shall spur him up in its defence. +In a moment he transmigrates, dons the required character, and with +moonstruck philosophy justifies the act in question. I can fancy nothing +to compare with the vigour of these impersonations, the strange scale of +language, flying from Shakespeare to Kant, and from Kant to Major +Dyngwell-- + + "As fast as a musician scatters sounds + Out of an instrument--" + +the sudden, sweeping generalisations, the absurd irrelevant +particularities, the wit, wisdom, folly, humour, eloquence, and bathos, +each startling in its kind, and yet all luminous in the admired disorder +of their combination. A talker of a different calibre, though belonging +to the same school, is Burly.[9] Burly is a man of a great presence; he +commands a larger atmosphere, gives the impression of a grosser mass of +character than most men. It has been said of him that his presence could +be felt in a room you entered blindfold; and the same, I think, has been +said of other powerful constitutions condemned to much physical +inaction. There is something boisterous and piratic in Burly's manner of +talk which suits well enough with this impression. He will roar you +down, he will bury his face in his hands, he will undergo passions of +revolt and agony; and meanwhile his attitude of mind is really both +conciliatory and receptive; and after Pistol has been out-Pistol'd, and +the welkin rung for hours, you begin to perceive a certain subsidence in +these spring torrents, points of agreement issue, and you end +arm-in-arm, and in a glow of mutual admiration. The outcry only serves +to make your final union the more unexpected and precious. Throughout +there has been perfect sincerity, perfect intelligence, a desire to hear +although not always to listen, and an unaffected eagerness to meet +concessions. You have, with Burly, none of the dangers that attend +debate with Spring-Heel'd Jack; who may at any moment turn his powers of +transmigration on yourself, create for you a view you never held, and +then furiously fall on you for holding it. These, at least, are my two +favourites, and both are loud, copious, intolerant talkers. This argues +that I myself am in the same category; for if we love talking at all, we +love a bright, fierce adversary, who will hold his ground, foot by foot, +in much our own manner, sell his attention dearly, and give us our full +measure of the dust and exertion of battle. Both these men can be beat +from a position, but it takes six hours to do it; a high and hard +adventure, worth attempting. With both you can pass days in an +enchanted country of the mind, with people, scenery, and manners of its +own; live a life apart, more arduous, active, and glowing than any real +existence; and come forth again when the talk is over, as out of a +theatre or a dream, to find the east wind still blowing and the +chimney-pots of the old battered city still around you. Jack has the far +finer mind, Burly the far more honest; Jack gives us the animated +poetry, Burly the romantic prose of similar themes; the one glances high +like a meteor and makes a light in darkness; the other, with many +changing hues of fire, burns at the sea-level, like a conflagration; but +both have the same humour and artistic interests, the same unquenched +ardour in pursuit, the same gusts of talk and thunderclaps of +contradiction. + +Cockshot[10] is a different article, but vastly entertaining, and has +been meat and drink to me for many a long evening. His manner is dry, +brisk, and pertinacious, and the choice of words not much. The point +about him is his extraordinary readiness and spirit. You can propound +nothing but he has either a theory about it ready-made, or will have one +instantly on the stocks, and proceed to lay its timbers and launch it in +your presence. "Let me see," he will say. "Give me a moment. I _should_ +have some theory for that." A blither spectacle than the vigour with +which he sets about the task, it were hard to fancy. He is possessed by +a demoniac energy, welding the elements for his life, and bending ideas, +as an athlete bends a horse-shoe, with a visible and lively effort. He +has, in theorising, a compass, an art; what I would call the synthetic +gusto; something of a Herbert Spencer, who should see the fun of the +thing. You are not bound, and no more is he, to place your faith in +these brand-new opinions. But some of them are right enough, durable +even for life; and the poorest serve for a cock-shy--as when idle +people, after picnics, float a bottle on a pond and have an hour's +diversion ere it sinks. Whichever they are, serious opinions or humours +of the moment, he still defends his ventures with indefatigable wit and +spirit, hitting savagely himself, but taking punishment like a man. He +knows and never forgets that people talk, first of all, for the sake of +talking; conducts himself in the ring, to use the old slang, like a +thorough "glutton," and honestly enjoys a telling facer from his +adversary. Cockshot is bottled effervescency, the sworn foe of sleep. +Three-in-the-morning Cockshot, says a victim. His talk is like the +driest of all imaginable dry champagnes. Sleight of hand and inimitable +quickness are the qualities by which he lives. Athelred,[11] on the +other hand, presents you with the spectacle of a sincere and somewhat +slow nature thinking aloud. He is the most unready man I ever knew to +shine in conversation. You may see him sometimes wrestle with a +refractory jest for a minute or two together, and perhaps fail to throw +it in the end. And there is something singularly engaging, often +instructive, in the simplicity with which he thus exposes the process as +well as the result, the works as well as the dial of the clock. Withal +he has his hours of inspiration. Apt words come to him as if by +accident, and, coming from deeper down, they smack the more personally, +they have the more of fine old crusted humanity, rich in sediment and +humour. There are sayings of his in which he has stamped himself into +the very grain of the language; you would think he must have worn the +words next his skin, and slept with them. Yet it is not as a sayer of +particular good things that Athelred is most to be regarded, rather as +the stalwart woodman of thought. I have pulled on a light cord often +enough, while he has been wielding the broad-axe; and, between us, on +this unequal division, many a specious fallacy has fallen. I have known +him to battle the same question night after night for years, keeping it +in the reign of talk, constantly applying it and re-applying it to life +with humorous or grave intention, and all the while never hurrying, nor +flagging, nor taking an unfair advantage of the facts. Jack at a given +moment, when arising, as it were, from the tripod, can be more radiantly +just to those from whom he differs; but then the tenor of his thoughts +is even calumnious; while Athelred, slower to forge excuses, is yet +slower to condemn, and sits over the welter of the world, vacillating +but still judicial, and still faithfully contending with his doubts. + +Both the last talkers deal much in points of conduct and religion +studied in the "dry light" of prose. Indirectly and as if against his +will the same elements from time to time appear in the troubled and +poetic talk of Opalstein.[12] His various and exotic knowledge, complete +although unready sympathies, and fine, full, discriminative flow of +language, fit him out to be the best of talkers; so perhaps he is with +some, not _quite_ with me--_proxime accessit_, I should say. He sings +the praises of the earth and the arts, flowers and jewels, wine and +music, in a moonlight, serenading manner, as to the light guitar; even +wisdom comes from his tongue like singing; no one is, indeed, more +tuneful in the upper notes. But even while he sings the song of the +Sirens, he still hearkens to the barking of the Sphinx. Jarring Byronic +notes interrupt the flow of his Horatian humours. His mirth has +something of the tragedy of the world for its perpetual background; and +he feasts like Don Giovanni to a double orchestra, one lightly sounding +for the dance, one pealing Beethoven in the distance. He is not truly +reconciled either with life or with himself; and this instant war in his +members sometimes divides the man's attention. He does not always, +perhaps not often, frankly surrender himself in conversation. He brings +into the talk other thoughts than those which he expresses; you are +conscious that he keeps an eye on something else, that he does not shake +off the world, nor quite forget himself. Hence arise occasional +disappointments; even an occasional unfairness for his companions, who +find themselves one day giving too much and the next, when they are wary +out of season, giving perhaps too little. Purcel[13] is in another class +from any I have mentioned. He is no debater, but appears in +conversation, as occasion rises, in two distinct characters, one of +which I admire and fear, and the other love. In the first, he is +radiantly civil and rather silent, sits on a high, courtly hill-top, and +from that vantage-ground drops you his remarks like favours. He seems +not to share in our sublunary contentions; he wears no sign of interest; +when on a sudden there falls in a crystal of wit, so polished that the +dull do not perceive it, but so right that the sensitive are silenced. +True talk should have more body and blood, should be louder, vainer, and +more declaratory of the man; the true talker should not hold so steady +an advantage over whom he speaks with; and that is one reason out of a +score why I prefer my Purcel in his second character, when he unbends +into a strain of graceful gossip, singing like the fireside kettle. In +these moods he has an elegant homeliness that rings of the true Queen +Anne. I know another person who attains, in his moments, to the +insolence of a Restoration comedy, speaking, I declare, as Congreve +wrote; but that is a sport of nature, and scarce falls under the rubric, +for there is none, alas! to give him answer. + +One last remark occurs: It is the mark of genuine conversation that the +sayings can scarce be quoted with their full effect beyond the circle of +common friends. To have their proper weight they should appear in a +biography, and with the portrait of the speaker. Good talk is dramatic, +it is like an impromptu piece of acting where each should represent +himself to the greatest advantage; and that is the best kind of talk +where each speaker is most fully and candidly himself, and where, if you +were to shift the speeches round from one to another, there would be the +greatest loss in significance and perspicuity. It is for this reason +that talk depends so wholly on our company. We should like to introduce +Falstaff and Mercutio, or Falstaff and Sir Toby; but Falstaff in talk +with Cordelia seems even painful. Most of us, by the Protean quality of +man, can talk to some degree with all; but the true talk, that strikes +out all the slumbering best of us, comes only with the peculiar brethren +of our spirits, is founded as deep as love in the constitution of our +being, and is a thing to relish with all our energy, while yet we have +it, and to be grateful for for ever. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [8] Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson (1847-1900). + + [9] W. E. Henley (1849-1903). + + [10] Fleeming Jenkin (1833-85). + + [11] Sir Walter Grindlay Simpson, Bart. (1843-98). + + [12] John Addington Symonds (1840-93). + + [13] Mr. Edmund Gosse. + + + + + XI + + TALK AND TALKERS[14] + + II + + +In the last paper there was perhaps too much about mere debate; and +there was nothing said at all about that kind of talk which is merely +luminous and restful, a higher power of silence, the quiet of the +evening shared by ruminating friends. There is something, aside from +personal preference, to be alleged in support of this omission. Those +who are no chimney-cornerers, who rejoice in the social thunderstorm, +have a ground in reason for their choice. They get little rest indeed; +but restfulness is a quality for cattle; the virtues are all active, +life is alert, and it is in repose that men prepare themselves for evil. +On the other hand, they are bruised into a knowledge of themselves and +others; they have in a high degree the fencer's pleasure in dexterity +displayed and proved; what they get they get upon life's terms, paying +for it as they go; and once the talk is launched, they are assured of +honest dealing from an adversary eager like themselves. The aboriginal +man within us, the cave-dweller, still lusty as when he fought tooth and +nail for roots and berries, scents this kind of equal battle from afar; +it is like his old primeval days upon the crags, a return to the +sincerity of savage life from the comfortable fictions of the civilised. +And if it be delightful to the Old Man, it is none the less profitable +to his younger brother, the conscientious gentleman. I feel never quite +sure of your urbane and smiling coteries; I fear they indulge a man's +vanities in silence, suffer him to encroach, encourage him on to be an +ass, and send him forth again, not merely contemned for the moment, but +radically more contemptible than when he entered. But if I have a +flushed, blustering fellow for my opposite, bent on carrying a point, my +vanity is sure to have its ears rubbed, once at least, in the course of +the debate. He will not spare me when we differ; he will not fear to +demonstrate my folly to my face. + +For many natures there is not much charm in the still, chambered +society, the circle of bland countenances, the digestive silence, the +admired remark, the flutter of affectionate approval. They demand more +atmosphere and exercise; "a gale upon their spirits," as our pious +ancestors would phrase it; to have their wits well breathed in an +uproarious Valhalla. And I suspect that the choice, given their +character and faults, is one to be defended. The purely wise are +silenced by facts; they talk in a clear atmosphere, problems lying +around them like a view in nature; if they can be shown to be somewhat +in the wrong, they digest the reproof like a thrashing, and make better +intellectual blood. They stand corrected by a whisper; a word or a +glance reminds them of the great eternal law. But it is not so with all. +Others in conversation seek rather contact with their fellow-men than +increase of knowledge or clarity of thought. The drama, not the +philosophy, of life is the sphere of their intellectual activity. Even +when they pursue truth, they desire as much as possible of what we may +call human scenery along the road they follow. They dwell in the heart +of life; the blood sounding in their ears, their eyes laying hold of +what delights them with a brutal avidity that makes them blind to all +besides, their interest riveted on people, living, loving, talking, +tangible people. To a man of this description, the sphere of argument +seems very pale and ghostly. By a strong expression, a perturbed +countenance, floods of tears, an insult which his conscience obliges him +to swallow, he is brought round to knowledge which no syllogism would +have conveyed to him. His own experience is so vivid, he is so +superlatively conscious of himself, that if, day after day, he is +allowed to hector and hear nothing but approving echoes, he will lose +his hold on the soberness of things and take himself in earnest for a +god. Talk might be to such an one the very way of moral ruin; the school +where he might learn to be at once intolerable and ridiculous. + +This character is perhaps commoner than philosophers suppose. And for +persons of that stamp to learn much by conversation, they must speak +with their superiors, not in intellect, for that is a superiority that +must be proved, but in station. If they cannot find a friend to bully +them for their good, they must find either an old man, a woman, or some +one so far below them in the artificial order of society, that courtesy +may be particularly exercised. + +The best teachers are the aged. To the old our mouths are always partly +closed; we must swallow our obvious retorts and listen. They sit above +our heads, on life's raised dais, and appeal at once to our respect and +pity. A flavour of the old school, a touch of something different in +their manner--which is freer and rounder, if they come of what is called +a good family, and often more timid and precise if they are of the +middle class--serves, in these days, to accentuate the difference of age +and add a distinction to grey hairs. But their superiority is founded +more deeply than by outward marks or gestures. They are before us in the +march of man; they have more or less solved the irking problem; they +have battled through the equinox of life; in good and evil they have +held their course; and now, without open shame, they near the crown and +harbour. It may be we have been struck with one of fortune's darts; we +can scarce be civil, so cruelly is our spirit tossed. Yet long before we +were so much as thought upon, the like calamity befell the old man or +woman that now, with pleasant humour, rallies us upon our inattention, +sitting composed in the holy evening of man's life, in the clear shining +after rain. We grow ashamed of our distresses, new and hot and coarse +like villainous roadside brandy; we see life in aerial perspective, +under the heavens of faith; and out of the worst, in the mere presence +of contented elders, look forward and take patience. Fear shrinks before +them "like a thing reproved," not the flitting and ineffectual fear of +death, but the instant, dwelling terror of the responsibilities and +revenges of life. Their speech, indeed, is timid; they report lions in +the path; they counsel a meticulous footing; but their serene marred +faces are more eloquent and tell another story. Where they have gone, we +will go also, not very greatly fearing; what they have endured unbroken, +we also, God helping us, will make a shift to bear. + +Not only is the presence of the aged in itself remedial, but their minds +are stored with antidotes, wisdom's simples, plain considerations +overlooked by youth. They have matter to communicate, be they never so +stupid. Their talk is not merely literature, it is great literature; +classic in virtue of the speaker's detachment, studded, like a book of +travel, with things we should not otherwise have learnt. In virtue, I +have said, of the speaker's detachment,--and this is why, of two old +men, the one who is not your father speaks to you with the more sensible +authority; for in the paternal relation the oldest have lively interests +and remain still young. Thus I have known two young men great friends; +each swore by the other's father; the father of each swore by the other +lad; and yet each pair, of parent and child, were perpetually by the +ears. This is typical: it reads like the germ of some kindly comedy. + +The old appear in conversation in two characters: the critically silent +and the garrulous anecdotic. The last is perhaps what we look for; it is +perhaps the more instructive. An old gentleman, well on in years, sits +handsomely and naturally in the bow-window of his age, scanning +experience with reverted eye; and, chirping and smiling, communicates +the accidents and reads the lesson of his long career. Opinions are +strengthened, indeed, but they are also weeded out in the course of +years. What remains steadily present to the eye of the retired veteran +in his hermitage, what still ministers to his content, what still +quickens his old honest heart--these are "the real long-lived things" +that Whitman tells us to prefer. Where youth agrees with age, not where +they differ, wisdom lies; and it is when the young disciple finds his +heart to beat in tune with his grey-bearded teacher's that a lesson may +be learned. I have known one old gentleman, whom I may name, for he is +now gathered to his stock--Robert Hunter, Sheriff of Dumbarton, and +author of an excellent law-book still re-edited and republished. Whether +he was originally big or little is more than I can guess. When I knew +him he was all fallen away and fallen in; crooked and shrunken; buckled +into a stiff waistcoat for support; troubled by ailments, which kept him +hobbling in and out of the room; one foot gouty; a wig for decency, not +for deception, on his head; close shaved, except under his chin--and for +that he never failed to apologise, for it went sore against the +traditions of his life. You can imagine how he would fare in a novel by +Miss Mather; yet this rag of a Chelsea veteran lived to his last year in +the plenitude of all that is best in man, brimming with human kindness, +and staunch as a Roman soldier under his manifold infirmities. You could +not say that he had lost his memory, for he would repeat Shakespeare and +Webster and Jeremy Taylor and Burke by the page together; but the +parchment was filled up, there was no room for fresh inscriptions, and +he was capable of repeating the same anecdote on many successive visits. +His voice survived in its full power, and he took a pride in using it. +On his last voyage as Commissioner of Lighthouses, he hailed a ship at +sea and made himself clearly audible without a speaking-trumpet, +ruffling the while with a proper vanity in his achievement. He had a +habit of eking out his words with interrogative hems, which was +puzzling and a little wearisome, suited ill with his appearance, and +seemed a survival from some former stage of bodily portliness. Of yore, +when he was a great pedestrian and no enemy to good claret, he may have +pointed with these minute-guns his allocutions to the bench. His humour +was perfectly equable, set beyond the reach of fate; gout, rheumatism, +stone, and gravel might have combined their forces against that frail +tabernacle, but when I came round on Sunday evening, he would lay aside +Jeremy Taylor's "Life of Christ" and greet me with the same open brow, +the same kind formality of manner. His opinions and sympathies dated the +man almost to a decade. He had begun life, under his mother's influence, +as an admirer of Junius, but on maturer knowledge had transferred his +admiration to Burke. He cautioned me, with entire gravity, to be +punctilious in writing English; never to forget that I was a Scotsman, +that English was a foreign tongue, and that if I attempted the +colloquial, I should certainly be shamed: the remark was apposite, I +suppose, in the days of David Hume. Scott was too new for him; he had +known the author--known him, too, for a Tory; and to the genuine classic +a contemporary is always something of a trouble. He had the old, serious +love of the play; had even, as he was proud to tell, played a certain +part in the history of Shakespearian revivals, for he had successfully +pressed on Murray, of the old Edinburgh Theatre, the idea of producing +Shakespeare's fairy pieces with great scenic display. A Moderate in +religion, he was much struck in the last years of his life by a +conversation with two young lads, revivalists. "H'm," he would say--"new +to me. I have had--h'm--no such experience." It struck him, not with +pain, rather with a solemn philosophic interest, that he, a Christian as +he hoped, and a Christian of so old a standing, should hear these young +fellows talking of his own subject, his own weapons that he had fought +the battle of life with,--"and--h'm--not understand." In this wise and +graceful attitude he did justice to himself and others, reposed unshaken +in his old beliefs, and recognised their limits without anger or alarm. +His last recorded remark, on the last night of his life, was after he +had been arguing against Calvinism with his minister and was interrupted +by an intolerable pang. "After all," he said, "of all the 'isms, I know +none so bad as rheumatism." My own last sight of him was some time +before, when we dined together at an inn; he had been on circuit, for he +stuck to his duties like a chief part of his existence; and I remember +it as the only occasion on which he ever soiled his lips with slang--a +thing he loathed. We were both Roberts; and as we took our places at +table, he addressed me with a twinkle: "We are just what you would call +two bob." He offered me port, I remember, as the proper milk of youth; +spoke of "twenty-shilling notes"; and throughout the meal was full of +old-world pleasantry and quaintness, like an ancient boy on a holiday. +But what I recall chiefly was his confession that he had never read +_Othello_ to an end. Shakespeare was his continual study. He loved +nothing better than to display his knowledge and memory by adducing +parallel passages from Shakespeare, passages where the same word was +employed, or the same idea differently treated. But _Othello_ had beaten +him. "That noble gentleman and that noble lady--h'm--too painful for +me." The same night the hoardings were covered with posters, "Burlesque +of _Othello_," and the contrast blazed up in my mind like a bonfire. An +unforgettable look it gave me into that kind man's soul. His +acquaintance was indeed a liberal and pious education. All the +humanities were taught in that bare dining-room beside his gouty +footstool. He was a piece of good advice; he was himself the instance +that pointed and adorned his various talk. Nor could a young man have +found elsewhere a place so set apart from envy, fear, discontent, or any +of the passions that debase; a life so honest and composed; a soul like +an ancient violin, so subdued to harmony, responding to a touch in +music--as in that dining-room, with Mr. Hunter chatting at the eleventh +hour, under the shadow of eternity, fearless and gentle. + +The second class of old people are not anecdotic; they are rather +hearers than talkers, listening to the young with an amused and critical +attention. To have this sort of intercourse to perfection, I think we +must go to old ladies. Women are better hearers than men, to begin with; +they learn, I fear in anguish, to bear with the tedious and infantile +vanity of the other sex; and we will take more from a woman than even +from the oldest man in the way of biting comment. Biting comment is the +chief part, whether for profit or amusement, in this business. The old +lady that I have in my eye is a very caustic speaker, her tongue, after +years of practice, in absolute command, whether for silence or attack. +If she chance to dislike you, you will be tempted to curse the malignity +of age. But if you chance to please even slightly, you will be listened +to with a particular laughing grace of sympathy, and from time to time +chastised, as if in play, with a parasol as heavy as a pole-axe. It +requires a singular art, as well as the vantage-ground of age, to deal +these stunning corrections among the coxcombs of the young. The pill is +disguised in sugar of wit; it is administered as a compliment--if you +had not pleased, you would not have been censured; it is a personal +affair--a hyphen, a _trait d'union_, between you and your censor; age's +philandering, for her pleasure and your good. Incontestably the young +man feels very much of a fool; but he must be a perfect Malvolio, sick +with self-love, if he cannot take an open buffet and still smile. The +correction of silence is what kills; when you know you have +transgressed, and your friend says nothing and avoids your eye. If a man +were made of gutta-percha, his heart would quail at such a moment. But +when the word is out, the worst is over; and a fellow with any good +humour at all may pass through a perfect hail of witty criticism, every +bare place on his soul hit to the quick with a shrewd missile, and +reappear, as if after a dive, tingling with a fine moral reaction, and +ready, with a shrinking readiness, one-third loath, for a repetition of +the discipline. + +There are few women, not well sunned and ripened, and perhaps toughened, +who can thus stand apart from a man and say the true thing with a kind +of genial cruelty. Still there are some--and I doubt if there be any man +who can return the compliment. The class of man represented by Vernon +Whitford in "The Egoist" says, indeed, the true thing, but he says it +stockishly. Vernon is a noble fellow, and makes, by the way, a noble and +instructive contrast to Daniel Deronda: his conduct is the conduct of a +man of honour; but we agree with him, against our consciences, when he +remorsefully considers "its astonishing dryness." He is the best of men, +but the best of women manage to combine all that and something more. +Their very faults assist them; they are helped even by the falseness of +their position in life. They can retire into the fortified camp of the +proprieties. They can touch a subject and suppress it. The most adroit +employ a somewhat elaborate reserve as a means to be frank, much as they +wear gloves when they shake hands. But a man has the full responsibility +of his freedom, cannot evade a question, can scarce be silent without +rudeness, must answer for his words upon the moment, and is not seldom +left face to face with a damning choice, between the more or less +dishonourable wriggling of Deronda and the downright woodenness of +Vernon Whitford. + +But the superiority of women is perpetually menaced; they do not sit +throned on infirmities like the old; they, are suitors as well as +sovereigns; their vanity is engaged, their affections are too apt to +follow; and hence much of the talk between the sexes degenerates into +something unworthy of the name. The desire to please, to shine with a +certain softness of lustre and to draw a fascinating picture of oneself, +banishes from conversation all that is sterling and most of what is +humorous. As soon as a strong current of mutual admiration begins to +flow, the human interest triumphs entirely over the intellectual, and +the commerce of words, consciously or not, becomes secondary to the +commercing of eyes. But even where this ridiculous danger is avoided, +and a man and woman converse equally and honestly, something in their +nature or their education falsifies the strain. An instinct prompts them +to agree; and where that is impossible, to agree to differ. Should they +neglect the warning, at the first suspicion of an argument, they find +themselves in different hemispheres. About any point of business or +conduct, any actual affair demanding settlement, a woman will speak and +listen, hear and answer arguments, not only with natural wisdom, but +with candour and logical honesty. But if the subject of debate be +something in the air, an abstraction, an excuse for talk, a logical Aunt +Sally, then may the male debater instantly abandon hope; he may employ +reason, adduce facts, be supple, be smiling, be angry, all shall avail +him nothing; what the woman said first, that (unless she has forgotten +it) she will repeat at the end. Hence, at the very junctures when a talk +between men grows brighter and quicker and begins to promise to bear +fruit, talk between the sexes is menaced with dissolution. The point of +difference, the point of interest, is evaded by the brilliant woman, +under a shower of irrelevant conversational rockets; it is bridged by +the discreet woman with a rustle of silk, as she passes smoothly forward +to the nearest point of safety. And this sort of prestidigitation, +juggling the dangerous topic out of sight until it can be reintroduced +with safety in an altered shape, is a piece of tactics among the true +drawing-room queens. + +The drawing-room is, indeed, an artificial place; it is so by our choice +and for our sins. The subjection of women; the ideal imposed upon them +from the cradle, and worn, like a hair-shirt, with so much constancy; +their motherly, superior tenderness to man's vanity and self-importance; +their managing arts--the arts of a civilised slave among good-natured +barbarians--are all painful ingredients and all help to falsify +relations. It is not till we get clear of that amusing artificial scene +that genuine relations are founded, or ideas honestly compared. In the +garden, on the road or the hillside, or _tete-a-tete_ and apart from +interruptions, occasions arise when we may learn much from any single +woman; and nowhere more often than in married life. Marriage is one long +conversation, chequered by disputes. The disputes are valueless; they +but ingrain the difference; the heroic heart of woman prompting her at +once to nail her colours to the mast. But in the intervals, almost +unconsciously and with no desire to shine, the whole material of life is +turned over and over, ideas are struck out and shared, the two persons +more and more adapt their notions one to suit the other, and in process +of time, without sound of trumpet, they conduct each other into new +worlds of thought. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [14] This sequel was called forth by an excellent article in _The + Spectator_. + + + + + XII + + THE CHARACTER OF DOGS + + +The civilisation, the manners, and the morals of dog-kind are to a great +extent subordinated to those of his ancestral master, man. This animal, +in many ways so superior, has accepted a position of inferiority, shares +the domestic life, and humours the caprices of the tyrant. But the +potentate, like the British in India, pays small regard to the character +of his willing client, judges him with listless glances, and condemns +him in a byword. Listless have been the looks of his admirers, who have +exhausted idle terms of praise, and buried the poor soul below +exaggerations. And yet more idle and, if possible, more unintelligent +has been the attitude of his express detractors; those who are very fond +of dogs, "but in their proper place"; who say "poo' fellow, poo' +fellow," and are themselves far poorer; who whet the knife of the +vivisectionist or heat his oven; who are not ashamed to admire "the +creature's instinct"; and flying far beyond folly, have dared to +resuscitate the theory of animal machines. The "dog's instinct" and the +"automaton-dog," in this age of psychology and science, sound like +strange anachronisms. An automaton he certainly is; a machine working +independently of his control, the heart like the mill-wheel, keeping all +in motion, and the consciousness, like a person shut in the mill garret, +enjoying the view out of the window and shaken by the thunder of the +stones; an automaton in one corner of which a living spirit is confined: +an automaton like man. Instinct again he certainly possesses. Inherited +aptitudes are his, inherited frailties. Some things he at once views +and understands, as though he were awakened from a sleep, as though he +came "trailing clouds of glory." But with him, as with man, the field of +instinct is limited; its utterances are obscure and occasional; and +about the far larger part of life both the dog and his master must +conduct their steps by deduction and observation. + +The leading distinction between dog and man, after and perhaps before +the different duration of their lives, is that the one can speak and +that the other cannot. The absence of the power of speech confines the +dog in the development of his intellect. It hinders him from many +speculations, for words are the beginning of metaphysic. At the same +blow it saves him from many superstitions, and his silence has won for +him a higher name for virtue than his conduct justifies. The faults of +the dog are many. He is vainer than man, singularly greedy of notice, +singularly intolerant of ridicule, suspicious like the deaf, jealous to +the degree of frenzy, and radically devoid of truth. The day of an +intelligent small dog is passed in the manufacture and the laborious +communication of falsehood; he lies with his tail, he lies with his eye, +he lies with his protesting paw; and when he rattles his dish or +scratches at the door his purpose is other than appears. But he has some +apology to offer for the vice. Many of the signs which form his dialect +have come to bear an arbitrary meaning, clearly understood both by his +master and himself; yet when a new want arises he must either invent a +new vehicle of meaning or wrest an old one to a different purpose; and +this necessity frequently recurring must tend to lessen his idea of the +sanctity of symbols. Meanwhile the dog is clear in his own conscience, +and draws, with a human nicety, the distinction between formal and +essential truth. Of his punning perversions, his legitimate dexterity +with symbols, he is even vain; but when he has told and been detected in +a lie, there is not a hair upon his body but confesses guilt. To a dog +of gentlemanly feeling, theft and falsehood are disgraceful vices. The +canine, like the human, gentleman demands in his misdemeanours +Montaigne's "_je ne sais quoi de genereux_." He is never more than half +ashamed of having barked or bitten; and for those faults into which he +has been led by the desire to shine before a lady of his race, he +retains, even under physical correction, a share of pride. But to be +caught lying, if he understands it, instantly uncurls his fleece. + +Just as among dull observers he preserves a name for truth, the dog has +been credited with modesty. It is amazing how the use of language blunts +the faculties of man--that because vainglory finds no vent in words, +creatures supplied with eyes have been unable to detect a fault so gross +and obvious. If a small spoiled dog were suddenly to be endowed with +speech, he would prate interminably, and still about himself; when we +had friends, we should be forced to lock him in a garret; and what with +his whining jealousies and his foible for falsehood, in a year's time he +would have gone far to weary out our love. I was about to compare him to +Sir Willoughby Patterne, but the Patternes have a manlier sense of their +own merits; and the parallel, besides, is ready. Hans Christian +Andersen, as we behold him in his startling memoirs, thrilling from top +to toe with an excruciating vanity, and scouting even along the street +for shadows of offence--here was the talking dog. + +It is just this rage for consideration that has betrayed the dog into +his satellite position as the friend of man. The cat, an animal of +franker appetites, preserves his independence. But the dog, with one eye +ever on the audience, has been wheedled into slavery, and praised and +patted into the renunciation of his nature. Once he ceased hunting and +became man's plate-licker, the Rubicon was crossed. Thenceforth he was a +gentleman of leisure; and except the few whom we keep working, the whole +race grew more and more self-conscious, mannered, and affected. The +number of things that a small dog does naturally is strangely small. +Enjoying better spirits and not crushed under material cares, he is far +more theatrical than average man. His whole life, if he be a dog of any +pretension to gallantry, is spent in a vain show, and in the hot pursuit +of admiration. Take out your puppy for a walk, and you will find the +little ball of fur clumsy, stupid, bewildered, but natural. Let but a +few months pass, and when you repeat the process you will find nature +buried in convention. He will do nothing plainly; but the simplest +processes of our material life will all be bent into the forms of an +elaborate and mysterious etiquette. Instinct, says the fool, has +awakened. But it is not so. Some dogs--some, at the very least--if they +be kept separate from others, remain quite natural; and these, when at +length they meet with a companion of experience, and have the game +explained to them, distinguish themselves by the severity of their +devotion to its rules. I wish I were allowed to tell a story which would +radiantly illuminate the point; but men, like dogs, have an elaborate +and mysterious etiquette. It is their bond of sympathy that both are the +children of convention. + +The person, man or dog, who has a conscience is eternally condemned to +some degree of humbug; the sense of the law in their members fatally +precipitates either towards a frozen and affected bearing. And the +converse is true; and in the elaborate and conscious manners of the dog, +moral opinions and the love of the ideal stand confessed. To follow for +ten minutes in the street some swaggering, canine cavalier is to receive +a lesson in dramatic art and the cultured conduct of the body; in every +act and gesture you see him true to a refined conception; and the +dullest cur, beholding him, pricks up his ear and proceeds to imitate +and parody that charming ease. For to be a high-mannered and high-minded +gentleman, careless, affable, and gay, is the inborn pretension of the +dog. The large dog, so much lazier, so much more weighed upon with +matter, so majestic in repose, so beautiful in effort, is born with the +dramatic means to wholly represent the part. And it is more pathetic and +perhaps more instructive to consider the small dog in his conscientious +and imperfect efforts to outdo Sir Philip Sidney. For the ideal of the +dog is feudal and religious; the ever-present polytheism, the +whip-bearing Olympus of mankind, rules them on the one hand; on the +other, their singular difference of size and strength among themselves +effectually prevents the appearance of the democratic notion. Or we +might more exactly compare their society to the curious spectacle +presented by a school--ushers, monitors, and big and little +boys--qualified by one circumstance, the introduction of the other sex. +In each we should observe a somewhat similar tension of manner, and +somewhat similar points of honour. In each the larger animal keeps a +contemptuous good humour; in each the smaller annoys him with wasp-like +impudence, certain of practical immunity; in each we shall find a double +life producing double characters, and an excursive and noisy heroism +combined with a fair amount of practical timidity. I have known dogs, +and I have known school heroes, that, set aside the fur, could hardly +have been told apart; and if we desire to understand the chivalry of +old, we must turn to the school playfields or the dungheap where the +dogs are trooping. + +Woman, with the dog, has been long enfranchised. Incessant massacre of +female innocents has changed the proportions of the sexes and perverted +their relations. Thus, when we regard the manners of the dog, we see a +romantic and monogamous animal, once perhaps as delicate as the cat, at +war with impossible conditions. Man has much to answer for; and the part +he plays is yet more damnable and parlous than Corin's in the eyes of +Touchstone. But his intervention has at least created an imperial +situation for the rare surviving ladies. In that society they reign +without a rival: conscious queens; and in the only instance of a canine +wife-beater that has ever fallen under my notice, the criminal was +somewhat excused by the circumstances of his story. He is a little, very +alert, well-bred, intelligent Skye, as black as a hat, with a wet +bramble for a nose and two cairngorms for eyes. To the human observer he +is decidedly well-looking; but to the ladies of his race he seems +abhorrent. A thorough elaborate gentleman, of the plume and sword-knot +order, he was born with a nice sense of gallantry to women. He took at +their hands the most outrageous treatment; I have heard him bleating +like a sheep, I have seen him streaming blood, and his ear tattered like +a regimental banner; and yet he would scorn to make reprisals. Nay more, +when a human lady upraised the contumelious whip against the very dame +who had been so cruelly misusing him, my little great-heart gave but one +hoarse cry and fell upon the tyrant tooth and nail. This is the tale of +a soul's tragedy. After three years of unavailing chivalry, he suddenly, +in one hour, threw off the yoke of obligation; had he been Shakespeare +he would then have written _Troilus and Cressida_ to brand the offending +sex; but being only a little dog, he began to bite them. The surprise of +the ladies whom he attacked indicated the monstrosity of his offence; +but he had fairly beaten off his better angel, fairly committed moral +suicide; for almost in the same hour, throwing aside the last rags of +decency, he proceeded to attack the aged also. The fact is worth remark, +showing, as it does, that ethical laws are common both to dogs and men; +and that with both a single deliberate violation of the conscience +loosens all. "But while the lamp holds on to burn," says the paraphrase, +"the greatest sinner may return." I have been cheered to see symptoms of +effectual penitence in my sweet ruffian; and by the handling that he +accepted uncomplainingly the other day from an indignant fair one, I +begin to hope the period of _Sturm und Drang_ is closed. + +All these little gentlemen are subtle casuists. The duty to the female +dog is plain; but where competing duties rise, down they will sit and +study them out, like Jesuit confessors. I knew another little Skye, +somewhat plain in manner and appearance, but a creature compact of +amiability and solid wisdom. His family going abroad for a winter, he +was received for that period by an uncle in the same city. The winter +over, his own family home again, and his own house (of which he was very +proud) reopened, he found himself in a dilemma between two conflicting +duties of loyalty and gratitude. His old friends were not to be +neglected, but it seemed hardly decent to desert the new. This was how +he solved the problem. Every morning, as soon as the door was opened, +off posted Coolin to his uncle's, visited the children in the nursery, +saluted the whole family, and was back at home in time for breakfast and +his bit of fish. Nor was this done without a sacrifice on his part, +sharply felt; for he had to forego the particular honour and jewel of +his day--his morning's walk with my father. And, perhaps from this +cause, he gradually wearied of and relaxed the practice, and at length +returned entirely to his ancient habits. But the same decision served +him in another and more distressing case of divided duty, which happened +not long after. He was not at all a kitchen dog, but the cook had nursed +him with unusual kindness during the distemper; and though he did not +adore her as he adored my father--although (born snob) he was critically +conscious of her position as "only a servant"--he still cherished for +her a special gratitude. Well, the cook left, and retired some streets +away to lodgings of her own; and there was Coolin in precisely the same +situation with any young gentleman who has had the inestimable benefit +of a faithful nurse. The canine conscience did not solve the problem +with a pound of tea at Christmas. No longer content to pay a flying +visit, it was the whole forenoon that he dedicated to his solitary +friend. And so, day by day, he continued to comfort her solitude until +(for some reason which I could never understand and cannot approve) he +was kept locked up to break him of the graceful habit. Here, it is not +the similarity, it is the difference, that is worthy of remark; the +clearly marked degrees of gratitude and the proportional duration of his +visits. Anything further removed from instinct it were hard to fancy; +and one is even stirred to a certain impatience with a character so +destitute of spontaneity, so passionless in justice, and so priggishly +obedient to the voice of reason. + +There are not many dogs like this good Coolin, and not many people. But +the type is one well marked, both in the human and the canine family. +Gallantry was not his aim, but a solid and somewhat oppressive +respectability. He was a sworn foe to the unusual and the conspicuous, a +praiser of the golden mean, a kind of city uncle modified by Cheeryble. +And as he was precise and conscientious in all the steps of his own +blameless course, he looked for the same precision and an even greater +gravity in the bearing of his deity, my father. It was no sinecure to be +Coolin's idol: he was exacting like a rigid parent; and at every sign of +levity in the man whom he respected, he announced loudly the death of +virtue and the proximate fall of the pillars of the earth. + +I have called him a snob; but all dogs are so, though in varying +degrees. It is hard to follow their snobbery among themselves; for +though I think we can perceive distinctions of rank, we cannot grasp +what is the criterion. Thus in Edinburgh, in a good part of the town, +there were several distinct societies or clubs that met in the morning +to--the phrase is technical--to "rake the backets" in a troop. A friend +of mine, the master of three dogs, was one day surprised to observe that +they had left one club and joined another; but whether it was a rise or +a fall, and the result of an invitation or an expulsion, was more than +he could guess. And this illustrates pointedly our ignorance of the real +life of dogs, their social ambitions and their social hierarchies. At +least, in their dealings with men they are not only conscious of sex, +but of the difference of station. And that in the most snobbish manner; +for the poor man's dog is not offended by the notice of the rich, and +keeps all his ugly feeling for those poorer or more ragged than his +master. And again, for every station they have an ideal of behaviour, to +which the master, under pain of derogation, will do wisely to conform. +How often has not a cold glance of an eye informed me that my dog was +disappointed; and how much more gladly would he not have taken a beating +than to be thus wounded in the seat of piety! + +I knew one disrespectable dog. He was far liker a cat; cared little or +nothing for men, with whom he merely co-existed as we do with cattle, +and was entirely devoted to the art of poaching. A house would not hold +him, and to live in a town was what he refused. He led, I believe, a +life of troubled but genuine pleasure, and perished beyond all question +in a trap. But this was an exception, a marked reversion to the +ancestral type; like the hairy human infant. The true dog of the +nineteenth century, to judge by the remainder of my fairly large +acquaintance, is in love with respectability. A street-dog was once +adopted by a lady. While still an Arab, he had done as Arabs do, +gambolling in the mud, charging into butchers' stalls, a cat-hunter, a +sturdy beggar, a common rogue and vagabond; but with his rise into +society he laid aside these inconsistent pleasures. He stole no more, he +hunted no more cats; and, conscious of his collar, he ignored his old +companions. Yet the canine upper class was never brought to recognise +the upstart, and from that hour, except for human countenance, he was +alone. Friendless, shorn of his sports and the habits of a lifetime, he +still lived in a glory of happiness, content with his acquired +respectability, and with no care but to support it solemnly. Are we to +condemn or praise this self-made dog? We praise his human brother. And +thus to conquer vicious habits is as rare with dogs as with men. With +the more part, for all their scruple-mongering and moral thought, the +vices that are born with them remain invincible throughout; and they +live all their years, glorying in their virtues, but still the slaves of +their defects. Thus the sage Coolin was a thief to the last; among a +thousand peccadilloes, a whole goose and a whole cold leg of mutton lay +upon his conscience; but Woggs,[15] whose soul's shipwreck in the matter +of gallantry I have recounted above, has only twice been known to steal, +and has often nobly conquered the temptation. The eighth is his +favourite commandment. There is something painfully human in these +unequal virtues and mortal frailties of the best. Still more painful is +the bearing of those "stammering professors" in the house of sickness +and under the terror of death. It is beyond a doubt to me that, somehow +or other, the dog connects together, or confounds, the uneasiness of +sickness and the consciousness of guilt. To the pains of the body he +often adds the tortures of the conscience; and at these times his +haggard protestations form, in regard to the human deathbed, a dreadful +parody or parallel. + +I once supposed that I had found an inverse relation between the double +etiquette which dogs obey; and that those who were most addicted to the +showy street life among other dogs were less careful in the practice of +home virtues for the tyrant man. But the female dog, that mass of +carneying affectations, shines equally in either sphere; rules her rough +posse of attendant swains with unwearying tact and gusto; and with her +master and mistress pushes the arts of insinuation to their crowning +point. The attention of man and the regard of other dogs flatter (it +would thus appear) the same sensibility; but perhaps, if we could read +the canine heart, they would be found to flatter it in very different +degrees. Dogs live with man as courtiers round a monarch, steeped in the +flattery of his notice and enriched with sinecures. To push their +favour in this world of pickings and caresses is, perhaps, the business +of their lives; and their joys may lie outside. I am in despair at our +persistent ignorance. I read in the lives of our companions the same +processes of reason, the same antique and fatal conflicts of the right +against the wrong, and of unbitted nature with too rigid custom; I see +them with our weaknesses, vain, false, inconstant against appetite, and +with our one stalk of virtue, devoted to the dream of an ideal; and yet +as they hurry by me on the street with tail in air, or come singly to +solicit my regard, I must own the secret purport of their lives is still +inscrutable to man. Is man the friend, or is he the patron only? Have +they indeed forgotten nature's voice? or are those moments snatched from +courtiership when they touch noses with the tinker's mongrel, the brief +reward and pleasure of their artificial lives? Doubtless, when man +shares with his dog the toils of a profession and the pleasures of an +art, as with the shepherd or the poacher, the affection warms and +strengthens till it fills the soul. But doubtless, also, the masters +are, in many cases, the object of a merely interested cultus, sitting +aloft like Louis Quatorze giving and receiving flattery and favour; and +the dogs, like the majority of men, have but foregone their true +existence and become the dupes of their ambition. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [15] Walter, Watty, Woggy, Woggs, Wogg, and lastly Bogue; under which + last name he fell in battle some twelve months ago. Glory was his + aim, and he attained it; for his icon, by the hand of Caldecott, now + lies among the treasures of the nation at the British Museum. + + + + + XIII + + A PENNY PLAIN AND TWOPENCE COLOURED + + +These words will be familiar to all students of Skelt's Juvenile Drama. +That national monument, after having changed its name to Park's, to +Webb's, to Redington's, and last of all to Pollock's, has now become, +for the most part, a memory. Some of its pillars, like Stonehenge, are +still afoot, the rest clean vanished. In may be the Museum numbers a +full set; and Mr. Ionides perhaps, or else her gracious Majesty, may +boast their great collections; but to the plain private person they are +become, like Raphaels, unattainable. I have, at different times, +possessed _Aladdin_, _The Red Rover_, _The Blind Boy_, _The Old Oak +Chest_, _The Wood Daemon_, _Jack Sheppard_, _The Miller and his Men_, +_Der Freischuetz_, _The Smuggler_, _The Forest of Bondy_, _Robin Hood_, +_The Waterman_, _Richard I._, _My Poll and my Partner Joe_, _The +Inchcape Bell_ (imperfect), and _Three-Fingered Jack_, _The Terror of +Jamaica_; and I have assisted others in the illumination of _The Maid of +the Inn_ and _The Battle of Waterloo_. In this roll-call of stirring +names you read the evidences of a happy childhood; and though not half +of them are still to be procured of any living stationer, in the mind of +their once happy owner all survive, kaleidoscopes of changing pictures, +echoes of the past. + +There stands, I fancy, to this day (but now how fallen!) a certain +stationer's shop at a corner of the wide thoroughfare that joins the +city of my childhood with the sea. When, upon any Saturday, we made a +party to behold the ships, we passed that corner; and since in those +days I loved a ship as a man loves Burgundy or daybreak, this of itself +had been enough to hallow it. But there was more than that. In the Leith +Walk window, all the year round, there stood displayed a theatre in +working order, with a "forest set," a "combat," and a few "robbers +carousing" in the slides; and below and about, dearer tenfold to me! the +plays themselves, those budgets of romance, lay tumbled one upon +another. Long and often have I lingered there with empty pockets. One +figure, we shall say, was visible in the first plate of characters, +bearded, pistol in hand, or drawing to his ear the clothyard arrow; I +would spell the name: was it Macaire, or Long Tom Coffin, or Grindoff, +2d dress? O, how I would long to see the rest! how--if the name by +chance were hidden--I would wonder in what play he figured, and what +immortal legend justified his attitude and strange apparel! And then to +go within, to announce yourself as an intending purchaser, and, closely +watched, be suffered to undo those bundles and breathlessly devour those +pages of gesticulating villains, epileptic combats, bosky forests, +palaces and war-ships, frowning fortresses and prison vaults--it was a +giddy joy. That shop, which was dark and smelt of Bibles, was a +loadstone rock for all that bore the name of boy. They could not pass it +by, nor, having entered, leave it. It was a place besieged; the shopmen, +like the Jews rebuilding Salem, had a double task. They kept us at the +stick's end, frowned us down, snatched each play out of our hand ere we +were trusted with another; and, incredible as it may sound, used to +demand of us upon our entrance, like banditti, if we came with money or +with empty hand. Old Mr. Smith himself, worn out with my eternal +vacillation, once swept the treasures from before me, with the cry: "I +do not believe, child, that you are an intending purchaser at all!" +These were the dragons of the garden; but for such joys of paradise we +could have faced the Terror of Jamaica himself. Every sheet we fingered +was another lightning glance into obscure, delicious story; it was like +wallowing in the raw stuff of story-books. I know nothing to compare +with it save now and then in dreams, when I am privileged to read in +certain unwrit stories of adventure, from which I awake to find the +world all vanity. The _crux_ of Buridan's donkey was as nothing to the +uncertainty of the boy as he handled and lingered and doated on these +bundles of delight; there was a physical pleasure in the sight and touch +of them which he would jealously prolong; and when at length the deed +was done, the play selected, and the impatient shopman had brushed the +rest into the grey portfolio, and the boy was forth again, a little late +for dinner, the lamps springing into light in the blue winter's even, +and _The Miller_, or _The Rover_, or some kindred drama clutched against +his side--on what gay feet he ran, and how he laughed aloud in +exultation! I can hear that laughter still. Out of all the years of my +life, I can recall but one home-coming to compare with these, and that +was on the night when I brought back with me the "Arabian +Entertainments" in the fat, old, double-columned volume with the prints. +I was just well into the story of the Hunchback, I remember, when my +clergyman-grandfather (a man we counted pretty stiff) came in behind me. +I grew blind with terror. But instead of ordering the book away, he said +he envied me. Ah, well he might! + +The purchase and the first half-hour at home, that was the summit. +Thenceforth the interest declined by little and little. The fable, as +set forth in the play-book, proved to be unworthy of the scenes and +characters: what fable would not? Such passages as: "Scene 6. The +Hermitage. Night set scene. Place back of scene 1, No. 2, at back of +stage and hermitage, Fig. 2, out of set piece, R. H. in a slanting +direction"--such passages, I say, though very practical, are hardly to +be called good reading. Indeed, as literature, these dramas did not much +appeal to me. I forget the very outline of the plots. Of _The Blind_ +_Boy_, beyond the fact that he was a most injured prince, and once, I +think, abducted, I know nothing. And _The Old Oak Chest_, what was it +all about? that proscript (1st dress), that prodigious number of +banditti, that old woman with the broom, and the magnificent kitchen in +the third act (was it in the third?)--they are all fallen in a +deliquium, swim faintly in my brain, and mix and vanish. + +I cannot deny that joy attended the illumination; nor can I quite +forgive that child who, wilfully foregoing pleasure, stoops to "twopence +coloured." With crimson lake (hark to the sound of it--crimson +lake!--the horns of elf-land are not richer on the ear)--with crimson +lake and Prussian blue a certain purple is to be compounded which, for +cloaks especially, Titian could not equal. The latter colour with +gamboge, a hated name although an exquisite pigment, supplied a green of +such a savoury greenness that to-day my heart regrets it. Nor can I +recall without a tender weakness the very aspect of the water where I +dipped my brush. Yes, there was pleasure in the painting. But when all +was painted, it is needless to deny it, all was spoiled. You might, +indeed, set up a scene or two to look at; but to cut the figures out was +simply sacrilege; nor could any child twice court the tedium, the worry, +and the long-drawn disenchantment of an actual performance. Two days +after the purchase the honey had been sucked. Parents used to complain; +they thought I wearied of my play. It was not so: no more than a person +can be said to have wearied of his dinner when he leaves the bones and +dishes; I had got the marrow of it and said grace. + +Then was the time to turn to the back of the play-book and to study that +enticing double file of names where poetry, for the true child of Skelt, +reigned happy and glorious like her Majesty the Queen. Much as I have +travelled in these realms of gold, I have yet seen, upon that map or +abstract, names of El Dorados that still haunt the ear of memory, and +are still but names. _The_ _Floating Beacon_--why was that denied me? +or _The Wreck Ashore? Sixteen-String Jack_, whom I did not even guess to +be a highwayman, troubled me awake and haunted my slumbers; and there is +one sequence of three from that enchanted calendar that I still at times +recall, liked a loved verse of poetry: _Lodoiska_, _Silver Palace_, +_Echo of Westminster Bridge_. Names, bare names, are surely more to +children than we poor, grown-up, obliterated fools remember. + +The name of Skelt itself has always seemed a part and parcel of the +charm of his productions. It may be different with the rose, but the +attraction of this paper drama sensibly declined when Webb had crept +into the rubric: a poor cuckoo, flaunting in Skelt's nest. And now we +have reached Pollock, sounding deeper gulfs. Indeed, this name of Skelt +appears so stagey and piratic, that I will adopt it boldly to design +these qualities. Skeltery, then, is a quality of much art. It is even to +be found, with reverence be it said, among the works of nature. The +stagey is its generic name; but it is an old, insular, home-bred +staginess; not French, domestically British; not of to-day, but smacking +of O. Smith, Fitzball, and the great age of melodrama; a peculiar +fragrance haunting it; uttering its unimportant message in a tone of +voice that has the charm of fresh antiquity. I will not insist upon the +art of Skelt's purveyors. These wonderful characters that once so +thrilled our soul with their bold attitude, array of deadly engines and +incomparable costume, to-day look somewhat pallidly; the extreme hard +favour of the heroine strikes me, I had almost said with pain; the +villain's scowl no longer thrills me like a trumpet; and the scenes +themselves, those once unparalleled landscapes, seem the efforts of a +prentice hand. So much of fault we find; but on the other side the +impartial critic rejoices to remark the presence of a great unity of +gusto; of those direct clap-trap appeals, which a man is dead and +buriable when he fails to answer; of the footlight glamour, the +ready-made, bare-faced, transpontine picturesque, a thing not one with +cold reality, but how much dearer to the mind! + +The scenery of Skeltdom--or, shall we say, the kingdom of +Transpontus?--had a prevailing character. Whether it set forth Poland as +in _The Blind Boy_, or Bohemia with _The Miller and his Men_, or Italy +with _The Old Oak Chest_, still it was Transpontus. A botanist could +tell it by the plants. The hollyhock was all-pervasive, running wild in +deserts; the dock was common, and the bending reed; and overshadowing +these were poplar, palm, potato tree, and _Quercus Skeltica_--brave +growths. The graves were all embowelled in the Surrey-side formation; +the soil was all betrodden by the light pump of T. P. Cooke. Skelt, to +be sure, had yet another, an Oriental string: he held the gorgeous East +in fee; and in the new quarter of Hyeres, say, in the garden of the +Hotel des Iles d'Or, you may behold these blessed visions realised. But +on these I will not dwell; they were an outwork; it was in the +Occidental scenery that Skelt was all himself. It had a strong flavour +of England; it was a sort of indigestion of England and drop-scenes, and +I am bound to say was charming. How the roads wander, how the castle +sits upon the hill, how the sun eradiates from behind the cloud, and how +the congregated clouds themselves uproll, as stiff as bolsters! Here is +the cottage interior, the usual first flat, with the cloak upon the +nail, the rosaries of onions, the gun and powder-horn and +corner-cupboard; here is the inn (this drama must be nautical, I foresee +Captain Luff and Bold Bob Bowsprit) with the red curtain, pipes, +spittoons, and eight-day clock; and there again is that impressive +dungeon with the chains, which was so dull to colour. England, the +hedgerow elms, the thin brick houses, windmills, glimpses of the +navigable Thames--England, when at last I came to visit it, was only +Skelt made evident: to cross the border was, for the Scotsman, to come +home to Skelt; there was the inn-sign and there the horse-trough, all +foreshadowed in the faithful Skelt. If, at the ripe age of fourteen +years, I bought a certain cudgel, got a friend to load it, and +thenceforward walked the tame ways of the earth my own ideal, radiating +pure romance--still I was but a puppet in the hand of Skelt; the +original of that regretted bludgeon, and surely the antitype of all the +bludgeon kind, greatly improved from Cruikshank, had adorned the hand of +Jonathan Wild, pl. 1. "This is mastering me," as Whitman cries, upon +some lesser provocation. What am I? what are life, art, letters, the +world, but what my Skelt has made them? He stamped himself upon my +immaturity. The world was plain before I knew him, a poor penny world; +but soon it was all coloured with romance. If I go to the theatre to see +a good old melodrama, 'tis but Skelt a little faded. If I visit a bold +scene in nature, Skelt would have been bolder; there had been certainly +a castle on that mountain, and the hollow tree--that set-piece--I seem +to miss it in the foreground. Indeed, out of this cut-and-dry, dull, +swaggering, obtrusive and infantile art, I seem to have learned the very +spirit of my life's enjoyment; met there the shadows of the characters I +was to read about and love in a late future; got the romance of _Der +Freischuetz_ long ere I was to hear of Weber or the mighty Formes; +acquired a gallery of scenes and characters with which, in the silent +theatre of the brain, I might enact all novels and romances; and took +from these rude cuts an enduring and transforming pleasure. Reader--and +yourself? + +A word of moral: it appears that B. Pollock, late J. Redington, No. 73 +Hoxton Street, not only publishes twenty-three of these old stage +favourites, but owns the necessary plates and displays a modest +readiness to issue other thirty-three. If you love art, folly, or the +bright eyes of children, speed to Pollock's or to Clarke's of Garrick +Street. In Pollock's list of publicanda I perceive a pair of my ancient +aspirations: _The Wreck Ashore_ and _Sixteen-String Jack_; and I cherish +the belief that when these shall see once more the light of day, B. +Pollock will remember this apologist. But, indeed, I have a dream at +times that is not all a dream. I seem to myself to wander in a ghostly +street--E.W., I think, the postal district--close below the fool's cap +of St. Paul's, and yet within easy hearing of the echo of the Abbey +Bridge. There in a dim shop, low in the roof and smelling strong of glue +and footlights, I find myself in quaking treaty with great Skelt +himself, the aboriginal, all dusty from the tomb. I buy, with what a +choking heart--I buy them all, all but the pantomimes; I pay my mental +money, and go forth; and lo! the packets are dust. + + + + + XIV + + A GOSSIP ON A NOVEL OF DUMAS'S + + +The books that we re-read the oftenest are not always those that we +admire the most; we choose and we revisit them for many and various +reasons, as we choose and revisit human friends. One or two of Scott's +novels, Shakespeare, Moliere, Montaigne, "The Egoist," and the "Vicomte +de Bragelonne," form the inner circle of my intimates. Behind these +comes a good troop of dear acquaintances; "The Pilgrim's Progress" in +the front rank, "The Bible in Spain" not far behind. There are besides a +certain number that look at me with reproach as I pass them by on my +shelves: books that I once thumbed and studied: houses which were once +like home to me, but where I now rarely visit. I am on these sad terms +(and blush to confess it) with Wordsworth, Horace, Burns, and Hazlitt. +Last of all, there is the class of book that has its hour of +brilliancy--glows, sings, charms, and then fades again into +insignificance until the fit return. Chief of those who thus smile and +frown on me by turns, I must name Virgil and Herrick, who, were they but + + "Their sometime selves the same throughout the year," + +must have stood in the first company with the six names of my continual +literary intimates. To these six, incongruous as they seem, I have long +been faithful, and hope to be faithful to the day of death. I have never +read the whole of Montaigne, but I do not like to be long without +reading some of him, and my delight in what I do read never lessens. Of +Shakespeare I have read all but _Richard_ _III._, _Henry VI._, _Titus +Andronicus_, and _All's Well that Ends Well_; and these, having already +made all suitable endeavour, I now know that I shall never read--to make +up for which unfaithfulness I could read much of the rest for ever. Of +Moliere--surely the next greatest name of Christendom--I could tell a +very similar story; but in a little corner of a little essay these +princes are too much out of place, and I prefer to pay my fealty and +pass on. How often I have read "Guy Mannering," "Rob Roy," or +"Redgauntlet," I have no means of guessing, having begun young. But it +is either four or five times that I have read "The Egoist," and either +five or six that I have read the "Vicomte de Bragelonne." + +Some, who would accept the others, may wonder that I should have spent +so much of this brief life of ours over a work so little famous as the +last. And, indeed, I am surprised myself; not at my own devotion, but +the coldness of the world. My acquaintance with the "Vicomte" began, +somewhat indirectly, in the year of grace 1863, when I had the advantage +of studying certain illustrated dessert plates in a hotel at Nice. The +name of d'Artagnan in the legends I already saluted like an old friend, +for I had met it the year before in a work of Miss Yonge's. My first +perusal was in one of those pirated editions that swarmed at that time +out of Brussels, and ran to such a troop of neat and dwarfish volumes. I +understood but little of the merits of the book; my strongest memory is +of the execution of d'Eymeric and Lyodot--a strange testimony to the +dulness of a boy, who could enjoy the rough-and-tumble in the Place de +Greve, and forget d'Artagnan's visits to the two financiers. My next +reading was in winter-time, when I lived alone upon the Pentlands. I +would return in the early night from one of my patrols with the +shepherd; a friendly face would meet me in the door, a friendly +retriever scurry upstairs to fetch my slippers; and I would sit down +with the "Vicomte" for a long, silent, solitary lamp-lit evening by the +fire. And yet I know not why I call it silent, when it was enlivened +with such a clatter of horse-shoes, and such a rattle of musketry, and +such a stir of talk; or why I call those evenings solitary in which I +gained so many friends. I would rise from my book and pull the blind +aside, and see the snow and the glittering hollies chequer a Scottish +garden, and the winter moonlight brighten the white hills. Thence I +would turn again to that crowded and sunny field of life in which it was +so easy to forget myself, my cares, and my surroundings: a place busy as +a city, bright as a theatre, thronged with memorable faces, and sounding +with delightful speech. I carried the thread of that epic into my +slumbers, I woke with it unbroken, I rejoiced to plunge into the book +again at breakfast, it was with a pang that I must lay it down and turn +to my own labours; for no part of the world has ever seemed to me so +charming as these pages, and not even my friends are quite so real, +perhaps quite so dear, as d'Artagnan. + +Since then I have been going to and fro at very brief intervals in my +favourite book; and I have now just risen from my last (let me call it +my fifth) perusal, having liked it better and admired it more seriously +than ever. Perhaps I have a sense of ownership, being so well known in +these six volumes. Perhaps I think that d'Artagnan delights to have me +read of him, and Louis Quatorze is gratified, and Fouquet throws me a +look, and Aramis, although he knows I do not love him, yet plays to me +with his best graces, as to an old patron of the show. Perhaps, if I am +not careful, something may befall me like what befell George IV. about +the battle of Waterloo, and I may come to fancy the "Vicomte" one of the +first, and Heaven knows the best, of my own works. At least, I avow +myself a partisan; and when I compare the popularity of the "Vicomte" +with that of "Monte Cristo," or its own elder brother, the "Trois +Mousquetaires," I confess I am both pained and puzzled. + +To those who have already made acquaintance with the titular hero in +the pages of "Vingt Ans Apres," perhaps the name may act as a deterrent. +A man might well stand back if he supposed he were to follow, for six +volumes, so well-conducted, so fine-spoken, and withal so dreary a +cavalier as Bragelonne. But the fear is idle. I may be said to have +passed the best years of my life in these six volumes, and my +acquaintance with Raoul has never gone beyond a bow; and when he, who +has so long pretended to be alive, is at last suffered to pretend to be +dead, I am sometimes reminded of a saying in an earlier volume: "_Enfin, +dit Miss Stewart_,"--and it was of Bragelonne she spoke--"_enfin il a +fait quelquechose: c'est, ma foi! bien heureux_." I am reminded of it, +as I say; and the next moment, when Athos dies of his death, and my dear +d'Artagnan bursts into his storm of sobbing, I can but deplore my +flippancy. + +Or perhaps it is La Valliere that the reader of "Vingt Ans Apres" is +inclined to flee. Well, he is right there too, though not so right. +Louise is no success. Her creator has spared no pains; she is +well-meant, not ill-designed, sometimes has a word that rings out true; +sometimes, if only for a breath, she may even engage our sympathies. But +I have never envied the King his triumph. And so far from pitying +Bragelonne for his defeat, I could wish him no worse (not for lack of +malice, but imagination) than to be wedded to that lady. Madame enchants +me; I can forgive that royal minx her most serious offences; I can +thrill and soften with the King on that memorable occasion when he goes +to upbraid and remains to flirt; and when it comes to the "_Allons, +aimez-moi donc_," it is my heart that melts in the bosom of de Guiche. +Not so with Louise. Readers cannot fail to have remarked that what an +author tells us of the beauty or the charm of his creatures goes for +nought; that we know instantly better; that the heroine cannot open her +mouth but what, all in a moment, the fine phrases of preparation fall +from round her like the robes from Cinderella, and she stands before +us, self-betrayed, as a poor, ugly, sickly wench, or perhaps a strapping +market-woman. Authors, at least, know it well; a heroine will too often +start the trick of "getting ugly"; and no disease is more difficult to +cure. I said authors; but indeed I had a side eye to one author in +particular, with whose works I am very well acquainted, though I cannot +read them, and who has spent many vigils in this cause, sitting beside +his ailing puppets and (like a magician) wearying his art to restore +them to youth and beauty. There are others who ride too high for these +misfortunes. Who doubts the loveliness of Rosalind? Arden itself was not +more lovely. Who ever questioned the perennial charm of Rose Jocelyn, +Lucy Desborough, or Clara Middleton? fair women with fair names, the +daughters of George Meredith. Elizabeth Bennet has but to speak, and I +am at her knees. Ah! these are the creators of desirable women. They +would never have fallen in the mud with Dumas and poor La Valliere. It +is my only consolation that not one of all of them, except the first, +could have plucked at the moustache of d'Artagnan. + +Or perhaps, again, a portion of readers stumble at the threshold. In so +vast a mansion there were sure to be back stairs and kitchen offices +where no one would delight to linger; but it was at least unhappy that +the vestibule should be so badly lighted; and until, in the seventeenth +chapter, d'Artagnan sets off to seek his friends, I must confess, the +book goes heavily enough. But, from thenceforward, what a feast is +spread! Monk kidnapped; d'Artagnan enriched; Mazarin's death; the ever +delectable adventure of Belle Isle, wherein Aramis outwits d'Artagnan, +with its epilogue (vol. v. chap. xxviii.), where d'Artagnan regains the +moral superiority; the love adventures at Fontainebleau, with St. +Aignan's story of the dryad and the business of de Guiche, de Wardes, +and Manicamp; Aramis made general of the Jesuits; Aramis at the +Bastille; the night talk in the forest of Senart; Belle Isle again, with +the death of Porthos; and last, but not least, the taming of d'Artagnan +the untamable, under the lash of the young King. What other novel has +such epic variety and nobility of incident? often, if you will, +impossible; often of the order of an Arabian story; and yet all based in +human nature. For if you come to that, what novel has more human nature? +not studied with the microscope, but seen largely, in plain daylight, +with the natural eye? What novel has more good sense, and gaiety, and +wit, and unflagging, admirable literary skill? Good souls, I suppose, +must sometimes read it in the blackguard travesty of a translation. But +there is no style so untranslatable; light as a whipped trifle, strong +as silk; wordy like a village tale; pat like a general's despatch; with +every fault, yet never tedious; with no merit, yet inimitably right. +And, once more, to make an end of commendations, what novel is inspired +with a more unstrained or a more wholesome morality? + +Yes; in spite of Miss Yonge, who introduced me to the name of d'Artagnan +only to dissuade me from a nearer knowledge of the man, I have to add +morality. There is no quite good book without a good morality; but the +world is wide, and so are morals. Out of two people who have dipped into +Sir Richard Burton's "Thousand and One Nights," one shall have been +offended by the animal details; another to whom these were harmless, +perhaps even pleasing, shall yet have been shocked in his turn by the +rascality and cruelty of all the characters. Of two readers, again, one +shall have been pained by the morality of a religious memoir, one by +that of the "Vicomte de Bragelonne." And the point is that neither need +be wrong. We shall always shock each other both in life and art; we +cannot get the sun into our pictures, nor the abstract right (if there +be such a thing) into our books; enough if, in the one, there glimmer +some hint of the great light that blinds us from heaven; enough if, in +the other, there shine, even upon foul details, a spirit of magnanimity. +I would scarce send to the "Vicomte" a reader who was in quest of what +we may call puritan morality. The ventripotent mulatto, the great eater, +worker, earner and waster, the man of much and witty laughter, the man +of the great heart, and alas! of the doubtful honesty, is a figure not +yet clearly set before the world; he still awaits a sober and yet genial +portrait; but with whatever art that may be touched, and whatever +indulgence, it will not be the portrait of a precisian. Dumas was +certainly not thinking of himself, but of Planchet, when he put into the +mouth of d'Artagnan's old servant this excellent profession: "_Monsieur, +j'etais une de ces bonnes pates d'hommes que Dieu a faits pour s'animer +pendant un certain temps et pour trouver bonnes toutes choses qui +accompagnent leur sejour sur la terre._" He was thinking, as I say, of +Planchet, to whom the words are aptly fitted; but they were fitted also +to Planchet's creator; and perhaps this struck him as he wrote, for +observe what follows: "_D'Artagnan s'assit alors pres de la fenetre, et, +cette philosophie de Planchet lui ayant paru solide, il y reva._" In a +man who finds all things good, you will scarce expect much zeal for +negative virtues: the active alone will have a charm for him; +abstinence, however wise, however kind, will always seem to such a judge +entirely mean and partly impious. So with Dumas. Chastity is not near +his heart; nor yet, to his own sore cost, that virtue of frugality which +is the armour of the artist. Now, in the "Vicomte," he had much to do +with the contest of Fouquet and Colbert. Historic justice should be all +upon the side of Colbert, of official honesty, and fiscal competence. +And Dumas knew it well: three times at least he shows his knowledge; +once it is but flashed upon us, and received with the laughter of +Fouquet himself, in the jesting controversy in the gardens of Saint +Mande; once it is touched on by Aramis in the forest of Senart; in the +end, it is set before us clearly in one dignified speech of the +triumphant Colbert. But in Fouquet, the waster, the lover of good cheer +and wit and art, the swift transactor of much business, "_l'homme de +bruit, l'homme de plaisir, l'homme qui n'est que parceque les autres +sont_," Dumas saw something of himself and drew the figure the more +tenderly. It is to me even touching to see how he insists on Fouquet's +honour; not seeing, you might think, that unflawed honour is impossible +to spendthrifts; but rather, perhaps, in the light of his own life, +seeing it too well, and clinging the more to what was left. Honour can +survive a wound; it can live and thrive without a member. The man +rebounds from his disgrace; he begins fresh foundations on the ruins of +the old; and when his sword is broken, he will do valiantly with his +dagger. So it is with Fouquet in the book; so it was with Dumas on the +battlefield of life. + +To cling to what is left of any damaged quality is virtue in the man; +but perhaps to sing its praises is scarcely to be called morality in the +writer. And it is elsewhere, it is in the character of d'Artagnan, that +we must look for that spirit of morality, which is one of the chief +merits of the book, makes one of the main joys of its perusal, and sets +it high above more popular rivals. Athos, with the coming of years, has +declined too much into the preacher, and the preacher of a sapless +creed; but d'Artagnan has mellowed into a man so witty, rough, kind, and +upright, that he takes the heart by storm. There is nothing of the +copy-book about his virtues, nothing of the drawing-room in his fine, +natural civility; he will sail near the wind; he is no district +visitor--no Wesley or Robespierre; his conscience is void of all +refinement whether for good or evil; but the whole man rings true like a +good sovereign. Readers who have approached the "Vicomte," not across +country, but by the legitimate, five-volumed avenue of the +"Mousquetaires" and "Vingt Ans Apres," will not have forgotten +d'Artagnan's ungentlemanly and perfectly improbable trick upon Milady. +What a pleasure it is, then, what a reward, and how agreeable a lesson, +to see the old captain humble himself to the son of the man whom he had +personated! Here, and throughout, if I am to choose virtues for myself +or my friends, let me choose the virtues of d'Artagnan. I do not say +there is no character as well drawn in Shakespeare; I do say there is +none that I love so wholly. There are many spiritual eyes that seem to +spy upon our actions--eyes of the dead and the absent, whom we imagine +to behold us in our most private hours, and whom we fear and scruple to +offend: our witnesses and judges. And among these, even if you should +think me childish, I must count my d'Artagnan--not d'Artagnan of the +memoirs whom Thackeray pretended to prefer--a preference, I take the +freedom of saying, in which he stands alone; not the d'Artagnan of flesh +and blood, but him of the ink and paper; not Nature's, but Dumas's. And +this is the particular crown and triumph of the artist--not to be true +merely, but to be lovable; not simply to convince, but to enchant. + +There is yet another point in the "Vicomte" which I find incomparable. I +can recall no other work of the imagination in which the end of life is +represented with so nice a tact. I was asked the other day if Dumas ever +made me either laugh or cry. Well, in this my late fifth reading of the +"Vicomte" I did laugh once at the small Coquelin de Voliere business, +and was perhaps a thought surprised at having done so: to make up for +it, I smiled continually. But for tears, I do not know. If you put a +pistol to my throat, I must own the tale trips upon a very airy +foot--within a measurable distance of unreality; and for those who like +the big guns to be discharged and the great passions to appear +authentically, it may even seem inadequate from first to last. Not so to +me; I cannot count that a poor dinner, or a poor book, where I meet with +those I love; and, above all, in this last volume, I find a singular +charm of spirit. It breathes a pleasant and a tonic sadness, always +brave, never hysterical. Upon the crowded, noisy life of this long tale, +evening gradually falls; and the lights are extinguished, and the heroes +pass away one by one. One by one they go, and not a regret embitters +their departure; the young succeed them in their places, Louis Quatorze +is swelling larger and shining broader, another generation and another +France dawn on the horizon; but for us and these old men whom we have +loved so long, the inevitable end draws near, and is welcome. To read +this well is to anticipate experience. Ah, if only when these hours of +the long shadows fall for us in reality and not in figure, we may hope +to face them with a mind as quiet! + +But my paper is running out; the siege-guns are firing on the Dutch +frontier! and I must say adieu for the fifth time to my old comrade +fallen on the field of glory. _Adieu_--rather _au revoir_! Yet a sixth +time, dearest d'Artagnan, we shall kidnap Monk and take horse together +for Belle Isle. + + + + + XV + + A GOSSIP ON ROMANCE + + +In anything fit to be called by the name of reading, the process itself +should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt +clean out of ourselves, and rise from the perusal, our mind filled with +the busiest, kaleidoscopic dance of images, incapable of sleep or of +continuous thought. The words, if the book be eloquent, should run +thenceforward in our ears like the noise of breakers, and the story, if +it be a story, repeat itself in a thousand coloured pictures to the eye. +It was for this last pleasure that we read so closely, and loved our +books so dearly, in the bright, troubled period of boyhood. Eloquence +and thought, character and conversation, were but obstacles to brush +aside as we dug blithely after a certain sort of incident, like a pig +for truffles. For my part, I liked a story to begin with an old wayside +inn where, "towards the close of the year 17----," several gentlemen in +three-cocked hats were playing bowls. A friend of mine preferred the +Malabar coast in a storm, with a ship beating to windward, and a +scowling fellow of Herculean proportions striding along the beach; he, +to be sure, was a pirate. This was further afield than my home-keeping +fancy loved to travel, and designed altogether for a larger canvas than +the tales that I affected. Give me a highwayman and I was full to the +brim; a Jacobite would do, but the highwayman was my favourite dish. I +can still hear that merry clatter of the hoofs along the moonlit lane; +night and the coming of day are still related in my mind with the doings +of John Rann or Jerry Abershaw; and the words "post-chaise," the "great +North Road," "ostler," and "nag" still sound in my ears like poetry. One +and all, at least, and each with his particular fancy, we read +story-books in childhood, not for eloquence or character or thought, but +for some quality of the brute incident. That quality was not mere +bloodshed or wonder. Although each of these was welcome in its place, +the charm for the sake of which we read depended on something different +from either. My elders used to read novels aloud; and I can still +remember four different passages which I heard, before I was ten, with +the same keen and lasting pleasure. One I discovered long afterwards to +be the admirable opening of "What will He Do with It": it was no wonder +that I was pleased with that. The other three still remain unidentified. +One is a little vague; it was about a dark, tall house at night, and +people groping on the stairs by the light that escaped from the open +door of a sickroom. In another, a lover left a ball, and went walking in +a cool, dewy park, whence he could watch the lighted windows and the +figures of the dancers as they moved. This was the most sentimental +impression I think I had yet received, for a child is somewhat deaf to +the sentimental. In the last, a poet, who had been tragically wrangling +with his wife, walked forth on the sea-beach on a tempestuous night and +witnessed the horrors of a wreck.[16] Different as they are, all these +early favourites have a common note--they have all a touch of the +romantic. + +Drama is the poetry of conduct, romance the poetry of circumstance. The +pleasure that we take in life is of two sorts--the active and the +passive. Now we are conscious of a great command over our destiny; anon +we are lifted up by circumstance, as by a breaking wave, and dashed we +know not how into the future. Now we are pleased by our conduct, anon +merely pleased by our surroundings. It would be hard to say which of +these modes of satisfaction is the more effective, but the latter is +surely the more constant. Conduct is three parts of life, they say; but +I think they put it high. There is a vast deal in life and letters both +which is not immoral, but simply non-moral; which either does not regard +the human will at all, or deals with it in obvious and healthy +relations; where the interest turns, not upon what a man shall choose to +do, but on how he manages to do it; not on the passionate slips and +hesitations of the conscience, but on the problems of the body and of +the practical intelligence, in clean, open-air adventure, the shock of +arms, or the diplomacy of life. With such material as this it is +impossible to build a play, for the serious theatre exists solely on +moral grounds, and is a standing proof of the dissemination of the human +conscience. But it is possible to build, upon this ground, the most +joyous of verses, and the most lively, beautiful, and buoyant tales. + +One thing in life calls for another; there is a fitness in events and +places. The sight of a pleasant arbour puts it in our mind to sit there. +One place suggests work, another idleness, a third early rising and long +rambles in the dew. The effect of night, of any flowing water, of +lighted cities, of the peep of day, of ships, of the open ocean, calls +up in the mind an army of anonymous desires and pleasures. Something, we +feel, should happen; we know not what, yet we proceed in quest of it. +And many of the happiest hours of life fleet by us in this vain +attendance on the genius of the place and moment. It is thus that tracts +of young fir, and low rocks that reach into deep surroundings, +particularly torture and delight me. Something must have happened in +such places, and perhaps ages back, to members of my race; and when I +was a child I tried in vain to invent appropriate games for them, as I +still try, just as vainly, to fit them with the proper story. Some +places speak distinctly. Certain dank gardens cry aloud for a murder; +certain old houses demand to be haunted; certain coasts are set apart +for shipwreck. Other spots again seem to abide their destiny, suggestive +and impenetrable, "miching mallecho." The inn at Burford Bridge, with +its arbours and green garden and silent, eddying river--though it is +known already as the place where Keats wrote some of his "Endymion" and +Nelson parted from his Emma--still seems to wait the coming of the +appropriate legend. Within these ivied walls, behind these old green +shutters, some further business smoulders, waiting for its hour. The old +"Hawes Inn" at the Queen's Ferry makes a similar call upon my fancy. +There it stands, apart from the town, beside the pier, in a climate of +its own, half inland, half marine--in front, the ferry bubbling with the +tide and the guardship swinging to her anchor; behind, the old garden +with the trees. Americans seek it already for the sake of Lovel and +Oldbuck, who dined there at the beginning of "The Antiquary." But you +need not tell me--that is not all; there is some story, unrecorded or +not yet complete, which must express the meaning of that inn more fully. +So it is with names and faces; so it is with incidents that are idle and +inconclusive in themselves, and yet seem like the beginning of some +quaint romance, which the all-careless author leaves untold. How many of +these romances have we not seen determined at their birth; how many +people have met us with a look of meaning in their eye, and sunk at once +into trivial acquaintances; to how many places have we not drawn near, +with express intimations--"here my destiny awaits me"--and we have but +dined there and passed on! I have lived both at the Hawes and Burford in +a perpetual flutter, on the heels, as it seemed, of some adventure that +should justify the place; but though the feeling had me to bed at night +and called me again at morning in one unbroken round of pleasure and +suspense, nothing befell me in either worth remark. The man or the hour +had not yet come; but some day, I think, a boat shall put off from the +Queen's Ferry, fraught with a dear cargo, and some frosty night a +horseman, on a tragic errand, rattle with his whip upon the green +shutters of the inn at Burford.[17] + +Now, this is one of the natural appetites with which any lively +literature has to count. The desire for knowledge, I had almost added +the desire for meat, is not more deeply seated than this demand for fit +and striking incident. The dullest of clowns tells, or tries to tell, +himself a story, as the feeblest of children uses invention in his play; +and even as the imaginative grown person, joining in the game, at once +enriches it with many delightful circumstances, the great creative +writer shows us the realisation and the apotheosis of the day-dreams of +common men. His stories may be nourished with the realities of life, but +their true mark is to satisfy the nameless longings of the reader, and +to obey the ideal laws of the day-dream. The right kind of thing should +fall out in the right kind of place; the right kind of thing should +follow; and not only the characters talk aptly and think naturally, but +all the circumstances in a tale answer one to another like notes in +music. The threads of a story come from time to time together and make a +picture in the web; the characters fall from time to time into some +attitude to each other or to nature, which stamps the story home like an +illustration. Crusoe recoiling from the footprint, Achilles shouting +over against the Trojans, Ulysses bending the great bow, Christian +running with his fingers in his ears,--these are each culminating +moments in the legend, and each has been printed on the mind's eye for +ever. Other things we may forget; we may forget the words, although they +are beautiful; we may forget the author's comment, although perhaps it +was ingenious and true; but these epoch-making scenes, which put the +last mark of truth upon a story, and fill up, at one blow, our capacity +for sympathetic pleasure, we so adopt into the very bosom of our mind +that neither time nor tide can efface or weaken the impression. This, +then, is the plastic part of literature: to embody character, thought, +or emotion in some act or attitude that shall be remarkably striking to +the mind's eye. This is the highest and hardest thing to do in words; +the thing which, once accomplished, equally delights the schoolboy and +the sage, and makes, in its own right, the quality of epics. Compared +with this, all other purposes in literature, except the purely lyrical +or the purely philosophic, are bastard in nature, facile of execution, +and feeble in result. It is one thing to write about the inn at Burford, +or to describe scenery with the word-painters; it is quite another to +seize on the heart of the suggestion and make a country famous with a +legend. It is one thing to remark and to dissect, with the most cutting +logic, the complications of life, and of the human spirit; it is quite +another to give them body and blood in the story of Ajax or of Hamlet. +The first is literature, but the second is something besides, for it is +likewise art. + +English people of the present day[18] are apt, I know not why, to look +somewhat down on incident, and reserve their admiration for the clink of +teaspoons and the accents of the curate. It is thought clever to write a +novel with no story at all, or at least with a very dull one. Reduced +even to the lowest terms, a certain interest can be communicated by the +art of narrative; a sense of human kinship stirred; and a kind of +monotonous fitness, comparable to the words and air of "Sandy's Mull," +preserved among the infinitesimal occurrences recorded. Some people +work, in this manner, with even a strong touch. Mr. Trollope's +inimitable clergymen naturally arise to the mind in this connection. But +even Mr. Trollope does not confine himself to chronicling small beer. +Mr. Crawley's collision with the Bishop's wife, Mr. Melnotte dallying in +the deserted banquet-room, are typical incidents, epically conceived, +fitly embodying a crisis. Or again look at Thackeray. If Rawdon +Crawley's blow were not delivered, "Vanity Fair" would cease to be a +work of art. That scene is the chief ganglion of the tale; and the +discharge of energy from Rawdon's fist is the reward and consolation of +the reader. The end of "Esmond" is a yet wider excursion from the +author's customary fields; the scene at Castlewood is pure Dumas; the +great and wily English borrower has here borrowed from the great, +unblushing French thief; as usual, he has borrowed admirably well, and +the breaking of the sword rounds off the best of all his books with a +manly martial note. But perhaps nothing can more strongly illustrate the +necessity for marking incident than to compare the living fame of +"Robinson Crusoe" with the discredit of "Clarissa Harlowe." "Clarissa" +is a book of a far more startling import, worked out, on a great canvas, +with inimitable courage and unflagging art. It contains wit, character, +passion, plot, conversations full of spirit and insight, letters +sparkling with unstrained humanity; and if the death of the heroine be +somewhat frigid and artificial, the last days of the hero strike the +only note of what we now call Byronism, between the Elizabethans and +Byron himself. And yet a little story of a shipwrecked sailor, with not +a tenth part of the style nor a thousandth part of the wisdom, exploring +none of the arcana of humanity and deprived of the perennial interest of +love, goes on from edition to edition, ever young, while "Clarissa" lies +upon the shelves unread. A friend of mine, a Welsh blacksmith, was +twenty-five years old and could neither read nor write, when he heard a +chapter of "Robinson" read aloud in a farm kitchen. Up to that moment he +had sat content, huddled in his ignorance, but he left that farm another +man. There were day-dreams, it appeared, divine day-dreams, written and +printed and bound, and to be bought for money and enjoyed at pleasure. +Down he sat that day, painfully learned to read Welsh, and returned to +borrow the book. It had been lost, nor could he find another copy but +one that was in English. Down he sat once more, learned English, and at +length, and with entire delight, read "Robinson." It is like the story +of a love-chase. If he had heard a letter from "Clarissa," would he have +been fired with the same chivalrous ardour? I wonder. Yet "Clarissa" has +every quality that can be shown in prose, one alone excepted--pictorial +or picture-making romance. While "Robinson" depends, for the most part +and with the overwhelming majority of its readers, on the charm of +circumstance. + +In the highest achievements of the art of words, the dramatic and the +pictorial, the moral and romantic interest, rise and fall together, by a +common and organic law. Situation is animated with passion, passion +clothed upon with situation. Neither exists for itself, but each inheres +indissolubly with the other. This is high art; and not only the highest +art possible in words, but the highest art of all, since it combines the +greatest mass and diversity of the elements of truth and pleasure. Such +are epics, and the few prose tales that have the epic weight. But as +from a school of works, aping the creative, incident and romance are +ruthlessly discarded, so may character and drama be omitted or +subordinated to romance. There is one book, for example, more generally +loved than Shakespeare, that captivates in childhood, and still delights +in age--I mean the "Arabian Nights"--where you shall look in vain for +moral or for intellectual interest. No human face or voice greets us +among that wooden crowd of kings and genies, sorcerers and beggarmen. +Adventure, on the most naked terms, furnishes forth the entertainment +and is found enough. Dumas approaches perhaps nearest of any modern to +these Arabian authors in the purely material charm of some of his +romances. The early part of "Monte Cristo," down to the finding of the +treasure, is a piece of perfect story-telling; the man never breathed +who shared these moving incidents without a tremor; and yet Faria is a +thing of packthread and Dantes little more than a name. The sequel is +one long-drawn error, gloomy, bloody, unnatural, and dull; but as for +these early chapters, I do not believe there is another volume extant +where you can breathe the same unmingled atmosphere of romance. It is +very thin and light, to be sure, as on a high mountain; but it is brisk +and clear and sunny in proportion. I saw the other day, with envy, an +old and very clever lady setting forth on a second or third voyage into +"Monte Cristo." Here are stories which powerfully affect the reader, +which can be reperused at any age, and where the characters are no more +than puppets. The bony fist of the showman visibly propels them; their +springs are an open secret; their faces are of wood, their bellies +filled with bran; and yet we thrillingly partake of their adventures. +And the point may be illustrated still further. The last interview +between Lucy and Richard Feverel is pure drama; more than that, it is +the strongest scene, since Shakespeare, in the English tongue. Their +first meeting by the river, on the other hand, is pure romance; it has +nothing to do with character; it might happen to any other boy and +maiden, and be none the less delightful for the change. And yet I think +he would be a bold man who should choose between these passages. Thus, +in the same book, we may have two scenes, each capital in its order: in +the one, human passion, deep calling unto deep, shall utter its genuine +voice; in the second, according circumstances, like instruments in tune, +shall build up a trivial but desirable incident, such as we love to +prefigure for ourselves; and in the end, in spite of the critics, we may +hesitate to give the preference to either. The one may ask more +genius--I do not say it does; but at least the other dwells as clearly +in the memory. + +True romantic art, again, makes a romance of all things. It reaches into +the highest abstraction of the ideal; it does not refuse the most +pedestrian realism. "Robinson Crusoe" is as realistic as it is romantic; +both qualities are pushed to an extreme, and neither suffers. Nor does +romance depend upon the material importance of the incidents. To deal +with strong and deadly elements, banditti, pirates, war and murder, is +to conjure with great names, and, in the event of failure, to double the +disgrace. The arrival of Haydn and Consuelo at the Canon's villa is a +very trifling incident; yet we may read a dozen boisterous stories from +beginning to end, and not receive so fresh and stirring an impression of +adventure. It was the scene of Crusoe at the wreck, if I remember +rightly, that so bewitched my blacksmith. Nor is the fact surprising. +Every single article the castaway recovers from the hulk is "a joy for +ever" to the man who reads of them. They are the things that should be +found, and the bare enumeration stirs the blood. I found a glimmer of +the same interest the other day in a new book, "The Sailor's +Sweetheart," by Mr. Clark Russell. The whole business of the brig +_Morning Star_ is very rightly felt and spiritedly written; but the +clothes, the books, and the money satisfy the reader's mind like things +to eat. We are dealing here with the old cut-and-dry, legitimate +interest of treasure-trove. But even treasure-trove can be made dull. +There are few people who have not groaned under the plethora of goods +that fell to the lot of the "Swiss Family Robinson," that dreary family. +They found article after article, creature after creature, from +milk-kine to pieces of ordnance, a whole consignment; but no informing +taste had presided over the selection, there was no smack or relish in +the invoice; and these riches left the fancy cold. The box of goods in +Verne's "Mysterious Island" is another case in point: there was no gusto +and no glamour about that; it might have come from a shop. But the two +hundred and seventy-eight Australian sovereigns on board the _Morning +Star_ fell upon me like a surprise that I had expected; whole vistas of +secondary stories, besides the one in hand, radiated forth from that +discovery, as they radiate from a striking particular in life; and I was +made for the moment as happy as a reader has the right to be. + +To come at all at the nature of this quality of romance, we must bear in +mind the peculiarity of our attitude to any art. No art produces +illusion; in the theatre we never forget that we are in the theatre; and +while we read a story, we sit wavering between two minds, now merely +clapping our hands at the merit of the performance, now condescending to +take an active part in fancy with the characters. This last is the +triumph of romantic story-telling: when the reader consciously plays at +being the hero, the scene is a good scene. Now in character-studies the +pleasure that we take is critical; we watch, we approve, we smile at +incongruities, we are moved to sudden heats of sympathy with courage, +suffering, or virtue. But the characters are still themselves, they are +not us; the more clearly they are depicted, the more widely do they +stand away from us, the more imperiously do they thrust us back into our +place as a spectator. I cannot identify myself with Rawdon Crawley or +with Eugene de Rastignac, for I have scarce a hope or fear in common +with them. It is not character but incident that wooes us out of our +reserve. Something happens as we desire to have it happen to ourselves; +some situation, that we have long dallied with in fancy, is realised in +the story with enticing and appropriate details. Then we forget the +characters; then we push the hero aside; then we plunge into the tale in +our own person and bathe in fresh experience; and then, and then only, +do we say we have been reading a romance. It is not only pleasurable +things that we imagine in our day-dreams; there are lights in which we +are willing to contemplate even the idea of our own death; ways in which +it seems as if it would amuse us to be cheated, wounded, or calumniated. +It is thus possible to construct a story, even of tragic import, in +which every incident, detail, and trick of circumstance shall be welcome +to the reader's thoughts. Fiction is to the grown man what play is to +the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his +life; and when the game so chimes with his fancy that he can join in it +with all his heart, when it pleases him with every turn, when he loves +to recall it and dwells upon its recollection with entire delight, +fiction is called romance. + +Walter Scott is out and away the king of the romantics. "The Lady of the +Lake" has no indisputable claim to be a poem beyond the inherent fitness +and desirability of the tale. It is just such a story as a man would +make up for himself, walking, in the best health and temper, through +just such scenes as it is laid in. Hence it is that a charm dwells +undefinable among these slovenly verses, as the unseen cuckoo fills the +mountains with his note; hence, even after we have flung the book aside, +the scenery and adventures remain present to the mind, a new and green +possession, not unworthy of that beautiful name, "The Lady of the Lake," +or that direct, romantic opening--one of the most spirited and poetical +in literature--"The stag at eve had drunk his fill." The same strength +and the same weaknesses adorn and disfigure the novels. In that +ill-written, ragged book, "The Pirate," the figure of Cleveland--cast up +by the sea on the resounding foreland of Dunrossness--moving, with the +blood on his hands and the Spanish words on his tongue, among the simple +islanders--singing a serenade under the window of his Shetland +mistress--is conceived in the very highest manner of romantic invention. +The words of his song, "Through groves of palm," sung in such a scene +and by such a lover, clinch, as in a nutshell, the emphatic contrast +upon which the tale is built. In "Guy Mannering," again, every incident +is delightful to the imagination; and the scene when Harry Bertram lands +at Ellangowan is a model instance of romantic method. + +"'I remember the tune well,' he says,'though I cannot guess what should +at present so strongly recall it to my memory.' He took his flageolet +from his pocket and played a simple melody. Apparently the tune awoke +the corresponding associations of a damsel.... She immediately took up +the song-- + + "'Are these the links of Forth, she said; + Or are they the crooks of Dee, + Or the bonny woods of Warroch Head + That I so fain would see?' + +"'By heaven!' said Bertram, 'it is the very ballad.'" + +On this quotation two remarks fall to be made. First, as an instance of +modern feeling for romance, this famous touch of the flageolet and the +old song is selected by Miss Braddon for omission. Miss Braddon's idea +of a story, like Mrs. Todgers's idea of a wooden leg, were something +strange to have expounded. As a matter of personal experience, Meg's +appearance to old Mr. Bertram on the road, the ruins of Derncleugh, the +scene of the flageolet, and the Dominie's recognition of Harry, are the +four strong notes that continue to ring in the mind after the book is +laid aside. The second point is still more curious. The reader will +observe a mark of excision in the passage as quoted by me. Well, here is +how it runs in the original: "a damsel, who, close behind a fine spring +about half-way down the descent and which had once supplied the castle +with water, was engaged in bleaching linen." A man who gave in such copy +would be discharged from the staff of a daily paper. Scott has forgotten +to prepare the reader for the presence of the "damsel"; he has forgotten +to mention the spring and its relation to the ruin; and now, face to +face with his omission, instead of trying back and starting fair, crams +all this matter, tail foremost, into a single shambling sentence. It is +not merely bad English, or bad style; it is abominably bad narrative +besides. + +Certainly the contrast is remarkable; and it is one that throws a strong +light upon the subject of this paper. For here we have a man of the +finest creative instinct touching with perfect certainty and charm the +romantic junctures of his story: and we find him utterly careless, +almost, it would seem, incapable, in the technical matter of style, and +not only frequently weak, but frequently wrong in points of drama. In +character parts, indeed, and particularly in the Scots, he was delicate, +strong, and truthful; but the trite, obliterated features of too many of +his heroes have already wearied three generations of readers. At times +his characters will speak with something far beyond propriety--with a +true heroic note; but on the next page they will be wading wearily +forward with an ungrammatical and undramatic rigmarole of words. The man +who could conceive and write the character of Elspeth of the +Craigburnfoot, as Scott has conceived and written it, had not only +splendid romantic but splendid tragic gifts. How comes it, then, that he +could so often fob us off with languid, inarticulate twaddle? It seems +to me that the explanation is to be found in the very quality of his +surprising merits. As his books are play to the reader, so were they +play to him. He was a great day-dreamer, a seer of fit and beautiful and +humorous visions, but hardly a great artist. He conjured up the romantic +with delight, but had hardly patience to describe it. Of the pleasures +of his art he tasted fully; but of its cares and scruples and distresses +never man knew less. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [16] Since traced by many obliging correspondents to the gallery of + Charles Kingsley. + + [17] Since the above was written I have tried to launch the boat + with my own hands in "Kidnapped." Some day, perhaps, I may try a + rattle at the shutters. + + [18] 1882. + + + + + XVI + + A HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE[19] + + + I + +We have recently[20] enjoyed a quite peculiar pleasure: hearing, in some +detail, the opinions, about the art they practise, of Mr. Walter Besant +and Mr. Henry James; two men certainly of very different calibre; Mr. +James so precise of outline, so cunning of fence, so scrupulous of +finish, and Mr. Besant so genial, so friendly, with so persuasive and +humorous a vein of whim: Mr. James the very type of the deliberate +artist, Mr. Besant the impersonation of good-nature. That such doctors +should differ will excite no great surprise; but one point in which they +seem to agree fills me, I confess, with wonder. For they are both +content to talk about the "art of fiction"; and Mr. Besant, waxing +exceedingly bold, goes on to oppose this so-called "art of fiction" to +the "art of poetry." By the art of poetry he can mean nothing but the +art of verse, an art of handicraft, and only comparable with the art of +prose. For that heat and height of sane emotion which we agree to call +by the name of poetry, is but a libertine and vagrant quality; present, +at times, in any art, more often absent from them all; too seldom +present in the prose novel, too frequently absent from the ode and epic. +Fiction is in the same case; it is no substantive art, but an element +which enters largely into all the arts but architecture. Homer, +Wordsworth, Phidias, Hogarth, and Salvini, all deal in fiction; and yet +I do not suppose that either Hogarth or Salvini, to mention but these +two, entered in any degree into the scope of Mr. Besant's interesting +lecture or Mr. James's charming essay. The art of fiction, then, +regarded as a definition, is both too ample and too scanty. Let me +suggest another; let me suggest that what both Mr. James and Mr. Besant +had in view was neither more nor less than the art of narrative. + +But Mr. Besant is anxious to speak solely of "the modern English novel," +the stay and bread-winner of Mr. Mudie; and in the author of the most +pleasing novel on that roll, "All Sorts and Conditions of Men," the +desire is natural enough. I can conceive then, that he would hasten to +propose two additions, and read thus: the art of _fictitious_ narrative +_in prose_. + +Now the fact of the existence of the modern English novel is not to be +denied; materially, with its three volumes, leaded type, and gilded +lettering, it is easily distinguishable from other forms of literature; +but to talk at all fruitfully of any branch of art, it is needful to +build our definitions on some more fundamental ground than binding. Why, +then, are we to add "in prose"? "The Odyssey" appears to me the best of +romances; "The Lady of the Lake" to stand high in the second order; and +Chaucer's tales and prologues to contain more of the matter and art of +the modern English novel than the whole treasury of Mr. Mudie. Whether a +narrative be written in blank verse or the Spenserian stanza, in the +long period of Gibbon or the chipped phrase of Charles Reade, the +principles of the art of narrative must be equally observed. The choice +of a noble and swelling style in prose affects the problem of narration +in the same way, if not to the same degree, as the choice of measured +verse; for both imply a closer synthesis of events, a higher key of +dialogue, and a more picked and stately strain of words. If you are to +refuse "Don Juan," it is hard to see why you should include "Zanoni" or +(to bracket works of very different value) "The Scarlet Letter"; and by +what discrimination are you to open your doors to "The Pilgrim's +Progress" and close them on "The Faery Queen"? To bring things closer +home, I will here propound to Mr. Besant a conundrum. A narrative called +"Paradise Lost" was written in English verse by one John Milton; what +was it then? It was next translated by Chateaubriand into French prose; +and what was it then? Lastly, the French translation was, by some +inspired compatriot of George Gilfillan (and of mine), turned bodily +into an English novel; and, in the name of clearness, what was it then? + +But, once more, why should we add "fictitious"? The reason why is +obvious. The reason why not, if something more recondite, does not want +for weight. The art of narrative, in fact, is the same, whether it is +applied to the selection and illustration of a real series of events or +of an imaginary series. Boswell's "Life of Johnson" (a work of cunning +and inimitable art) owes its success to the same technical manoeuvres as +(let us say) "Tom Jones": the clear conception of certain characters of +man, the choice and presentation of certain incidents out of a great +number that offered, and the invention (yes, invention) and preservation +of a certain key in dialogue. In which these things are done with the +more art--in which the greater air of nature--readers will differently +judge. Boswell's is, indeed, a very special case, and almost a generic; +but it is not only in Boswell, it is in every biography with any salt of +life, it is in every history where events and men, rather than ideas, +are presented--in Tacitus, in Carlyle, in Michelet, in Macaulay--that +the novelist will find many of his own methods most conspicuously and +adroitly handled. He will find besides that he, who is free--who has the +right to invent or steal a missing incident, who has the right, more +precious still, of wholesale omission--is frequently defeated, and, with +all his advantages, leaves a less strong impression of reality and +passion. Mr. James utters his mind with a becoming fervour on the +sanctity of truth to the novelist; on a more careful examination truth +will seem a word of very debateable propriety, not only for the labours +of the novelist, but for those of the historian. No art--to use the +daring phrase of Mr. James--can successfully "compete with life"; and +the art that seeks to do so is condemned to perish _montibus aviis_. +Life goes before us, infinite in complication; attended by the most +various and surprising meteors; appealing at once to the eye, to the +ear, to the mind--the seat of wonder, to the touch--so thrillingly +delicate, and to the belly--so imperious when starved. It combines and +employs in its manifestation the method and material, not of one art +only, but of all the arts. Music is but an arbitrary trifling with a few +of life's majestic chords; painting is but a shadow of its pageantry of +light and colour; literature does but drily indicate that wealth of +incident, of moral obligation, of virtue, vice, action, rapture, and +agony, with which it teems. To "compete with life," whose sun we cannot +look upon, whose passions and diseases waste and slay us--to compete +with the flavour of wine, the beauty of the dawn, the scorching of fire, +the bitterness of death and separation--here is, indeed, a projected +escalade of heaven; here are, indeed, labours for a Hercules in a dress +coat, armed with a pen and a dictionary to depict the passions, armed +with a tube of superior flake-white to paint the portrait of the +insufferable sun. No art is true in this sense; none can "compete with +life": not even history, built indeed of indisputable facts, but these +facts robbed of their vivacity and sting; so that even when we read of +the sack of a city or the fall of an empire, we are surprised and justly +commend the author's talent, if our pulse be quickened. And mark, for a +last differentia, that this quickening of the pulse is, in almost every +case, purely agreeable; that these phantom reproductions of experience, +even at their most acute, convey decided pleasure; while experience +itself, in the cockpit of life, can torture and slay. + +What, then, is the object, what the method, of an art, and what the +source of its power? The whole secret is that no art does "compete with +life." Man's one method, whether he reasons or creates, is to half-shut +his eyes against the dazzle and confusion of reality. The arts, like +arithmetic and geometry, turn away their eyes from the gross, coloured +and mobile nature at our feet, and regard instead a certain figmentary +abstraction. Geometry will tell us of a circle, a thing never seen in +nature: asked about a green circle or an iron circle, it lays its hand +upon its mouth. So with the arts. Painting, ruefully comparing sunshine +and flake-white, gives up truth of colour, as it had already given up +relief and movement; and instead of vying with nature, arranges a scheme +of harmonious tints. Literature, above all in its most typical mood, the +mood of narrative, similarly flees the direct challenge and pursues +instead an independent and creative aim. So far as it imitates at all, +it imitates not life but speech; not the facts of human destiny, but the +emphasis and the suppressions with which the human actor tells of them. +The real art that dealt with life directly was that of the first men who +told their stories round the savage campfire. Our art is occupied, and +bound to be occupied, not so much in making stories true as in making +them typical; not so much in capturing the lineaments of each fact, as +in marshalling all of them towards a common end. For the welter of +impressions, all forcible but all discrete, which life presents, it +substitutes a certain artificial series of impressions, all indeed most +feebly represented, but all aiming at the same effect, all eloquent of +the same idea, all chiming together like consonant notes in music or +like the graduated tints in a good picture. From all its chapters, from +all its pages, from all its sentences, the well-written novel echoes and +re-echoes its one creative and controlling thought; to this must every +incident and character contribute; the style must have been pitched in +unison with this; and if there is anywhere a word that looks another +way, the book would be stronger, clearer, and (I had almost said) fuller +without it. Life is monstrous, infinite, illogical, abrupt and poignant; +a work of art, in comparison, is neat, finite, self-contained, rational, +flowing and emasculate. Life imposes by brute energy, like inarticulate +thunder; art catches the ear, among the far louder noises of experience, +like an air artificially made by a discreet musician. A proposition of +geometry does not compete with life; and a proposition of geometry is a +fair and luminous parallel for a work of art. Both are reasonable, both +untrue to the crude fact; both inhere in nature, neither represents it. +The novel, which is a work of art, exists, not by its resemblances to +life, which are forced and material, as a shoe must still consist of +leather, but by its immeasurable difference from life, a difference +which is designed and significant, and is both the method and the +meaning of the work. + +The life of man is not the subject of novels, but the inexhaustible +magazine from which subjects are to be selected; the name of these is +legion; and with each new subject--for here again I must differ by the +whole width of heaven from Mr. James--the true artist will vary his +method and change the point of attack. That which was in one case an +excellence, will become a defect in another; what was the making of one +book, will in the next be impertinent or dull. First each novel, and +then each class of novels, exists by and for itself. I will take, for +instance, three main classes, which are fairly distinct: first, the +novel of adventure, which appeals to certain almost sensual and quite +illogical tendencies in man; second, the novel of character, which +appeals to our intellectual appreciation of man's foibles and mingled +and inconstant motives; and third, the dramatic novel, which deals with +the same stuff as the serious theatre, and appeals to our emotional +nature and moral judgment. + +And first for the novel of adventure. Mr. James refers, with singular +generosity of praise, to a little book about a quest for hidden +treasure; but he lets fall, by the way, some rather startling words. In +this book he misses what he calls the "immense luxury" of being able to +quarrel with his author. The luxury, to most of us, is to lay by our +judgment, to be submerged by the tale as by a billow, and only to awake, +and begin to distinguish and find fault, when the piece is over and the +volume laid aside. Still more remarkable is Mr. James's reason. He +cannot criticise the author, as he goes, "because," says he, comparing +it with another work, "_I have been a child, but I have never been on a +quest for buried treasure_." Here, is, indeed, a wilful paradox; for if +he has never been on a quest for buried treasure, it can be demonstrated +that he has never been a child. There never was a child (unless Master +James) but has hunted gold, and been a pirate, and a military commander, +and a bandit of the mountains; but has fought, and suffered shipwreck +and prison, and imbrued its little hands in gore, and gallantly +retrieved the lost battle, and triumphantly protected innocence and +beauty. Elsewhere in his essay Mr. James has protested with excellent +reason against too narrow a conception of experience; for the born +artist, he contends, the "faintest hints of life" are converted into +revelations; and it will be found true, I believe, in a majority of +cases, that the artist writes with more gusto and effect of those things +which he has only wished to do, than of those which he has done. Desire +is a wonderful telescope, and Pisgah the best observatory. Now, while it +is true that neither Mr. James nor the author of the work in question +has ever, in the fleshly sense, gone questing after gold, it is probable +that both have ardently desired and fondly imagined the details of such +a life in youthful day-dreams; and the author, counting upon that, and +well aware (cunning and low-minded man!) that this class of interest, +having been frequently treated, finds a readily accessible and beaten +road to the sympathies of the reader, addressed himself throughout to +the building up and circumstantiation of this boyish dream. Character +to the boy is a sealed book; for him, a pirate is a beard, a pair of +wide trousers and a liberal complement of pistols. The author, for the +sake of circumstantiation and because he was himself more or less grown +up, admitted character, within certain limits, into his design; but only +within certain limits. Had the same puppets figured in a scheme of +another sort, they had been drawn to very different purpose; for in this +elementary novel of adventure, the characters need to be presented with +but one class of qualities--the warlike and formidable. So as they +appear insidious in deceit and fatal in the combat, they have served +their end. Danger is the matter with which this class of novel deals; +fear, the passion with which it idly trifles; and the characters are +portrayed only so far as they realise the sense of danger and provoke +the sympathy of fear. To add more traits, to be too clever, to start the +hare of moral or intellectual interest while we are running the fox of +material interest, is not to enrich but to stultify your tale. The +stupid reader will only be offended, and the clever reader lose the +scent. + +The novel of character has this difference from all others: that it +requires no coherency of plot, and for this reason, as in the case of +"Gil Blas," it is sometimes called the novel of adventure. It turns on +the humours of the persons represented; these are, to be sure, embodied +in incidents, but the incidents themselves, being tributary, need not +march in a progression; and the characters may be statically shown. As +they enter, so they may go out; they must be consistent, but they need +not grow. Here Mr. James will recognise the note of much of his own +work: he treats, for the most part, the statics of character, studying +it at rest or only gently moved; and, with his usual delicate and just +artistic instinct, he avoids those stronger passions which would deform +the attitudes he loves to study, and change his sitters from the +humorists of ordinary life to the brute forces and bare types of more +emotional moments. In his recent "Author of Beltraffio," so just in +conception, so nimble and neat in workmanship, strong passion is indeed +employed; but observe that it is not displayed. Even in the heroine the +working of the passion is suppressed; and the great struggle, the true +tragedy, the _scene a faire_, passes unseen behind the panels of a +locked door. The delectable invention of the young visitor is +introduced, consciously or not, to this end: that Mr. James, true to his +method, might avoid the scene of passion. I trust no reader will suppose +me guilty of undervaluing this little masterpiece. I mean merely that it +belongs to one marked class of novel, and that it would have been very +differently conceived and treated had it belonged to that other marked +class, of which I now proceed to speak. + +I take pleasure in calling the dramatic novel by that name, because it +enables me to point out by the way a strange and peculiarly English +misconception. It is sometimes supposed that the drama consists of +incident. It consists of passion, which gives the actor his opportunity; +and that passion must progressively increase, or the actor, as the piece +proceeded, would be unable to carry the audience from a lower to a +higher pitch of interest and emotion. A good serious play must therefore +be founded on one of the passionate _cruces_ of life, where duty and +inclination come nobly to the grapple; and the same is true of what I +call, for that reason, the dramatic novel. I will instance a few worthy +specimens, all of our own day and language: Meredith's "Rhoda Fleming," +that wonderful and painful book, long out of print,[21] and hunted for +at bookstalls like an Aldine; Hardy's "Pair of Blue Eyes"; and two of +Charles Reade's, "Griffith Gaunt" and "The Double Marriage," originally +called "White Lies," and founded (by an accident quaintly favourable to +my nomenclature) on a play by Maquet, the partner of the great Dumas. In +this kind of novel the closed door of "The Author of Beltraffio" must be +broken open; passion must appear upon the scene and utter its last +word; passion is the be-all and the end-all, the plot and the solution, +the protagonist and the _deus ex machina_ in one. The characters may +come anyhow upon the stage: we do not care; the point is, that, before +they leave it, they shall become transfigured and raised out of +themselves by passion. It may be part of the design to draw them with +detail; to depict a full-length character, and then behold it melt and +change in the furnace of emotion. But there is no obligation of the +sort; nice portraiture is not required; and we are content to accept +mere abstract types, so they be strongly and sincerely moved. A novel of +this class may be even great, and yet contain no individual figure; it +may be great, because it displays the workings of the perturbed heart +and the impersonal utterance of passion; and with an artist of the +second class it is, indeed, even more likely to be great, when the issue +has thus been narrowed and the whole force of the writer's mind directed +to passion alone. Cleverness again, which has its fair field in the +novel of character, is debarred all entry upon this more solemn theatre. +A far-fetched motive, an ingenious evasion of the issue, a witty instead +of a passionate turn, offend us like an insincerity. All should be +plain, all straightforward to the end. Hence it is that, in "Rhoda +Fleming," Mrs. Lovel raises such resentment in the reader; her motives +are too flimsy, her ways are too equivocal, for the weight and strength +of her surroundings. Hence the hot indignation of the reader when +Balzac, after having begun the "Duchesse de Langeais" in terms of strong +if somewhat swollen passion, cuts the knot by the derangement of the +hero's clock. Such personages and incidents belong to the novel of +character; they are out of place in the high society of the passions; +when the passions are introduced in art at their full height, we look to +see them, not baffled and impotently striving, as in life, but towering +above circumstance and acting substitutes for fate. + +And here I can imagine Mr. James, with his lucid sense, to intervene. To +much of what I have said he would apparently demur; in much he would, +somewhat impatiently, acquiesce. It may be true; but it is not what he +desired to say or to hear said. He spoke of the finished picture and its +worth when done; I, of the brushes, the palette, and the north light. He +uttered his views in the tone and for the ear of good society; I, with +the emphasis and technicalities of the obtrusive student. But the point, +I may reply, is not merely to amuse the public, but to offer helpful +advice to the young writer. And the young writer will not so much be +helped by genial pictures of what an art may aspire to at its highest, +as by a true idea of what it must be on the lowest terms. The best that +we can say to him is this: Let him choose a motive, whether of character +or passion; carefully construct his plot so that every incident is an +illustration of the motive, and every property employed shall bear to it +a near relation of congruity or contrast; avoid a sub-plot, unless, as +sometimes in Shakespeare, the sub-plot be a reversion or complement of +the main intrigue; suffer not his style to flag below the level of the +argument; pitch the key of conversation, not with any thought of how men +talk in parlours, but with a single eye to the degree of passion he may +be called on to express; and allow neither himself in the narrative, nor +any character in the course of the dialogue, to utter one sentence that +is not part and parcel of the business of the story or the discussion of +the problem involved. Let him not regret if this shortens his book; it +will be better so; for to add irrelevant matter is not to lengthen but +to bury. Let him not mind if he miss a thousand qualities, so that he +keeps unflaggingly in pursuit of the one he has chosen. Let him not care +particularly if he miss the tone of conversation, the pungent material +detail of the day's manners, the reproduction of the atmosphere and the +environment. These elements are not essential: a novel may be excellent, +and yet have none of them; a passion or a character is so much the +better depicted as it rises clearer from material circumstance. In this +age of the particular, let him remember the ages of the abstract, the +great books of the past, the brave men that lived before Shakespeare and +before Balzac. And as the root of the whole matter, let him bear in mind +that his novel is not a transcript of life, to be judged by its +exactitude; but a simplification of some side or point of life, to stand +or fall by its significant simplicity. For although, in great men, +working upon great motives, what we observe and admire is often their +complexity, yet underneath appearances the truth remains unchanged: that +simplification was their method, and that simplicity is their +excellence. + + + II + +Since the above was written another novelist has entered repeatedly the +lists of theory: one well worthy of mention, Mr. W. D. Howells; and none +ever couched a lance with narrower convictions. His own work and those +of his pupils and masters singly occupy his mind; he is the bondslave, +the zealot of his school; he dreams of an advance in art like what there +is in science; he thinks of past things as radically dead; he thinks a +form can be outlived: a strange immersion in his own history; a strange +forgetfulness of the history of the race! Meanwhile, by a glance at his +own works (could he see them with the eager eyes of his readers) much of +this illusion would be dispelled. For while he holds all the poor little +orthodoxies of the day--no poorer and no smaller than those of yesterday +or to-morrow, poor and small, indeed, only so far as they are +exclusive--the living quality of much that he has done is of a contrary, +I had almost said of a heretical, complexion. A man, as I read him, of +an originally strong romantic bent--a certain glow of romance still +resides in many of his books, and lends them their distinction. As by +accident he runs out and revels in the exceptional; and it is then, as +often as not, that his reader rejoices--justly, as I contend. For in all +this excessive eagerness to be centrally human, is there not one central +human thing that Mr. Howells is too often tempted to neglect: I mean +himself? A poet, a finished artist, a man in love with the appearances +of life, a cunning reader of the mind, he has other passions and +aspirations than those he loves to draw. And why should he suppress +himself and do such reverence to the Lemuel Barkers? The obvious is not +of necessity the normal; fashion rules and deforms; the majority fall +tamely into the contemporary shape, and thus attain, in the eyes of the +true observer, only a higher power of insignificance; and the danger is +lest, in seeking to draw the normal, a man should draw the null, and +write the novel of society instead of the romance of man. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [19] This paper, which does not otherwise fit the present volume, is + reprinted here as the proper continuation of the last.--R. L. S. + + [20] 1884. + + [21] Now no longer so, thank Heaven! + + + + + MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN F.R.S., LL.D. + + + + + PREFACE[22] + + +On the death of Fleeming Jenkin, his family and friends determined to +publish a selection of his various papers; by way of introduction, the +following pages were drawn up; and the whole, forming two considerable +volumes, has been issued in England. In the States, it has not been +thought advisable to reproduce the whole; and the memoir appearing +alone, shorn of that other matter which was at once its occasion and its +justification, so large an account of a man so little known may seem to +a stranger out of all proportion. But Jenkin was a man much more +remarkable than the mere bulk or merit of his work approves him. It was +in the world, in the commerce of friendship, by his brave attitude +towards life, by his high moral value and unwearied intellectual effort, +that he struck the minds of his contemporaries. His was an individual +figure, such as authors delight to draw, and all men to read of, in the +pages of a novel. His was a face worth painting for its own sake. If the +sitter shall not seem to have justified the portrait, if Jenkin, after +his death, shall not continue to make new friends, the fault will be +altogether mine. + + R. L. S. + + _Saranac, Oct. 1887._ + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [22] First printed in England in 1907.--ED. + + + + + MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN + + + + + CHAPTER I + + The Jenkins of Stowting--Fleeming's grandfather--Mrs. Buckner's + fortune--Fleeming's father; goes to sea; at St. Helena; meets King + Tom; service in the West Indies; end of his career--The + Campbell-Jacksons--Fleeming's mother--Fleeming's uncle John. + + +In the reign of Henry VIII., a family of the name of Jenkin, claiming to +come from York, and bearing the arms of Jenkin ap Philip of St. Melans, +are found reputably settled in the county of Kent. Persons of strong +genealogical pinion pass from William Jenkin, Mayor of Folkestone in +1555, to his contemporary "John Jenkin, of the Citie of York, Receiver +General of the County," and thence, by way of Jenkin ap Philip, to the +proper summit of any Cambrian pedigree--a prince; "Guaith Voeth, Lord of +Cardigan," the name and style of him. It may suffice, however, for the +present, that these Kentish Jenkins must have undoubtedly derived from +Wales, and being a stock of some efficiency, they struck root and grew +to wealth and consequence in their new home. + +Of their consequence we have proof enough in the fact that not only was +William Jenkin (as already mentioned) Mayor of Folkestone in 1555, but +no less than twenty-three times in the succeeding century and a half, a +Jenkin (William, Thomas, Henry or Robert) sat in the same place of +humble honour. Of their wealth we know that, in the reign of Charles I., +Thomas Jenkin of Eythorne was more than once in the market buying land, +and notably, in 1633, acquired the manor of Stowting Court. This was an +estate of some 320 acres, six miles from Hythe, in the Bailiwick and +Hundred of Stowting, and the Lathe of Shipway, held of the Crown _in +capite_ by the service of six men and a constable to defend the passage +of the sea at Sandgate. It had a chequered history before it fell into +the hands of Thomas of Eythorne, having been sold and given from one to +another--to the Archbishop, to Heringods, to the Burghershes, to +Pavelys, Trivets, Cliffords, Wenlocks, Beauchamps, Nevilles, Kempes, and +Clarkes; a piece of Kentish ground condemned to see new faces and to be +no man's home. But from 1633 onward it became the anchor of the Jenkin +family in Kent; and though passed on from brother to brother, held in +shares between uncle and nephew, burthened by debts and jointures, and +at least once sold and bought in again, it remains to this day in the +hands of the direct line. It is not my design, nor have I the necessary +knowledge, to give a history of this obscure family. But this is an age +when genealogy has taken a new lease of life, and become for the first +time a human science; so that we no longer study it in quest of the +Guaith Voeths, but to trace out some of the secrets of descent and +destiny; and as we study, we think less of Sir Bernard Burke and more of +Mr. Galton. Not only do our character and talents lie upon the anvil and +receive their temper during generations; but the very plot of our life's +story unfolds itself on a scale of centuries, and the biography of the +man is only an episode in the epic of the family. From this point of +view I ask the reader's leave to begin this notice of a remarkable man +who was my friend, with the accession of his great-grandfather, John +Jenkin. + +This John Jenkin, a grandson of Damaris Kingsley, of the family of +"Westward Ho!" was born in 1727, and married Elizabeth, daughter of +Thomas Frewen, of Church House, Northiam. The Jenkins had now been long +enough intermarrying with their Kentish neighbours to be Kentish folk +themselves in all but name; and with the Frewens in particular their +connection is singularly involved. John and his wife were each descended +in the third degree from another Thomas Frewen, Vicar of Northiam, and +brother to Accepted Frewen, Archbishop of York. John's mother had +married a Frewen for a second husband. And the last complication was to +be added by the Bishop of Chichester's brother, Charles Buckner, +Vice-Admiral of the White, who was twice married, first to a paternal +cousin of Squire John, and second to Anne, only sister of the Squire's +wife, and already the widow of another Frewen. The reader must bear Mrs. +Buckner in mind; it was by means of that lady that Fleeming Jenkin began +life as a poor man. Meanwhile, the relationship of any Frewen to any +Jenkin at the end of these evolutions presents a problem almost +insoluble; and we need not wonder if Mrs. John, thus exercised in her +immediate circle, was in her old age "a great genealogist of all Sussex +families, and much consulted." The names Frewen and Jenkin may almost +seem to have been interchangeable at will; and yet Fate proceeds with +such particularity that it was perhaps on the point of name the family +was ruined. + +The John Jenkins had a family of one daughter and five extravagant and +unpractical sons. The eldest, Stephen, entered the Church and held the +living of Salehurst, where he offered, we may hope, an extreme example +of the clergy of the age. He was a handsome figure of a man; jovial and +jocular; fond of his garden, which produced under his care the finest +fruits of the neighbourhood; and, like all the family, very choice in +horses. He drove tandem; like Jehu, furiously. His saddle-horse, Captain +(for the names of horses are piously preserved in the family chronicle +which I follow), was trained to break into a gallop as soon as the +vicar's foot was thrown across its back; nor would the rein be drawn in +the nine miles between Northiam and the Vicarage door. Debt was the +man's proper element; he used to skulk from arrest in the chancel of +his church; and the speed of Captain may have come sometimes handy. At +an early age this unconventional parson married his cook, and by her he +had two daughters and one son. One of the daughters died unmarried; the +other imitated her father, and married "imprudently." The son, still +more gallantly continuing the tradition, entered the army, loaded +himself with debt, was forced to sell out, took refuge in the Marines, +and was lost on the Dogger Bank in the war-ship _Minotaur_. If he did +not marry below him, like his father, his sister, and a certain +great-uncle William, it was perhaps because he never married at all. + +The second brother, Thomas, who was employed in the General Post Office, +followed in all material points the example of Stephen, married "not +very creditably," and spent all the money he could lay his hands on. He +died without issue; as did the fourth brother, John, who was of weak +intellect and feeble health, and the fifth brother, William, whose brief +career as one of Mrs. Buckner's satellites will fall to be considered +later on. So soon, then, as the _Minotaur_ had struck upon the Dogger +Bank, Stowting and the line of the Jenkin family fell on the shoulders +of the third brother, Charles. + +Facility and self-indulgence are the family marks; facility (to judge by +these imprudent marriages) being at once their quality and their defect; +but in the case of Charles, a man of exceptional beauty and sweetness, +both of face and disposition, the family fault had quite grown to be a +virtue, and we find him in consequence the drudge and milk-cow of his +relatives. Born in 1766, Charles served at sea in his youth, and smelt +both salt-water and powder. The Jenkins had inclined hitherto, as far as +I can make out, to the land service. Stephen's son had been a soldier; +William (fourth of Stowting) had been an officer of the unhappy +Braddock's in America, where, by the way, he owned and afterwards sold +an estate on the James River, called after the parental seat; of which I +should like well to hear if it still bears the name. It was probably by +the influence of Captain Buckner, already connected with the family by +his first marriage, that Charles Jenkin turned his mind in the direction +of the navy; and it was in Buckner's own ship, the _Prothee_, 64, that +the lad made his only campaign. It was in the days of Rodney's war, when +the _Prothee_, we read, captured two large privateers to windward of +Barbadoes, and was "materially and distinguishedly engaged" in both the +actions with De Grasse. While at sea, Charles kept a journal, and made +strange archaic pilot-book sketches, part plan, part elevation, some of +which survive for the amusement of posterity. He did a good deal of +surveying, so that here we may perhaps lay our finger on the beginning +of Fleeming's education as an engineer. What is still more strange, +among the relics of the handsome midshipman and his stay in the gun-room +of the _Prothee_, I find a code of signals graphically represented, for +all the world as it would have been done by his grandson. + +On the declaration of peace, Charles, because he had suffered from +scurvy, received his mother's orders to retire; and he was not the man +to refuse a request, far less to disobey a command. Thereupon he turned +farmer, a trade he was to practise on a large scale; and we find him +married to a Miss Schirr, a woman of some fortune, the daughter of a +London merchant. Stephen, the not very reverend, was still alive, +galloping about the country or skulking in his chancel. It does not +appear whether he let or sold the paternal manor to Charles; one or +other it must have been; and the sailor-farmer settled at Stowting, with +his wife, his mother, his unmarried sister, and his sick brother John. +Out of the six people of whom his nearest family consisted, three were +in his own house, and two others (the horse-leeches, Stephen and Thomas) +he appears to have continued to assist with more amiability than wisdom. +He hunted, belonged to the Yeomanry, owned famous horses, Maggie and +Lucy, the latter coveted by royalty itself. "Lord Rokeby, his +neighbour, called him kinsman," writes my artless chronicler, "and +altogether life was very cheery." At Stowting his three sons, John, +Charles, and Thomas Frewen, and his younger daughter, Anna, were all +born to him; and the reader should here be told that it is through the +report of this second Charles (born 1801) that he has been looking on at +these confused passages of family history. + +In the year 1805 the ruin of the Jenkins was begun. It was the work of a +fallacious lady already mentioned, Aunt Anne Frewen, a sister of Mrs. +John. Twice married, first to her cousin Charles Frewen, clerk to the +Court of Chancery, Brunswick Herald, and Usher of the Black Rod, and +secondly to Admiral Buckner, she was denied issue in both beds, and +being very rich--she died worth about L60,000, mostly in land--she was +in perpetual quest of an heir. The mirage of this fortune hung before +successive members of the Jenkin family until her death in 1825, when it +dissolved and left the latest Alnaschar face to face with bankruptcy. +The grandniece, Stephen's daughter, the one who had not "married +imprudently," appears to have been the first; for she was taken abroad +by the golden aunt, and died in her care at Ghent in 1792. Next she +adopted William, the youngest of the five nephews; took him abroad with +her--it seems as if that were in the formula; was shut up with him in +Paris by the Revolution; brought him back to Windsor, and got him a +place in the King's Body Guard, where he attracted the notice of George +III. by his proficiency in German. In 1797, being on guard at St. +James's Palace, William took a cold which carried him off; and Aunt Anne +was once more left heirless. Lastly, in 1805, perhaps moved by the +Admiral, who had a kindness for his old midshipman, perhaps pleased by +the good looks and the good nature of the man himself, Mrs. Buckner +turned her eyes upon Charles Jenkin. He was not only to be the heir, +however; he was to be the chief hand in a somewhat wild scheme of +family farming. Mrs. Jenkin, the mother, contributed 164 acres of land; +Mrs. Buckner, 570, some at Northiam, some farther off; Charles let +one-half of Stowting to a tenant, and threw the other and various +scattered parcels into the common enterprise; so that the whole farm +amounted to near upon a thousand acres, and was scattered over thirty +miles of country. The ex-seaman of thirty-nine, on whose wisdom and +ubiquity the scheme depended, was to live in the meanwhile without care +or fear. He was to check himself in nothing; his two extravagances, +valuable horses and worthless brothers, were to be indulged in comfort; +and whether the year quite paid itself or not, whether successive years +left accumulated savings or only a growing deficit, the fortune of the +golden aunt should in the end repair all. + +On this understanding Charles Jenkin transported his family to Church +House, Northiam: Charles the second, then a child of three, among the +number. Through the eyes of the boy we have glimpses of the life that +followed: of Admiral and Mrs. Buckner driving up from Windsor in a coach +and six, two post-horses and their own four; of the house full of +visitors, the great roasts at the fire, the tables in the servants' hall +laid for thirty or forty for a month together: of the daily press of +neighbours, many of whom, Frewens, Lords, Bishops, Batchellors, and +Dynes, were also kinsfolk: and the parties "under the great spreading +chestnuts of the old fore court," where the young people danced and made +merry to the music of the village band. Or perhaps, in the depth of +winter, the father would bid young Charles saddle his pony; they would +ride the thirty miles from Northiam to Stowting, with the snow to the +pony's saddle-girths, and be received by the tenants like princes. + +This life of delights, with the continual visible comings and goings of +the golden aunt, was well qualified to relax the fibre of the lads. John +the heir, a yeoman and a fox-hunter, "loud and notorious with his whip +and spurs," settled down into a kind of Tony Lumpkin, waiting for the +shoes of his father and his aunt. Thomas Frewen, the youngest, is +briefly dismissed as "a handsome beau"; but he had the merit or the good +fortune to become a doctor of medicine, so that when the crash came he +was not empty-handed for the war of life. Charles, at the day-school of +Northiam, grew so well acquainted with the rod that his floggings became +matter of pleasantry and reached the ears of Admiral Buckner. Hereupon +that tall, rough-voiced formidable uncle entered with the lad into a +covenant; every time that Charles was thrashed he was to pay the Admiral +a penny; every day that he escaped, the process was to be reversed. "I +recollect," writes Charles, "going crying to my mother to be taken to +the Admiral to pay my debt." It would seem by these terms the +speculation was a losing one; yet it is probable it paid indirectly by +bringing the boy under remark. The Admiral was no enemy to dunces; he +loved courage, and Charles, while yet little more than a baby, would +ride the great horse into the pond. Presently it was decided that here +was the stuff of a fine sailor; and at an early period the name of +Charles Jenkin was entered on a ship's books. + +From Northiam he was sent to another school at Boonshill, near Rye, +where the master took "infinite delight" in strapping him. "It keeps me +warm and makes you grow," he used to say. And the stripes were not +altogether wasted, for the dunce, though still very "raw," made progress +with his studies. It was known, moreover, that he was going to sea, +always a ground of pre-eminence with schoolboys; and in his case the +glory was not altogether future, it wore a present form when he came +driving to Rye behind four horses in the same carriage with an admiral. +"I was not a little proud, you may believe," says he. + +In 1814, when he was thirteen years of age, he was carried by his father +to Chichester to the Bishop's Palace. The Bishop had heard from his +brother the Admiral that Charles was likely to do well, and had an +order from Lord Melville for the lad's admission to the Royal Naval +College at Portsmouth. Both the Bishop and the Admiral patted him on the +head and said, "Charles will restore the old family"; by which I gather +with some surprise that, even in these days of open house at Northiam +and golden hope of my aunt's fortune, the family was supposed to stand +in need of restoration. But the past is apt to look brighter than +nature, above all to those enamoured of their genealogy; and the ravages +of Stephen and Thomas must have always given matter of alarm. + +What with the flattery of bishops and admirals, the fine company in +which he found himself at Portsmouth, his visits home, with their gaiety +and greatness of life, his visits to Mrs. Buckner (soon a widow) at +Windsor, where he had a pony kept for him and visited at Lord Melville's +and Lord Harcourt's and the Leveson-Gowers, he began to have "bumptious +notions," and his head was "somewhat turned with fine people"; as to +some extent it remained throughout his innocent and honourable life. + +In this frame of mind the boy was appointed to the _Conqueror_, Captain +Davie, humorously known as Gentle Johnnie. The Captain had earned this +name by his style of discipline, which would have figured well in the +pages of Marryat. "Put the prisoner's head in a bag and give him another +dozen!" survives as a specimen of his commands; and the men were often +punished twice or thrice in a week. On board the ship of this +disciplinarian, Charles and his father were carried in a billy-boat from +Sheerness in December 1816: Charles with an outfit suitable to his +pretensions, a twenty-guinea sextant and 120 dollars in silver, which +were ordered into the care of the gunner. "The old clerks and mates," he +writes, "used to laugh and jeer me for joining the ship in a billy-boat, +and when they found I was from Kent, vowed I was an old Kentish +smuggler. This to my pride, you will believe, was not a little +offensive." + +The _Conqueror_ carried the flag of Vice-Admiral Plampin, commanding at +the Cape and St. Helena; and at that all-important islet, in July 1817 +she relieved the flag-ship of Sir Pulteney Malcolm. Thus it befell that +Charles Jenkin, coming too late for the epic of the French wars, played +a small part in the dreary and disgraceful afterpiece of St. Helena. +Life on the guard-ship was onerous and irksome. The anchor was never +lifted, sail never made, the great guns were silent; none was allowed on +shore except on duty; all day the movements of the imperial captive were +signalled to and fro; all night the boats rowed guard around the +accessible portions of the coast. This prolonged stagnation and petty +watchfulness in what Napoleon himself called that "unchristian" climate, +told cruelly on the health of the ship's company. In eighteen months, +according to O'Meara, the _Conqueror_ had lost one hundred and ten men +and invalided home one hundred and seven, "being more than a third of +her complement." It does not seem that our young midshipman so much as +once set eyes on Bonaparte; and yet in other ways Jenkin was more +fortunate than some of his comrades. He drew in water-colour; not so +badly as his father, yet ill enough; and this art was so rare aboard the +_Conqueror_ that even his humble proficiency marked him out and procured +him some alleviations. Admiral Plampin had succeeded Napoleon at the +Briars; and here he had young Jenkin staying with him to make sketches +of the historic house. One of these is before me as I write, and gives a +strange notion of the arts in our old English navy. Yet it was again as +an artist that the lad was taken for a run to Rio, and apparently for a +second outing in a ten-gun brig. These, and a cruise of six weeks to +windward of the island undertaken by the _Conqueror_ herself in quest of +health, were the only breaks in three years of murderous inaction; and +at the end of that period Jenkin was invalided home, having "lost his +health entirely." + +As he left the deck of the guard-ship the historic part of his career +came to an end. For forty-two years he continued to serve his country +obscurely on the seas, sometimes thanked for inconspicuous and +honourable services, but denied any opportunity of serious distinction. +He was first two years in the _Larne_, Captain Tait, hunting pirates and +keeping a watch on the Turkish and Greek squadrons in the Archipelago. +Captain Tait was a favourite with Sir Thomas Maitland, High Commissioner +of the Ionian Islands--King Tom, as he was called--who frequently took +passage in the _Larne_. King Tom knew every inch of the Mediterranean, +and was a terror to the officers of the watch. He would come on deck at +night; and with his broad Scots accent, "Well, sir," he would say, "what +depth of water have ye? Well, now, sound; and ye'll just find so or so +many fathoms," as the case might be; and the obnoxious passenger was +generally right. On one occasion, as the ship was going into Corfu, Sir +Thomas came up the hatchway and cast his eyes towards the gallows. +"Bangham"--Charles Jenkin heard him say to his aide-de-camp, Lord +Bangham--"where the devil is that other chap? I left four fellows +hanging there; now I can only see three. Mind there is another there +to-morrow." And sure enough there was another Greek dangling the next +day. "Captain Hamilton, of the _Cambrian_, kept the Greeks in order +afloat," writes my author, "and King Tom ashore." + +From 1823 onward, the chief scene of Charles Jenkin's activities was in +the West Indies, where he was engaged off and on till 1844, now as a +subaltern, now in a vessel of his own, hunting out pirates, "then very +notorious," in the Leeward Islands, cruising after slavers, or carrying +dollars and provisions for the Government. While yet a midshipman, he +accompanied Mr. Cockburn to Caraccas and had a sight of Bolivar. In the +brigantine _Griffon_, which he commanded in his last years in the West +Indies, he carried aid to Guadeloupe after the earthquake, and twice +earned the thanks of Government: once for an expedition to Nicaragua to +extort, under threat of a blockade, proper apologies and a sum of money +due to certain British merchants; and once during an insurrection in San +Domingo, for the rescue of certain others from a perilous imprisonment +and the recovery of a "chest of money" of which they had been robbed. +Once, on the other hand, he earned his share of public censure. This was +in 1837, when he commanded the _Romney_, lying in the inner harbour of +Havannah. The _Romney_ was in no proper sense a man-of-war; she was a +slave-hulk, the bonded warehouse of the Mixed Slave Commission; where +negroes, captured out of slavers under Spanish colours, were detained +provisionally, till the Commission should decide upon their case, and +either set them free or bind them to apprenticeship. To this ship, +already an eyesore to the authorities, a Cuban slave made his escape. +The position was invidious: on one side were the tradition of the +British flag and the state of public sentiment at home; on the other, +the certainty that if the slave were kept, the _Romney_ would be ordered +at once out of the harbour, and the object of the Mixed Commission +compromised. Without consultation with any other officer, Captain Jenkin +(then lieutenant) returned the man to shore and took the +Captain-General's receipt. Lord Palmerston approved his course; but the +zealots of the anti-slave trade movement (never to be named without +respect) were much dissatisfied; and thirty-nine years later the matter +was again canvassed in Parliament, and Lord Palmerston and Captain +Jenkin defended by Admiral Erskine in a letter to the _Times_ (March 13, +1876). + +In 1845, while still lieutenant, Charles Jenkin acted as Admiral Pigot's +flag-captain in the Cove of Cork, where there were some thirty pennants; +and about the same time closed his career by an act of personal bravery. +He had proceeded with his boats to the help of a merchant vessel, whose +cargo of combustibles had taken fire and was smouldering under hatches; +his sailors were in the hold, where the fumes were already heavy, and +Jenkin was on deck directing operations, when he found his orders were +no longer answered from below: he jumped down without hesitation and +slung up several insensible men with his own hand. For this act he +received a letter from the Lords of the Admiralty expressing a sense of +his gallantry; and pretty soon after was promoted Commander, superseded, +and could never again obtain employment. + +In 1828 or 1829 Charles Jenkin was in the same watch with another +midshipman, Robert Colin Campbell-Jackson, who introduced him to his +family in Jamaica. The father, the Honourable Robert Jackson, Custos +Rotulorum of Kingston, came of a Yorkshire family, said to be originally +Scottish; and on the mother's side, counted kinship with some of the +Forbeses. The mother was Susan Campbell, one of the Campbells of +Auchenbreck. Her father, Colin, a merchant in Greenock, is said to have +been the heir to both the estate and the baronetcy; he claimed neither, +which casts a doubt upon the fact; but he had pride enough himself, and +taught enough pride to his family, for any station or descent in +Christendom. He had four daughters. One married an Edinburgh writer, as +I have it on a first account--a minister, according to another--a man at +least of reasonable station, but not good enough for the Campbells of +Auchenbreck; and the erring one was instantly discarded. Another married +an actor of the name of Adcock, whom (as I receive the tale) she had +seen acting in a barn; but the phrase should perhaps be regarded rather +as a measure of the family annoyance than a mirror of the facts. The +marriage was not in itself unhappy; Adcock was a gentleman by birth and +made a good husband; the family reasonably prospered, and one of the +daughters married no less a man than Clarkson Stanfield. But by the +father, and the two remaining Miss Campbells, people of fierce passions +and a truly Highland pride, the derogation was bitterly resented. For +long the sisters lived estranged; then, Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Adcock +were reconciled for a moment, only to quarrel the more fiercely; the +name of Mrs. Adcock was proscribed, nor did it again pass her sister's +lips, until the morning when she announced: "Mary Adcock is dead; I saw +her in her shroud last night." Second-sight was hereditary in the house; +and sure enough, as I have it reported, on that very night Mrs. Adcock +had passed away. Thus, of the four daughters, two had, according to the +idiotic notions of their friends, disgraced themselves in marriage; the +others supported the honour of the family with a better grace, and +married West Indian magnates of whom, I believe, the world has never +heard and would not care to hear: so strange a thing is this hereditary +pride. Of Mr. Jackson, beyond the fact that he was Fleeming's +grandfather, I know naught. His wife, as I have said, was a woman of +fierce passions; she would tie her house slaves to the bed and lash them +with her own hand; and her conduct to her wild and down-going sons was a +mixture of almost insane self-sacrifice and wholly insane violence of +temper. She had three sons and one daughter. Two of the sons went +utterly to ruin, and reduced their mother to poverty. The third went to +India, a slim, delicate lad, and passed so wholly from the knowledge of +his relatives that he was thought to be long dead. Years later, when his +sister was living in Genoa, a red-bearded man of great strength and +stature, tanned by years in India, and his hands covered with barbaric +gems, entered the room unannounced, as she was playing the piano, lifted +her from her seat, and kissed her. It was her brother, suddenly returned +out of a past that was never very clearly understood, with the rank of +general, many strange gems, many cloudy stories of adventure, and, next +his heart, the daguerreotype of an Indian prince with whom he had mixed +blood. + +The last of this wild family, the daughter, Henrietta Camilla, became +the wife of the midshipman Charles, and the mother of the subject of +this notice, Fleeming Jenkin. She was a woman of parts and courage. Not +beautiful, she had a far higher gift, the art of seeming so; played the +part of a belle in society, while far lovelier women were left +unattended; and up to old age, had much of both the exigency and the +charm that mark that character. She drew naturally, for she had no +training, with unusual skill; and it was from her, and not from the two +naval artists, that Fleeming inherited his eye and hand. She played on +the harp and sang with something beyond the talent of an amateur. At the +age of seventeen, she heard Pasta in Paris; flew up in a fire of +youthful enthusiasm; and the next morning, all alone and without +introduction, found her way into the presence of the _prima donna_ and +begged for lessons. Pasta made her sing, kissed her when she had done, +and though she refused to be her mistress, placed her in the hands of a +friend. Nor was this all; for when Pasta returned to Paris, she sent for +the girl (once at least) to test her progress. But Mrs. Jenkin's talents +were not so remarkable as her fortitude and strength of will; and it was +in an art for which she had no natural taste (the art of literature) +that she appeared before the public. Her novels, though they attained +and merited a certain popularity both in France and England, are a +measure only of her courage. They were a task, not a beloved task; they +were written for money in days of poverty, and they served their end. In +the least thing as well as in the greatest, in every province of life as +well as in her novels, she displayed the same capacity of taking +infinite pains, which descended to her son. When she was about forty (as +near as her age was known) she lost her voice; set herself at once to +learn the piano, working eight hours a day; and attained to such +proficiency that her collaboration in chamber music was courted by +professionals. And more than twenty years later the old lady might have +been seen dauntlessly beginning the study of Hebrew. This is the more +ethereal part of courage; nor was she wanting in the more material. +Once when a neighbouring groom, a married man, had seduced her maid, +Mrs. Jenkin mounted her horse, rode over to the stable entrance, and +horsewhipped the man with her own hand. + +How a match came about between this talented and spirited girl and the +young midshipman is not very easy to conceive. Charles Jenkin was one of +the finest creatures breathing; loyalty, devotion, simple natural piety, +boyish cheerfulness, tender and manly sentiment in the old sailor +fashion, were in him inherent and inextinguishable either by age, +suffering, or injustice. He looked, as he was, every inch a gentleman; +he must have been everywhere notable, even among handsome men, both for +his face and his gallant bearing; not so much that of a sailor, you +would have said, as like one of those gentle and graceful soldiers that, +to this day, are the most pleasant of Englishmen to see. But though he +was in these ways noble, the dunce scholar of Northiam was to the end no +genius. Upon all points that a man must understand to be a gentleman, to +be upright, gallant, affectionate, and dead to self, Captain Jenkin was +more knowing than one among a thousand; outside of that, his mind was +very largely blank. He had indeed a simplicity that came near to +vacancy; and in the first forty years of his married life this want grew +more accentuated. In both families imprudent marriages had been the +rule; but neither Jenkin nor Campbell had ever entered into a more +unequal union. It was the Captain's good looks, we may suppose, that +gained for him this elevation; and in some ways and for many years of +his life, he had to pay the penalty. His wife, impatient of his +incapacity, and surrounded by brilliant friends, used him with a certain +contempt. She was the managing partner; the life was hers, not his; +after his retirement they lived much abroad, where the poor Captain, who +could never learn any language but his own, sat in the corner mumchance; +and even his son, carried away by his bright mother, did not recognise +for long the treasures of simple chivalry that lay buried in the heart +of his father. Yet it would be an error to regard this marriage as +unfortunate. It not only lasted long enough to justify itself in a +beautiful and touching epilogue, but it gave to the world the scientific +work and what (while time was) were of far greater value, the delightful +qualities of Fleeming Jenkin. The Kentish-Welsh family, facile, +extravagant, generous to a fault, and far from brilliant, had given in +the father an extreme example of its humble virtues. On the other side, +the wild, cruel, proud, and somewhat blackguard stock of the Scots +Campbell-Jacksons had put forth, in the person of the mother, all its +force and courage. + +The marriage fell in evil days. In 1823 the bubble of the golden aunt's +inheritance had burst. She died holding the hand of the nephew she had +so wantonly deceived; at the last she drew him down and seemed to bless +him, surely with some remorseful feeling; for when the will was opened +there was not found so much as the mention of his name. He was deeply in +debt; in debt even to the estate of his deceiver, so that he had to sell +a piece of land to clear himself. "My dear boy," he said to Charles, +"there will be nothing left for you. I am a ruined man." And here +follows for me the strangest part of this story. From the death of the +treacherous aunt, Charles Jenkin senior had still some nine years to +live; it was perhaps too late for him to turn to saving, and perhaps his +affairs were past restoration. But his family at least had all this +while to prepare; they were still young men, and knew what they had to +look for at their father's death; and yet when that happened, in +September, 1831, the heir was still apathetically waiting. Poor John, +the days of his whips and spurs and Yeomanry dinners were quite over; +and with that incredible softness of the Jenkin nature, he settled down, +for the rest of a long life, into something not far removed above a +peasant. The mill farm at Stowting had been saved out of the wreck; and +here he built himself a house on the Mexican model, and made the two +ends meet with rustic thrift, gathering dung with his own hands upon the +road and not at all abashed at his employment. In dress, voice, and +manner, he fell into mere country plainness; lived without the least +care for appearances, the least regret for the past or discontentment +with the present; and when he came to die, died with Stoic cheerfulness, +announcing that he had had a comfortable time and was yet well pleased +to go. One would think there was little active virtue to be inherited +from such a race; and yet in this same voluntary peasant, the special +gift of Fleeming Jenkin was already half developed. The old man to the +end was perpetually inventing; his strange, ill-spelled, unpunctuated +correspondence is full (when he does not drop into cookery receipts) of +pumps, road-engines, steam-diggers, steam-ploughs, and steam +threshing-machines; and I have it on Fleeming's word that what he did +was full of ingenuity--only, as if by some cross destiny, useless. These +disappointments he not only took with imperturbable good humour, but +rejoiced with a particular relish over his nephew's success in the same +field. "I glory in the professor," he wrote to his brother; and to +Fleeming himself, with a touch of simple drollery, "I was much pleased +with your lecture, but why did you hit me so hard with Conisure's" +(connoisseur's, _quasi_ amateur's) "engineering? Oh, what +presumption!--either of you or myself!" A quaint, pathetic figure, +this of uncle John, with his dung-cart and his inventions; and the +romantic fancy of his Mexican house; and his craze about the Lost +Tribes, which seemed to the worthy man the key of all perplexities; and +his quiet conscience, looking back on a life not altogether vain, for he +was a good son to his father while his father lived, and when evil days +approached, he had proved himself a cheerful Stoic. + +It followed from John's inertia that the duty of winding up the estate +fell into the hands of Charles. He managed it with no more skill than +might be expected of a sailor ashore, saved a bare livelihood for John +and nothing for the rest. Eight months later he married Miss Jackson; +and with her money bought in some two-thirds of Stowting. In the +beginning of the little family history which I have been following to so +great an extent, the Captain mentions, with a delightful pride: "A Court +Baron and Court Leet are regularly held by the Lady of the Manor, Mrs. +Henrietta Camilla Jenkin"; and indeed the pleasure of so describing his +wife was the most solid benefit of the investment; for the purchase was +heavily encumbered, and paid them nothing till some years before their +death. In the meanwhile, the Jackson family also, what with wild sons, +an indulgent mother, and the impending emancipation of the slaves, was +moving nearer and nearer to beggary; and thus of two doomed and +declining houses, the subject of this memoir was born, heir to an estate +and to no money, yet with inherited qualities that were to make him +known and loved. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + 1833-1851 + + Birth and childhood--Edinburgh--Frankfort-on-the-Main--Paris--The + Revolution of 1848--The Insurrection--Flight to Italy--Sympathy with + Italy--The insurrection in Genoa--A Student in Genoa--The lad and his + mother. + + +Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin (Fleeming, pronounced _Flemming_, to his +friends and family) was born in a Government building on the coast of +Kent, near Dungeness, where his father was serving at the time in the +Coastguard, on March 25, 1833, and named after Admiral Fleeming, one of +his father's protectors in the navy. + +His childhood was vagrant like his life. Once he was left in the care of +his grandmother Jackson, while Mrs. Jenkin sailed in her husband's ship +and stayed a year at the Havannah. The tragic woman was besides from +time to time a member of the family; she was in distress of mind and +reduced in fortune by the misconduct of her sons; her destitution and +solitude made it a recurring duty to receive her, her violence +continually enforced fresh separations. In her passion of a disappointed +mother, she was a fit object of pity; but her grandson, who heard her +load his own mother with cruel insults and reproaches, conceived for her +an indignant and impatient hatred, for which he blamed himself in later +life. It is strange from this point of view to see his childish letters +to Mrs. Jackson; and to think that a man, distinguished above all by +stubborn truthfulness, should have been brought up to such +dissimulation. But this is of course unavoidable in life; it did no harm +to Jenkin; and whether he got harm or benefit from a so early +acquaintance with violent and hateful scenes, is more than I can guess. +The experience, at least, was formative; and in judging his character it +should not be forgotten. But Mrs. Jackson was not the only stranger in +their gates; the Captain's sister, Aunt Anna Jenkin, lived with them +until her death; she had all the Jenkin beauty of countenance, though +she was unhappily deformed in body and of frail health; and she even +excelled her gentle and ineffectual family in all amiable qualities. So +that each of the two races from which Fleeming sprang, had an outpost by +his very cradle; the one he instinctively loved, the other hated; and +the lifelong war in his members had begun thus early by a victory for +what was best. + +We can trace the family from one country place to another in the south +of Scotland; where the child learned his taste for sport by riding home +the pony from the moors. Before he was nine he could write such a +passage as this about a Hallowe'en observance: "I pulled a +middling-sized cabbage-runt with a pretty sum of gold about it. No +witches would run after me when I was sowing my hempseed this year; my +nuts blazed away together very comfortably to the end of their lives, +and when mamma put hers in, which were meant for herself and papa, they +blazed away in the like manner." Before he was ten he could write, with +a really irritating precocity, that he had been "making some pictures +from a book called 'Les Francais peints par eux-memes.' ... It is full +of pictures of all classes, with a description of each in French. The +pictures are a little caricatured, but not much." Doubtless this was +only an echo from his mother, but it shows the atmosphere in which he +breathed. It must have been a good change for this art critic to be the +playmate of Mary Macdonald, their gardener's daughter at Barjarg, and to +sup with her family on potatoes and milk; and Fleeming himself attached +some value to this early and friendly experience of another class. + +His education, in the formal sense, began at Jedburgh. Thence he went to +the Edinburgh Academy, where Clerk Maxwell was his senior and Tait his +classmate; bore away many prizes; and was once unjustly flogged by +Rector Williams. He used to insist that all his bad school-fellows had +died early, a belief amusingly characteristic of the man's consistent +optimism. In 1846 the mother and son proceeded to Frankfort-on-the-Main, +where they were soon joined by the father, now reduced to inaction and +to play something like third fiddle in his narrow household. The +emancipation of the slaves had deprived them of their last resource +beyond the half-pay of a captain; and life abroad was not only desirable +for the sake of Fleeming's education, it was almost enforced by reasons +of economy. But it was, no doubt, somewhat hard upon the Captain. +Certainly that perennial boy found a companion in his son; they were +both active and eager, both willing to be amused, both young, if not in +years, then in character. They went out together on excursions and +sketched old castles, sitting side by side; they had an angry rivalry in +walking, doubtless equally sincere upon both sides; and indeed we may +say that Fleeming was exceptionally favoured, and that no boy had ever a +companion more innocent, engaging, gay, and airy. But although in this +case it would be easy to exaggerate its import, yet, in the Jenkin +family also, the tragedy of the generations was proceeding, and the +child was growing out of his father's knowledge. His artistic aptitude +was of a different order. Already he had his quick sight of many sides +of life; he already overflowed with distinctions and generalisations, +contrasting the dramatic art and national character of England, Germany, +Italy, and France. If he were dull he would write stories and poems. "I +have written," he says at thirteen, "a very long story in heroic +measure, 300 lines, and another Scotch story and innumerable bits of +poetry"; and at the same age he had not only a keen feeling for scenery, +but could do something with his pen to call it up. I feel I do always +less than justice to the delightful memory of Captain Jenkin; but with a +lad of this character, cutting the teeth of his intelligence, he was +sure to fall into the background. + +The family removed in 1847 to Paris, where Fleeming was put to school +under one Deluc. There he learned French, and (if the Captain is right) +first began to show a taste for mathematics. But a far more important +teacher than Deluc was at hand; the year 1848, so momentous for Europe, +was momentous also for Fleeming's character. The family politics were +Liberal; Mrs. Jenkin, generous before all things, was sure to be upon the +side of exiles; and in the house of a Paris friend of hers, Mrs. +Turner--already known to fame as Shelley's Cornelia de Boinville--Fleeming +saw and heard such men as Manin, Gioberti, and the Ruffinis. He was thus +prepared to sympathise with revolution; and when the hour came, and he +found himself in the midst of stirring and influential events, the lad's +whole character was moved. He corresponded at that time with a young +Edinburgh friend, one Frank Scott; and I am here going to draw somewhat +largely on this boyish correspondence. It gives us at once a picture of +the Revolution and a portrait of Jenkin at fifteen; not so different (his +friends will think) from the Jenkin of the end--boyish, simple, +opinionated, delighting in action, delighting before all things in any +generous sentiment. + + + _"February 23, 1848._ + + "When at 7 o'clock to-day I went out, I met a large band going round + the streets, calling on the inhabitants to illuminate their houses, + and bearing torches. This was all very good fun, and everybody was + delighted; but as they stopped rather long and were rather turbulent + in the Place de la Madeleine, near where we live" [in the Rue + Caumartin] "a squadron of dragoons came up, formed, and charged at a + hand-gallop. This was a very pretty sight; the crowd was not too + thick, so they easily got away; and the dragoons only gave blows with + the back of the sword, which hurt but did not wound. I was as close to + them as I am now to the other side of the table; it was rather + impressive, however. At the second charge they rode on the pavement + and knocked the torches out of the fellows' hands; rather a shame, + too--wouldn't be stood in England...." + + [At] "ten minutes to ten.... I went a long way along the Boulevards, + passing by the office of Foreign Affairs, where Guizot lives, and + where to-night there were about a thousand troops protecting him from + the fury of the populace. After this was passed, the number of the + people thickened, till about half a mile further on, I met a troop of + vagabonds, the wildest vagabonds in the world--Paris vagabonds, well + armed, having probably broken into gunsmiths' shops and taken the guns + and swords. They were about a hundred. These were followed by about a + thousand (I am rather diminishing than exaggerating numbers all + through), indifferently armed with rusty sabres, sticks, etc. An + uncountable troop of gentlemen, workmen, shopkeepers' wives (Paris + women dare anything), ladies'-maids, common women--in fact, a crowd of + all classes, though by far the greater number were of the + better-dressed class--followed. Indeed, it was a splendid sight: the + mob in front chanting the 'Marseillaise,' the national war-hymn, grave + and powerful, sweetened by the night air--though night in these + splendid streets was turned into day, every window was filled with + lamps, dim torches were tossing in the crowd, ... for Guizot has late + this night given in his resignation, and this was an improvised + illumination. + + "I and my father had turned with the crowd, and were close behind the + second troop of vagabonds. Joy was on every face. I remarked to papa + that 'I would not have missed the scene for anything, I might never + see such a splendid one,' when _plong_ went one shot--every face went + pale--_r-r-r-r-r_ went the whole detachment, [and] the whole crowd of + gentlemen and ladies turned and cut. Such a scene!--ladies, gentlemen, + and vagabonds went sprawling in the mud, not shot but tripped up; and + those that went down could not rise, they were trampled over.... I ran + a short time straight on and did not fall, then turned down a side + street, ran fifty yards and felt tolerably safe; looked for papa, did + not see him; so walked on quickly, giving the news as I went." [It + appears, from another letter, the boy was the first to carry word of + the firing to the Rue St. Honore; and that his news wherever he + brought it was received with hurrahs. It was an odd entrance upon life + for a little English lad, thus to play the part of rumour in such a + crisis of the history of France.] + + "But now a new fear came over me. I had little doubt but my papa was + safe, but my fear was that he should arrive at home before me and tell + the story; in that case I knew my mamma would go half mad with fright, + so on I went as quick as possible. I heard no more discharges. When I + got half way home, I found my way blocked up by troops. That way or + the Boulevards I must pass. In the Boulevards they were fighting, and + I was afraid all other passages might be blocked up ... and I should + have to sleep in a hotel in that case, and then my mamma--however, + after a long _detour_, I found a passage and ran home, and in our + street joined papa. + + "... I'll tell you to-morrow the other facts gathered from newspapers + and papa.... To-night I have given you what I have seen with my own + eyes an hour ago, and began trembling with excitement and fear. If I + have been too long on this one subject, it is because it is yet before + my eyes. + + + "_Monday, 24._ + + "It was that fire raised the people. There was fighting all through + the night in the Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, on the Boulevards where + they had been shot at, and at the Porte St. Denis. At ten o'clock they + resigned the house of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (where the + disastrous volley was fired) to the people, who immediately took + possession of it. I went to school but [was] hardly there when the row + in that quarter commenced. Barricades began to be fixed. Every one was + very grave now; the _externes_ went away, but no one came to fetch me, + so I had to stay. No lessons could go on. A troop of armed men took + possession of the barricades, so it was supposed I should have to + sleep there. The revolters came and asked for arms, but Deluc + (head-master) is a National Guard, and he said he had only his own and + he wanted them; but he said he would not fire on them. Then they asked + for wine, which he gave them. They took good care not to get drunk, + knowing they would not be able to fight. They were very polite, and + behaved extremely well. + + "About twelve o'clock a servant came for a boy who lived near me, + [and] Deluc thought it best to send me with him. We heard a good deal + of firing near, but did not come across any of the parties. As we + approached the railway, the barricades were no longer formed of + palings, planks, or stones; but they had got all the omnibuses as they + passed, sent the horses and passengers about their business, and + turned them over. A double row of overturned coaches made a capital + barricade, with a few paving-stones. + + "When I got home I found to my astonishment that in our fighting + quarter it was much quieter. Mamma had just been out seeing the troops + in the Place de la Concorde, when suddenly the Municipal Guard, now + fairly exasperated, prevented the National Guard from proceeding, and + fired at them; the National Guard had come with their musquets not + loaded, but at length returned the fire. Mamma saw the National Guard + fire. The Municipal Guard were round the corner. She was delighted, + for she saw no person killed, though many of the Municipals were.... + + "I immediately went out with my papa (mamma had just come back with + him) and went to the Place de la Concorde. There was an enormous + quantity of troops in the Place. Suddenly the gates of the gardens of + the Tuileries opened: we rushed forward, out galloped an enormous + number of cuirassiers, in the middle of which were a couple of low + carriages, said first to contain the Count de Paris and the Duchess of + Orleans, but afterwards they said it was the King and Queen; and then + I heard he had abdicated. I returned and gave the news. + + "Went out again up the Boulevards. The house of the Minister of + Foreign Affairs was filled with people and '_Hotel du Peuple_' written + on it; the Boulevards were barricaded with fine old trees that were + cut down and stretched all across the road. We went through a great + many little streets, all strongly barricaded, and sentinels of the + people at the principal of them. The streets are very unquiet, filled + with armed men and women, for the troops had followed the ex-King to + Neuilly and left Paris in the power of the people. We met the captain + of the Third Legion of the National Guard (who had principally + protected the people) badly wounded by a Municipal Guard, stretched on + a litter. He was in possession of his senses. He was surrounded by a + troop of men crying, 'Our brave captain--we have him yet--he's not + dead! _Vive la Reforme!_' This cry was responded to by all, and every + one saluted him as he passed. I do not know if he was mortally + wounded. That Third Legion has behaved splendidly. + + "I then returned, and shortly afterwards went out again to the garden + of the Tuileries. They were given up to the people and the palace was + being sacked. The people were firing blank cartridge to testify their + joy, and they had a cannon on the top of the palace. It was a sight to + see a palace sacked, and armed vagabonds firing out of the windows, + and throwing shirts, papers, and dresses of all kinds out of the + windows. They are not rogues, these French; they are not stealing, + burning, or doing much harm. In the Tuileries they have dressed up + some of the statues, broken some, and stolen nothing but queer + dresses. I say, Frank, you must not hate the French; hate the Germans + if you like. The French laugh at us a little and call out _Goddam_ in + the streets; but to-day, in civil war, when they might have put a + bullet through our heads, I never was insulted once. + + "At present we have a provisional Government, consisting of Odion + [_sic_] Barrot, Lamartine, Marast, and some others; among them a + common workman, but very intelligent. This is a triumph of + liberty--rather! + + "Now, then, Frank, what do you think of it? I in a revolution and out + all day. Just think, what fun! So it was at first, till I was fired at + yesterday; but to-day I was not frightened, but it turned me sick at + heart, I don't know why. There has been no great bloodshed, [though] I + certainly have seen men's blood several times. But there's something + shocking to see a whole armed populace, though not furious, for not + one single shop has been broken open, except the gunsmiths' shops, and + most of the arms will probably be taken back again. For the French + have no cupidity in their nature; they don't like to steal--it is not + in their nature. I shall send this letter in a day or two, when I am + sure the post will go again. I know I have been a long time writing, + but I hope you will find the matter of this letter interesting, as + coming from a person resident on the spot; though probably you don't + take much interest in the French, but I can think, write, and speak on + no other subject. + + + "_Feb. 25._ + + "There is no more fighting, the people have conquered; but the + barricades are still kept up, and the people are in arms, more than + ever fearing some new act of treachery on the part of the ex-King. The + fight where I was was the principal cause of the Revolution. I was in + little danger from the shot, for there was an immense crowd in front + of me, though quite within gunshot. [By another letter, a hundred + yards from the troops.] I wished I had stopped there. + + "The Paris streets are filled with the most extraordinary crowds of + men, women, and children, ladies and gentlemen. Every person joyful. + The bands of armed men are perfectly polite. Mamma and aunt to-day + walked through armed crowds alone, that were firing blank cartridges + in all directions. Every person made way with the greatest politeness, + and one common man with a blouse, coming by accident against her, + immediately stopped to beg her pardon in the politest manner. There + are few drunken men. The Tuileries is still being run over by the + people; they only broke two things, a bust of Louis Philippe and one + of Marshal Bugeaud, who fired on the people.... + + "I have been out all day again to-day, and precious tired I am. The + Republican party seems the strongest, and are going about with red + ribbons in their button-holes.... + + "The title of 'Mister' is abandoned: they say nothing but 'Citizen,' + and the people are shaking hands amazingly. They have got to the top + of the public monuments, and, mingling with bronze or stone statues, + five or six make a sort of _tableau vivant_, the top man holding up + the red flag of the Republic; and right well they do it, and very + picturesque they look. I think I shall put this letter in the post + to-morrow as we got a letter to-night. + + + (_On Envelope._) + + "M. Lamartine has now by his eloquence conquered the whole armed crowd + of citizens threatening to kill him if he did not immediately proclaim + the Republic and red flag. He said he could not yield to the citizens + of Paris alone, that the whole country must be consulted, that he + chose the tricolour, for it had followed and accompanied the triumphs + of France all over the world, and that the red flag had only been + dipped in the blood of the citizens. For sixty hours he has been + quieting the people: he is at the head of everything. Don't be + prejudiced, Frank, by what you see in the papers. The French have + acted nobly, splendidly; there has been no brutality, plundering, or + stealing.... I did not like the French before; but in this respect + they are the finest people in the world. I am so glad to have been + here." + +And there one could wish to stop with this apotheosis of liberty and +order read with the generous enthusiasm of a boy; but as the reader +knows, it was but the first act of the piece. The letters, vivid as they +are, written as they were by a hand trembling with fear and excitement, +yet do injustice, in their boyishness of tone, to the profound effect +produced. At the sound of these songs and shot of cannon, the boy's mind +awoke. He dated his own appreciation of the art of acting from the day +when he saw and heard Rachel recite the "Marseillaise" at the Francais, +the tricolor in her arms. What is still more strange, he had been up to +then invincibly indifferent to music, insomuch that he could not +distinguish "God save the Queen" from "Bonnie Dundee"; and now, to the +chanting of the mob, he amazed his family by learning and singing +"Mourir pour la Patrie." But the letters, though they prepare the mind +for no such revolution in the boy's tastes and feelings, are yet full of +entertaining traits. Let the reader note Fleeming's eagerness to +influence his friend Frank, an incipient Tory (no less) as further +history displayed; his unconscious indifference to his father and +devotion to his mother, betrayed in so many significant expressions and +omissions; the sense of dignity of this diminutive "person resident on +the spot," who was so happy as to escape insult; and the strange picture +of the household--father, mother, son, and even poor Aunt Anna--all day +in the streets in the thick of this rough business, and the boy packed +off alone to school in a distant quarter on the very morrow of the +massacre. + +They had all the gift of enjoying life's texture as it comes: they were +all born optimists. The name of liberty was honoured in that family, its +spirit also, but within stringent limits; and some of the foreign +friends of Mrs. Jenkin were, as I have said, men distinguished on the +Liberal side. Like Wordsworth, they beheld + + "France standing on the top of golden hours + And human nature seeming born again." + +At once, by temper and belief, they were formed to find their element in +such a decent and whiggish convulsion, spectacular in its course, +moderate in its purpose. For them, + + "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, + But to be young was very heaven." + +And I cannot but smile when I think that (again like Wordsworth) they +should have so specially disliked the consequence. + +It came upon them by surprise. Liberal friends of the precise right +shade of colour had assured them, in Mrs. Turner's drawing-room, that +all was for the best; and they rose on February 28 without fear. About +the middle of the day they heard the sound of musketry, and the next +morning they were wakened by the cannonade. The French, who had behaved +so "splendidly," pausing, at the voice of Lamartine, just where +judicious Liberals could have desired--the French, who had "no cupidity +in their nature," were now about to play a variation on the theme +rebellion. The Jenkins took refuge in the house of Mrs. Turner, the +house of the false prophets, "Anna going with Mrs. Turner, that she +might be prevented speaking English, Fleeming, Miss H., and I" (it is +the mother who writes) "walking together. As we reached the Rue de +Clichy the report of the cannon sounded close to our ears and made our +hearts sick, I assure you. The fighting was at the barrier Rochechouart, +a few streets off. All Saturday and Sunday we were a prey to great +alarm, there came so many reports that the insurgents were getting the +upper hand. One could tell the state of affairs from the extreme quiet +or the sudden hum in the street. When the news was bad, all the houses +closed and the people disappeared; when better, the doors half opened +and you heard the sound of men again. From the upper windows we could +see each discharge from the Bastille--I mean the smoke rising--and also +the flames and smoke from the Boulevard la Chapelle. We were four +ladies, and only Fleeming by way of a man, and difficulty enough we had +to keep him from joining the National Guards--his pride and spirit were +both fired. You cannot picture to yourself the multitudes of soldiers, +guards, and armed men of all sorts we watched--not close to the window, +however, for such havoc had been made among them by the firing from the +windows, that as the battalions marched by, they cried, '_Fermez vos +fenetres!_' and it was very painful to watch their looks of anxiety and +suspicion as they marched by." + +"The Revolution," writes Fleeming to Frank Scott, "was quite delightful: +getting popped at, and run at by horses, and giving sous for the wounded +into little boxes guarded by the raggedest, picturesquest, +delightfullest sentinels; but the insurrection! ugh, I shudder to think +at [_sic_] it." He found it "not a bit of fun sitting boxed up in the +house four days almost.... I was the only _gentleman_ to four ladies, +and didn't they keep me in order! I did not dare to show my face at a +window, for fear of catching a stray ball or being forced to enter the +National Guard; [for] they would have it I was a man full grown, French, +and every way fit to fight. And my mamma was as bad as any of them; she +that told me I was a coward last time if I stayed in the house a quarter +of an hour! But I drew, examined the pistols, of which I found lots with +caps, powder, and ball, while sometimes murderous intentions of killing +a dozen insurgents and dying violently overpowered by numbers...." We may +drop this sentence here: under the conduct of its boyish writer, it was +to reach no legitimate end. + +Four days of such a discipline had cured the family of Paris; the same +year Fleeming was to write, in answer apparently to a question of Frank +Scott's, "I could find no national game in France but revolutions"; and +the witticism was justified in their experience. On the first possible +day they applied for passports, and were advised to take the road to +Geneva. It appears it was scarce safe to leave Paris for England. +Charles Reade, with keen dramatic gusto, had just smuggled himself out +of that city in the bottom of a cab. English gold had been found on the +insurgents, the name of England was in evil odour; and it was thus--for +strategic reasons, so to speak--that Fleeming found himself on the way +to that Italy where he was to complete his education, and for which he +cherished to the end a special kindness. + +It was in Genoa they settled; partly for the sake of the Captain, who +might there find naval comrades; partly because of the Ruffinis, who had +been friends of Mrs. Jenkin in their time of exile, and were now +considerable men at home; partly, in fine, with hopes that Fleeming +might attend the University; in preparation for which he was put at once +to school. It was the year of Novara; Mazzini was in Rome; the dry bones +of Italy were moving; and for people of alert and liberal sympathies the +time was inspiriting. What with exiles turned Ministers of State, +Universities thrown open to Protestants, Fleeming himself the first +Protestant student in Genoa, and thus, as his mother writes, "a living +instance of the progress of liberal ideas"--it was little wonder if the +enthusiastic young woman and the clever boy were heart and soul upon the +side of Italy. It should not be forgotten that they were both on their +first visit to that country; the mother still "child enough" to be +delighted when she saw "real monks"; and both mother and son thrilling +with the first sight of snowy Alps, the blue Mediterranean, and the +crowded port and the palaces of Genoa. Nor was their zeal without +knowledge. Ruffini, deputy for Genoa, and soon to be head of the +University, was at their side; and by means of him the family appear to +have had access to much Italian society. To the end, Fleeming professed +his admiration of the Piedmontese, and his unalterable confidence in the +future of Italy under their conduct; for Victor Emanuel, Cavour, the +first La Marmora and Garibaldi, he had varying degrees of sympathy and +praise: perhaps highest for the King, whose good sense and temper +filled him with respect--perhaps least for Garibaldi, whom he loved but +yet mistrusted. + +But this is to look forward; these were the days not of Victor Emanuel +but of Charles Albert; and it was on Charles Albert that mother and son +had now fixed their eyes as on the sword-bearer of Italy. On Fleeming's +sixteenth birthday, they were, the mother writes, "in great anxiety for +news from the army. You can have no idea what it is to live in a country +where such a struggle is going on. The interest is one that absorbs all +others. We eat, drink, and sleep to the noise of drums and musketry. You +would enjoy and almost admire Fleeming's enthusiasm and earnestness--and +courage, I may say--for we are among the small minority of English who +side with the Italians. The other day, at dinner at the Consul's, boy as +he is, and in spite of my admonitions, Fleeming defended the Italian +cause, and so well that he 'tripped up the heels of his adversary' +simply from being well-informed on the subject and honest. He is as true +as steel, and for no one will he bend right or left.... Do not fancy him +a Bobadil," she adds, "he is only a very true, candid boy. I am so glad +he remains in all respects but information a great child." + +If this letter is correctly dated, the cause was already lost, and the +King had already abdicated when these lines were written. No sooner did +the news reach Genoa, than there began "tumultuous movements"; and the +Jenkins received hints it would be wise to leave the city. But they had +friends and interests; even the Captain had English officers to keep him +company, for Lord Hardwicke's ship, the _Vengeance_, lay in port; and +supposing the danger to be real, I cannot but suspect the whole family +of a divided purpose, prudence being possibly weaker than curiosity. +Stay, at least, they did, and thus rounded their experience of the +revolutionary year. On Sunday, April 1, Fleeming and the Captain went +for a ramble beyond the walls, leaving Aunt Anna and Mrs. Jenkin to +walk on the bastions with some friends. On the way back, this party +turned aside to rest in the Church of the Madonna delle Grazie. "We had +remarked," writes Mrs. Jenkin, "the entire absence of sentinels on the +ramparts, and how the cannons were left in solitary state; and I had +just remarked 'How quiet everything is!' when suddenly we heard the +drums begin to beat, and distant shouts. _Accustomed as we are_ to +revolutions, we never thought of being frightened." For all that, they +resumed their return home. On the way they saw men running and +vociferating, but nothing to indicate a general disturbance, until, near +the Duke's palace, they came upon and passed a shouting mob dragging +along with it three cannon. It had scarcely passed before they heard "a +rushing sound"; one of the gentlemen thrust back the party of ladies +under a shed, and the mob passed again. A fine-looking young man was in +their hands; and Mrs. Jenkin saw him with his mouth open as if he sought +to speak, saw him tossed from one to another like a ball, and then saw +him no more. "He was dead a few instants after, but the crowd hid that +terror from us. My knees shook under me and my sight left me." With this +street tragedy the curtain rose upon the second revolution. + +The attack on Spirito Santo and the capitulation and departure of the +troops speedily followed. Genoa was in the hands of the Republicans, and +now came a time when the English residents were in a position to pay +some return for hospitality received. Nor were they backward. Our Consul +(the same who had the benefit of correction from Fleeming) carried the +Intendente on board the _Vengeance_, escorting him through the streets, +getting along with him on board a shore boat, and when the insurgents +levelled their muskets, standing up and naming himself "_Console +Inglese_." A friend of the Jenkins, Captain Glynne, had a more painful, +if a less dramatic part. One Colonel Nosozzo had been killed (I read) +while trying to prevent his own artillery from firing on the mob; but +in that hell's caldron of a distracted city, there were no distinctions +made, and the Colonel's widow was hunted for her life. In her grief and +peril, the Glynnes received and hid her; Captain Glynne sought and found +her husband's body among the slain, saved it for two days, brought the +widow a lock of the dead man's hair; but at last, the mob still strictly +searching, seems to have abandoned the body, and conveyed his guest on +board the _Vengeance_. The Jenkins also had their refugees, the family +of an _employe_ threatened by a decree. "You should have seen me making +a Union Jack to nail over our door," writes Mrs. Jenkin. "I never worked +so fast in my life. Monday and Tuesday," she continues, "were tolerably +quiet, our hearts beating fast in the hope of La Marmora's approach, the +streets barricaded, and none but foreigners and women allowed to leave +the city." On Wednesday, La Marmora came indeed, but in the ugly form of +a bombardment; and that evening the Jenkins sat without lights about +their drawing-room window, "watching the huge red flashes of the cannon" +from the Brigato and La Specula forts, and hearkening, not without some +awful pleasure, to the thunder of the cannonade. + +Lord Hardwicke intervened between the rebels and La Marmora; and there +followed a troubled armistice, filled with the voice of panic. Now the +_Vengeance_ was known to be cleared for action; now it was rumoured that +the galley-slaves were to be let loose upon the town, and now that the +troops would enter it by storm. Crowds, trusting in the Union Jack over +the Jenkins' door, came to beg them to receive their linen and other +valuables; nor could their instances be refused; and in the midst of all +this bustle and alarm, piles of goods must be examined and long +inventories made. At last the Captain decided things had gone too far. +He himself apparently remained to watch over the linen; but at five +o'clock on the Sunday morning, Aunt Anna, Fleeming, and his mother were +rowed in a pour of rain on board an English merchantman, to suffer +"nine mortal hours of agonising suspense." With the end of that time +peace was restored. On Tuesday morning officers with white flags +appeared on the bastions; then, regiment by regiment, the troops marched +in, two hundred men sleeping on the ground floor of the Jenkins' house, +thirty thousand in all entering the city, but without disturbance, old +La Marmora being a commander of a Roman sternness. + +With the return of quiet, and the reopening of the Universities, we +behold a new character, Signor Flaminio: the professors, it appears, +made no attempt upon the Jenkin; and thus readily italianised the +Fleeming. He came well recommended; for their friend Ruffini was then, +or soon after, raised to be the head of the University; and the +professors were very kind and attentive, possibly to Ruffini's +_protege_, perhaps also to the first Protestant student. It was no joke +for Signor Flaminio at first; certificates had to be got from Paris and +from Rector Williams; the classics must be furbished up at home that he +might follow Latin lectures; examinations bristled in the path, the +entrance examination with Latin and English essay, and oral trials (much +softened for the foreigner) in Horace, Tacitus, and Cicero, and the +first University examination only three months later, in Italian +eloquence, no less, and other wider subjects. On one point the first +Protestant student was moved to thank his stars: that there was no Greek +required for the degree. Little did he think, as he set down his +gratitude, how much, in later life and among cribs and dictionaries, he +was to lament this circumstance; nor how much of that later life he was +to spend acquiring, with infinite toil, a shadow of what he might then +have got with ease, and fully. But if his Genoese education was in this +particular imperfect, he was fortunate in the branches that more +immediately touched on his career. The physical laboratory was the best +mounted in Italy. Bancalari, the professor of natural philosophy, was +famous in his day; by what seems even an odd coincidence, he went deeply +into electro-magnetism; and it was principally in that subject that +Signor Flaminio, questioned in Latin and answering in Italian, passed +his Master of Arts degree with first-class honours. That he had secured +the notice of his teachers one circumstance sufficiently proves. A +philosophical society was started under the presidency of Mamiani, "one +of the examiners and one of the leaders of the Moderate party"; and out +of five promising students brought forward by the professors to attend +the sittings and present essays, Signor Flaminio was one. I cannot find +that he ever read an essay; and indeed I think his hands were otherwise +too full. He found his fellow-students "not such a bad set of chaps," +and preferred the Piedmontese before the Genoese; but I suspect he mixed +not very freely with either. Not only were his days filled with +University work, but his spare hours were fully dedicated to the arts +under the eye of a beloved task-mistress. He worked hard and well in the +art school, where he obtained a silver medal "for a couple of legs the +size of life drawn from one of Raphael's cartoons." His holidays were +spent in sketching; his evenings, when they were free, at the theatre. +Here at the opera he discovered besides a taste for a new art, the art +of music; and it was, he wrote, "as if he had found out a heaven on +earth." "I am so anxious that whatever he professes to know, he should +really perfectly possess," his mother wrote, "that I spare no pains"; +neither to him nor to myself, she might have added. And so when he +begged to be allowed to learn the piano, she started him with +characteristic barbarity on the scales; and heard in consequence +"heart-rending groans" and saw "anguished claspings of hands" as he lost +his way among their arid intricacies. + +In this picture of the lad at the piano there is something, for the +period, girlish. He was indeed his mother's boy; and it was fortunate +his mother was not altogether feminine. She gave her son a womanly +delicacy in morals, to a man's taste--to his own taste in later +life--too finely spun, and perhaps more elegant than healthful. She +encouraged him besides in drawing-room interests. But in other points +her influence was manlike. Filled with the spirit of thoroughness, she +taught him to make of the least of these accomplishments a virile task; +and the teaching lasted him through life. Immersed as she was in the +day's movements, and buzzed about by leading Liberals, she handed on to +him her creed in politics: an enduring kindness for Italy, and a +loyalty, like that of many clever women, to the Liberal party with but +small regard to men or measures. This attitude of mind used often to +disappoint me in a man so fond of logic; but I see now how it was +learned from the bright eyes of his mother, and to the sound of the +cannonades of 1848. To some of her defects, besides, she made him heir. +Kind as was the bond that united her to her son, kind, and even pretty, +she was scarce a woman to adorn a home; loving as she did to shine; +careless as she was of domestic, studious of public graces. She probably +rejoiced to see the boy grow up in somewhat of the image of herself, +generous, excessive, enthusiastic, external; catching at ideas, +brandishing them when caught; fiery for the right, but always fiery; +ready at fifteen to correct a consul, ready at fifty to explain to any +artist his own art. + +The defects and advantages of such a training were obvious in Fleeming +throughout life. His thoroughness was not that of the patient scholar, +but of an untrained woman with fits of passionate study; he had learned +too much from dogma, given indeed by cherished lips; and precocious as +he was in the use of the tools of the mind, he was truly backward in +knowledge of life and of himself. Such as it was at least, his home and +school training was now complete; and you are to conceive the lad as +being formed in a household of meagre revenue, among foreign +surroundings, and under the influence of an imperious drawing-room +queen; from whom he learned a great refinement of morals, a strong sense +of duty, much forwardness of bearing, all manner of studious and +artistic interests, and many ready-made opinions which he embraced with +a son's and a disciple's loyalty. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + 1851-1858 + + Return to England--Fleeming at Fairbairn's--Experience in a + strike--Dr. Bell and Greek architecture--The Gaskells--Fleeming at + Greenwich--The Austins--Fleeming and the Austins--His + engagement--Fleeming and Sir W. Thomson. + + +In 1851, the year of Aunt Anna's death, the family left Genoa and came +to Manchester, where Fleeming was entered in Fairbairn's works as an +apprentice. From the palaces and Alps, the Mole, the blue Mediterranean, +the humming lanes and the bright theatres of Genoa, he fell--and he was +sharply conscious of the fall--to the dim skies and the foul ways of +Manchester. England he found on his return "a horrid place," and there +is no doubt the family found it a dear one. The story of the Jenkin +finances is not easy to follow. The family, I am told, did not practise +frugality, only lamented that it should be needful; and Mrs. Jenkin, who +was always complaining of those "dreadful bills," was "always a good +deal dressed." But at this time of the return to England, things must +have gone further. A holiday tour of a fortnight Fleeming feared would +be beyond what he could afford, and he only projected it "to have a +castle in the air." And there were actual pinches. Fresh from a warmer +sun, he was obliged to go without a greatcoat, and learned on railway +journeys to supply the place of one with wrappings of old newspaper. + +From half-past eight till six, he must "file and chip vigorously in a +moleskin suit and infernally dirty." The work was not new to him, for he +had already passed some time in a Genoese shop; and to Fleeming no work +was without interest. Whatever a man can do or know, he longed to know +and do also. "I never learned anything," he wrote, "not even standing on +my head, but I found a use for it." In the spare hours of his first +telegraph voyage, to give an instance of his greed of knowledge, he +meant "to learn the whole art of navigation, every rope in the ship, and +how to handle her on any occasion"; and once when he was shown a young +lady's holiday collection of seaweeds, he must cry out, "It showed me my +eyes had been idle." Nor was his the case of the mere literary +smatterer, content if he but learn the names of things. In him, to do +and to do well was even a dearer ambition than to know. Anything done +well, any craft, despatch, or finish, delighted and inspired him. I +remember him with a twopenny Japanese box of three drawers, so exactly +fitted that, when one was driven home, the others started from their +places; the whole spirit of Japan, he told me, was pictured in that box; +that plain piece of carpentry was as much inspired by the spirit of +perfection as the happiest drawing or the finest bronze, and he who +could not enjoy it in the one was not fully able to enjoy it in the +others. Thus, too, he found in Leonardo's engineering and anatomical +drawings a perpetual feast; and of the former he spoke even with +emotion. Nothing indeed annoyed Fleeming more than the attempt to +separate the fine arts from the arts of handicraft; any definition or +theory that failed to bring these two together, according to him, had +missed the point; and the essence of the pleasure received lay in seeing +things well done. Other qualities must be added; he was the last to deny +that; but this, of perfect craft, was at the bottom of all. And on the +other hand, a nail ill driven, a joint ill fitted, a tracing clumsily +done, anything to which a man had set his hand and not set it aptly, +moved him to shame and anger. With such a character, he would feel but +little drudgery at Fairbairn's. There would be something daily to be +done, slovenliness to be avoided, and a higher mark of skill to be +attained; he would chip and file, as he had practised scales, impatient +of his own imperfection, but resolute to learn. + +And there was another spring of delight. For he was now moving daily +among those strange creations of man's brain, to some so abhorrent, to +him of an interest so inexhaustible: in which iron, water, and fire are +made to serve as slaves, now with a tread more powerful than an +elephant's, and now with a touch more precise and dainty than a +pianist's. The taste for machinery was one that I could never share with +him, and he had a certain bitter pity for my weakness. Once when I had +proved, for the hundredth time, the depth of this defect, he looked at +me askance: "And the best of the joke," said he, "is that he thinks +himself quite a poet." For to him the struggle of the engineer against +brute forces and with inert allies was nobly poetic. Habit never dulled +in him the sense of the greatness of the aims and obstacles of his +profession. Habit only sharpened his inventor's gusto in contrivance, in +triumphant artifice, in the Odyssean subtleties, by which wires are +taught to speak, and iron hands to weave, and the slender ship to brave +and to outstrip the tempest. To the ignorant the great results alone are +admirable; to the knowing, and to Fleeming in particular, rather the +infinite device and sleight of mind that made them possible. + +A notion was current at the time that, in such a shop as Fairbairn's, a +pupil would never be popular unless he drank with the workmen and +imitated them in speech and manner. Fleeming, who would do none of these +things, they accepted as a friend and companion; and this was the +subject of remark in Manchester, where some memory of it lingers till +to-day. He thought it one of the advantages of his profession to be +brought in a close relation with the working classes; and for the +skilled artisan he had a great esteem, liking his company, his virtues, +and his taste in some of the arts. But he knew the classes too well to +regard them, like a platform speaker, in a lump. He drew, on the other +hand, broad distinctions; and it was his profound sense of the +difference between one working man and another that led him to devote so +much time, in later days, to the furtherance of technical education. In +1852 he had occasion to see both men and masters at their worst, in the +excitement of a strike; and very foolishly (after their custom) both +would seem to have behaved. Beginning with a fair show of justice on +either side, the masters stultified their cause by obstinate impolicy, +and the men disgraced their order by acts of outrage. "On Wednesday +last," writes Fleeming, "about three thousand banded round Fairbairn's +door at 6 o'clock: men, women, and children, factory boys and girls, the +lowest of the low in a very low place. Orders came that no one was to +leave the works; but the men inside (Knobsticks, as they are called) +were precious hungry and thought they would venture. Two of my +companions and myself went out with the very first, and had the full +benefit of every possible groan and bad language." But the police +cleared a lane through the crowd, the pupils were suffered to escape +unhurt, and only the Knobsticks followed home and kicked with clogs; so +that Fleeming enjoyed, as we may say, for nothing, that fine thrill of +expectant valour with which he had sallied forth into the mob. "I never +before felt myself so decidedly somebody, instead of nobody," he wrote. + +Outside as inside the works, he was "pretty merry and well-to-do," +zealous in study, welcome to many friends, unwearied in loving-kindness +to his mother. For some time he spent three nights a week with Dr. Bell, +"working away at certain geometrical methods of getting the Greek +architectural proportions": a business after Fleeming's heart, for he +was never so pleased as when he could marry his two devotions, art and +science. This was besides, in all likelihood, the beginning of that love +and intimate appreciation of things Greek, from the least to the +greatest, from the _Agamemnon_ (perhaps his favourite tragedy) down to +the details of Grecian tailoring, which he used to express in his +familiar phrase: "The Greeks were the boys." Dr. Bell--the son of +George Joseph, the nephew of Sir Charles, and, though he made less use +of it than some, a sharer in the distinguished talents of his race--had +hit upon the singular fact that certain geometrical intersections gave +the proportions of the Doric order. Fleeming, under Dr. Bell's +direction, applied the same method to the other orders, and again found +the proportions accurately given. Numbers of diagrams were prepared; but +the discovery was never given to the world, perhaps because of the +dissensions that arose between the authors. For Dr. Bell believed that +"these intersections were in some way connected with, or symbolical of, +the antagonistic forces at work"; but his pupil and helper, with +characteristic trenchancy, brushed aside this mysticism, and interpreted +the discovery as "a geometrical method of dividing the spaces or (as +might be said) of setting out the work, purely empirical, and in no way +connected with any laws of either force or beauty." "Many a hard and +pleasant fight we had over it," wrote Jenkin, in later years; "and +impertinent as it may seem, the pupil is still unconvinced by the +arguments of the master." I do not know about the antagonistic forces in +the Doric order; in Fleeming they were plain enough; and the Bobadil of +these affairs with Dr. Bell was still, like the corrector of Italian +consuls, "a great child in everything but information." At the house of +Colonel Cleather, he might be seen with a family of children; and with +these there was no word of the Greek orders; with these Fleeming was +only an uproarious boy and an entertaining draughtsman; so that his +coming was the signal for the young people to troop into the playroom, +where sometimes the roof rang with romping, and sometimes they gathered +quietly about him as he amused them with his pencil. + +In another Manchester family, whose name will be familiar to my +readers--that of the Gaskells,--Fleeming was a frequent visitor. To Mrs. +Gaskell he would often bring his new ideas, a process that many of his +later friends will understand and, in their own cases, remember. With +the girls he had "constant fierce wrangles," forcing them to reason out +their thoughts and to explain their prepossessions; and I hear from Miss +Gaskell that they used to wonder how he could throw all the ardour of +his character into the smallest matters, and to admire his unselfish +devotion to his parents. Of one of these wrangles I have found a record +most characteristic of the man. Fleeming had been laying down his +doctrine that the end justifies the means, and that it is quite right +"to boast of your six men-servants to a burglar, or to steal a knife to +prevent a murder"; and the Miss Gaskells, with girlish loyalty to what +is current, had rejected the heresy with indignation. From such +passages-at-arms many retire mortified and ruffled; but Fleeming had no +sooner left the house than he fell into delighted admiration of the +spirit of his adversaries. From that it was but a step to ask himself +"what truth was sticking in their heads"; for even the falsest form of +words (in Fleeming's life-long opinion) reposed upon some truth, just as +he could "not even allow that people admire ugly things, they admire +what is pretty in the ugly thing." And before he sat down to write his +letter, he thought he had hit upon the explanation. "I fancy the true +idea," he wrote, "is that you must never do yourself or any one else a +moral injury--make any man a thief or a liar--for any end"; quite a +different thing, as he would have loved to point out, from never +stealing or lying. But this perfervid disputant was not always out of +key with his audience. One whom he met in the same house announced that +she would never again be happy. "What does that signify?" cried +Fleeming. "We are not here to be happy, but to be good." And the words +(as his hearer writes to me) became to her a sort of motto during life. + +From Fairbairn's and Manchester, Fleeming passed to a railway survey in +Switzerland, and thence again to Mr. Penn's at Greenwich, where he was +engaged as draughtsman. There, in 1856, we find him in "a terribly busy +state, finishing up engines for innumerable gunboats and steam frigates +for the ensuing campaign." From half-past eight in the morning till nine +or ten at night, he worked in a crowded office among uncongenial +comrades, "saluted by chaff, generally low, personal, and not witty," +pelted with oranges and apples, regaled with dirty stories, and seeking +to suit himself with his surroundings or (as he writes it) trying to be +as little like himself as possible. His lodgings were hard by, "across a +dirty green and through some half-built streets of two-storied houses"; +he had Carlyle and the poets, engineering and mathematics, to study by +himself in such spare time as remained to him; and there were several +ladies, young and not so young, with whom he liked to correspond. But +not all of these could compensate for the absence of that mother, who +had made herself so large a figure in his life, for sorry surroundings, +unsuitable society, and work that leaned to the mechanical. "Sunday," +says he, "I generally visit some friends in town, and seem to swim in +clearer water, but the dirty green seems all the dirtier when I get +back. Luckily I am fond of my profession, or I could not stand this +life." It is a question in my mind, if he could have long continued to +stand it without loss. "We are not here to be happy, but to be good," +quoth the young philosopher; but no man had a keener appetite for +happiness than Fleeming Jenkin. There is a time of life besides, when, +apart from circumstances, few men are agreeable to their neighbours, and +still fewer to themselves; and it was at this stage that Fleeming had +arrived, later than common, and even worse provided. The letter from +which I have quoted is the last of his correspondence with Frank Scott, +and his last confidential letter to one of his own sex. "If you consider +it rightly," he wrote long after, "you will find the want of +correspondence no such strange want in men's friendships. There is, +believe me, something noble in the metal which does not rust, though not +burnished by daily use." It is well said; but the last letter to Frank +Scott is scarcely of a noble metal. It is plain the writer has outgrown +his old self, yet not made acquaintance with the new. This letter from a +busy youth of three-and-twenty, breathes of seventeen: the sickening +alternations of conceit and shame, the expense of hope _in vacuo_, the +lack of friends, the longing after love; the whole world of egoism under +which youth stands groaning, a voluntary Atlas. + +With Fleeming this disease was never seemingly severe. The very day +before this (to me) distasteful letter, he had written to Miss Bell of +Manchester in a sweeter strain; I do not quote the one, I quote the +other; fair things are the best. "I keep my own little lodgings," he +writes, "but come up every night to see mamma" (who was then on a visit +to London) "if not kept too late at the works; and have singing-lessons +once more, and sing 'Donne l'amore e scaltro pargoletto'; and think and +talk about you; and listen to mamma's projects _de_ Stowting. Everything +turns to gold at her touch--she's a fairy, and no mistake. We go on +talking till I have a picture in my head, and can hardly believe at the +end the original is Stowting. Even you don't know half how good mamma +is; in other things too, which I must not mention. She teaches me how it +is not necessary to be very rich to do much good. I begin to understand +that mamma would find useful occupation and create beauty at the bottom +of a volcano. She has little weaknesses, but is a real, generous-hearted +woman, which I suppose is the finest thing in the world." Though neither +mother nor son could be called beautiful, they make a pretty picture; +the ugly, generous, ardent woman weaving rainbow illusions; the ugly, +clear-sighted, loving son sitting at her side in one of his rare hours +of pleasure, half-beguiled, half-amused, wholly admiring, as he listens. +But as he goes home, and the fancy pictures fade, and Stowting is once +more burthened with debt, and the noisy companions and the long hours of +drudgery once more approach, no wonder if the dirty green seems all the +dirtier, or if Atlas must resume his load. + +But in healthy natures this time of moral teething passes quickly of +itself, and is easily alleviated by fresh interests; and already, in the +letter to Frank Scott, there are two words of hope: his friends in +London, his love for his profession. The last might have saved him; for +he was ere long to pass into a new sphere, where all his faculties were +to be tried and exercised, and his life to be filled with interest and +effort. But it was not left to engineering; another and more influential +aim was to be set before him. He must, in any case, have fallen in love; +in any case, his love would have ruled his life; and the question of +choice was, for the descendant of two such families, a thing of +paramount importance. Innocent of the world, fiery, generous, devoted as +he was, the son of the wild Jacksons and the facile Jenkins might have +been led far astray. By one of those partialities that fill men at once +with gratitude and wonder his choosing was directed well. Or are we to +say that, by a man's choice in marriage, as by a crucial merit, he +deserves his fortune? One thing at least reason may discern: that a man +but partly chooses, he also partly forms, his helpmate; and he must in +part deserve her, or the treasure is but won for a moment to be lost. +Fleeming chanced, if you will (and indeed all these opportunities are as +"random as blind-man's-buff"), upon a wife who was worthy of him; but he +had the wit to know it, the courage to wait and labour for his prize, +and the tenderness and chivalry that are required to keep such prizes +precious. Upon this point he has himself written well, as usual with +fervent optimism, but as usual (in his own phrase) with a truth sticking +in his head. + +"Love," he wrote, "is not an intuition of the person most suitable to +us, most required by us; of the person with whom life flowers and bears +fruit. If this were so, the chances of our meeting that person would be +small indeed; intuition would often fail; the blindness of love would +then be fatal as it is proverbial. No, love works differently, and in +its blindness lies its strength. Man and woman, each strongly desires +to be loved, each opens to the other that heart of ideal aspirations +which they have often hid till then; each, thus knowing the ideal of the +other, tries to fulfil that ideal; each partially succeeds. The greater +the love, the greater the success; the nobler the idea of each, the more +durable, the more beautiful the effect. Meanwhile the blindness of each +to the other's defects enables the transformation to proceed +[unobserved], so that when the veil is withdrawn (if it ever is, and +this I do not know) neither knows that any change has occurred in the +person whom they loved. Do not fear, therefore. I do not tell you that +your friend will not change, but as I am sure that her choice cannot be +that of a man with a base ideal, so I am sure the change will be a safe +and a good one. Do not fear that anything you love will vanish--he must +love it too." + +Among other introductions in London, Fleeming had presented a letter +from Mrs. Gaskell to the Alfred Austins. This was a family certain to +interest a thoughtful young man. Alfred, the youngest and least known of +the Austins, had been a beautiful golden-haired child, petted and kept +out of the way of both sport and study by a partial mother. Bred an +attorney, he had (like both his brothers) changed his way of life, and +was called to the Bar when past thirty. A Commission of Inquiry into the +state of the poor in Dorsetshire gave him an opportunity of proving his +true talents; and he was appointed a Poor Law Inspector, first at +Worcester, next at Manchester, where he had to deal with the potato +famine and the Irish immigration of the 'forties, and finally in London, +where he again distinguished himself during an epidemic of cholera. He +was then advanced to the Permanent Secretaryship of Her Majesty's Office +of Works and Public Buildings; a position which he filled with perfect +competence, but with an extreme of modesty; and on his retirement, in +1868, he was made a Companion of the Bath. While apprentice to a Norwich +attorney, Alfred Austin was a frequent visitor in the house of Mr. +Barren, a rallying-place in those days of intellectual society. Edward +Barren, the son of a rich saddler or leather merchant in the Borough, +was a man typical of the time. When he was a child, he had once been +patted on the head in his father's shop by no less a man than Samuel +Johnson, as the Doctor went round the Borough canvassing for Mr. Thrale; +and the child was true to this early consecration. "A life of lettered +ease spent in provincial retirement," it is thus that the biographer of +that remarkable man, William Taylor, announces his subject; and the +phrase is equally descriptive of the life of Edward Barron. The pair +were close friends: "W. T. and a pipe render everything agreeable," +writes Barron in his diary in 1828; and in 1833, after Barron had moved +to London, and Taylor had tasted the first public failure of his powers, +the latter wrote: "To my ever dearest Mr. Barron say, if you please, +that I miss him more than I regret him--that I acquiesce in his +retirement from Norwich, because I could ill brook his observation of my +increasing debility of mind." This chosen companion of William Taylor +must himself have been no ordinary man; and he was the friend besides of +Borrow, whom I find him helping in his Latin. But he had no desire for +popular distinction, lived privately, married a daughter of Dr. Enfield +of Enfield's "Speaker," and devoted his time to the education of his +family, in a deliberate and scholarly fashion, and with certain traits +of stoicism, that would surprise a modern. From these children we must +single out his youngest daughter, Eliza, who learned under his care to +be a sound Latin, an elegant Grecian, and to suppress emotion without +outward sign after the manner of the Godwin school. This was the more +notable, as the girl really derived from the Enfields, whose high-flown +romantic temper I wish I could find space to illustrate. She was but +seven years old when Alfred Austin remarked and fell in love with her; +and the union thus early prepared was singularly full. Where the husband +and wife differed, and they did so on momentous subjects, they differed +with perfect temper and content; and in the conduct of life, and in +depth and durability of love, they were at one. Each full of high +spirits, each practised something of the same repression: no sharp word +was uttered in their house. The same point of honour ruled them: a guest +was sacred and stood within the pale from criticism. It was a house, +besides, of unusual intellectual tension. Mrs. Austin remembered, in the +early days of the marriage, the three brothers, John, Charles, and +Alfred, marching to and fro, each with his hands behind his back, and +"reasoning high" till morning; and how, like Dr. Johnson, they would +cheer their speculations with as many as fifteen cups of tea. And +though, before the date of Fleeming's visit, the brothers were +separated, Charles long ago retired from the world at Brandeston, and +John already near his end in the "rambling old house" at Weybridge, +Alfred Austin and his wife were still a centre of much intellectual +society, and still, as indeed they remained until the last, youthfully +alert in mind. There was but one child of the marriage, Annie, and she +was herself something new for the eyes of the young visitor; brought up +as she had been, like her mother before her, to the standard of a man's +acquirements. Only one art had she been denied, she must not learn the +violin--the thought was too monstrous even for the Austins; and indeed +it would seem as if that tide of reform which we may date from the days +of Mary Wollstonecraft had in some degree even receded; for though Miss +Austin was suffered to learn Greek, the accomplishment was kept secret +like a piece of guilt. But whether this stealth was caused by a backward +movement in public thought since the time of Edward Barron, or by the +change from enlightened Norwich to barbarian London, I have no means of +judging. + +When Fleeming presented his letter he fell in love at first sight with +Mrs. Austin and the life and atmosphere of the house. There was in the +society of the Austins, outward, stoical conformers to the world, +something gravely suggestive of essential eccentricity, something +unpretentiously breathing of intellectual effort, that could not fail to +hit the fancy of this hot-brained boy. The unbroken enamel of courtesy, +the self-restraint, the dignified kindness of these married folk, had +besides a particular attraction for their visitor. He could not but +compare what he saw with what he knew of his mother and himself. +Whatever virtues Fleeming possessed, he could never count on being +civil; whatever brave, true-hearted qualities he was able to admire in +Mrs. Jenkin, mildness of demeanour was not one of them. And here he +found persons who were the equals of his mother and himself in intellect +and width of interest, and the equals of his father in mild urbanity of +disposition. Show Fleeming an active virtue, and he always loved it. He +went away from that house struck through with admiration, and vowing to +himself that his own married life should be upon that pattern, his wife +(whoever she might be) like Eliza Barron, himself such another husband +as Alfred Austin. What is more strange, he not only brought away, but +left behind him, golden opinions. He must have been--he was, I am +told--a trying lad; but there shone out of him such a light of innocent +candour, enthusiasm, intelligence, and appreciation, that to persons +already some way forward in years, and thus able to enjoy indulgently +the perennial comedy of youth, the sight of him was delightful. By a +pleasant coincidence, there was one person in the house whom he did not +appreciate, and who did not appreciate him: Annie Austin, his future +wife. His boyish vanity ruffled her; his appearance, never impressive, +was then, by reason of obtrusive boyishness, still less so; she found +occasion to put him in the wrong by correcting a false quantity; and +when Mr. Austin, after doing his visitor the almost unheard-of honour of +accompanying him to the door, announced "That was what young men were +like in my time"--she could only reply, looking on her handsome father, +"I thought they had been better-looking." + +This first visit to the Austins took place in 1855; and it seems it was +some time before Fleeming began to know his mind; and yet longer ere he +ventured to show it. The corrected quantity, to those who knew him well, +will seem to have played its part; he was the man always to reflect over +a correction and to admire the castigator. And fall in love he did; not +hurriedly, but step by step, not blindly, but with critical +discrimination; not in the fashion of Romeo, but, before he was done, +with all Romeo's ardour and more than Romeo's faith. The high favour to +which he presently rose in the esteem of Alfred Austin and his wife +might well give him ambitious notions; but the poverty of the present +and the obscurity of the future were there to give him pause; and when +his aspirations began to settle round Miss Austin, he tasted, perhaps +for the only time in his life, the pangs of diffidence. There was indeed +opening before him a wide door of hope. He had changed into the service +of Messrs. Liddell and Gordon; these gentlemen had begun to dabble in +the new field of marine telegraphy; and Fleeming was already face to +face with his life's work. That impotent sense of his own value, as of a +ship aground, which makes one of the agonies of youth, began to fall +from him. New problems which he was endowed to solve, vistas of new +inquiry which he was fitted to explore, opened before him continually. +His gifts had found their avenue and goal. And with this pleasure of +effective exercise, there must have sprung up at once the hope of what +is called by the world success. But from these low beginnings, it was a +far look upward to Miss Austin: the favour of the loved one seems always +more than problematical to any lover; the consent of parents must be +always more than doubtful to a young man with a small salary, and no +capital except capacity and hope. But Fleeming was not the lad to lose +any good thing for the lack of trial; and at length, in the autumn of +1857, this boyish-sized, boyish-mannered and superlatively ill-dressed +young engineer entered the house of the Austins, with such sinkings as +we may fancy, and asked leave to pay his addresses to the daughter. Mrs. +Austin already loved him like a son, she was but too glad to give him +her consent; Mr. Austin reserved the right to inquire into his +character; from neither was there a word about his prospects, by neither +was his income mentioned. "Are these people," he wrote, struck with +wonder at this dignified disinterestedness, "are these people the same +as other people?" It was not till he was armed with this permission that +Miss Austin even suspected the nature of his hopes: so strong, in this +unmannerly boy, was the principle of true courtesy; so powerful, in this +impetuous nature, the springs of self-repression. And yet a boy he was; +a boy in heart and mind; and it was with a boy's chivalry and frankness +that he won his wife. His conduct was a model of honour, hardly of tact; +to conceal love from the loved one, to court her parents, to be silent +and discreet till these are won, and then without preparation to +approach the lady--these are not arts that I would recommend for +imitation. They lead to final refusal. Nothing saved Fleeming from that +fate, but one circumstance that cannot be counted upon--the hearty +favour of the mother, and one gift that is inimitable and that never +failed him throughout life, the gift of a nature essentially noble and +outspoken. A happy and high-minded anger flashed through his despair: it +won for him his wife. + +Nearly two years passed before it was possible to marry: two years of +activity--now in London; now at Birkenhead, fitting out ships, inventing +new machinery for new purposes, and dipping into electrical experiment; +now in the _Elba_ on his first telegraph cruise between Sardinia and +Algiers: a busy and delightful period of bounding ardour, incessant +toil, growing hope and fresh interests, with behind and through all the +image of his beloved. A few extracts from his correspondence with his +betrothed will give the note of these truly joyous years. "My profession +gives me all the excitement and interest I ever hope for, but the sorry +jade is obviously jealous of you."--"'Poor Fleeming,' in spite of wet, +cold, and wind, clambering over moist, tarry slips, wandering among +pools of slush in waste places inhabited by wandering locomotives, grows +visibly stronger, has dismissed his office cough and cured his +toothache."--"The whole of the paying out and lifting machinery must be +designed and ordered in two or three days, and I am half crazy with +work. I like it though: it's like a good ball, the excitement carries +you through."--"I was running to and from the ships and warehouse +through fierce gusts of rain and wind till near eleven, and you cannot +think what a pleasure it was to be blown about and think of you in your +pretty dress."--"I am at the works till ten and sometimes eleven. But I +have a nice office to sit in, with a fire to myself, and bright brass +scientific instruments all round me, and books to read, and experiments +to make, and enjoy myself amazingly. I find the study of electricity so +entertaining that I am apt to neglect my other work." And for a last +taste: "Yesterday I had some charming electrical experiments. What shall +I compare them to--a new song? a Greek play?" + +It was at this time besides that he made the acquaintance of Professor, +now Sir William, Thomson.[23] To describe the part played by these two +in each other's lives would lie out of my way. They worked together on +the Committee on Electrical Standards; they served together at the +laying down or the repair of many deep-sea cables; and Sir William was +regarded by Fleeming, not only with the "worship" (the word is his own) +due to great scientific gifts, but with an ardour of personal friendship +not frequently excelled. To their association, Fleeming brought the +valuable element of a practical understanding; but he never thought or +spoke of himself where Sir William was in question; and I recall quite +in his last days a singular instance of this modest loyalty to one whom +he admired and loved. He drew up a paper, in a quite personal interest, +of his own services; yet even here he must step out of his way, he must +add, where it had no claim to be added, his opinion that, in their joint +work, the contributions of Sir William had been always greatly the most +valuable. Again, I shall not readily forget with what emotion he once +told me an incident of their associated travels. On one of the mountain +ledges of Madeira, Fleeming's pony bolted between Sir William and the +precipice above; by strange good fortune, and thanks to the steadiness +of Sir William's horse, no harm was done; but for the moment Fleeming +saw his friend hurled into the sea, and almost by his own act: it was a +memory that haunted him. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [23] Afterwards Lord Kelvin.--ED. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + 1859-1868 + + Fleeming's marriage--His married life--Professional + difficulties--Life at Claygate--Illness of Mrs. F. Jenkin--and of + Fleeming--Appointment to the Chair at Edinburgh. + + +On Saturday, Feb. 26, 1859, profiting by a holiday of four days, +Fleeming was married to Miss Austin at Northiam; a place connected not +only with his own family but with that of his bride as well. By Tuesday +morning he was at work again, fitting out cableships at Birkenhead. Of +the walk from his lodgings to the works I find a graphic sketch in one +of his letters: "Out over the railway bridge, along a wide road raised +to the level of a ground floor above the land, which, not being built +upon, harbours puddles, ponds, pigs, and Irish hovels;--so to the dock +warehouses, four huge piles of building with no windows, surrounded by a +wall about twelve feet high;--in through the large gates, round which +hang twenty or thirty rusty Irish, playing pitch and toss and waiting +for employment;--on along the railway, which came in at the same gates, +and which branches down between each vast block--past a pilot-engine +butting refractory trucks into their places--on to the last block, [and] +down the branch, sniffing the guano-scented air, and detecting the old +bones. The hartshorn flavour of the guano becomes very strong, as I near +the docks, where, across the _Elba's_ decks, a huge vessel is +discharging her cargo of the brown dust, and where huge vessels have +been discharging that same cargo for the last five months." This was the +walk he took his young wife on the morrow of his return. She had been +used to the society of lawyers and civil servants, moving in that +circle which seems to itself the pivot of the nation, and is in truth +only a clique like another; and Fleeming was to her the nameless +assistant of a nameless firm of engineers, doing his inglorious +business, as she now saw for herself, among unsavoury surroundings. But +when their walk brought them within view of the river, she beheld a +sight to her of the most novel beauty: four great sea-going ships +dressed out with flags. "How lovely!" she cried. "What is it for?" "For +you," said Fleeming. Her surprise was only equalled by her pleasure. But +perhaps, for what we may call private fame, there is no life like that +of the engineer; who is a great man in out-of-the-way places, by the +dockside or on the desert island, or in populous ships, and remains +quite unheard of in the coteries of London. And Fleeming had already +made his mark among the few who had an opportunity of knowing him. + +His marriage was the one decisive incident of his career; from that +moment until the day of his death he had one thought to which all the +rest were tributary, the thought of his wife. No one could know him even +slightly, and not remark the absorbing greatness of that sentiment; nor +can any picture of the man be drawn that does not in proportion dwell +upon it. This is a delicate task; but if we are to leave behind us (as +we wish) some presentment of the friend we have lost, it is a task that +must be undertaken. + +For all his play of mind and fancy, for all his indulgence--and, as time +went on, he grew indulgent--Fleeming had views of duty that were even +stern. He was too shrewd a student of his fellow-men to remain long +content with rigid formulae of conduct. Iron-bound, impersonal ethics, +the procrustean bed of rules, he soon saw at their true value as the +deification of averages. "As to Miss (I declare I forget her name) being +bad," I find him writing, "people only mean that she has broken the +Decalogue--which is not at all the same thing. People who have kept in +the high road of Life really have less opportunity for taking a +comprehensive view of it than those who have leaped over the hedges and +strayed up the hills; not but what the hedges are very necessary, and +our stray travellers often have a weary time of it. So, you may say, +have those in the dusty roads." Yet he was himself a very stern +respecter of the hedgerows; sought safety and found dignity in the +obvious path of conduct; and would palter with no simple and recognised +duty of his epoch. Of marriage in particular, of the bond so formed, of +the obligations incurred, of the debt men owe to their children, he +conceived in a truly antique spirit; not to blame others, but to +constrain himself. It was not to blame, I repeat, that he held these +views; for others he could make a large allowance; and yet he tacitly +expected of his friends and his wife a high standard of behaviour. Nor +was it always easy to wear the armour of that ideal. + +Acting upon these beliefs; conceiving that he had indeed "given himself" +(in the full meaning of these words) for better, for worse; painfully +alive to his defects of temper and deficiency in charm; resolute to make +up for these; thinking last of himself: Fleeming was in some ways the +very man to have made a noble, uphill fight of an unfortunate marriage. +In other ways, it is true, he was one of the most unfit for such a +trial. And it was his beautiful destiny to remain to the last hour the +same absolute and romantic lover, who had shown to his new bride the +flag-draped vessels in the Mersey. No fate is altogether easy; but +trials are our touchstone, trials overcome our reward; and it was given +to Fleeming to conquer. It was given to him to live for another, not as +a task, but till the end as an enchanting pleasure. "People may write +novels," he wrote in 1869, "and other people may write poems, but not a +man or woman among them can write to say how happy a man may be who is +desperately in love with his wife after ten years of marriage." And +again in 1885, after more than twenty-six years of marriage, and within +but five weeks of his death: "Your first letter from Bournemouth," he +wrote, "gives me heavenly pleasure--for which I thank Heaven and you +too--who are my heaven on earth." The mind hesitates whether to say that +such a man has been more good or more fortunate. + +Any woman (it is the defect of her sex) comes sooner to the stable mind +of maturity than any man; and Jenkin was to the end of a most deliberate +growth. In the next chapter, when I come to deal with his telegraphic +voyages and give some taste of his correspondence, the reader will still +find him at twenty-five an arrant schoolboy. His wife besides was more +thoroughly educated than he. In many ways she was able to teach him, and +he proud to be taught; in many ways she outshone him, and he delighted +to be outshone. All these superiorities, and others that, after the +manner of lovers, he no doubt forged for himself, added as time went on +to the humility of his original love. Only once, in all I know of his +career, did he show a touch of smallness. He could not learn to sing +correctly; his wife told him so and desisted from her lessons; and the +mortification was so sharply felt that for years he could not be induced +to go to a concert, instanced himself as a typical man without an ear, +and never sang again. I tell it; for the fact that this stood singular +in his behaviour, and really amazed all who knew him, is the happiest +way I can imagine to commend the tenor of his simplicity; and because it +illustrates his feeling for his wife. Others were always welcome to +laugh at him; if it amused them, or if it amused him, he would proceed +undisturbed with his occupation, his vanity invulnerable. With his wife +it was different: his wife had laughed at his singing; and for twenty +years the fibre ached. Nothing, again, was more notable than the formal +chivalry of this unmannered man to the person on earth with whom he was +the most familiar. He was conscious of his own innate and often rasping +vivacity and roughness; and he was never forgetful of his first visit to +the Austins and the vow he had registered on his return. There was thus +an artificial element in his punctilio that at times might almost raise +a smile. But it stood on noble grounds; for this was how he sought to +shelter from his own petulance the woman who was to him the symbol of +the household and to the end the beloved of his youth. + +I wish in this chapter to chronicle small beer; taking a hasty glance at +some ten years of married life and of professional struggle; and +reserving till the next all the more interesting matter of his cruises. +Of his achievements and their worth it is not for me to speak: his +friend and partner, Sir William Thomson, has contributed a note on the +subject, to which I must refer the reader.[24] He is to conceive in the +meanwhile for himself Fleeming's manifold engagements: his service on +the Committee on Electrical Standards, his lectures on electricity at +Chatham, his Chair at the London University, his partnership with Sir +William Thomson and Mr. Varley in many ingenious patents, his growing +credit with engineers and men of science; and he is to bear in mind that +of all this activity and acquist of reputation, the immediate profit was +scanty. Soon after his marriage, Fleeming had left the service of +Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, and entered into a general engineering +partnership with Mr. Forde, a gentleman in a good way of business. It +was a fortunate partnership in this, that the parties retained their +mutual respect unlessened and separated with regret; but men's affairs, +like men, have their times of sickness, and by one of those +unaccountable variations, for hard upon ten years the business was +disappointing and the profits meagre. "Inditing drafts of German +railways which will never get made": it is thus I find Fleeming, not +without a touch of bitterness, describe his occupation. Even the patents +hung fire at first. There was no salary to rely on; children were coming +and growing up; the prospect was often anxious. In the days of his +courtship, Fleeming had written to Miss Austin a dissuasive picture of +the trials of poverty, assuring her these were no figments but truly +bitter to support; he told her this, he wrote beforehand, so that when +the pinch came and she suffered, she should not be disappointed in +herself nor tempted to doubt her own magnanimity: a letter of admirable +wisdom and solicitude. But now that the trouble came, he bore it very +lightly. It was his principle, as he once prettily expressed it, "to +enjoy each day's happiness, as it arises, like birds or children." His +optimism, if driven out at the door, would come in again by the window; +if it found nothing but blackness in the present, would hit upon some +ground of consolation in the future or the past. And his courage and +energy were indefatigable. In the year 1863, soon after the birth of +their first son, they moved into a cottage at Claygate near Esher; and +about this time, under manifold troubles both of money and health, I +find him writing from abroad: "The country will give us, please God, +health and strength. I will love and cherish you more than ever, you +shall go where you wish, you shall receive whom you wish--and as for +money, you shall have that too. I cannot be mistaken. I have now +measured myself with many men. I do not feel weak, I do not feel that I +shall fail. In many things I have succeeded, and I will in this. And +meanwhile the time of waiting, which, please Heaven, shall not be long, +shall also not be so bitter. Well, well, I promise much, and do not know +at this moment how you and the dear child are. If he is but better, +courage, my girl, for I see light." + +This cottage at Claygate stood just without the village, well surrounded +with trees, and commanding a pleasant view. A piece of the garden was +turfed over to form a croquet-green, and Fleeming became (I need scarce +say) a very ardent player. He grew ardent, too, in gardening. This he +took up at first to please his wife, having no natural inclination; but +he had no sooner set his hand to it than, like everything else he +touched, it became with him a passion. He budded roses, he potted +cuttings in the coach-house; if there came a change of weather at night +he would rise out of bed to protect his favourites; when he was thrown +with a dull companion, it was enough for him to discover in the man a +fellow-gardener; on his travels, he would go out of his way to visit +nurseries and gather hints; and to the end of his life, after other +occupations prevented him putting his own hand to the spade, he drew up +a yearly programme for his gardener, in which all details were +regulated. He had begun by this time to write. His paper on Darwin, +which had the merit of convincing on one point the philosopher himself, +had indeed been written before this, in London lodgings; but his pen was +not idle at Claygate; and it was here he wrote (among other things) that +review of "Fecundity, Fertility, Sterility, and Allied Topics," which +Dr. Matthews Duncan prefixed by way of introduction to the second +edition of the work. The mere act of writing seems to cheer the vanity +of the most incompetent; but a correction accepted by Darwin, and a +whole review borrowed and reprinted by Matthews Duncan, are compliments +of a rare strain, and to a man still unsuccessful must have been +precious indeed. There was yet a third of the same kind in store for +him; and when Munro himself owned that he had found instruction in the +paper on Lucretius, we may say that Fleeming had been crowned in the +Capitol of reviewing. + +Croquet, charades, Christmas magic lanterns for the village children, an +amateur concert or a review article in the evening; plenty of hard work +by day; regular visits to meetings of the British Association, from one +of which I find him characteristically writing: "I cannot say that I +have had any amusement yet, but I am enjoying the dulness and dry bustle +of the whole thing"; occasional visits abroad on business, when he would +find the time to glean (as I have said) gardening hints for himself, and +old folk-songs or new fashions of dress for his wife; and the continual +study and care of his children: these were the chief elements of his +life. Nor were friends wanting. Captain and Mrs. Jenkin, Mr. and Mrs. +Austin, Clerk Maxwell, Miss Bell of Manchester, and others, came to them +on visits. Mr. Hertslet of the Foreign Office, his wife and his +daughter, were neighbours, and proved kind friends; in 1867 the Howitts +came to Claygate and sought the society of "the two bright, clever young +people";[25] and in a house close by Mr. Frederick Ricketts came to live +with his family. Mr. Ricketts was a valued friend during his short life; +and when he was lost, with every circumstance of heroism, in the _La +Plata_, Fleeming mourned him sincerely. + +I think I shall give the best idea of Fleeming in this time of his early +married life, by a few sustained extracts from his letters to his wife, +while she was absent on a visit in 1864. + + "_Nov. 11._--Sunday was too wet to walk to Isleworth, for which I was + sorry, so I stayed and went to church and thought of you at Ardwick + all through the Commandments, and heard Dr. ---- expound in a + remarkable way a prophecy of St. Paul about Roman Catholics, which, + _mutatis mutandis_, would do very well for Protestants in some parts. + Then I made a little nursery of borecole and Enfield market cabbage, + grubbing in wet earth with leggings and grey coat on. Then I tidied up + the coach-house to my own and Christine's admiration. Then encouraged + by _bouts-rimes_ I wrote you a copy of verses; high time, I think; I + shall just save my tenth year of knowing my lady love without inditing + poetry or rhymes to her. + + "Then I rummaged over the box with my father's letters, and found + interesting notes from myself. One I should say my first letter, which + little Austin I should say would rejoice to see, and shall see--with a + drawing of a cottage and a spirited 'cob.' What was more to the + purpose, I found with it a paste-cutter which Mary begged humbly for + Christine, and I generously gave this morning. + + "Then I read some of Congreve. There are admirable scenes in the + manner of Sheridan; all wit and no character, or rather one character + in a great variety of situations and scenes. I could show you some + scenes, but others are too coarse even for my stomach, hardened by a + course of French novels. + + "All things look so happy for the rain. + + "_Nov. 16._--Verbenas looking well.... I am but a poor creature + without you; I have naturally no spirit or fun or enterprise in me. + Only a kind of mechanical capacity for ascertaining whether two really + is half four, etc.; but when you are near me I can fancy that I too + shine, and vainly suppose it to be my proper light; whereas by my + extreme darkness when you are not by, it clearly can only be by a + reflected brilliance that I seem aught but dull. Then for the moral + part of me: if it were not for you and little Odden, I should feel by + no means sure that I had any affection power in me.... Even the + muscular me suffers a sad deterioration in your absence. I don't get + up when I ought to, I have snoozed in my chair after dinner; I do not + go in at the garden with my wonted vigour, and feel ten times as tired + as usual with a walk in your absence; so you see, when you are not by, + I am a person without ability, affections, or vigour, but droop, dull, + selfish, and spiritless; can you wonder that I love you? + + "_Nov. 17._--... I am very glad we married young. I would not have + missed these five years--no, not for any hopes; they are my own. + + "_Nov. 30._--I got through my Chatham lecture very fairly, though + almost all my apparatus went astray. I dined at the mess, and got home + to Isleworth the same evening; your father very kindly sitting up for + me. + + "_Dec. 1._--Back at dear Claygate. Many cuttings flourish, especially + those which do honour to your hand. Your Californian annuals are up + and about. Badger is fat, the grass green.... + + "_Dec. 3._--Odden will not talk of you, while you are away, having + inherited, as I suspect, his father's way of declining to consider a + subject which is painful, as your absence is.... I certainly should + like to learn Greek, and I think it would be a capital pastime for the + long winter evenings.... How things are misrated! I declare croquet is + a noble occupation compared to the pursuits of business men. As for + so-called idleness--that is, one form of it--I vow it is the noblest + aim of man. When idle, one can love, one can be good, feel kindly to + all, devote oneself to others, be thankful for existence, educate + one's mind, one's heart, one's body. When busy, as I am busy now or + have been busy to-day, one feels just as you sometimes felt when you + were too busy, owing to want of servants. + + "_Dec. 5._--On Sunday I was at Isleworth, chiefly engaged in playing + with Odden. We had the most enchanting walk together through the + brickfields. It was very muddy, and, as he remarked, not fit for + Nanna, but fit for us _men_. The dreary waste of bared earth, thatched + sheds and standing water was a paradise to him; and when we walked up + planks to deserted mixing and crushing mills, and actually saw where + the clay was stirred with long iron prongs, and chalk or lime ground + with 'a tind of a mill,' his expression of contentment and triumphant + heroism knew no limit to its beauty. Of course on returning I found + Mrs. Austin looking out at the door in an anxious manner, and thinking + we had been out quite long enough.... I am reading Don Quixote + chiefly, and am his fervent admirer, but I am so sorry he did not + place his affections on a Dulcinea of somewhat worthier stamp. In fact + I think there must be a mistake about it. Don Quixote might and would + serve his lady in most preposterous fashion, but I am sure he would + have chosen a lady of merit. He imagined her to be such, no doubt, + and drew a charming picture of her occupations by the banks of the + river; but in his other imaginations there was some kind of peg on + which to hang the false costumes he created; windmills are big, and + wave their arms like giants; sheep in the distance are somewhat like + an army; a little boat on the river-side must look much the same + whether enchanted or belonging to millers; but except that Dulcinea is + a woman, she bears no resemblance at all to the damsel of his + imagination." + +At the time of these letters the oldest son only was born to them. In +September of the next year, with the birth of the second, Charles +Frewen, there befell Fleeming a terrible alarm, and what proved to be a +lifelong misfortune. Mrs. Jenkin was taken suddenly and alarmingly ill; +Fleeming ran a matter of two miles to fetch the doctor, and, drenched +with sweat as he was, returned with him at once in an open gig. On their +arrival at the house, Mrs. Jenkin half unconsciously took and kept hold +of her husband's hand. By the doctor's orders, windows and doors were +set open to create a thorough draught, and the patient was on no account +to be disturbed. Thus, then, did Fleeming pass the whole of that night, +crouching on the floor in the draught, and not daring to move lest he +should wake the sleeper. He had never been strong; energy had stood him +in stead of vigour; and the result of that night's exposure was flying +rheumatism varied with settled sciatica. Sometimes it quite disabled +him, sometimes it was less acute; but he was rarely free from it until +his death. I knew him for many years; for more than ten we were closely +intimate; I have lived with him for weeks; and during all this time he +only once referred to his infirmity, and then perforce, as an excuse for +some trouble he put me to, and so slightly worded that I paid no heed. +This is a good measure of his courage under sufferings of which none but +the untried will think lightly. And I think it worth noting how this +optimist was acquainted with pain. It will seem strange only to the +superficial. The disease of pessimism springs never from real troubles, +which it braces men to bear, which it delights men to bear well. Nor +does it readily spring at all, in minds that have conceived of life as +a field of ordered duties, not as a chase in which to hunt for +gratifications. "We are not here to be happy, but to be good"; I wish he +had mended the phrase: "We are not here to be happy, but to try to be +good," comes nearer the modesty of truth. With such old-fashioned +morality it is possible to get through life, and see the worst of it, +and feel some of the worst of it, and still acquiesce piously and even +gladly in man's fate. Feel some of the worst of it, I say; for some of +the rest of the worst is, by this simple faith, excluded. + +It was in the year 1868 that the clouds finally rose. The business in +partnership with Mr. Forde began suddenly to pay well; about the same +time the patents showed themselves a valuable property; and but a little +after, Fleeming was appointed to the new Chair of Engineering in the +University of Edinburgh. Thus, almost at once, pecuniary embarrassments +passed for ever out of his life. Here is his own epilogue to the time at +Claygate, and his anticipations of the future in Edinburgh:-- + + "... The dear old house at Claygate is not let, and the pretty garden + a mass of weeds. I feel rather as if we had behaved unkindly to them. + We were very happy there, but now that it is over I am conscious of + the weight of anxiety as to money which I bore all the time. With you + in the garden, with Austin in the coach-house, with pretty songs in + the little low white room, with the moonlight in the dear room + upstairs,--ah, it was perfect; but the long walk, wondering, + pondering, fearing, scheming, and the dusty jolting railway, and the + horrid fusty office with its endless disappointments, they are well + gone. It is well enough to fight and scheme, and bustle about in the + eager crowd here [in London] for a while now and then, but not for a + lifetime. What I have now is just perfect. Study for winter, action + for summer, lovely country for recreation, a pleasant town for + talk...." + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [24] The note by Lord Kelvin, appended in 1887 to the original edition + of this Memoir, is not included in the present edition.--ED. + + [25] "Reminiscences of My Later Life," by Mary Howitt, _Good Words_, + May 1886. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + NOTES OF TELEGRAPH VOYAGES, 1858-1873 + + +But it is now time to see Jenkin at his life's work. I have before me +certain imperfect series of letters written, as he says, "at hazard, for +one does not know at the time what is important and what is not": the +earlier addressed to Miss Austin, after the betrothal; the later to Mrs. +Jenkin, the young wife. I should premise that I have allowed myself +certain editorial freedoms, leaving out and splicing together, much as +he himself did with the Bona cable: thus edited the letters speak for +themselves, and will fail to interest none who love adventure or +activity. Addressed as they were to her whom he called his "dear +engineering pupil," they give a picture of his work so clear that a +child may understand, and so attractive that I am half afraid their +publication may prove harmful, and still further crowd the ranks of a +profession already overcrowded. But their most engaging quality is the +picture of the writer; with his indomitable self-confidence and courage, +his readiness in every pinch of circumstance or change of plan, and his +ever fresh enjoyment of the whole web of human experience, nature, +adventure, science, toil and rest, society and solitude. It should be +borne in mind that the writer of these buoyant pages was, even while he +wrote, harassed by responsibility, stinted in sleep, and often +struggling with the prostration of sea-sickness. To this last enemy, +which he never overcame, I have omitted, in my search after +condensation, a good many references; if they were all left, such was +the man's temper, they would not represent one hundredth part of what he +suffered, for he was never given to complaint. But indeed he had met +this ugly trifle, as he met every thwart circumstance of life, with a +certain pleasure of pugnacity; and suffered it not to check him, whether +in the exercise of his profession or the pursuit of amusement. + + + I + + _"Birkenhead. April 18, 1858._ + + "Well, you should know, Mr. ---- having a contract to lay down a + submarine telegraph from Sardinia to Africa failed three times in the + attempt. The distance from land to land is about 140 miles. On the + first occasion, after proceeding some 70 miles, he had to cut the + cable--the cause I forget; he tried again, same result; then picked up + about 20 miles of the lost cable, spliced on a new piece, and very + nearly got across that time, but ran short of cable, and, when but a + few miles off Galita in very deep water, had to telegraph to London + for more cable to be manufactured and sent out whilst he tried to + stick to the end: for five days, I think, he lay there sending and + receiving messages, but, heavy weather coming on, the cable parted and + Mr. ---- went home in despair--at least I should think so. + + "He then applied to those eminent engineers, R. S. Newall and Co., who + made and laid down a cable for him last autumn--Fleeming Jenkin (at + the time in considerable mental agitation) having the honour of + fitting out the _Elba_ for that purpose." [On this occasion, the + _Elba_ has no cable to lay; but] "is going out in the beginning of May + to endeavour to fish up the cables Mr. ---- lost. There are two ends + at or near the shore: the third will probably not be found within 20 + miles from land. One of these ends will be passed over a very big + pulley or sheave at the bows, passed six times round a big barrel or + drum; which will be turned round by a steam-engine on deck, and thus + wind up the cable, while the _Elba_ slowly steams ahead. The cable is + not wound round and round the drum as your silk is wound on its reel, + but on the contrary never goes round more than six times, going off at + one side as it comes on at the other, and going down into the hold of + the _Elba_, to be coiled along in a big coil or skein. + + "I went down to Gateshead to discuss with Mr. Newall the form which + this tolerably simple idea should take, and have been busy since I + came here drawing, ordering, and putting up the + machinery--uninterfered with, thank goodness, by any one. I own I like + responsibility; it flatters one, and then, your father might say, I + have more to gain than to lose. Moreover I do like this bloodless, + painless combat with wood and iron, forcing the stubborn rascals to do + my will, licking the clumsy cubs into an active shape, seeing the + child of to-day's thought working to-morrow in full vigour at his + appointed task. + + + "_May 12._ + + "By dint of bribing, bullying, cajoling, and going day by day to see + the state of things ordered, all my work is very nearly ready now; but + those who have neglected these precautions are of course disappointed. + Five hundred fathoms of chain [were] ordered by ---- some three weeks + since, to be ready by the 10th without fail; he sends for it + to-day--150 fathoms all they can let us have by the 15th--and how the + rest is to be got, who knows? He ordered a boat a month since, and + yesterday we could see nothing of her but the keel and about two + planks. I could multiply instances without end. At first one goes + nearly mad with vexation at these things; but one finds so soon that + they are the rule, that then it becomes necessary to feign a rage one + does not feel. I look upon it as the natural order of things, that if + I order a thing, it will not be done--if by accident it gets done, it + will certainly be done wrong; the only remedy being to watch the + performance at every stage. + + "To-day was a grand field-day. I had steam up and tried the engine + against pressure or resistance. One part of the machinery is driven by + belt or strap of leather. I always had my doubts this might slip; and + so it did, wildly. I had made provision for doubling it, putting on + two belts instead of one. No use--off they went, slipping round and + off the pulleys instead of driving the machinery. Tighten them--no + use. More strength there--down with the lever--smash something, tear + the belts, but get them tight--now then stand clear, on with the + steam;--and the belts slip away, as if nothing held them. Men begin to + look queer; the circle of quidnuncs make sage remarks. Once more--no + use. I begin to know I ought to feel sheepish and beat, but somehow I + feel cocky instead, I laugh and say, 'Well, I am bound to break + something down'--and suddenly see. 'Oho, there's the place; get weight + on there, and the belt won't slip.' With much labour, on go the belts + again. 'Now then, a spar thro' there and six men's weight on; mind + you're not carried away.' 'Ay, ay, sir.' But evidently no one believes + in the plan. 'Hurrah, round she goes--stick to your spar. All right, + shut off steam.' And the difficulty is vanquished. + + "This, or such as this (not always quite so bad), occurs hour after + hour, while five hundred tons of coal are rattling down into the holds + and bunkers, riveters are making their infernal row all round, and + riggers bend the sails and fit the rigging:--a sort of Pandemonium, it + appeared to young Mrs. Newall, who was here on Monday and half choked + with guano; but it suits the likes of me. + + + "_SS. Elba, River Mersey, May 17._ + + "We are delayed in the river by some of the ship's papers not being + ready. Such a scene at the dock gates. Not a sailor will join till the + last moment; and then, just as the ship forges ahead through the + narrow pass, beds and baggage fly on board, the men, half tipsy, + clutch at the rigging, the captain swears, the women scream and sob, + the crowd cheer and laugh, while one or two pretty little girls stand + still and cry outright, regardless of all eyes. + + "These two days of comparative peace have quite set me on my legs + again. I was getting worn and weary with anxiety and work. As usual I + have been delighted with my shipwrights. I gave them some beer on + Saturday, making a short oration. To-day when they went ashore, and I + came on board, they gave three cheers, whether for me or the ship I + hardly know, but I had just bid them good-bye, and the ship was out of + hail; but I was startled and hardly liked to claim the compliment by + acknowledging it. + + + "_SS. Elba, May 25._ + + "My first intentions of a long journal have been fairly frustrated by + sea-sickness. On Tuesday last about noon we started from the Mersey in + very dirty weather, and were hardly out of the river when we met a + gale from the south-west and a heavy sea, both right in our teeth; and + the poor _Elba_ had a sad shaking. Had I not been very sea-sick, the + sight would have been exciting enough as I sat wrapped in my oilskins + on the bridge; [but] in spite of all my efforts to talk, to eat, and + to grin, I soon collapsed into imbecility; and I was heartily thankful + towards evening to find myself in bed. + + "Next morning I fancied it grew quieter, and, as I listened, heard, + 'Let go the anchor,' whereon I concluded we had run into Holyhead + Harbour, as was indeed the case. All that day we lay in Holyhead, but + I could neither read nor write nor draw. The captain of another + steamer which had put in came on board, and we all went for a walk on + the hill; and in the evening there was an exchange of presents. We + gave some tobacco, I think, and received a cat, two pounds of fresh + butter, a Cumberland ham, 'Westward Ho!' and Thackeray's 'English + Humourists.' I was astonished at receiving two such fair books from + the captain of a little coasting screw. Our captain said he [the + captain of the screw] had plenty of money, five or six hundred a year + at least. 'What in the world makes him go rolling about in such a + craft, then?' 'Why, I fancy he's reckless; he's desperate in love with + that girl I mentioned, and she won't look at him.' Our honest, fat, + old captain says this very grimly in his thick, broad voice. + + "My head won't stand much writing yet, so I will run up and take a + look at the blue night sky off the coast of Portugal. + + + "_May 26._ + + "A nice lad of some two-and-twenty, A---- by name, goes out in a + nondescript capacity as part purser, part telegraph clerk, part + generally useful person. A---- was a great comfort during the miseries + [of the gale]; for when with a dead head wind and a heavy sea, plates, + books, papers, stomachs were being rolled about in sad confusion, we + generally managed to lie on our backs, and grin, and try discordant + staves of the 'Flowers of the Forest' and the 'Low-backed Car.' We + could sing and laugh, when we could do nothing else; though A---- was + ready to swear after each fit was past, that that was the first time + he had felt anything, and at this moment would declare in broad Scotch + that he'd never been sick at all, qualifying the oath with 'except for + a minute now and then.' He brought a cornet-a-piston to practise on, + having had three weeks' instructions on that melodious instrument; and + if you could hear the horrid sounds that come I especially at heavy + rolls. When I hint he is not improving, there comes a confession: 'I + don't feel quite right yet, you see!' But he blows away manfully, and + in self-defence I try to roar the tune louder. + + "11.30 P.M. + + "Long past Cape St. Vincent now. We went within about 400 yards of the + cliffs and lighthouse in a calm moonlight, with porpoises springing + from the sea, the men crooning long ballads as they lay idle on the + forecastle, and the sails flapping uncertain on the yards. As we + passed, there came a sudden breeze from land, hot and heavy-scented; + and now as I write its warm rich flavour contrasts strongly with the + salt air we have been breathing. + + "I paced the deck with H----, the second mate, and in the quiet night + drew a confession that he was engaged to be married, and gave him a + world of good advice. He is a very nice, active, little fellow, with a + broad Scotch tongue and 'dirty, little rascal' appearance. He had a + sad disappointment at starting. Having been second mate on the last + voyage, when the first mate was discharged, he took charge of the + _Elba_ all the time she was in port, and of course looked forward to + being chief mate this trip. Liddell promised him the post. He had not + authority to do this; and when Newall heard of it, he appointed + another man. Fancy poor H---- having told all the men and, most of all, + his sweetheart! But more remains behind; for when it came to signing + articles, it turned out that O----, the new first mate, had not a + certificate which allowed him to have a second mate. Then came rather + an affecting scene. For H---- proposed to sign as chief (he having the + necessary higher certificate) but to act as second for the lower + wages. At first O---- would not give in, but offered to go as second. + But our brave little H---- said, no: 'The owners wished Mr. O---- to + be chief mate, and chief mate he should be.' So he carried the day, + signed as chief and acts as second. Shakespeare and Byron are his + favourite books. I walked into Byron a little, but can well understand + his stirring up a rough, young sailor's romance. I lent him 'Westward + Ho!' from the cabin; but to my astonishment he did not care much for + it; he said it smelt of the shilling railway library; perhaps I had + praised it too highly. Scott is his standard for novels. I am very + happy to find good taste by no means confined to gentlemen, H---- + having no pretensions to that title. He is a man after my own heart. + + "Then I came down to the cabin and heard young A----'s schemes for the + future. His highest picture is a commission in the Prince of + Vizianagram's irregular horse. His eldest brother is tutor to his + Highness's children, and grand vizier, and magistrate, and on his + Highness's household staff, and seems to be one of those Scotch + adventurers one meets with and hears of in queer berths--raising + cavalry, building palaces, and using some petty Eastern king's long + purse with their long Scotch heads. + + + "_Off Bona, June 4._ + + "I read your letter carefully, leaning back in a Maltese boat to + present the smallest surface of my body to a grilling sun, and sailing + from the _Elba_ to Cape Hamrah, about three miles distant. How we + fried and sighed! At last we reached land under Fort Geneva, and I was + carried ashore pick-a-back, and plucked the first flower I saw for + Annie. It was a strange scene, far more novel than I had imagined; the + high, steep banks covered with rich, spicy vegetation, of which I + hardly knew one plant. The dwarf palm with fan-like leaves, growing + about two feet high, formed the staple of the verdure. As we brushed + through them, the gummy leaves of a cistus stuck to the clothes: and + with its small white flower and yellow heart stood for our English + dog-rose. In place of heather, we had myrtle and lentisque with leaves + somewhat similar. That large bulb with long flat leaves? Do not touch + it if your hands are cut; the Arabs use it as blisters for their + horses. Is that the same sort? No, take that one up; it is the bulb of + a dwarf palm, each layer of the onion peels off, brown and netted, + like the outside of a cocoa-nut. It is a clever plant that; from the + leaves we get a vegetable horsehair;--and eat the bottom of the centre + spike. All the leaves you pull have the same aromatic scent. But here + a little patch of cleared ground shows old friends, who seem to cling + by abused civilisation:--fine hardy thistles, one of them bright + yellow, though;--honest, Scotch-looking, large daisies or + gowans;--potatoes here and there, looking but sickly; and dark sturdy + fig-trees, looking cool and at their ease in the burning sun. + + "Here we are at Fort Genova, crowning the little point, a small old + building due to my old Genoese acquaintance who fought and traded + bravely once upon a time. A broken cannon of theirs forms the + threshold; and through a dark, low arch we enter upon broad terraces + sloping to the centre, from which rain-water may collect and run into + that well. Large-breeched French troopers lounge about and are most + civil; and the whole party sit down to breakfast in a little + white-washed room, from the door of which the long, mountain coastline + and the sparkling sea show of an impossible blue through the openings + of a white-washed rampart. I try a sea-egg, one of those prickly + fellows--sea-urchins, they are called sometimes; the shell is of a + lovely purple, and when opened there are rays of yellow adhering to + the inside; these I eat, but they are very fishy. + + "We are silent and shy of one another, and soon go out to watch while + turbaned, blue-breeched, bare-legged Arabs dig holes for the land + telegraph posts on the following principle: one man takes a pick and + bangs lazily at the hard earth; when a little is loosened, his mate + with a small spade lifts it on one side; and _da capo_. They have + regular features, and look quite in place among the palms. Our English + workmen screw the earthenware insulators on the posts, strain the + wire, and order the Arabs about by the generic term of Johnny. I find + W---- has nothing for me to do; and that in fact no one has anything + to do. Some instruments for testing have stuck at Lyons, some at + Cagliari; and nothing can be done--or, at any rate, is done. I wander + about, thinking of you and staring at big, green + grasshoppers--locusts, some people call them--and smelling the rich + brushwood. There was nothing for a pencil to sketch, and I soon got + tired of this work, though I have paid willingly much money for far + less strange and lovely sights. + + + "_Off Cape Spartivento, June 8._ + + "At two this morning we left Cagliari; at five cast anchor here. I got + up and began preparing for the final trial; and shortly afterwards + every one else of note on board went ashore to make experiments on the + state of the cable, leaving me with the prospect of beginning to lift + at 12 o'clock. I was not ready by that time; but the experiments were + not concluded, and moreover the cable was found to be imbedded some + four or five feet in sand, so that the boat could not bring off the + end. At three, Messrs. Liddell, etc., came on board in good spirits, + having found two wires good, or in such a state as permitted messages + to be transmitted freely. The boat now went to grapple for the cable + some way from shore, while the _Elba_ towed a small lateen craft which + was to take back the consul to Cagliari some distance on its way. On + our return we found the boat had been unsuccessful; she was allowed to + drop astern, while we grappled for the cable in the _Elba_ [without + more success]. The coast is a low mountain range covered with + brushwood or heather--pools of water and a sandy beach at their feet. + I have not yet been ashore, my hands having been very full all day. + + + "_June 9._ + + "Grappling for the cable outside the bank had been voted too + uncertain; [and the day was spent in] efforts to pull the cable off + through the sand which has accumulated over it. By getting the cable + tight on to the boat, and letting the swell pitch her about till it + got slack, and then tightening again with blocks and pulleys, we + managed to get out from the beach towards the ship at the rate of + about twenty yards an hour. When they had got about 100 yards from + shore, we ran in round the _Elba_ to try and help them, letting go the + anchor in the shallowest possible water; this was about sunset. + Suddenly some one calls out he sees the cable at the bottom: there it + was, sure enough, apparently wriggling about as the waves rippled. + Great excitement; still greater when we find our own anchor is foul of + it and it has been the means of bringing it to light. We let go a + grapnel, get the cable clear of the anchor on to the grapnel--the + captain in an agony lest we should drift ashore meanwhile--hand the + grappling line into the big boat, steam out far enough, and anchor + again. A little more work and one end of the cable is up over the bows + round my drum. I go to my engine and we start hauling in. All goes + pretty well, but it is quite dark. Lamps are got at last, and men + arranged. We go on for a quarter of a mile or so from shore and then + stop at about half-past nine with orders to be up at three. Grand work + at last! A number of the _Saturday Review_ here: it reads so hot and + feverish, so tomb-like and unhealthy, in the midst of dear Nature's + hills and sea, with good wholesome work to do. Pray that all go well + to-morrow. + + + "_June 10._ + + "Thank heaven for a most fortunate day. At three o'clock this morning, + in a damp, chill mist, all hands were roused to work. With a small + delay, for one or two improvements I had seen to be necessary last + night, the engine started, and since that time I do not think there + has been half an hour's stoppage. A rope to splice, a block to change, + a wheel to oil, an old rusted anchor to disengage from the cable which + brought it up, these have been our only obstructions. Sixty, seventy, + eighty, a hundred, a hundred and twenty revolutions at last, my little + engine tears away. The even black rope comes straight out of the blue + heaving water; passes slowly round an open-hearted, + good-tempered-looking pulley, five feet diameter; aft past a vicious + nipper, to bring all up should anything go wrong; through a gentle + guide; on to a huge bluff drum, who wraps him round his body and says, + 'Come you must,' as plain as drum can speak: the chattering pauls say, + 'I've got him, I've got him, he can't get back': whilst black cable, + much slacker and easier in mind and body, is taken by a slim V-pulley + and passed down into the huge hold, where half a dozen men put him + comfortably to bed after his exertion in rising from his long bath. In + good sooth, it is one of the strangest sights I know to see that black + fellow rising up so steadily in the midst of the blue sea. We are more + than half way to the place where we expect the fault; and already the + one wire, supposed previously to be quite bad near the African coast, + can be spoken through. I am very glad I am here, for my machines are + my own children, and I look on their little failings with a parent's + eye and lead them into the path of duty with gentleness and firmness. + I am naturally in good spirits, but keep very quiet, for misfortunes + may arise at any instant; moreover, to-morrow my paying-out apparatus + will be wanted should all go well, and that will be another nervous + operation. Fifteen miles are safely in; but no one knows better than I + do that nothing is done till all is done. + + + "_June 11._ + + "9 A.M.--We have reached the splice supposed to be faulty, and no + fault has been found. The two men learned in electricity, L---- and + W----, squabble where the fault is. + + "_Evening._--A weary day in a hot broiling sun; no air. After the + experiments, L---- said the fault might be ten miles ahead; by that + time we should be, according to a chart, in about a thousand fathoms + of water--rather more than a mile. It was most difficult to decide + whether to go on or not. I made preparations for a heavy pull, set + small things to rights and went to sleep. About four in the afternoon, + Mr. Liddell decided to proceed, and we are now (at seven) grinding in + at the rate of a mile and three-quarters per hour, which appears a + grand speed to us. If the paying-out only works well. I have just + thought of a great improvement in it; I can't apply it this time, + however.--The sea is of an oily calm, and a perfect fleet of brigs and + ships surrounds us, their sails hardly filling in the lazy breeze. The + sun sets behind the dim coast of the Isola San Pietro, the coast of + Sardinia high and rugged becomes softer and softer in the distance, + while to the westward still the isolated rock of Toro springs from the + horizon.--It would amuse you to see how cool (in head) and jolly + everybody is. A testy word now and then shows the wires are strained a + little, but every one laughs and makes his little jokes as if it were + all in fun: yet we are all as much in earnest as the most earnest of + the earnest bastard German school or demonstrative of Frenchmen. I + enjoy it very much. + + + "_June 12._ + + "5.30 A.M.--Out of sight of land: about thirty nautical miles in the + hold; the wind rising a little; experiments being made for a fault, + while the engine slowly revolves to keep us hanging at the same spot: + depth supposed about a mile. The machinery has behaved admirably. O + that the paying-out were over! The new machinery there is but rough, + meant for an experiment in shallow water, and here we are in a mile of + water. + + "6.30.--I have made my calculations and find the new paying-out gear + cannot possibly answer at this depth, some portion would give way. + Luckily, I have brought the old things with me and am getting them + rigged up as fast as may be. Bad news from the cable. Number four has + given in some portion of the last ten miles: the fault in number three + is still at the bottom of the sea; number two is now the only good + wire; and the hold is getting in such a mess, through keeping bad bits + out and cutting for splicing and testing, that there will be great + risk in paying out. The cable is somewhat strained in its ascent from + one mile below us; what it will be when we get to two miles is a + problem we may have to determine. + + "9 P.M.--A most provoking, unsatisfactory day. We have done nothing. + The wind and sea have both risen. Too little notice has been given to + the telegraphists who accompany this expedition; they had to leave all + their instruments at Lyons in order to arrive at Bona in time; our + tests are therefore of the roughest, and no one really knows where the + faults are. Mr. L---- in the morning lost much time; then he told us, + after we had been inactive for about eight hours, that the fault in + number three was within six miles; and at six o'clock in the evening, + when all was ready for a start to pick up these six miles, he comes + and says there must be a fault about thirty miles from Bona! By this + time it was too late to begin paying out to-day, and we must lie here + moored in a thousand fathoms till light to-morrow morning. The ship + pitches a good deal, but the wind is going down. + + + "_June 13, Sunday._ + + "The wind has not gone down however. It now (at 10.30) blows a pretty + stiff gale, the sea has also risen; and the _Elba's_ bows rise and + fall about 9 feet. We make twelve pitches to the minute, and the poor + cable must feel very sea-sick by this time. We are quite unable to do + anything, and continue riding at anchor in one thousand fathoms, the + engines going constantly so as to keep the ship's bows up to the + cable, which by this means hangs nearly vertical and sustains no + strain but that caused by its own weight and the pitching of the + vessel. We were all up at four, but the weather entirely forbade work + for to-day, so some went to bed and most lay down, making up our + leeway, as we nautically term our loss of sleep. I must say Liddell is + a fine fellow and keeps his patience and temper wonderfully; and yet + how he does fret and fume about trifles at home! This wind has blown + now for thirty-six hours, and yet we have telegrams from Bona to say + the sea there is as calm as a mirror. It makes one laugh to remember + one is still tied to the shore. Click, click, click, the pecker is at + work; I wonder what Herr P---- says to Herr L----; tests, tests, + tests, nothing more. This will be a very anxious day. + + + "_June 14._ + + "Another day of fatal inaction. + + + "_June 15._ + + "9.30.--The wind has gone down a deal; but even now there are doubts + whether we shall start to-day. When shall I get back to you? + + "9 P.M.--Four miles from land. Our run has been successful and + eventless. Now the work is nearly over I feel a little out of + spirits--why, I should be puzzled to say--mere wantonness, or reaction + perhaps after suspense. + + + "_June 16._ + + "Up this morning at three, coupled my self-acting gear to the break, + and had the satisfaction of seeing it pay out the last four miles in + very good style. With one or two little improvements, I hope to make + it a capital thing. The end has just gone ashore in two boats, three + out of four wires good. Thus ends our first expedition. By some odd + chance a _Times_ of June the 7th has found its way on board through + the agency of a wretched old peasant who watches the end of the line + here. A long account of breakages in the Atlantic trial trip. To-night + we grapple for the heavy cable, eight tons to the mile. I long to + have a tug at him; he may puzzle me, and though misfortunes or rather + difficulties are a bore at the time, life when working with cables is + tame without them. + + "2 P.M.--Hurrah, he is hooked, the big fellow, almost at the first + cast. He hangs under our bows, looking so huge and imposing that I + could find it in my heart to be afraid of him. + + + "_June 17._ + + "We went to a little bay called Chia, where a fresh-water stream falls + into the sea, and took in water. This is rather a long operation, so I + went a walk up the valley with Mr. Liddell. The coast here consists of + rocky mountains 800 to 1,000 feet high, covered with shrubs of a + brilliant green. On landing, our first amusement was watching the + hundreds of large fish who lazily swam in shoals about the river; the + big canes on the further side hold numberless tortoises, we are told, + but see none, for just now they prefer taking a siesta. A little + further on, and what is this with large pink flowers in such + abundance?--the oleander in full flower. At first I fear to pluck + them, thinking they must be cultivated and valuable; but soon the + banks show a long line of thick tall shrubs, one mass of glorious pink + and green. Set these in a little valley, framed by mountains whose + rocks gleam out blue and purple colours such as pre-Raphaelites only + dare attempt, shining out hard and weirdlike amongst the clumps of + castor-oil plants, cistus, arbor vitae, and many other evergreens, + whose names, alas! I know not; the cistus is brown now, the rest all + deep or brilliant green. Large herds of cattle browse on the baked + deposit at the foot of these large crags. One or two half-savage + herdsmen in sheepskin kilts, etc., ask for cigars; partridges whirr up + on either side of us; pigeons coo and nightingales sing amongst the + blooming oleander. We get six sheep, and many fowls too, from the + priest of the small village; and then run back to Spartivento and make + preparations for the morning. + + + "_June 18._ + + "The big cable is stubborn, and will not behave like his smaller + brother. The gear employed to take him off the drum is not strong + enough; he gets slack on the drum and plays the mischief. Luckily for + my own conscience, the gear I had wanted was negatived by Mr. Newall. + Mr. Liddell does not exactly blame me, but he says we might have had a + silver pulley cheaper than the cost of this delay. He has telegraphed + for more men to Cagliari, to try to pull the cable off the drum into + the hold, by hand. I look as comfortable as I can, but feel as if + people were blaming me. I am trying my best to get something rigged + which may help us; I wanted a little difficulty, and feel much + better.--The short length we have picked up was covered at places with + beautiful sprays of coral, twisted and twined with shells of those + small, fairy animals we saw in the aquarium at home; poor little + things, they died at once, with their little bells and delicate bright + tints. + + "_12 o'clock._--Hurrah, victory! for the present anyhow. Whilst in our + first dejection, I thought I saw a place where a flat roller would + remedy the whole misfortune; but a flat roller at Cape Spartivento, + hard, easily unshipped, running freely! There was a grooved pulley + used for the paying-out machinery with a spindle wheel, which might + suit me. I filled him up with tarry spunyarn, nailed sheet copper + round him, bent some parts in the fire; and we are paying-in without + more trouble now. You would think some one would praise me; no--no + more praise than blame before; perhaps now they think better of me, + though. + + "10 P.M.--We have gone on very comfortably for nearly six miles. An + hour and a half was spent washing down; for along with many coloured + polypi, from corals, shells, and insects, the big cable brings up much + mud and rust, and makes a fishy smell by no means pleasant: the bottom + seems to teem with life.--But now we are startled by a most + unpleasant, grinding noise; which appeared at first to come from the + large low pulley, but when the engines stopped, the noise continued; + and we now imagine it is something slipping down the cable, and the + pulley but acts as sounding-board to the big fiddle. Whether it is + only an anchor or one of the two other cables, we know not. We hope it + is not the cable just laid down. + + + "_June 19._ + + "10 A.M.--All our alarm groundless, it would appear: the odd noise + ceased after a time, and there was no mark sufficiently strong on the + large cable to warrant the suspicion that we had cut another line + through. I stopped up on the look-out till three in the morning, which + made 23 hours between sleep and sleep. One goes dozing about, though, + most of the day, for it is only when something goes wrong that one has + to look alive. Hour after hour I stand on the forecastle-head, picking + off little specimens of polypi and coral, or lie on the saloon deck + reading back numbers of the _Times_--till something hitches, and then + all is hurly-burly once more. There are awnings all along the ship, + and a most ancient, fish-like smell beneath. + + "_1 o'clock._--Suddenly a great strain in only 95 fathoms of + water--belts surging and general dismay; grapnels being thrown out in + the hope of finding what holds the cable.--Should it prove the young + cable! We are apparently crossing its path--not the working one, but + the lost child; Mr. Liddell _would_ start the big one first, though it + was laid first: he wanted to see the job done, and meant to leave us + to the small one unaided by his presence. + + "3.30.--Grapnel caught something, lost it again; it left its marks on + the prongs. Started lifting gear again; and after hauling in some 50 + fathoms--grunt, grunt, grunt--we hear the other cable slipping down + our big one, playing the self-same tune we heard last night--louder, + however. + + "10 P.M.--The pull on the deck engines became harder and harder. I got + steam up in a boiler on deck, and another little engine starts hauling + at the grapnel. I wonder if there ever was such a scene of confusion; + Mr. Liddell and W---- and the captain all giving orders contradictory, + etc., on the forecastle; D----, the foreman of our men, the mates, + etc., following the example of our superiors; the ship's engine and + boilers below, a 50-horse engine on deck, a boiler 14 feet long on + deck beside it, a little steam-winch tearing round; a dozen Italians + (20 have come to relieve our hands, the men we telegraphed for to + Cagliari) hauling at the rope; wire-men, sailors, in the crevices left + by ropes and machinery; everything that could swear swearing--I found + myself swearing like a trooper at last. We got the unknown difficulty + within ten fathoms of the surface; but then the forecastle got + frightened that, if it was the small cable which we had got hold of, + we should certainly break it by continuing the tremendous and + increasing strain. So at last Mr. Liddell decided to stop; cut the big + cable, buoying its end; go back to our pleasant watering-place at + Chia, take more water and start lifting the small cable. The end of + the large one has even now regained its sandy bed; and three + buoys--one to grapnel foul of the supposed small cable, two to the big + cable--are dipping about on the surface. One more--a flag-buoy--will + soon follow, and then straight for shore. + + + "_June 20._ + + "It is an ill-wind, etc. I have an unexpected opportunity of + forwarding this engineering letter; for the craft which brought out + our Italian sailors must return to Cagliari to-night, as the little + cable will take us nearly to Galita, and the Italian skipper could + hardly find his way from thence. To-day--Sunday--not much rest. Mr. + Liddell is at Spartivento telegraphing. We are at Chia, and shall + shortly go to help our boat's crew in getting the small cable on + board. We dropped them some time since in order that they might dig it + out of the sand as far as possible. + + + "_June 21._ + + "Yesterday--Sunday as it was--all hands were kept at work all day, + coaling, watering, and making a futile attempt to pull the cable from + the shore on board through the sand. This attempt was rather silly + after the experience we had gained at Cape Spartivento. This morning + we grappled, hooked the cable at once, and have made an excellent + start. Though I have called this the small cable, it is much larger + than the Bona one.--Here comes a break-down, and a bad one. + + + "_June 22._ + + "We got over it however; but it is a warning to me that my future + difficulties will arise from parts wearing out. Yesterday the cable + was often a lovely sight, coming out of the water one large + incrustation of delicate, net-like corals and long white curling + shells. No portion of the dirty black wires was visible; instead we + had a garland of soft pink with little scarlet sprays and white enamel + intermixed. All was fragile, however, and could hardly be secured in + safety; and inexorable iron crushed the tender leaves to atoms.--This + morning at the end of my watch, about 4 o'clock, we came to the buoys, + proving our anticipations right concerning the crossing of the cables. + I went to bed for four hours, and on getting up, found a sad mess. A + tangle of the six-wire cable hung to the grapnel, which had been left + buoyed, and the small cable had parted and is lost for the present. + Our hauling of the other day must have done the mischief. + + + "_June 23._ + + "We contrived to get the two ends of the large cable and to pick the + short end up. The long end, leading us seaward, was next put round the + drum, and a mile of it picked up; but then, fearing another tangle, + the end was cut and buoyed, and we returned to grapple for the + three-wire cable. All this is very tiresome for me. The buoying and + dredging are managed entirely by W----, who has had much experience in + this sort of thing; so I have not enough to do, and get very homesick. + At noon the wind freshened and the sea rose so high that we had to run + for land, and are once more this evening anchored at Chia. + + + "_June 24._ + + "The whole day spent in dredging without success. This operation + consists in allowing the ship to drift slowly across the line where + you expect the cable to be, while at the end of a long rope, fast + either to the bow or stern, a grapnel drags along the ground. This + grapnel is a small anchor, made like four pot-hooks tied back to back. + When the rope gets taut, the ship is stopped and the grapnel hauled up + to the surface in the hopes of finding the cable on its prongs.--I am + much discontented with myself for idly lounging about and reading + 'Westward Ho!' for the second time, instead of taking to electricity + or picking up nautical information. I am uncommonly idle. The sea is + not quite so rough, but the weather is squally and the rain comes in + frequent gusts. + + + "_June 25._ + + "To-day about 1 o'clock we hooked the three-wire cable, buoyed the + long sea end, and picked up the short [or shore] end. Now it is dark, + and we must wait for morning before lifting the buoy we lowered to-day + and proceeding seawards.--The depth of water here is about 600 feet, + the height of a respectable English hill; our fishing line was about a + quarter of a mile long. It blows pretty fresh, and there is a great + deal of sea. + + + "_26th._ + + "This morning it came on to blow so heavily that it was impossible to + take up our buoy. The _Elba_ recommenced rolling in true Baltic style, + and towards noon we ran for land. + + + "_27th, Sunday._ + + "This morning was a beautiful calm. We reached the buoys at about 4.30 + and commenced picking up at 6.30. Shortly a new cause of anxiety + arose. Kinks came up in great quantities, about thirty in the hour. To + have a true conception of a kink, you must see one; it is a loop drawn + tight, all the wires get twisted and the gutta-percha inside pushed + out. These much diminish the value of the cable, as they must all be + cut out, the gutta-percha made good, and the cable spliced. They arise + from the cable having been badly laid down, so that it forms folds and + tails at the bottom of the sea. These kinks have another disadvantage: + they weaken the cable very much.--At about six o'clock [P.M.] we had + some twelve miles lifted, when I went to the bows; the kinks were + exceedingly tight and were giving way in a most alarming manner. I got + a cage rigged up to prevent the end (if it broke) from hurting any + one, and sat down on the bowsprit, thinking I should describe kinks to + Annie:--suddenly I saw a great many coils and kinks altogether at the + surface. I jumped to the gutta-percha pipe, by blowing through which + the signal is given to stop the engine. I blow, but the engine does + not stop: again--no answer; the coils and kinks jam in the bows and I + rush aft shouting Stop! Too late: the cable had parted and must lie in + peace at the bottom. Some one had pulled the gutta-percha tube across + a bare part of the steam pipe and melted it. It had been used hundreds + of times in the last few days and gave no symptoms of failing. I + believe the cable must have gone at any rate; however, since it went + in my watch, and since I might have secured the tubing more strongly, + I feel rather sad.... + + + "_June 28._ + + "Since I could not go to Annie I took down Shakespeare, and by the + time I had finished _Antony and Cleopatra_, read the second half of + _Troilus_ and got some way in _Coriolanus_, I felt it was childish to + regret the accident had happened in my watch, and moreover I felt + myself not much to blame in the tubing matter--it had been torn down, + it had not fallen down; so I went to bed, and slept without fretting, + and woke this morning in the same good mood--for which thank you and + our friend Shakespeare. I am happy to say Mr. Liddell said the loss of + the cable did not much matter; though this would have been no + consolation had I felt myself to blame.--This morning we have grappled + for and found another length of small cable which Mr. ---- dropped in + 100 fathoms of water. If this also gets full of kinks, we shall + probably have to cut it after 10 miles or so, or, more probably still, + it will part of its own free will or weight. + + "10 P.M.--This second length of three-wire cable soon got into the + same condition as its fellow--_i.e._ came up twenty kinks an hour--and + after seven miles were in, parted on the pulley over the bows at one + of the said kinks: during my watch again, but this time no earthly + power could have saved it. I had taken all manner of precautions to + prevent the end doing any damage when the smash came, for come I knew + it must. We now return to the six-wire cable. As I sat watching the + cable to-night, large phosphorescent globes kept rolling from it and + fading in the black water. + + + "_29th._ + + "To-day we returned to the buoy we had left at the end of the six-wire + cable, and after much trouble from a series of tangles, got a fair + start at noon. You will easily believe a tangle of iron rope inch and + a half diameter is not easy to unravel, especially with a ton or so + hanging to the ends. It is now eight o'clock, and we have about six + and a half miles safe: it becomes very exciting, however, for the + kinks are coming fast and furious. + + + "_July 2._ + + "Twenty-eight miles safe in the hold. The ship is now so deep that the + men are to be turned out of their aft hold, and the remainder coiled + there; so the good _Elba's_ nose need not burrow too far into the + waves. There can only be about 10 or 12 miles more, but these weigh 80 + or 100 tons. + + + "_July 5._ + + "Our first mate was much hurt in securing a buoy on the evening of the + 2nd. As interpreter [with the Italians] I am useful in all these + cases; but for no fortune would I be a doctor to witness these scenes + continually. Pain is a terrible thing.--Our work is done: the whole of + the six-wire cable has been recovered; only a small part of the + three-wire, but that wire was bad and, owing to its twisted state, the + value small. We may therefore be said to have been very successful." + + + II + +I have given this cruise nearly in full. From the notes, unhappily +imperfect, of two others, I will take only specimens; for in all there +are features of similarity, and it is possible to have too much even of +submarine telegraphy and the romance of engineering. And first from the +cruise of 1859 in the Greek Islands and to Alexandria, take a few +traits, incidents, and pictures. + + + "_May 10, 1859._ + + "We had a fair wind, and we did very well, seeing a little bit of + Cerigo or Cythera, and lots of turtle-doves wandering about over the + sea and perching, tired and timid, in the rigging of our little craft. + Then Falconera, Antimilo and Milo, topped with huge white clouds, + barren, deserted, rising bold and mysterious from the blue chafing + sea;--Argentiera, Siphano, Scapho, Paros, Antiparos, and late at night + Syra itself. 'Adam Bede' in one hand, a sketch-book in the other, + lying on rugs under an awning, I enjoyed a very pleasant day. + + + "_May 14._ + + "Syra is semi-Eastern. The pavement, huge shapeless blocks sloping to + a central gutter; from this bare two-storied houses, sometimes plaster + many-coloured, sometimes rough-hewn marble, rise, dirty and + ill-finished, to straight, plain, flat roofs; shops guiltless of + windows, with signs in Greek letters; dogs, Greeks in blue, baggy, + Zouave breeches and a fez, a few narghilehs and a sprinkling of the + ordinary continental shopboys.--In the evening I tried one more walk + in Syra with A----, but in vain endeavoured to amuse myself or to + spend money; the first effort resulting in singing 'Doodah' to a + passing Greek or two, the second in spending, no, in making A---- + spend, threepence on coffee for three. + + + "_May 16._ + + "On coming on deck, I found we were at anchor in Canea bay, and saw + one of the most lovely sights man could witness. Far on either hand + stretch bold mountain capes, Spada and Maleka, tender in colour, bold + in outline; rich sunny levels lie beneath them, framed by the azure + sea. Right in front, a dark brown fortress girdles white mosques and + minarets. Rich and green, our mountain capes here join to form a + setting for the town, in whose dark walls--still darker--open a dozen + high-arched caves in which the huge Venetian galleys used to lie in + wait. High above all, higher and higher yet, up into the firmament, + range after range of blue and snow-capped mountains. I was bewildered + and amazed, having heard nothing of this great beauty. The town when + entered is quite Eastern. The streets are formed of open stalls under + the first story, in which squat tailors, cooks, sherbet-vendors and + the like, busy at their work or smoking narghilehs. Cloths stretched + from house to house keep out the sun. Mules rattle through the crowd; + curs yelp between your legs; negroes are as hideous and bright clothed + as usual; grave Turks with long chibouques continue to march solemnly + without breaking them; a little Arab in one dirty rag pokes fun at two + splendid little Turks with brilliant fezzes; wiry mountaineers in + dirty, full, white kilts, shouldering long guns and one hand on their + pistols, stalk untamed past a dozen Turkish soldiers, who look + sheepish and brutal in worn cloth jacket and cotton trousers. A + headless, wingless lion of St. Mark still stands upon a gate, and has + left the mark of his strong clutch. Of ancient times when Crete was + Crete not a trace remains; save perhaps in the full, well-cut nostril + and firm tread of that mountaineer, and I suspect that even his sires + were Albanians, mere outer barbarians. + + + "_May 17._ + + "I spent the day at the little station where the cable was landed, + which has apparently been first a Venetian monastery and then a + Turkish mosque. At any rate the big dome is very cool, and the little + ones hold [our electric] batteries capitally. A handsome young + Bashi-bazouk guards it, and a still handsomer mountaineer is the + servant; so I draw them and the monastery and the hill, till I'm black + in the face with heat, and come on board to hear the Canea cable is + still bad. + + + "_May 23._ + + "We arrived in the morning at the east end of Candia, and had a + glorious scramble over the mountains, which seem built of adamant. + Time has worn away the softer portions of the rock, only leaving sharp + jagged edges of steel. Sea-eagles soaring above our heads; old tanks, + ruins and desolation at our feet. The ancient Arsinoe stood here; a + few blocks of marble with the cross attest the presence of Venetian + Christians; but now--the desolation of desolations. Mr. Liddell and I + separated from the rest, and when we had found a sure bay for the + cable, had a tremendous lively scramble back to the boat. These are + the bits of our life which I enjoy, which have some poetry, some + grandeur in them. + + + "_May 29_ (?). + + "Yesterday we ran round to the new harbour [of Alexandria], landed the + shore-end of the cable close to Cleopatra's bath, and made a very + satisfactory start about one in the afternoon. We had scarcely gone + 200 yards when I noticed that the cable ceased to run out, and I + wondered why the ship had stopped. People ran aft to tell me not to + put such a strain on the cable; I answered indignantly that there was + no strain; and suddenly it broke on every one in the ship at once that + we were aground. Here was a nice mess. A violent scirocco blew from + the land; making one's skin feel as if it belonged to some one else + and didn't fit, making the horizon dim and yellow with fine sand, + oppressing every sense and raising the thermometer 20 degrees in an + hour, but making calm water round us, which enabled the ship to lie + for the time in safety. The wind might change at any moment, since the + scirocco was only accidental; and at the first wave from seaward bump + would go the poor ship, and there would [might] be an end of our + voyage. The captain, without waiting to sound, began to make an effort + to put the ship over what was supposed to be a sandbank; but by the + time soundings were made this was found to be impossible, and he had + only been jamming the poor _Elba_ faster on a rock. Now every effort + was made to get her astern, an anchor taken out, a rope brought to a + winch I had for the cable, and the engines backed; but all in vain. A + small Turkish Government steamer, which is to be our consort, came to + our assistance, but of course very slowly, and much time was occupied + before we could get a hawser to her. I could do no good after having + made a chart of the soundings round the ship, and went at last on to + the bridge to sketch the scene. But at that moment the strain from the + winch and a jerk from the Turkish steamer got off the boat, after we + had been some hours aground. The carpenter reported that she had made + only two inches of water in one compartment; the cable was still + uninjured astern, and our spirits rose; when--will you believe + it?--after going a short distance astern, the pilot ran us once more + fast aground on what seemed to me nearly the same spot. The very same + scene was gone through as on the first occasion, and dark came on + whilst the wind shifted, and we were still aground. Dinner was served + up, but poor Mr. Liddell could eat very little; and bump, bump, grind, + grind, went the ship fifteen or sixteen times as we sat at dinner. The + slight sea, however, did enable us to bump off. This morning we appear + not to have suffered in any way; but a sea is rolling in, which a few + hours ago would have settled the poor old _Elba_. + + + "_June --._ + + "The Alexandria cable has again failed; after paying out two-thirds of + the distance successfully, an unlucky touch in deep water snapped the + line. Luckily the accident occurred in Mr. Liddell's watch. Though + personally it may not really concern me, the accident weighs like a + personal misfortune. Still, I am glad I was present: a failure is + probably more instructive than a success; and this experience may + enable us to avoid misfortune in still greater undertakings. + + + "_June --._ + + "We left Syra the morning after our arrival on Saturday the 4th. This + we did (first) because we were in a hurry to do something, and + (second) because, coming from Alexandria, we had four days' quarantine + to perform. We were all mustered along the side while the doctor + counted us; the letters were popped into a little tin box and taken + away to be smoked; the guardians put on board to see that we held no + communication with the shore--without them we should still have had + four more days' quarantine; and with twelve Greek sailors besides, we + started merrily enough picking up the Canea cable.... To our utter + dismay, the yarn covering began to come up quite decayed, and the + cable, which when laid should have borne half a ton, was now in danger + of snapping with a tenth part of that strain. We went as slow as + possible in fear of a break at every instant. My watch was from eight + to twelve in the morning, and during that time we had barely secured + three miles of cable. Once it broke inside the ship, but I seized hold + of it in time--the weight being hardly anything--and the line for the + nonce was saved. Regular nooses were then planted inboard with men to + draw them taut, should the cable break inboard. A----, who should have + relieved me, was unwell, so I had to continue my look-out; and about + one o'clock the line again parted, but was again caught in the last + noose, with about four inches to spare. Five minutes afterwards it + again parted, and was yet once more caught. Mr. Liddell (whom I had + called) could stand this no longer; so we buoyed the line and ran into + a bay in Siphano, waiting for calm weather, though I was by no means + of opinion that the slight sea and wind had been the cause of our + failures.--All next day (Monday) we lay off Siphano, amusing ourselves + on shore with fowling-pieces and navy revolvers. I need not say we + killed nothing; and luckily we did not wound any of ourselves. A + guardiano accompanied us, his functions being limited to preventing + actual contact with the natives, for they might come as near, and talk + as much as they pleased. These isles of Greece are sad, interesting + places. They are not really barren all over, but they are quite + destitute of verdure; and tufts of thyme, wild mastic or mint, though + they sound well, are not nearly so pretty as grass. Many little + churches, glittering white, dot the islands; most of them, I believe, + abandoned during the whole year, with the exception of one day sacred + to their patron saint. The villages are mean, but the inhabitants do + not look wretched, and the men are good sailors. There is something in + this Greek race yet; they will become a powerful Levantine nation in + the course of time.--What a lovely moonlight evening that was! the + barren island cutting the clear sky with fantastic outline, marble + cliffs on either hand fairly gleaming over the calm sea. Next day, the + wind still continuing, I proposed a boating excursion, and decoyed + A----, L----, and S---- into accompanying me. We took the little gig, + and sailed away merrily enough round a point to a beautiful white bay, + flanked with two glistening little churches, fronted by beautiful + distant islands; when suddenly, to my horror, I discovered the _Elba_ + steaming full speed out from the island. Of course we steered after + her; but the wind that instant ceased, and we were left in a dead + calm. There was nothing for it but to unship the mast, get out the + oars and pull. The ship was nearly certain to stop at the buoy; and I + wanted to learn how to take an oar, so here was a chance with a + vengeance! L---- steered, and we three pulled--a broiling pull it was + about half way across to Palikandro; still we did come in, pulling an + uncommon good stroke, and I had learned to hang on my oar. L---- had + pressed me to let him take my place; but though I was very tired at + the end of the first quarter of an hour, and then every successive + half hour, I would not give in. I nearly paid dear for my obstinacy, + however; for in the evening I had alternate fits of shivering and + burning." + + + III + +The next extracts, and I am sorry to say the last, are from Fleeming's +letters of 1860, when he was back at Bona and Spartivento, and for the +first time at the head of an expedition. Unhappily these letters are +not only the last, but the series is quite imperfect; and this is the +more to be lamented as he had now begun to use a pen more skilfully, and +in the following notes there is at times a touch of real distinction in +the manner. + + + "_Cagliari, October 5, 1860._ + + "All Tuesday I spent examining what was on board the _Elba_, and + trying to start the repairs of the Spartivento land line, which has + been entirely neglected--and no wonder, for no one has been paid for + three months, no, not even the poor guards who have to keep + themselves, their horses and their families, on their pay. Wednesday + morning, I started for Spartivento, and got there in time to try a + good many experiments. Spartivento looks more wild and savage than + ever, but is not without a strange deadly beauty: the hills covered + with bushes of a metallic green with coppery patches of soil in + between; the valleys filled with dry salt mud and a little stagnant + water; where that very morning the deer had drunk, where herons, + curlews, and other fowl abound, and where, alas! malaria is breeding + with this rain. (No fear for those who do not sleep on shore.) A + little iron hut had been placed there since 1858; but the windows had + been carried off, the door broken down, the roof pierced all over. In + it we sat to make experiments; and how it recalled Birkenhead! There + was Thomson, there was my testing-board, the strings of gutta-percha; + Harry P---- even battering with the batteries; but where was my + darling Annie? Whilst I sat, feet in sand, with Harry alone inside the + hut--mats, coats, and wood to darken the window--the others visited + the murderous old friar, who is of the order of Scaloppi, and for whom + I brought a letter from his superior, ordering him to pay us + attention; but he was away from home, gone to Cagliari in a boat with + the produce of the farm belonging to his convent. Then they visited + the tower of Chia, but could not get in because the door is thirty + feet off the ground; so they came back and pitched a magnificent tent + which I brought from the _Bahiana_ a long time ago--and where they + will live (if I mistake not) in preference to the friar's or the owl- + and bat-haunted tower. MM. T---- and S---- will be left there: T---- an + intelligent, hard-working Frenchman with whom I am well pleased; he + can speak English and Italian well, and has been two years at Genoa. + S---- is a French German with a face like an ancient Gaul, who has + been sergeant-major in the French line, and who is, I see, a great, + big, muscular _faineant_. We left the tent pitched and some stores in + charge of a guide, and ran back to Cagliari. + + "Certainly being at the head of things is pleasanter than being + subordinate. We all agree very well; and I have made the testing + office into a kind of private room, where I can come and write to you + undisturbed, surrounded by my dear, bright brass things which all of + them remind me of our nights at Birkenhead. Then I can work here too, + and try lots of experiments; you know how I like that! and now and + then I read--Shakespeare principally. Thank you so much for making me + bring him: I think I must get a pocket edition of _Hamlet_ and _Henry + the Fifth_, so as never to be without them. + + + "_Cagliari, October 7._ + + "[The town was full?] ... of red-shirted English Garibaldini. A very + fine-looking set of fellows they are too: the officers rather raffish, + but with medals, Crimean and Indian; the men a very sturdy set, with + many lads of good birth I should say. They still wait their consort + the _Emperor_, and will, I fear, be too late to do anything. I meant + to have called on them, but they are all gone into barracks some way + from the town, and I have been much too busy to go far. + + "The view from the ramparts was very strange and beautiful. Cagliari + rises on a very steep rock, at the mouth of a wide plain circled by + large hills and three-quarters filled with lagoons; it looks, + therefore, like an old island citadel. Large heaps of salt mark the + border between the sea and the lagoons; thousands of flamingoes whiten + the centre of the huge shallow marsh; hawks hover and scream among the + trees under the high mouldering battlements.--A little lower down, the + band played. Men and ladies bowed and pranced, the costumes posed, + church bells tinkled, processions processed, the sun set behind thick + clouds capping the hills; I pondered on you and enjoyed it all. + + "Decidedly I prefer being master to being man: boats at all hours, + stewards flying for marmalade, captain inquiring when ship is to sail, + clerks to copy my writing, the boat to steer when we go out--I have + run her nose on several times; decidedly, I begin to feel quite a + little king. Confound the cable, though! I shall never be able to + repair it. + + + "_Bona, October 14._ + + "We left Cagliari at 4.30 on the 9th, and soon got to Spartivento. I + repeated some of my experiments, but found Thomson, who was to have + been my grand stand-by, would not work on that day in the wretched + little hut. Even if the windows and door had been put in, the wind, + which was very high, made the lamp flicker about and blew it out; so I + sent on board and got old sails, and fairly wrapped the hut up in + them; and then we were as snug as could be, and I left the hut in + glorious condition, with a nice little stove in it. The tent which + should have been forthcoming from the cure's for the guards had gone + to Cagliari; but I found another, [a] green, Turkish tent, in the + _Elba_, and soon had him up. The square tent left on the last occasion + was standing all right and tight in spite of wind and rain. We landed + provisions, two beds, plates, knives, forks, candles, cooking + utensils, and were ready for a start at 6 P.M.; but the wind meanwhile + had come on to blow at such a rate that I thought better of it, and + we stopped. T---- and S---- slept ashore, however, to see how they + liked it; at least they tried to sleep, for S----, the ancient + sergeant-major, had a toothache, and T---- thought the tent was coming + down every minute. Next morning they could only complain of sand and a + leaky coffee-pot, so I leave them with a good conscience. The little + encampment looked quite picturesque: the green round tent, the square + white tent, and the hut all wrapped up in sails, on a sandhill, + looking on the sea and masking those confounded marshes at the back. + One would have thought the Cagliaritans were in a conspiracy to + frighten the two poor fellows, who (I believe) will be safe enough if + they do not go into the marshes after nightfall. S---- brought a + little dog to amuse them,--such a jolly, ugly little cur without a + tail, but full of fun; he will be better than quinine. + + "The wind drove a barque, which had anchored near us for shelter, out + to sea. We started, however, at 2 P.M., and had a quick passage, but a + very rough one, getting to Bona by daylight [on the 11th]. Such a + place as this is for getting anything done! The health boat went away + from us at 7.30 with W---- on board; and we heard nothing of them till + 9.30, when W---- came back with two fat Frenchmen, who are to look on + on the part of the Government. They are exactly alike: only one has + four bands and the other three round his cap, and so I know them. Then + I sent a boat round to Fort Genois [Fort Geneva of 1858], where the + cable is landed, with all sorts of things and directions, whilst I + went ashore to see about coals and a room at the fort. We hunted + people in the little square, in their shops and offices, but only + found them in cafes. One amiable gentleman wasn't up at 9.30, was out + at 10, and as soon as he came back the servant said he would go to bed + and not get up till 3: he came however to find us at a cafe, and said + that, on the contrary, two days in the week he did not do so! Then my + two fat friends must have their breakfast after their 'something' at a + cafe; and all the shops shut from 10 to 2; and the post does not open + till 12; and there was a road to Fort Genois, only a bridge had been + carried away, etc. At last I got off, and we rowed round to Fort + Genois, where my men had put up a capital gipsy tent with sails, and + there was my big board and Thomson's number 5 in great glory. I soon + came to the conclusion there was a break. Two of my faithful + Cagliaritans slept all night in the little tent, to guard it and my + precious instruments; and the sea, which was rather rough, silenced my + Frenchmen. + + "Next day I went on with my experiments, whilst a boat grappled for + the cable a little way from shore, and buoyed it where the _Elba_ + could get hold. I brought all back to the _Elba_, tried my machinery, + and was all ready for a start next morning. But the wretched coal had + not come yet; Government permission from Algiers to be got; lighters, + men, baskets, and I know not what forms to be got or got through--and + everybody asleep! Coals or no coals, I was determined to start next + morning; and start we did at four in the morning, picked up the buoy + with our deck-engine, popped the cable across a boat, tested the wires + to make sure the fault was not behind us, and started picking up at + 11. Everything worked admirably, and about 2 P.M. in came the fault. + There is no doubt the cable was broken by coral-fishers; twice they + have had it up to their own knowledge. + + "Many men have been ashore to-day and have come back tipsy, and the + whole ship is in a state of quarrel from top to bottom, and they will + gossip just within my hearing. And we have had moreover three French + gentlemen and a French lady to dinner, and I had to act host and try + to manage the mixtures to their taste. The good-natured little + Frenchwoman was most amusing; when I asked her if she would have some + apple tart--'_Mon Dieu_,' with heroic resignation, '_je veux bien_'; + or a little _plombodding_--'_Mais ce que vous voudrez, Monsieur!_' + + + "_SS. Elba, somewhere not far from Bona, Oct. 19._ + + "Yesterday [after three previous days of useless grappling] was + destined to be very eventful. We began dredging at daybreak, and + hooked at once every time in rocks; but by capital luck, just as we + were deciding it was no use to continue in that place, we hooked the + cable: up it came, was tested, and lo! another complete break, a + quarter of a mile off. I was amazed at my own tranquillity under these + disappointments, but I was not really half so fussy as about getting a + cab. Well, there was nothing for it but grappling again, and, as you + may imagine, we were getting about six miles from shore. But the water + did not deepen rapidly; we seemed to be on the crest of a kind of + submarine mountain in prolongation of Cape de Gonde, and pretty havoc + we must have made with the crags. What rocks we did hook! No sooner + was the grapnel down than the ship was anchored; and then came such a + business: ship's engines going, deck-engine thundering, belt slipping, + fear of breaking ropes: actually breaking grapnels. It was always an + hour or more before we could get the grapnel down again. At last we + had to give up the place, though we knew we were close to the cable, + and go farther to sea in much deeper water; to my great fear, as I + knew the cable was much eaten away and would stand but little strain. + Well, we hooked the cable first dredge this time, and pulled it slowly + and gently to the top, with much trepidation. Was it the cable? was + there any weight on? it was evidently too small. Imagine my dismay + when the cable did come up, but hanging loosely, thus: + + [Illustration] + + instead of taut, thus: + + [Illustration] + + showing certain signs of a break close by. For a moment I felt + provoked, as I thought 'Here we are, in deep water, and the cable will + not stand lifting!' I tested at once, and by the very first wire found + it had broken towards shore and was good towards sea. This was of + course very pleasant: but from that time to this, though the wires + test very well, not a signal has come from Spartivento. I got the + cable into a boat, and a gutta-percha line from the ship to the boat, + and we signalled away at a great rate--but no signs of life. The tests + however make me pretty sure one wire at least is good; so I determined + to lay down cable from where we were to the shore, and go to + Spartivento to see what had happened there. I fear my men are ill. The + night was lovely, perfectly calm; so we lay close to the boat and + signals were continually sent, but with no result. This morning I had + the cable down to Fort Genois in style; and now we are picking up odds + and ends of cable between the different breaks, and getting our buoys + on board, etc. To-morrow I expect to leave for Spartivento." + + + IV + +And now I am quite at an end of journal-keeping; diaries and diary +letters being things of youth which Fleeming had at length outgrown. But +one or two more fragments from his correspondence may be taken, and +first this brief sketch of the laying of the Norderney cable; mainly +interesting as showing under what defects of strength and in what +extremities of pain this cheerful man must at times continue to go about +his work. + + "I slept on board 29th September, having arranged everything to start + by daybreak from where we lay in the roads: but at daybreak a heavy + mist hung over us so that nothing of land or water could be seen. At + midday it lifted suddenly, and away we went with perfect weather, but + could not find the buoys Forde left, that evening. I saw the captain + was not strong in navigation, and took matters next day much more into + my own hands, and before nine o'clock found the buoys (the weather had + been so fine we had anchored in the open sea near Texel). It took us + till the evening to reach the buoys, get the cable on board, test the + first half, speak to Lowestoft, make the splice, and start. H---- had + not finished his work at Norderney, so I was alone on board for + Reuter. Moreover the buoys to guide us in our course were not placed, + and the captain had very vague ideas about keeping his course; so I + had to do a good deal, and only lay down as I was for two hours in the + night. I managed to run the course perfectly. Everything went well, + and we found Norderney just where we wanted it next afternoon, and if + the shore-end had been laid, could have finished there and then, + October 1st. But when we got to Norderney, we found the _Caroline_ + with shore-end lying apparently aground, and could not understand her + signals; so we had to anchor suddenly, and I went off in a small boat + with the captain to the _Caroline_. It was cold by this time, and my + arm was rather stiff, and I was tired; I hauled myself up on board the + _Caroline_ by a rope, and found H---- and two men on board. All the + rest were trying to get the shore-end on shore, but had failed, and + apparently had stuck on shore, and the waves were getting up. We had + anchored in the right place, and next morning we hoped the shore-end + would be laid, so we had only to go back. It was of course still + colder, and quite night. I went to bed and hoped to sleep, but, alas, + the rheumatism got into the joints and caused me terrible pain, so + that I could not sleep. I bore it as long as I could in order to + disturb no one, for all were tired; but at last I could bear it no + longer, and I managed to wake the steward, and got a mustard poultice, + which took the pain from the shoulder; but then the elbow got very + bad, and I had to call the second steward and get a second poultice, + and then it was daylight, and I felt very ill and feverish. The sea + was now rather rough--too rough rather for small boats, but luckily a + sort of thing called a scoot came out, and we got on board her with + some trouble, and got on shore after a good tossing about, which made + us all sea-sick. The cable sent from the _Caroline_ was just 60 yards + too short, and did not reach the shore, so although the _Caroline_ did + make the splice late that night, we could neither test nor speak. + Reuter was at Norderney, and I had to do the best I could, which was + not much, and went to bed early; I thought I should never sleep again, + but in sheer desperation got up in the middle of the night and gulped + a lot of raw whisky, and slept at last. But not long. A Mr. F---- + washed my face and hands and dressed me; and we hauled the cable out + of the sea, and got it joined to the telegraph station, and on October + 3rd telegraphed to Lowestoft first, and then to London. Miss Clara + Volkman, a niece of Mr. Reuter's, sent the first message to Mrs. + Reuter, who was waiting (Varley used Miss Clara's hand as a kind of + key), and I sent one of the first messages to Odden. I thought a + message addressed to him would not frighten you, and that he would + enjoy a message through papa's cable. I hope he did. They were all + very merry, but I had been so lowered by pain that I could not enjoy + myself in spite of the success." + + + V + +Of the 1869 cruise in the _Great Eastern_ I give what I am able; only +sorry it is no more, for the sake of the ship itself, already almost a +legend even to the generation that saw it launched. + + "_June 17, 1869._--Here are the names of our staff, in whom I expect + you to be interested, as future _Great Eastern_ stories may be full of + them; Theophilus Smith, a man of Latimer Clark's; Leslie C. Hill, my + prizeman at University College; Lord Sackville Cecil; King, one of the + Thomsonian Kings; Laws, goes for Willoughby Smith, who will also be on + board; Varley, Clark, and Sir James Anderson, make up the sum of all + you know anything of. A Captain Halpin commands the big ship. There + are four smaller vessels. The _Wm. Cory_, which laid the Norderney + cable, has already gone to St. Pierre to lay the shore-ends. The + _Hawk_ and _Chiltern_ have gone to Brest to lay shore-ends. The _Hawk_ + and _Scanderia_ go with us across the Atlantic, and we shall at St. + Pierre be transhipped into one or the other. + + "_June 18, somewhere in London._--The shore-end is laid, as you may + have seen, and we are all under pressing orders to march, so we start + from London to-night at 5.10. + + "_June 20, off Ushant._--I am getting quite fond of the big ship. + Yesterday morning in the quiet sunlight she turned so slowly and + lazily in the great harbour at Portland, and by and by slipped out + past the long pier with so little stir, that I could hardly believe we + were really off. No men drunk, no women crying, no singing or + swearing, no confusion or bustle on deck--nobody apparently aware that + they had anything to do. The look of the thing was that the ship had + been spoken to civilly, and had kindly undertaken to do everything + that was necessary without any further interference. I have a nice + cabin, with plenty of room for my legs in my berth, and have slept two + nights like a top. Then we have the ladies' cabin set apart as an + engineer's office, and I think this decidedly the nicest place in the + ship: 35 ft. x 20 ft. broad--four tables, three great mirrors, plenty + of air, and no heat from the funnels, which spoil the great + dining-room. I saw a whole library of books on the walls when here + last, and this made me less anxious to provide light literature; but + alas, to-day I find that they are every one Bibles or Prayer-books. + Now one cannot read many hundred Bibles.... As for the motion of the + ship, it is not very much, but 'twill suffice. Thomson shook hands and + wished me well. I _do_ like Thomson.... Tell Austin that the _Great + Eastern_ has six masts and four funnels. When I get back I will make a + little model of her for all the chicks, and pay out cotton reels.... + Here we are at 4.20 at Brest. We leave probably to-morrow morning. + + "_July 12, Great Eastern._--Here as I write we run our last course for + the buoy at the St. Pierre shore-end. It blows and lightens, and our + good ship rolls, and buoys are hard to find; but we must soon now + finish our work, and then this letter will start for home.... + Yesterday we were mournfully groping our way through the wet grey fog, + not at all sure where we were, with one consort lost and the other + faintly answering the roar of our great whistle through the mist. As + to the ship which was to meet us, and pioneer us up the deep channel, + we did not know if we should come within twenty miles of her; when + suddenly up went the fog, out came the sun, and there, straight + ahead, was the _Wm. Cory_, our pioneer, and a little dancing boat, the + _Gulnare_, sending signals of welcome with many-coloured flags. Since + then we have been steaming in a grand procession; but now at 2 A.M. + the fog has fallen, and the great roaring whistle calls up the distant + answering notes all around us. Shall we or shall we not find the buoy? + + "_July 13._--All yesterday we lay in the damp dripping fog, with + whistles all round and guns firing so that we might not bump up + against one another. This little delay has let us get our reports into + tolerable order. We are now, at seven o'clock, getting the cable end + again, with the main cable buoy close to us." + + _A telegram of July 20._--"I have received your four welcome letters. + The Americans are charming people." + + + VI + +And here, to make an end, are a few random bits about the cruise to +Pernambuco:-- + + "_Plymouth, June 21, 1873._--I have been down to the seashore and + smelt the salt sea, and like it; and I have seen the _Hooper_ pointing + her great bow seaward, while light smoke rises from her funnels, + telling that the fires are being lighted; and sorry as I am to be + without you, something inside me answers to the call to be off and + doing. + + "_Lalla Rookh, Plymouth, June 22._--We have been a little cruise in + the yacht over to the Eddystone lighthouse, and my sea-legs seem very + well on. Strange how alike all these starts are--first on shore, + steaming hot days with a smell of bone-dust and tar and salt water; + then the little puffing, panting steam-launch, that bustles out across + a port with green woody sides, little yachts sliding about, men-of-war + training-ships, and then a great big black hulk of a thing with a mass + of smaller vessels sticking to it like parasites; and that is one's + home being coaled. Then comes the champagne lunch, where every one + says all that is polite to every one else, and then the uncertainty + when to start. So far as we know _now_, we are to start to-morrow + morning at daybreak; letters that come later are to be sent to + Pernambuco by first mail.... My father has sent me the heartiest sort + of Jack Tar's cheer. + + "_SS. Hooper, off Funchal, June 29._--Here we are, off Madeira at + seven o'clock in the morning. Thomson has been sounding with his + special toy ever since half-past three (1087 fathoms of water). I have + been watching the day break, and long jagged islands start into being + out of the dull night. We are still some miles from land; but the sea + is calmer than Loch Eil often was, and the big _Hooper_ rests very + contentedly after a pleasant voyage and favourable breezes. I have not + been able to do any real work except the testing [of the cable], for, + though not sea-sick, I get a little giddy when I try to think on + board.... The ducks have just had their daily souse and are quacking + and gabbling in a mighty way outside the door of the captain's deck + cabin, where I write. The cocks are crowing, and new-laid eggs are + said to be found in the coops. Four mild oxen have been untethered and + allowed to walk along the broad iron decks--a whole drove of sheep + seem quite content while licking big lumps of bay salt. Two + exceedingly impertinent goats lead the cook a perfect life of misery. + They steal round the galley and _will_ nibble the carrots or turnips + if his back is turned for one minute; and then he throws something at + them and misses them; and they scuttle off laughing impudently, and + flick one ear at him from a safe distance. This is the most impudent + gesture I ever saw. Winking is nothing to it. The ear normally hangs + down behind; the goat turns sideways to her enemy--by a little knowing + cock of the head flicks one ear over one eye, and squints from behind + it, for half a minute--tosses her head back, skips a pace or two + further off, and repeats the manoeuvre. The cook is very fat, and + cannot run after that goat much. + + "_Pernambuco, Aug. 1._--We landed here yesterday, all well and cable + sound, after a good passage.... I am on familiar terms with + cocoa-nuts, mangoes, and bread-fruit trees, but I think I like the + negresses best of anything I have seen. In turbans and loose sea-green + robes, with beautiful black-brown complexions and a stately carriage, + they really are a satisfaction to my eye. The weather has been windy + and rainy; the _Hooper_ has to lie about a mile from the town, in an + open roadstead, with the whole swell of the Atlantic driving straight + on shore. The little steam-launch gives all who go in her a good + ducking, as she bobs about on the big rollers; and my old gymnastic + practice stands me in good stead on boarding and leaving her. We + clamber down a rope-ladder hanging from the high stern, and then, + taking a rope in one hand, swing into the launch at the moment when + she can contrive to steam up under us--bobbing about like an apple + thrown into a tub all the while. The President of the province and his + suite tried to come off to a State luncheon on board on Sunday; but + the launch, being rather heavily laden, behaved worse than usual, and + some green seas stove in the President's hat and made him wetter than + he had probably ever been in his life; so after one or two rollers, he + turned back; and indeed he was wise to do so, for I don't see how he + could have got on board.... Being fully convinced that the world will + not continue to go round unless I pay it personal attention, I must + run away to my work." + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + 1869-1885 + + Edinburgh--Colleagues--_Farrago vitae_--I. The family circle--Fleeming + and his sons--Highland life--The cruise of the steam-launch--Summer + in Styria--Rustic manners--II. The drama--Private theatricals--III. + Sanitary associations--The phonograph--IV. Fleeming's acquaintance + with a student--His late maturity of mind--Religion and morality--His + love of heroism--Taste in literature--V. His talk--His late + popularity--Letter from M. Trelat. + + +The remaining external incidents of Fleeming's life, pleasures, honours, +fresh interests, new friends, are not such as will bear to be told at +any length or in the temporal order. And it is now time to lay narration +by, and to look at the man he was, and the life he lived, more largely. + +Edinburgh, which was thenceforth to be his home, is a metropolitan small +town; where college professors and the lawyers of the Parliament House +give the tone, and persons of leisure, attracted by educational +advantages, make up much of the bulk of society. Not, therefore, an +unlettered place, yet not pedantic, Edinburgh will compare favourably +with much larger cities. A hard and disputatious element has been +commented on by strangers: it would not touch Fleeming, who was himself +regarded, even in this metropolis of disputation, as a thorny +table-mate. To golf unhappily he did not take, and golf is a cardinal +virtue in the city of the winds. Nor did he become an archer of the +Queen's Body Guard, which is the Chiltern Hundreds of the distasted +golfer. He did not even frequent the Evening Club, where his colleague +Tait (in my day) was so punctual and so genial. So that in some ways he +stood outside of the lighter and kindlier life of his new home. I should +not like to say that he was generally popular; but there, as elsewhere, +those who knew him well enough to love him, loved him well. And he, upon +his side, liked a place where a dinner-party was not of necessity +unintellectual, and where men stood up to him in argument. + +The presence of his old classmate, Tait,[26] was one of his early +attractions to the Chair; and now that Fleeming is gone again, Tait +still remains, ruling and really teaching his great classes. Sir Robert +Christison was an old friend of his mother's; Sir Alexander Grant, +Kelland, and Sellar were new acquaintances, and highly valued; and these +too, all but the last,[27] have been taken from their friends and +labours. Death has been busy in the Senatus. I will speak elsewhere of +Fleeming's demeanour to his students; and it will be enough to add here +that his relations with his colleagues in general were pleasant to +himself. + +Edinburgh, then, with its society, its University work, its delightful +scenery and its skating in the winter, was thenceforth his base of +operations. But he shot meanwhile erratic in many directions: twice to +America, as we have seen, on telegraph voyages; continually to London on +business; often to Paris; year after year to the Highlands to shoot, to +fish, to learn reels and Gaelic, to make the acquaintance and fall in +love with the character of Highlanders; and once to Styria, to hunt +chamois and dance with peasant maidens. All the while he was pursuing +the course of his electrical studies, making fresh inventions, taking up +the phonograph, filled with theories of graphic representation; reading, +writing, publishing, founding sanitary associations, interested in +technical education, investigating the laws of metre, drawing, acting, +directing private theatricals, going a long way to see an actor--a long +way to see a picture; in the very bubble of the tideway of contemporary +interests. And all the while he was busied about his father and mother, +his wife, and in particular his sons; anxiously watching, anxiously +guiding these, and plunging with his whole fund of youthfulness into +their sports and interests. And all the while he was himself +maturing--not in character or body, for these remained young--but in the +stocked mind, in the tolerant knowledge of life and man, in pious +acceptance of the universe. Here is a farrago for a chapter; here is a +world of interests and activities, human, artistic, social, scientific, +at each of which he sprang with impetuous pleasure, on each of which he +squandered energy, the arrow drawn to the head, the whole intensity of +his spirit bent, for the moment, on the momentary purpose. It was this +that lent such unusual interest to his society, so that no friend of his +can forget that figure of Fleeming coming charged with some new +discovery: it is this that makes his character so difficult to +represent. Our fathers, upon some difficult theme, would invoke the +Muse; I can but appeal to the imagination of the reader. When I dwell +upon some one thing, he must bear in mind it was only one of a score; +that the unweariable brain was teeming at the very time with other +thoughts; that the good heart had left no kind duty forgotten. + + + I + +In Edinburgh, for a considerable time, Fleeming's family, to three +generations, was united: Mr. and Mrs. Austin at Hailes, Captain and Mrs. +Jenkin in the suburb of Merchiston, Fleeming himself in the city. It is +not every family that could risk with safety such close inter-domestic +dealings; but in this also Fleeming was particularly favoured. Even the +two extremes, Mr. Austin and the Captain, drew together. It is pleasant +to find that each of the old gentlemen set a high value on the good +looks of the other, doubtless also on his own; and a fine picture they +made as they walked the green terrace at Hailes, conversing by the hour. +What they talked of is still a mystery to those who knew them; but Mr. +Austin always declared that on these occasions he learned much. To both +of these families of elders due service was paid of attention; to both, +Fleeming's easy circumstances had brought joy; and the eyes of all were +on the grandchildren. In Fleeming's scheme of duties, those of the +family stood first; a man was first of all a child, nor did he cease to +be so, but only took on added obligations, when he became in turn a +father. The care of his parents was always a first thought with him, and +their gratification his delight. And the care of his sons, as it was +always a grave subject of study with him, and an affair never neglected, +so it brought him a thousand satisfactions. "Hard work they are," as he +once wrote, "but what fit work!" And again: "O, it's a cold house where +a dog is the only representative of a child!" Not that dogs were +despised; we shall drop across the name of Jack, the harum-scarum Irish +terrier, ere we have done; his own dog Plato went up with him daily to +his lectures, and still (like other friends) feels the loss and looks +visibly for the reappearance of his master; and Martin the cat Fleeming +has himself immortalised, to the delight of Mr. Swinburne, in the +columns of the _Spectator_. Indeed, there was nothing in which men take +interest, in which he took not some; and yet always most in the strong +human bonds, ancient as the race and woven of delights and duties. + +He was even an anxious father; perhaps that is the part where optimism +is hardest tested. He was eager for his sons; eager for their health, +whether of mind or body; eager for their education; in that, I should +have thought, too eager. But he kept a pleasant face upon all things, +believed in play, loved it himself, shared boyishly in theirs, and knew +how to put a face of entertainment upon business and a spirit of +education into entertainment. If he was to test the progress of the +three boys, this advertisement would appear in their little manuscript +paper:--"Notice: The Professor of Engineering in the University of +Edinburgh intends at the close of the scholastic year to hold +examinations in the following subjects: (1) For boys in the fourth class +of the Academy--Geometry and Algebra; (2) For boys at Mr. Henderson's +school--Dictation and Recitation; (3) For boys taught exclusively by +their mothers--Arithmetic and Reading." Prizes were given; but what +prize would be so conciliatory as this boyish little joke? It may read +thin here; it would smack racily in the playroom. Whenever his sons +"started a new fad" (as one of them writes to me) they "had only to tell +him about it, and he was at once interested, and keen to help." He would +discourage them in nothing unless it was hopelessly too hard for them; +only, if there was any principle of science involved, they must +understand the principle; and whatever was attempted, that was to be +done thoroughly. If it was but play, if it was but a puppet-show they +were to build, he set them the example of being no sluggard in play. +When Frewen, the second son, embarked on the ambitious design to make an +engine for a toy steamboat, Fleeming made him begin with a proper +drawing--doubtless to the disgust of the young engineer; but once that +foundation laid, helped in the work with unflagging gusto, "tinkering +away," for hours, and assisted at the final trial "in the big bath" with +no less excitement than the boy. "He would take any amount of trouble to +help us," writes my correspondent. "We never felt an affair was complete +till we had called him to see, and he would come at any time, in the +middle of any work." There was indeed one recognised play-hour, +immediately after the despatch of the day's letters; and the boys were +to be seen waiting on the stairs until the mail should be ready and the +fun could begin. But at no other time did this busy man suffer his work +to interfere with that first duty to his children; and there is a +pleasant tale of the inventive Master Frewen, engaged at the time upon a +toy crane, bringing to the study where his father sat at work a +half-wound reel that formed some part of his design, and observing, +"Papa, you might finiss windin' this for me; I am so very busy to-day." + +I put together here a few brief extracts from Fleeming's letters, none +very important in itself, but all together building up a pleasant +picture of the father with his sons. + + "_Jan. 15th, 1875._--Frewen contemplates suspending soap-bubbles by + silk threads for experimental purposes. I don't think he will manage + that. Bernard" [the youngest] "volunteered to blow the bubbles with + enthusiasm." + + "_Jan. 17th._--I am learning a great deal of electrostatics in + consequence of the perpetual cross-examination to which I am + subjected. I long for you on many grounds, but one is that I may not + be obliged to deliver a running lecture on abstract points of science, + subject to cross-examination by two acute students. Bernie does not + cross-examine much; but if any one gets discomfited, he laughs a sort + of little silver-whistle giggle, which is trying to the unhappy + blunderer." + + "_May 9th._--Frewen is deep in parachutes. I beg him not to drop from + the top landing in one of his own making." + + "_June 6th, 1876._--Frewen's crank axle is a failure just at + present--but he bears up." + + "_June 14th._--The boys enjoy their riding. It gets them whole funds + of adventures. One of their caps falling off is matter for delightful + reminiscences; and when a horse breaks his step, the occurrence + becomes a rear, a shy, or a plunge as they talk it over. Austin, with + quiet confidence, speaks of the greater pleasure in riding a spirited + horse, even if he does give a little trouble. It is the stolid brute + that he dislikes. (N.B.--You can still see six inches between him and + the saddle when his pony trots.) I listen and sympathise and throw out + no hint that their achievements are not really great." + + "_June 18th._--Bernard is much impressed by the fact that I can be + useful to Frewen about the steamboat" [which the latter irrepressible + inventor was making]. "He says quite with awe, 'He would not have got + on nearly so well if you had not helped him.'" + + "_June 27th._--I do not see what I could do without Austin. He talks + so pleasantly, and is so truly good all through." + + "_July 7th._--My chief difficulty with Austin is to get him measured + for a pair of trousers. Hitherto I have failed, but I keep a stout + heart and mean to succeed. Frewen the observer, in describing the + paces of two horses, says, 'Polly takes twenty-seven steps to get + round the school. I couldn't count Sophy, but she takes more than a + hundred.'" + + "_Feb. 18th, 1877._--We all feel very lonely without you. Frewen had + to come up and sit in my room for company last night, and I actually + kissed him, a thing that has not occurred for years. Jack, poor + fellow, bears it as well as he can, and has taken the opportunity of + having a fester on his foot, so he is lame, and has it bathed, and + this occupies his thoughts a good deal." + + "_Feb. 19th._--As to Mill, Austin has not got the list yet. I think it + will prejudice him very much against Mill--but that is not my affair. + Education of that kind!... I would as soon cram my boys with food, and + boast of the pounds they had eaten, as cram them with literature." + +But if Fleeming was an anxious father, he did not suffer his anxiety to +prevent the boys from any manly or even dangerous pursuit. Whatever it +might occur to them to try, he would carefully show them how to do it, +explain the risks, and then either share the danger himself or, if that +were not possible, stand aside and wait the event with that unhappy +courage of the looker-on. He was a good swimmer, and taught them to +swim. He thoroughly loved all manly exercises; and during their +holidays, and principally in the Highlands, helped and encouraged them +to excel in as many as possible: to shoot, to fish, to walk, to pull an +oar, to hand, reef and steer, and to run a steam-launch. In all of +these, and in all parts of Highland life, he shared delightedly. He was +well on to forty when he took once more to shooting, he was forty-three +when he killed his first salmon, but no boy could have more +single-mindedly rejoiced in these pursuits. His growing love for the +Highland character, perhaps also a sense of the difficulty of the task, +led him to take up at forty-one the study of Gaelic; in which he made +some shadow of progress, but not much: the fastnesses of that elusive +speech retaining to the last their independence. At the house of his +friend Mrs. Blackburn, who plays the part of a Highland lady as to the +manner born, he learned the delightful custom of kitchen dances, which +became the rule at his own house, and brought him into yet nearer +contact with his neighbours. And thus, at forty-two, he began to learn +the reel; a study to which he brought his usual smiling earnestness; and +the steps, diagrammatically represented by his own hand, are before me +as I write. + +It was in 1879 that a new feature was added to the Highland life: a +steam-launch, called the _Purgle_, the Styrian corruption of Walpurga, +after a friend to be hereafter mentioned. "The steam-launch goes," +Fleeming wrote. "I wish you had been present to describe two scenes of +which she has been the occasion already: one during which the population +of Ullapool, to a baby, was harnessed to her hurrahing--and the other in +which the same population sat with its legs over a little pier, watching +Frewen and Bernie getting up steam for the first time." The _Purgle_ was +got with educational intent; and it served its purpose so well, and the +boys knew their business so practically, that when the summer was at an +end, Fleeming, Mrs. Jenkin, Frewen the engineer, Bernard the stoker, and +Kenneth Robertson, a Highland seaman, set forth in her to make the +passage south. The first morning they got from Loch Broom into Gruinard +Bay, where they lunched upon an island; but the wind blowing up in the +afternoon, with sheets of rain, it was found impossible to beat to sea; +and very much in the situation of castaways upon an unknown coast, the +party landed at the mouth of Gruinard river. A shooting-lodge was spied +among the trees; there Fleeming went; and though the master, Mr. Murray, +was from home, though the two Jenkin boys were of course as black as +colliers, and all the castaways so wetted through that, as they stood in +the passage, pools formed about their feet and ran before them into the +house, yet Mrs. Murray kindly entertained them for the night. On the +morrow, however, visitors were to arrive; there would be no room and, in +so out-of-the-way a spot, most probably no food for the crew of the +_Purgle_; and on the morrow about noon, with the bay white with +spindrift and the wind so strong that one could scarcely stand against +it, they got up steam and skulked under the land as far as Sanda Bay. +Here they crept into a seaside cave, and cooked some food; but the +weather now freshening to a gale, it was plain they must moor the launch +where she was, and find their way overland to some place of shelter. +Even to get their baggage from on board was no light business; for the +dingy was blown so far to leeward every trip, that they must carry her +back by hand along the beach. But this once managed, and a cart procured +in the neighbourhood, they were able to spend the night in a pot-house +at Ault Bea. Next day, the sea was unapproachable; but the next they had +a pleasant passage to Poolewe, hugging the cliffs, the falling swell +bursting close by them in the gullies, and the black scarts that sat +like ornaments on the top of every stack and pinnacle, looking down into +the _Purgle_ as she passed. The climate of Scotland had not done with +them yet: for three days they lay storm-stayed in Poolewe, and when they +put to sea on the morning of the fourth, the sailors prayed them for +God's sake not to attempt the passage. Their setting out was indeed +merely tentative; but presently they had gone too far to return, and +found themselves committed to double Rhu Reay with a foul wind and a +cross sea. From half-past eleven in the morning until half-past five at +night, they were in immediate and unceasing danger. Upon the least +mishap, the _Purgle_ must either have been swamped by the seas or bulged +upon the cliffs of that rude headland. Fleeming and Robertson took turns +baling and steering; Mrs. Jenkin, so violent was the commotion of the +boat, held on with both hands; Frewen, by Robertson's direction, ran the +engine, slacking and pressing her to meet the seas; and Bernard, only +twelve years old, deadly sea-sick, and continually thrown against the +boiler, so that he was found next day to be covered with burns, yet +kept an even fire. It was a very thankful party that sat down that +evening to meat in the hotel at Gairloch. And perhaps, although the +thing was new in the family, no one was much surprised when Fleeming +said grace over that meal. Thenceforward he continued to observe the +form, so that there was kept alive in his house a grateful memory of +peril and deliverance. But there was nothing of the muff in Fleeming; he +thought it a good thing to escape death, but a becoming and a healthful +thing to run the risk of it; and what is rarer, that which he thought +for himself, he thought for his family also. In spite of the terrors of +Rhu Reay, the cruise was persevered in, and brought to an end under +happier conditions. + +One year, instead of the Highlands, Alt-Aussee, in the Steiermark, was +chosen for the holidays; and the place, the people, and the life +delighted Fleeming. He worked hard at German, which he had much +forgotten since he was a boy; and, what is highly characteristic, +equally hard at the _patois_, in which he learned to excel. He won a +prize at a Schuetzen-fest; and though he hunted chamois without much +success, brought down more interesting game in the shape of the Styrian +peasants, and in particular of his gillie, Joseph. This Joseph was much +of a character; and his appreciations of Fleeming have a fine note of +their own. The bringing up of the boys he deigned to approve of: "_fast +so gut wie ein Bauer_," was his trenchant criticism. The attention and +courtly respect with which Fleeming surrounded his wife was something of +a puzzle to the philosophic gillie; he announced in the village that +Mrs. Jenkin--_die silberne Frau_, as the folk had prettily named her +from some silver ornaments--was a "_geborene Graefin_" who had married +beneath her; and when Fleeming explained what he called the English +theory (though indeed it was quite his own) of married relations, +Joseph, admiring but unconvinced, avowed it was "_gar schoen_." Joseph's +cousin, Walpurga Moser, to an orchestra of clarionet and zither, taught +the family the country dances, the Steierisch and the Laendler, and +gained their hearts during the lessons. Her sister Loys, too, who was up +at the Alp with the cattle, came down to church on Sundays, made +acquaintance with the Jenkins, and must have them up to see the sunrise +from her house upon the Loser, where they had supper and all slept in +the loft among the hay. The Mosers were not lost sight of; Walpurga +still corresponds with Mrs. Jenkin, and it was a late pleasure of +Fleeming's to choose and despatch a wedding present for his little +mountain friend. This visit was brought to an end by a ball in the big +inn parlour; the refreshments chosen, the list of guests drawn up, by +Joseph; the best music of the place in attendance; and hosts and guests +in their best clothes. The ball was opened by Mrs. Jenkin dancing +Steierisch with a lordly Bauer, in grey and silver and with a plumed +hat; and Fleeming followed with Walpurga Moser. + +There ran a principle through all these holiday pleasures. In Styria, as +in the Highlands, the same course was followed: Fleeming threw himself +as fully as he could into the life and occupations of the native people, +studying everywhere their dances and their language, and conforming, +always with pleasure, to their rustic etiquette. Just as the ball at +Alt-Aussee was designed for the taste of Joseph, the parting feast at +Attadale was ordered in every particular to the taste of Murdoch, the +keeper. Fleeming was not one of the common, so-called gentlemen, who +take the tricks of their own coterie to be eternal principles of taste. +He was aware, on the other hand, that rustic people dwelling in their +own places follow ancient rules with fastidious precision, and are +easily shocked and embarrassed by what (if they used the word) they +would have to call the vulgarity of visitors from town. And he, who was +so cavalier with men of his own class, was sedulous to shield the more +tender feelings of the peasant; he, who could be so trying in a +drawing-room, was even punctilious in the cottage. It was in all +respects a happy virtue. It renewed his life, during these holidays, in +all particulars. It often entertained him with the discovery of strange +survivals; as when, by the orders of Murdoch, Mrs. Jenkin must publicly +taste of every dish before it was set before her guests. And thus to +throw himself into a fresh life and a new school of manners was a +grateful exercise of Fleeming's mimetic instinct; and to the pleasures +of the open air, of hardships supported, of dexterities improved and +displayed, and of plain and elegant society, added a spice of drama. + + + II + +Fleeming was all his life a lover of the play and all that belonged to +it. Dramatic literature he knew fully. He was one of the not very +numerous people who can read a play: a knack, the fruit of much +knowledge and some imagination, comparable to that of reading score. Few +men better understood the artificial principles on which a play is good +or bad; few more unaffectedly enjoyed a piece of any merit of +construction. His own play was conceived with a double design; for he +had long been filled with his theory of the true story of Griselda; used +to gird at Father Chaucer for his misconception; and was, perhaps first +of all, moved by the desire to do justice to the Marquis of Saluces, and +perhaps only in the second place by the wish to treat a story (as he +phrased it) like a sum in arithmetic. I do not think he quite succeeded; +but I must own myself no fit judge. Fleeming and I were teacher and +taught as to the principles, disputatious rivals in the practice, of +dramatic writing. + +Acting had always, ever since Rachel and the "_Marseillaise_," a +particular power on him. "If I do not cry at the play," he used to say, +"I want to have my money back." Even from a poor play with poor actors +he could draw pleasure. "Glacometti's _Elisabetta_," I find him +writing, "fetched the house vastly. Poor Queen Elizabeth! And yet it was +a little good." And again, after a night of Salvini: "I do not suppose +any one with feelings could sit out _Othello_ if Iago and Desdemona were +acted." Salvini was, in his view, the greatest actor he had seen. We +were all indeed moved and bettered by the visit of that wonderful +man.--"I declare I feel as if I could pray!" cried one of us, on the +return from _Hamlet_.--"That is prayer," said Fleeming. W. B. Hole and +I, in a fine enthusiasm of gratitude, determined to draw up an address +to Salvini, did so, and carried it to Fleeming; and I shall never forget +with what coldness he heard and deleted the eloquence of our draft, nor +with what spirit (our vanities once properly mortified) he threw himself +into the business of collecting signatures. It was his part, on the +ground of his Italian, to see and arrange with the actor; it was mine to +write in the _Academy_ a notice of the first performance of _Macbeth_. +Fleeming opened the paper, read so far, and flung it on the floor. "No," +he cried, "that won't do. You were thinking of yourself, not of +Salvini!" The criticism was shrewd as usual, but it was unfair through +ignorance; it was not of myself that I was thinking, but of the +difficulties of my trade, which I had not well mastered. Another +unalloyed dramatic pleasure, which Fleeming and I shared the year of the +Paris Exposition, was the _Marquis de Villemer_, that blameless play, +performed by Madeleine Brohan, Delaunay, Worms, and Broisat--an actress, +in such parts at least, to whom I have never seen full justice rendered. +He had his fill of weeping on that occasion; and when the piece was at +an end, in front of a cafe, in the mild, midnight air, we had our fill +of talk about the art of acting. + +But what gave the stage so strong a hold on Fleeming was an inheritance +from Norwich, from Edward Barren, and from Enfield of the "Speaker." The +theatre was one of Edward Barren's elegant hobbies; he read plays, as +became Enfield's son-in-law, with a good discretion; he wrote plays for +his family, in which Eliza Barron used to shine in the chief parts; and +later in life, after the Norwich home was broken up, his little +granddaughter would sit behind him in a great arm-chair, and be +introduced, with his stately elocution, to the world of dramatic +literature. From this, in a direct line, we can deduce the charades at +Claygate; and after money came, in the Edinburgh days, that private +theatre which took up so much of Fleeming's energy and thought. The +company--Mr. and Mrs. R. O. Carter of Colwall, W. B. Hole, Captain +Charles Douglas, Mr. Kunz, Mr. Burnett, Professor Lewis Campbell, Mr. +Charles Baxter, and many more--made a charming society for themselves, +and gave pleasure to their audience. Mr. Carter in Sir Toby Belch it +would be hard to beat. Mr. Hole in broad farce, or as the herald in the +_Trachiniae_, showed true stage talent. As for Mrs. Jenkin, it was for +her the rest of us existed and were forgiven; her powers were an endless +spring of pride and pleasure to her husband; he spent hours hearing and +schooling her in private; and when it came to the performance, though +there was perhaps no one in the audience more critical, none was more +moved than Fleeming. The rest of us did not aspire so high. There were +always five performances and weeks of busy rehearsal; and whether we +came to sit and stifle as the prompter, to be the dumb (or rather the +inarticulate) recipients of Carter's dog whip in the _Taming of the +Shrew_, or, having earned our spurs, to lose one more illusion in a +leading part, we were always sure at least of a long and an exciting +holiday in mirthful company. + +In this laborious annual diversion Fleeming's part was large. I never +thought him an actor, but he was something of a mimic, which stood him +in stead. Thus he had seen Got in Poirier; and his own Poirier, when he +came to play it, breathed meritoriously of the model. The last part I +saw him play was Triplet, and at first I thought it promised well. But +alas! the boys went for a holiday, missed a train, and were not heard of +at home till late at night. Poor Fleeming, the man who never hesitated +to give his sons a chisel or a gun, or to send them abroad in a canoe or +on a horse, toiled all day at his rehearsal, growing hourly paler, +Triplet growing hourly less meritorious. And though the return of the +children, none the worse for their little adventure, brought the colour +back into his face, it could not restore him to his part. I remember +finding him seated on the stairs in some rare moment of quiet during the +subsequent performances. "Hullo, Jenkin," said I, "you look down in the +mouth." "My dear boy," said he, "haven't you heard me? I have not had +one decent intonation from beginning to end." + +But indeed he never supposed himself an actor; took a part, when he took +any, merely for convenience, as one takes a hand at whist; and found his +true service and pleasure in the more congenial business of the manager. +Augier, Racine, Shakespeare, Aristophanes in Hookham Frere's +translation, Sophocles and AEschylus in Lewis Campbell's, such were some +of the authors whom he introduced to his public. In putting these upon +the stage, he found a thousand exercises for his ingenuity and taste, a +thousand problems arising which he delighted to study, a thousand +opportunities to make those infinitesimal improvements which are so much +in art and for the artist. Our first Greek play had been costumed by the +professional costumier, with unforgettable results of comicality and +indecorum; the second, the _Trachiniae_ of Sophocles, he took in hand +himself, and a delightful task he made of it. His study was then in +antiquarian books, where he found confusion, and on statues and +bas-reliefs, where he at last found clearness; after an hour or so at +the British Museum he was able to master "the chiton, sleeves and all"; +and before the time was ripe he had a theory of Greek tailoring at his +fingers' ends, and had all the costumes made under his eye as a Greek +tailor would have made them. "The Greeks made the best plays and the +best statues, and were the best architects; of course, they were the +best tailors too," said he; and was never weary, when he could find a +tolerant listener, of dwelling on the simplicity, the economy, the +elegance both of means and effect, which made their system so +delightful. + +But there is another side to the stage-manager's employment. The +discipline of acting is detestable; the failures and triumphs of that +business appeal too directly to the vanity; and even in the course of a +careful amateur performance such as ours, much of the smaller side of +man will be displayed. Fleeming, among conflicting vanities and +levities, played his part to my admiration. He had his own view; he +might be wrong; but the performances (he would remind us) were after all +his, and he must decide. He was, in this as in all other things, an iron +taskmaster, sparing not himself nor others. If you were going to do it +at all, he would see that it was done as well as you were able. I have +known him to keep two culprits (and one of these his wife) repeating the +same action and the same two or three words for a whole weary afternoon. +And yet he gained and retained warm feelings from far the most of those +who fell under his domination, and particularly (it is pleasant to +remember) from the girls. After the slipshod training and the incomplete +accomplishments of a girls' school, there was something at first +annoying, at last exciting and bracing, in this high standard of +accomplishment and perseverance. + + + III + +It did not matter why he entered upon any study or employment, whether +for amusement, like the Greek tailoring or the Highland reels, whether +from a desire to serve the public, as with his sanitary work, or in the +view of benefiting poorer men, as with his labours for technical +education, he "pitched into it" (as he would have said himself) with the +same headlong zest. I give in the Appendix[28] a letter from Colonel +Fergusson, which tells fully the nature of the sanitary work and of +Fleeming's part and success in it. It will be enough to say here that it +was a scheme of protection against the blundering of builders and the +dishonesty of plumbers. Started with an eye rather to the houses of the +rich, Fleeming hoped his Sanitary Associations would soon extend their +sphere of usefulness, and improve the dwellings of the poor. In this +hope he was disappointed; but in all other ways the scheme exceedingly +prospered, associations sprang up and continue to spring up in many +quarters, and wherever tried they have been found of use. + +Here, then, was a serious employment; it has proved highly useful to +mankind; and it was begun, besides, in a mood of bitterness, under the +shock of what Fleeming would so sensitively feel--the death of a whole +family of children. Yet it was gone upon like a holiday jaunt. I read in +Colonel Fergusson's letter that his schoolmates bantered him when he +began to broach his scheme; so did I at first, and he took the banter, +as he always did, with enjoyment, until he suddenly posed me with the +question: "And now do you see any other jokes to make? Well, then," said +he, "that's all right. I wanted you to have your fun out first; now we +can be serious." And then with a glowing heat of pleasure, he laid his +plans before me, revelling in the details, revelling in hope. It was as +he wrote about the joy of electrical experiment: "What shall I compare +them to?--A new song? a Greek play?" Delight attended the exercise of +all his powers; delight painted the future. Of these ideal visions, some +(as I have said) failed of their fruition. And the illusion was +characteristic. Fleeming believed we had only to make a virtue cheap and +easy, and then all would practise it; that for an end unquestionably +good men would not grudge a little trouble and a little money, though +they might stumble at laborious pains and generous sacrifices. He could +not believe in any resolute badness. "I cannot quite say," he wrote in +his young manhood, "that I think there is no sin or misery. This I can +say: I do not remember one single malicious act done to myself. In fact, +it is rather awkward when I have to say the Lord's Prayer. I have +nobody's trespasses to forgive." And to the point, I remember one of our +discussions. I said it was a dangerous error not to admit there were bad +people; he, that it was only a confession of blindness on our part, and +that we probably called others bad only so far as we were wrapped in +ourselves and lacking in the transmigratory forces of imagination. I +undertook to describe to him three persons irredeemably bad, and whom he +should admit to be so. In the first case he denied my evidence: "You +cannot judge a man upon such testimony," said he. For the second, he +owned it made him sick to hear the tale; but then there was no spark of +malice, it was mere weakness I had described, and he had never denied +nor thought to set a limit to man's weakness. At my third gentleman he +struck his colours. "Yes," said he, "I'm afraid that _is_ a bad man." +And then, looking at me shrewdly: "I wonder if it isn't a very +unfortunate thing for you to have met him." I showed him radiantly how +it was the world we must know, the world as it was, not a world +expurgated and prettified with optimistic rainbows. "Yes, yes," said he; +"but this badness is such an easy, lazy explanation. Won't you be +tempted to use it, instead of trying to understand people?" + +In the year 1878 he took a passionate fancy for the phonograph: it was a +toy after his heart, a toy that touched the skirts of life, art and +science, a toy prolific of problems and theories. Something fell to be +done for a University Cricket-Ground Bazaar. "And the thought struck +him," Mr. Ewing writes to me, "to exhibit Edison's phonograph, then the +very newest scientific marvel. The instrument itself was not to be +purchased--I think no specimen had then crossed the Atlantic,--but a +copy of the _Times_ with an account of it was at hand, and by the help +of this we made a phonograph which to our great joy talked, and talked, +too, with the purest American accent. It was so good that a second +instrument was got ready forthwith. Both were shown at the Bazaar: one +by Mrs. Jenkin, to people willing to pay half a crown for a private view +and the privilege of hearing their own voices, while Jenkin, perfervid +as usual, gave half-hourly lectures on the other in an adjoining +room--I, as his lieutenant, taking turns. The thing was in its way a +little triumph. A few of the visitors were deaf, and hugged the belief +that they were the victims of a new kind of fancy-fair swindle. Of the +others, many who came to scoff remained to take raffle tickets; and one +of the phonographs was finally disposed of in this way." The other +remained in Fleeming's hands, and was a source of infinite occupation. +Once it was sent to London, "to bring back on the tinfoil the tones of a +lady distinguished for clear vocalisation"; at another time "Sir Robert +Christison was brought in to contribute his powerful bass"; and there +scarcely came a visitor about the house but he was made the subject of +experiment. The visitors, I am afraid, took their parts lightly: Mr. +Hole and I, with unscientific laughter, commemorating various shades of +Scottish accent, or proposing to "teach the poor dumb animal to swear." +But Fleeming and Mr. Ewing, when we butterflies were gone, were +laboriously ardent. Many thoughts that occupied the later years of my +friend were caught from the small utterance of that toy. Thence came his +inquiries into the roots of articulate language and the foundations of +literary art; his papers on vowel-sounds, his papers in the _Saturday +Review_ upon the laws of verse, and many a strange approximation, many a +just note, thrown out in talk and now forgotten. I pass over dozens of +his interests, and dwell on this trifling matter of the phonograph, +because it seems to me that it depicts the man. So, for Fleeming, one +thing joined into another, the greater with the less. He cared not where +it was he scratched the surface of the ultimate mystery--in the child's +toy, in the great tragedy, in the laws of the tempest, or in the +properties of energy or mass--certain that whatever he touched, it was a +part of life--and however he touched it, there would flow for his happy +constitution interest and delight. "All fables have their morals," says +Thoreau, "but the innocent enjoy the story." There is a truth +represented for the imagination in those lines of a noble poem, where we +are told that in our highest hours of visionary clearness we can but + + "see the children sport upon the shore, + And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore." + +To this clearness Fleeming had attained; and although he heard the voice +of the eternal seas and weighed its message, he was yet able, until the +end of his life, to sport upon these shores of death and mystery with +the gaiety and innocence of children. + + + IV + +It was as a student that I first knew Fleeming, as one of that modest +number of young men who sat under his ministrations in a soul-chilling +class-room at the top of the University buildings. His presence was +against him as a professor: no one, least of all students, would have +been moved to respect him at first sight: rather short in stature, +markedly plain, boyishly young in manner, cocking his head like a +terrier with every mark of the most engaging vivacity and readiness to +be pleased, full of words, full of paradox, a stranger could scarcely +fail to look at him twice, a man thrown with him in a train could +scarcely fail to be engaged by him in talk, but a student would never +regard him as academical. Yet he had that fibre in him that order always +existed in his class-room. I do not remember that he ever addressed me +in language; at the least sign of unrest his eye would fall on me and I +was quelled. Such a feat is comparatively easy in a small class; but I +have misbehaved in smaller classes and under eyes more Olympian than +Fleeming Jenkin's. He was simply a man from whose reproof one shrank; in +manner the least buckramed of mankind, he had, in serious moments, an +extreme dignity of goodness. So it was that he obtained a power over the +most insubordinate of students, but a power of which I was myself +unconscious. I was inclined to regard any professor as a joke, and +Fleeming as a particularly good joke, perhaps the broadest in the vast +pleasantry of my curriculum. I was not able to follow his lectures; I +somehow dared not misconduct myself, as was my customary solace; and I +refrained from attending. This brought me at the end of the session into +a relation with my contemned professor that completely opened my eyes. +During the year, bad student as I was, he had shown a certain leaning to +my society; I had been to his house, he had asked me to take a humble +part in his theatricals; I was a master in the art of extracting a +certificate even at the cannon's mouth; and I was under no apprehension. +But when I approached Fleeming, I found myself in another world; he +would have naught of me. "It is quite useless for _you_ to come to me, +Mr. Stevenson. There may be doubtful cases, there is no doubt about +yours. You have simply _not_ attended my class." The document was +necessary to me for family considerations; and presently I stooped to +such pleadings and rose to such adjurations as make my ears burn to +remember. He was quite unmoved; he had no pity for me.--"You are no +fool," said he, "and you chose your course." I showed him that he had +misconceived his duty, that certificates were things of form, attendance +a matter of taste. Two things, he replied, had been required for +graduation: a certain competency proved in the final trials, and a +certain period of genuine training proved by certificate; if he did as I +desired, not less than if he gave me hints for an examination, he was +aiding me to steal a degree. "You see, Mr. Stevenson, these are the +laws, and I am here to apply them," said he. I could not say but that +this view was tenable, though it was new to me; I changed my attack: it +was only for my father's eye that I required his signature, it need +never go to the Senatus, I had already certificates enough to justify my +year's attendance. "Bring them to me; I cannot take your word for that," +said he. "Then I will consider." The next day I came charged with my +certificates, a humble assortment. And when he had satisfied himself, +"Remember," said he, "that I can promise nothing, but I will try to find +a form of words." He did find one, and I am still ashamed when I think +of his shame in giving me that paper. He made no reproach in speech, but +his manner was the more eloquent; it told me plainly what a dirty +business we were on; and I went from his presence, with my certificate +indeed in my possession, but with no answerable sense of triumph. That +was the bitter beginning of my love for Fleeming; I never thought +lightly of him afterwards. + +Once, and once only, after our friendship was truly founded did we come +to a considerable difference. It was, by the rules of poor humanity, my +fault and his. I had been led to dabble in society journalism; and this +coming to his ears, he felt it like a disgrace upon himself. So far he +was exactly in the right; but he was scarce happily inspired when he +broached the subject at his own table and before guests who were +strangers to me. It was the sort of error he was always ready to repent, +but always certain to repeat; and on this occasion he spoke so freely +that I soon made an excuse and left the house, with the firm purpose of +returning no more. About a month later I met him at dinner at a common +friend's. "Now," said he, on the stairs, "I engage you--like a lady to +dance--for the end of the evening. You have no right to quarrel with me +and not give me a chance." I have often said and thought that Fleeming +had no tact; he belied the opinion then. I remember perfectly how, so +soon as we could get together, he began his attack: "You may have +grounds of quarrel with me; you have none against Mrs. Jenkin; and +before I say another word, I want you to promise you will come to _her_ +house as usual." An interview thus begun could have but one ending: if +the quarrel were the fault of both, the merit of reconciliation was +entirely Fleeming's. + +When our intimacy first began, coldly enough, accidentally enough on his +part, he had still something of the Puritan, something of the inhuman +narrowness of the good youth. It fell from him slowly, year by year, as +he continued to ripen, and grow milder, and understand more generously +the mingled characters of men. In the early days he once read me a +bitter lecture; and I remember leaving his house in a fine spring +afternoon, with the physical darkness of despair upon my eyesight. Long +after he made me a formal retractation of the sermon and a formal +apology for the pain he had inflicted; adding drolly, but truly, "You +see, at that time I was so much younger than you!" And yet even in those +days there was much to learn from him; and above all his fine spirit of +piety, bravely and trustfully accepting life, and his singular delight +in the heroic. + +His piety was, indeed, a thing of chief importance. His views (as they +are called) upon religious matters varied much; and he could never be +induced to think them more or less than views. "All dogma is to me mere +form," he wrote; "dogmas are mere blind struggles to express the +inexpressible. I cannot conceive that any single proposition whatever in +religion is true in the scientific sense; and yet all the while I think +the religious view of the world is the most true view. Try to separate +from the mass of their statements that which is common to Socrates, +Isaiah, David, St. Bernard, the Jansenists, Luther, Mahomet, +Bunyan--yes, and George Eliot: of course you do not believe that this +something could be written down in a set of propositions like Euclid, +neither will you deny that there is something common, and this something +very valuable.... I shall be sorry if the boys ever give a moment's +thought to the question of what community they belong to--I hope they +will belong to the great community." I should observe that as time went +on his conformity to the Church in which he was born grew more complete, +and his views drew nearer the conventional. "The longer I live, my dear +Louis," he wrote but a few months before his death, "the more convinced +I become of a direct care by God--which is reasonably impossible--but +there it is." And in his last year he took the Communion. + +But at the time when I fell under his influence he stood more aloof; and +this made him the more impressive to a youthful atheist. He had a keen +sense of language and its imperial influence on men; language contained +all the great and sound metaphysics, he was wont to say; and a word once +made and generally understood, he thought a real victory of man and +reason. But he never dreamed it could be accurate, knowing that words +stand symbol for the indefinable. I came to him once with a problem +which had puzzled me out of measure: What is a cause? why out of so many +innumerable millions of conditions, all necessary, should one be singled +out and ticketed "the cause"? "You do not understand," said he. "A cause +is the answer to a question: it designates that condition which I happen +to know, and you happen not to know." It was thus, with partial +exception of the mathematical, that he thought of all means of +reasoning: they were in his eyes but means of communication, so to be +understood, so to be judged, and only so far to be credited. The +mathematical he made, I say, exception of: number and measure he +believed in to the extent of their significance, but that significance, +he was never weary of reminding you, was slender to the verge of +nonentity. Science was true, because it told us almost nothing. With a +few abstractions it could deal, and deal correctly; conveying honestly +faint truths. Apply its means to any concrete fact of life, and this +high dialect of the wise became a childish jargon. + +Thus the atheistic youth was met at every turn by a scepticism more +complete than his own, so that the very weapons of the fight were +changed in his grasp to swords of paper. Certainly the church is not +right, he would argue, but certainly not the anti-church either. Men are +not such fools as to be wholly in the wrong, nor yet are they so placed +as to be ever wholly in the right. Somewhere, in mid air between the +disputants, like hovering Victory in some design of a Greek battle, the +truth hangs undiscerned. And in the meanwhile what matter these +uncertainties? Right is very obvious; a great consent of the best of +mankind, a loud voice within us (whether of God, or whether by +inheritance, and in that case still from God), guide and command us in +the path of duty. He saw life very simple; he did not love refinements; +he was a friend to much conformity in unessentials. For (he would argue) +it is in this life, as it stands about us, that we are given our +problem; the manners of the day are the colours of our palette; they +condition, they constrain us; and a man must be very sure he is in the +right, must (in a favourite phrase of his) be "either very wise or very +vain," to break with any general consent in ethics. I remember taking +his advice upon some point of conduct. "Now," he said, "how do you +suppose Christ would have advised you?" and when I had answered that He +would not have counselled me anything unkind or cowardly, "No," he said, +with one of his shrewd strokes at the weakness of his hearer, "nor +anything amusing." Later in life, he made less certain in the field of +ethics. "The old story of the knowledge of good and evil is a very true +one," I find him writing; only (he goes on) "the effect of the original +dose is much worn out, leaving Adam's descendants with the knowledge +that there is such a thing--but uncertain where." His growing sense of +this ambiguity made him less swift to condemn, but no less stimulating +in counsel. "You grant yourself certain freedoms. Very well," he would +say, "I want to see you pay for them some other way. You positively +cannot do this: then there positively must be something else that you +can do, and I want to see you find that out and do it." Fleeming would +never suffer you to think that you were living, if there were not, +somewhere in your life, some touch of heroism, to do or to endure. + +This was his rarest quality. Far on in middle age, when men begin to lie +down with the bestial goddesses, Comfort and Respectability, the strings +of his nature still sounded as high a note as a young man's. He loved +the harsh voice of duty like a call to battle. He loved courage, +enterprise, brave natures, a brave word, an ugly virtue; everything that +lifts us above the table where we eat or the bed we sleep upon. This +with no touch of the motive-monger or the ascetic. He loved his virtues +to be practical, his heroes to be great eaters of beef; he loved the +jovial Heracles, loved the astute Odysseus; not the Robespierres and +Wesleys. A fine buoyant sense of life and of man's unequal character ran +through all his thoughts. He could not tolerate the spirit of the +pickthank; being what we are, he wished us to see others with a generous +eye of admiration, not with the smallness of the seeker after faults. If +there shone anywhere a virtue, no matter how incongruously set, it was +upon the virtue we must fix our eyes. I remember having found much +entertainment in Voltaire's "Sauel," and telling him what seemed to me +the drollest touches. He heard me out, as usual when displeased, and +then opened fire on me with red-hot shot. To belittle a noble story was +easy; it was not literature, it was not art, it was not morality; there +was no sustenance in such a form of jesting, there was (in his favourite +phrase) "no nitrogenous food" in such literature. And then he proceeded +to show what a fine fellow David was; and what a hard knot he was in +about Bathsheba, so that (the initial wrong committed) honour might well +hesitate in the choice of conduct; and what owls those people were who +marvelled because an Eastern tyrant had killed Uriah, instead of +marvelling that he had not killed the prophet also. "Now if Voltaire had +helped me to feel that," said he, "I could have seen some fun in it." He +loved the comedy which shows a hero human, and yet leaves him a hero; +and the laughter which does not lessen love. + +It was this taste for what is fine in humankind that ruled his choice in +books. These should all strike a high note, whether brave or tender, and +smack of the open air. The noble and simple presentation of things noble +and simple, that was the "nitrogenous food" of which he spoke so much, +which he sought so eagerly, enjoyed so royally. He wrote to an author, +the first part of whose story he had seen with sympathy, hoping that it +might continue in the same vein. "That this may be so," he wrote, "I +long with the longing of David for the water of Bethlehem. But no man +need die for the water a poet can give, and all can drink it to the end +of time, and their thirst be quenched and the pool never dry--and the +thirst and the water are both blessed." It was in the Greeks +particularly that he found this blessed water; he loved "a fresh air" +which he found "about the Greek things even in translations"; he loved +their freedom from the mawkish and the rancid. The tale of David in the +Bible, the "Odyssey," Sophocles, AEschylus, Shakespeare, Scott; old Dumas +in his chivalrous note; Dickens rather than Thackeray, and the "Tale of +Two Cities" out of Dickens: such were some of his preferences. To +Ariosto and Boccaccio he was always faithful; "Burnt Njal" was a late +favourite; and he found at least a passing entertainment in the +"Arcadia" and the "Grand Cyrus." George Eliot he outgrew, finding her +latterly only sawdust in the mouth; but her influence, while it lasted, +was great, and must have gone some way to form his mind. He was easily +set on edge, however, by didactic writing; and held that books should +teach no other lesson but what "real life would teach, were it as +vividly presented." Again, it was the thing made that took him, the +drama in the book; to the book itself, to any merit of the making, he +was long strangely blind. He would prefer the "Agamemnon" in the prose +of Mr. Buckley, ay, to Keats. But he was his mother's son, learning to +the last. He told me one day that literature was not a trade; that it +was no craft; that the professed author was merely an amateur with a +door-plate. "Very well," said I, "the first time you get a proof, I will +demonstrate that it is as much a trade as bricklaying, and that you do +not know it." By the very next post a proof came. I opened it with fear; +for he was, indeed, a formidable amateur; always wrote brightly, because +he always thought trenchantly; and sometimes wrote brilliantly, as the +worst of whistlers may sometimes stumble on a perfect intonation. But it +was all for the best in the interests of his education; and I was able, +over that proof, to give him a quarter of an hour such as Fleeming loved +both to give and to receive. His subsequent training passed out of my +hands into those of our common friend, W. E. Henley. "Henley and I," he +wrote, "have fairly good times wigging one another for not doing better. +I wig him because he won't try to write a real play, and he wigs me +because I can't try to write English." When I next saw him he was full +of his new acquisitions. "And yet I have lost something too," he said +regretfully. "Up to now Scott seemed to me quite perfect, he was all I +wanted. Since I have been learning this confounded thing, I took up one +of the novels, and a great deal of it is both careless and clumsy." + + + V + +He spoke four languages with freedom, not even English with any marked +propriety. What he uttered was not so much well said, as excellently +acted: so we may hear every day the inexpressive language of a poorly +written drama assume character and colour in the hands of a good player. +No man had more of the _vis comica_ in private life; he played no +character on the stage as he could play himself among his friends. It +was one of his special charms; now when the voice is silent and the face +still, it makes it impossible to do justice to his power in +conversation. He was a delightful companion to such as can bear bracing +weather; not to the very vain; not to the owlishly wise, who cannot have +their dogmas canvassed; not to the painfully refined, whose sentiments +become articles of faith. The spirit in which he could write that he was +"much revived by having an opportunity of abusing Whistler to a knot of +his special admirers" is a spirit apt to be misconstrued. He was not a +dogmatist, even about Whistler. "The house is full of pretty things," he +wrote, when on a visit; "but Mrs. ----'s taste in pretty things has one +very bad fault: it is not my taste." And that was the true attitude of +his mind; but these eternal differences it was his joy to thresh out and +wrangle over by the hour. It was no wonder if he loved the Greeks; he +was in many ways a Greek himself; he should have been a sophist and met +Socrates; he would have loved Socrates, and done battle with him +staunchly and manfully owned his defeat; and the dialogue, arranged by +Plato, would have shone even in Plato's gallery. He seemed in talk +aggressive, petulant, full of a singular energy; as vain, you would have +said, as a peacock, until you trod on his toes, and then you saw that he +was at least clear of all the sicklier elements of vanity. Soundly rang +his laugh at any jest against himself. He wished to be taken, as he took +others, for what was good in him without dissimulation of the evil, for +what was wise in him without concealment of the childish. He hated a +draped virtue, and despised a wit on its own defence. And he drew (if I +may so express myself) a human and humorous portrait of himself with all +his defects and qualities, as he thus enjoyed in talk the robust sports +of the intelligence; giving and taking manfully, always without +pretence, always without paradox, always with exuberant pleasure; +speaking wisely of what he knew, foolishly of what he knew not; a +teacher, a learner, but still combative; picking holes in what was said +even to the length of captiousness, yet aware of all that was said +rightly; jubilant in victory, delighted by defeat: a Greek sophist, a +British schoolboy. + +Among the legends of what was once a very pleasant spot, the old Savile +Club, not then divorced from Savile Row, there are many memories of +Fleeming. He was not popular at first, being known simply as "the man +who dines here and goes up to Scotland"; but he grew at last, I think, +the most generally liked of all the members. To those who truly knew and +loved him, who had tasted the real sweetness of his nature, Fleeming's +porcupine ways had always been a matter of keen regret. They introduced +him to their own friends with fear; sometimes recalled the step with +mortification. It was not possible to look on with patience while a man +so lovable thwarted love at every step. But the course of time and the +ripening of his nature brought a cure. It was at the Savile that he +first remarked a change; it soon spread beyond the walls of the club. +Presently I find him writing: "Will you kindly explain what has happened +to me? All my life I have talked a good deal, with the almost unfailing +result of making people sick of the sound of my tongue. It appeared to +me that I had various things to say, and I had no malevolent feelings, +but nevertheless the result was that expressed above. Well, lately some +change has happened. If I talk to a person one day, they must have me +the next. Faces light up when they see me. 'Ah, I say, come +here'--'come and dine with me.' It's the most preposterous thing I ever +experienced. It is curiously pleasant. You have enjoyed it all your +life, and therefore cannot conceive how bewildering a burst of it is for +the first time at forty-nine." And this late sunshine of popularity +still further softened him. He was a bit of a porcupine to the last, +still shedding darts; or rather he was to the end a bit of a schoolboy, +and must still throw stones; but the essential toleration that underlay +his disputatiousness, and the kindness that made of him a tender +sick-nurse and a generous helper, shone more conspicuously through. A +new pleasure had come to him; and as with all sound natures, he was +bettered by the pleasure. + +I can best show Fleeming in this later stage by quoting from a vivid and +interesting letter of M. Emile Trelat's. Here, admirably expressed, is +how he appeared to a friend of another nation, whom he encountered only +late in life. M. Trelat will pardon me if I correct, even before I quote +him; but what the Frenchman supposed to flow from some particular +bitterness against France, was only Fleeming's usual address. Had M. +Trelat been Italian, Italy would have fared as ill; and yet Italy was +Fleeming's favourite country. + + Vous savez comment j'ai connu Fleeming Jenkin! C'etait en Mai 1878. + Nous etions tous deux membres du jury de l'Exposition Universelle. On + n'avait rien fait qui vaille a la premiere seance de notre classe, qui + avait eu lieu le matin. Tout le monde avait parle et reparle pour ne + rien dire. Cela durait depuis huit heures; il etait midi. Je demandai + la parole pour une motion d'ordre, et je proposal que la seance fut + levee a la condition que chaque membre francais _emportat_ a dejeuner + un jure etranger. Jenkin applaudit. "Je vous emmene dejeuner," lui + criai-je. "Je veux bien." ... Nous partimes; en chemin nous vous + rencontrions; il vous presente, et nous allons dejeuner tous trois + aupres du Trocadero. + + Et, depuis ce temps, nous avons ete de vieux amis. Non seulement nous + passions nos journees au jury, ou nous etions toujours ensemble, + cote-a-cote. Mais nos habitudes s'etaient faites telles que, non + contents de dejeuner en face l'un de l'autre, je le ramenais diner + presque tous les jours chez moi. Cela dura une quinzaine: puis il fut + rappele en Angleterre. Mais il revint, et nous fimes encore une bonne + etape de vie intellectuelle, morale et philosophique. Je crois qu'il + me rendait deja tout ce que j'eprouvais de sympathie et d'estime, et + que je ne fus pas pour rien dans son retour a Paris. + + Chose singuliere! nous nous etions attaches l'un a l'autre par les + sous-entendus bien plus que par la matiere de nos conversations. A + vrai dire, nous etions presque toujours en discussion; et il nous + arrivait de nous rire au nez l'un et l'autre pendant des heures, tant + nous nous etonnions reciproquement de la diversite de nos points de + vue. Je le trouvais si anglais, et il me trouvait si francais! Il + etait si franchement revolte de certaines choses qu'il voyait chez + nous, et je comprenais si mal certaines choses qui se passaient chez + vous! Rien de plus interessant que ces contacts qui etaient des + contrastes, et que ces rencontres d'idees qui etaient des choses; rien + de si attachant que les echappees de coeur ou d'esprit auxquelles ces + petits conflits donnaient a tout moment cours. C'est dans ces + conditions que, pendant son sejour a Paris en 1878, je conduisis un + peu partout mon nouvel ami. Nous allames chez Madame Edmond Adam, ou + il vit passer beaucoup d'hommes politiques avec lesquels il causa. + Mais c'est chez les ministres qu'il fut interesse. Le moment etait, + d'ailleurs, curieux en France. Je me rappelle que, lorsque je le + presentai au Ministre du Commerce, il fit cette spirituelle repartie: + "C'est la seconde fois que je viens en France sous la Republique. La + premiere fois, c'etait en 1848, elle s'etait coiffee de travers: je + suis bien heureux de saluer aujourd'hui Votre Excellence, quand elle a + mis son chapeau droit." Une fois je le menai voir couronner la Rosiere + de Nanterre. Il y suivit les ceremonies civiles et religieuses; il y + assista au banquet donne par le maire; il y vit notre de Lesseps, au + quel il porta un toast. Le soir, nous revinmes tard a Paris; il + faisait chaud; nous etions un peu fatigues; nous entrames dans un des + rares cafes encore ouverts. Il devint silencieux.--"N'etes-vous pas + content de votre journee?" lui dis-je.--"O, si! mais je reflechis, et + je me dis que vous etes un peuple gai--tous ces braves gens etaient + gais aujourd'hui. C'est une vertu, la gaiete, et vous l'avez en + France, cette vertu!" Il me disait cela melancoliquement; et c'etait + la premiere fois que je lui entendais faire une louange adressee a la + France.... Mais il ne faut pas que vous voyiez la une plainte de ma + part. Je serais un ingrat si je me plaignais; car il me disait + souvent: "Quel bon Francais vous faites!" Et il m'aimait a cause de + cela, quoi qu'il semblat n'aimer pas la France. C'etait la un trait de + son originalite. Il est vrai qu'il s'en tirait en disant que je ne + ressemblai pas a mes compatriotes, ce a quoi il ne connaissait + rien!--Tout cela etait fort curieux; car moi-meme, je l'aimais + quoiqu'il en eut a mon pays! + + En 1879 il amena son fils Austin a Paris. J'attirai celui-ci. Il + dejeunait avec moi deux fois par semaine. Je lui montrai ce qu'etait + l'intimite francaise en le tutoyant paternellement. Cela resserra + beaucoup nos liens d'intimite avec Jenkin.... Je fis inviter mon ami + au congres de l'_Association francaise pour l'avancement des + sciences_, qui se tenait a Rheims en 1880. Il y vint. J'eus le + plaisir de lui donner la parole dans la section du genie civil et + militaire, que je presidais. Il y fit une tres interessante + communication, qui me montrait une fois de plus l'originalite de ses + vues et la surete de sa science. C'est a l'issue de ce congres que je + passai lui faire visite a Rochefort, ou je le trouvai installe en + famille et ou je presentai pour la premiere fois mes hommages a son + eminente compagne. Je le vis la sous un jour nouveau et touchant pour + moi Madame Jenkin, qu'il entourait si galamment, et ses deux jeunes + fils donnaient plus de relief a sa personne. J'emportai des quelques + heures que je passai a cote de lui dans ce charmant paysage un + souvenir emu. + + J'etais alle en Angleterre en 1882 sans pouvoir gagner Edimbourg. J'y + retournai en 1883 avec la commission d'assainissement de la ville de + Paris, dont je faisais partie. Jenkin me rejoignit. Je le fis entendre + par mes collegues; car il etait fondateur d'une societe de salubrite. + Il eut un grand succes parmi nous. Mais ce voyage me restera toujours + en memoire parce que c'est la que se fixa definitivement notre forte + amitie. Il m'invita un jour a diner a son club et au moment de me + faire asseoir a cote de lui, il me retint et me dit: "Je voudrais vous + demander de m'accorder quelque chose. C'est mon sentiment que nos + relations ne peuvent pas se bien continuer si vous ne me donnez pas la + permission de vous tutoyer. Voulez-vous que nous nous tutoyions?" Je + lui pris les mains et je lui dis qu'une pareille proposition venant + d'un Anglais, et d'un Anglais de sa haute distinction, c'etait une + victoire, dont je serais fier toute ma vie. Et nous commencions a user + de cette nouvelle forme dans nos rapports. Vous savez avec quelle + finesse il parlait le francais; comme il en connaissait tous les + tours, comme il jouait avec ses difficultes, et meme avec ses petites + gamineries. Je crois qu'il a ete heureux de pratiquer avec moi ce + tutoiement, qui ne s'adapte pas a l'anglais, et qui est si francais. + Je ne puis vous peindre l'etendue et la variete de nos conversations + de la soiree. Mais ce que je puis vous dire, c'est que, sous la + caresse du _tu_, nos idees se sont elevees. Nous avions toujours + beaucoup ri ensemble; mais nous n'avions jamais laisse des banalites + s'introduire dans nos echanges de pensees. Ce soir-la, notre horizon + intellectuel s'est elargi, et nous y avons pousse des reconnaissances + profondes et lointaines. Apres avoir vivement cause a table, nous + avons longuement cause au salon; et nous nous separions le soir a + Trafalgar Square, apres avoir longe les trottoirs, stationne aux coins + des rues et deux fois rebrousse chemin en nous reconduisant l'un + l'autre. Il etait pres d'une heure du matin! Mais quelle belle passe + d'argumentation, quels beaux echanges de sentiments, quelles fortes + confidences patriotiques nous avions fournies! J'ai compris ce soir-la + que Jenkin ne detestait pas la France, et je lui serrai fort les mains + en l'embrassant. Nous nous quittions aussi amis qu'on puisse l'etre; + et notre affection s'etait par lui etendue et comprise dans un _tu_ + francais. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [26] Robert Lawson Tait (1845-1899).--ED. + + [27] William Young Sellar (1825-1890).--ED. + + [28] Not reprinted in this edition.--ED. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + 1875-1885. + + Mrs. Jenkin's illness--Captain Jenkin--The golden wedding--Death of + Uncle John--Death of Mr. and Mrs. Austin--Illness and death of the + Captain--Death of Mrs. Jenkin--Effect on Fleeming--Telpherage--The + end. + + +And now I must resume my narrative for that melancholy business that +concludes all human histories. In January of the year 1875, while +Fleeming's sky was still unclouded, he was reading Smiles. "I read my +engineers' lives steadily," he writes, "but find biographies depressing. +I suspect one reason to be that misfortunes and trials can be +graphically described, but happiness and the causes of happiness either +cannot be or are not. A grand new branch of literature opens to my view: +a drama in which people begin in a poor way and end, after getting +gradually happier, in an ecstasy of enjoyment. The common novel is not +the thing at all. It gives struggle followed by relief. I want each act +to close on a new and triumphant happiness, which has been steadily +growing all the while. This is the real antithesis of tragedy, where +things get blacker and blacker and end in hopeless woe. Smiles has not +grasped my grand idea, and only shows a bitter struggle followed by a +little respite before death. Some feeble critic might say my new idea +was not true to nature. I'm sick of this old-fashioned notion of art. +Hold a mirror up, indeed! Let's paint a picture of how things ought to +be, and hold that up to nature, and perhaps the poor old woman may +repent and mend her ways." The "grand idea" might be possible in art; +not even the ingenuity of nature could so round in the actual life of +any man. And yet it might almost seem to fancy that she had read the +letter and taken the hint; for to Fleeming the cruelties of fate were +strangely blended with tenderness, and when death came, it came harshly +to others, to him not unkindly. + +In the autumn of that same year 1875, Fleeming's father and mother were +walking in the garden of their house at Merchiston, when the latter fell +to the ground. It was thought at the time to be a stumble; it was in all +likelihood a premonitory stroke of palsy. From that day there fell upon +her an abiding panic fear; that glib, superficial part of us that speaks +and reasons could allege no cause, science itself could find no mark of +danger, a son's solicitude was laid at rest; but the eyes of the body +saw the approach of a blow, and the consciousness of the body trembled +at its coming. It came in a moment; the brilliant, spirited old lady +leapt from her bed, raving. For about six months this stage of her +disease continued with many painful and many pathetic circumstances; her +husband, who tended her, her son, who was unwearied in his visits, +looked for no change in her condition but the change that comes to all. +"Poor mother," I find Fleeming writing, "I cannot get the tones of her +voice out of my head.... I may have to bear this pain for a long time; +and so I am bearing it and sparing myself whatever pain seems useless. +Mercifully I do sleep, I am so weary that I must sleep." And again +later: "I could do very well if my mind did not revert to my poor +mother's state whenever I stop attending to matters immediately before +me." And the next day: "I can never feel a moment's pleasure without +having my mother's suffering recalled by the very feeling of happiness. +A pretty young face recalls hers by contrast--a careworn face recalls it +by association. I tell you, for I can speak to no one else; but do not +suppose that I wilfully let my mind dwell on sorrow." + +In the summer of the next year the frenzy left her; it left her stone +deaf and almost entirely aphasic, but with some remains of her old sense +and courage. Stoutly she set to work with dictionaries, to recover her +lost tongues; and had already made notable progress when a third stroke +scattered her acquisitions. Thenceforth, for nearly ten years, stroke +followed upon stroke, each still further jumbling the threads of her +intelligence, but by degrees so gradual and with such partiality of loss +and of survival, that her precise state was always and to the end a +matter of dispute. She still remembered her friends; she still loved to +learn news of them upon the slate; she still read and marked the list of +the subscription library; she still took an interest in the choice of a +play for the theatricals, and could remember and find parallel passages; +but alongside of these surviving powers, were lapses as remarkable, she +misbehaved like a child, and a servant had to sit with her at table. To +see her so sitting, speaking with the tones of a deaf-mute not always to +the purpose, and to remember what she had been, was a moving appeal to +all who knew her. Such was the pathos of these two old people in their +affliction, that even the reserve of cities was melted and the +neighbours vied in sympathy and kindness. Where so many were more than +usually helpful, it is hard to draw distinctions; but I am directed and +I delight to mention in particular the good Dr. Joseph Bell, Mr. Thomas +and Mr. Archibald Constable, with both their wives, the Rev. Mr. +Belcombe (of whose good heart and taste I do not hear for the first +time--the news had come to me by way of the Infirmary) and their +next-door neighbour, unwearied in service, Miss Hannah Mayne. Nor should +I omit to mention that John Ruffini continued to write to Mrs. Jenkin +till his own death, and the clever lady known to the world as Vernon Lee +until the end: a touching, a becoming attention to what was only the +wreck and survival of their brilliant friend. + +But he to whom this affliction brought the greatest change was the +Captain himself. What was bitter in his lot he bore with unshaken +courage; only once, in these ten years of trial, has Mrs. Fleeming Jenkin +seen him weep; for the rest of the time his wife--his commanding officer, +now become his trying child--was served not with patience alone, but with +a lovely happiness of temper. He had belonged all his life to the +ancient, formal, speech-making, compliment-presenting school of courtesy; +the dictates of this code partook in his eyes of the nature of a duty; +and he must now be courteous for two. Partly from a happy illusion, +partly in a tender fraud, he kept his wife before the world as a still +active partner. When he paid a call, he would have her write "with love" +upon a card; or if that (at the moment) was too much, he would go armed +with a bouquet and present it in her name. He even wrote letters for her +to copy and sign: an innocent substitution, which may have caused +surprise to Ruffini or to Vernon Lee, if they ever received, in the hand +of Mrs. Jenkin, the very obvious reflections of her husband. He had +always adored this wife whom he now tended and sought to represent in +correspondence: it was now, if not before, her turn to repay the +compliment; mind enough was left her to perceive his unwearied kindness; +and as her moral qualities seemed to survive quite unimpaired, a childish +love and gratitude were his reward. She would interrupt a conversation to +cross the room and kiss him. If she grew excited (as she did too often) +it was his habit to come behind her chair and pat her shoulder; and then +she would turn round, and clasp his hand in hers, and look from him to +her visitor with a face of pride and love; and it was at such moments +only that the light of humanity revived in her eyes. It was hard for any +stranger, it was impossible for any that loved them, to behold these mute +scenes, to recall the past, and not to weep. But to the Captain, I think +it was all happiness. After these so long years he had found his wife +again; perhaps kinder than ever before; perhaps now on a more equal +footing; certainly, to his eyes, still beautiful. And the call made on +his intelligence had not been made in vain. The merchants of Aux Cayes, +who had seen him tried in some "counter-revolution" in 1845, wrote to the +consul of his "able and decided measures," "his cool, steady judgment and +discernment," with admiration; and of himself, as "a credit and an +ornament to H.M. Naval Service." It is plain he must have sunk in all his +powers, during the years when he was only a figure, and often a dumb +figure, in his wife's drawing-room; but with this new term of service he +brightened visibly. He showed tact and even invention in managing his +wife, guiding or restraining her by the touch, holding family worship so +arranged that she could follow and take part in it. He took (to the +world's surprise) to reading--voyages, biographies, Blair's Sermons, even +(for her letters' sake) a work of Vernon Lee's, which proved, however, +more than he was quite prepared for. He shone more, in his remarkable +way, in society; and twice he had a little holiday to Glenmorven, where, +as may be fancied, he was the delight of the Highlanders. One of his last +pleasures was to arrange his dining-room. Many and many a room (in their +wandering and thriftless existence) had he seen his wife furnish "with +exquisite taste" and perhaps with "considerable luxury": now it was his +turn to be the decorator. On the wall he had an engraving of Lord +Rodney's action, showing the _Prothee_, his father's ship, if the reader +recollects; on either side of this, on brackets, his father's sword, and +his father's telescope, a gift from Admiral Buckner, who had used it +himself during the engagement; higher yet, the head of his grandson's +first stag, portraits of his son and his son's wife, and a couple of old +Windsor jugs from Mrs. Buckner's. But his simple trophy was not yet +complete; a device had to be worked and framed and hung below the +engraving; and for this he applied to his daughter-in-law: "I want you to +work me something, Annie. An anchor at each side--an anchor--stands for +an old sailor, you know--stands for hope, you know--an anchor at each +side, and in the middle THANKFUL." It is not easy, on any system of +punctuation, to represent the Captain's speech. Yet I hope there may +shine out of these facts, even as there shone through his own troubled +utterance, some of the charm of that delightful spirit. + +In 1881 the time of the golden wedding came round for that sad and +pretty household. It fell on a Good Friday, and its celebration can +scarcely be recalled without both smiles and tears. The drawing-room was +filled with presents and beautiful bouquets; these, to Fleeming and his +family, the golden bride and bridegroom displayed with unspeakable +pride, she so painfully excited that the guests feared every moment to +see her stricken afresh, he guiding and moderating her with his +customary tact and understanding, and doing the honours of the day with +more than his usual delight. Thence they were brought to the +dining-room, where the Captain's idea of a feast awaited them: tea and +champagne, fruit and toast and childish little luxuries, set forth +pell-mell and pressed at random on the guests. And here he must make a +speech for himself and his wife, praising their destiny, their marriage, +their son, their daughter-in-law, their grandchildren, their manifold +causes of gratitude: surely the most innocent speech, the old, sharp +contemner of his innocence now watching him with eyes of admiration. +Then it was time for the guests to depart; and they went away, bathed, +even to the youngest child, in tears of inseparable sorrow and gladness, +and leaving the golden bride and bridegroom to their own society and +that of the hired nurse. + +It was a great thing for Fleeming to make, even thus late, the +acquaintance of his father; but the harrowing pathos of such scenes +consumed him. In a life of tense intellectual effort a certain +smoothness of emotional tenor were to be desired; or we burn the candle +at both ends. Dr. Bell perceived the evil that was being done; he +pressed Mrs. Jenkin to restrain her husband from too frequent visits; +but here was one of those clear-cut, indubitable duties for which +Fleeming lived, and he could not pardon even the suggestion of neglect. + +And now, after death had so long visibly but still innocuously hovered +above the family, it began at last to strike, and its blows fell thick +and heavy. The first to go was uncle John Jenkin, taken at last from his +Mexican dwelling and the lost tribes of Israel; and nothing in this +remarkable old gentleman's life became him like the leaving of it. His +sterling, jovial acquiescence in man's destiny was a delight to +Fleeming. "My visit to Stowting has been a very strange but not at all a +painful one," he wrote. "In case you ever wish to make a person die as +he ought to die in a novel," he said to me, "I must tell you all about +my old uncle." He was to see a nearer instance before long; for this +family of Jenkin, if they were not very aptly fitted to live, had the +art of manly dying. Uncle John was but an outsider after all; he had +dropped out of hail of his nephew's way of life and station in society, +and was more like some shrewd, old, humble friend who should have kept a +lodge; yet he led the procession of becoming deaths, and began in the +mind of Fleeming that train of tender and grateful thought which was +like a preparation for his own. Already I find him writing in the plural +of "these impending deaths"; already I find him in quest of consolation. +"There is little pain in store for these wayfarers," he wrote, "and we +have hope--more than hope, trust." + +On May 19, 1884, Mr. Austin was taken. He was seventy-eight years of +age, suffered sharply with all his old firmness, and died happy in the +knowledge that he had left his wife well cared for. This had always been +a bosom concern; for the Barrons were long-lived and he believed that +she would long survive him. But their union had been so full and quiet +that Mrs. Austin languished under the separation. In their last years +they would sit all evening in their own drawing-room hand in hand: two +old people who, for all their fundamental differences, had yet grown +together and become all the world in each other's eyes and hearts; and +it was felt to be a kind release when, eight months after, on January +14, 1885, Eliza Barron followed Alfred Austin. "I wish I could save you +from all pain," wrote Fleeming six days later to his sorrowing wife, "I +would if I could--but my way is not God's way; and of this be +assured,--God's way is best." + +In the end of the same month Captain Jenkin caught cold and was confined +to bed. He was so unchanged in spirit that at first there seemed no +ground of fear; but his great age began to tell, and presently it was +plain he had a summons. The charm of his sailor's cheerfulness and +ancient courtesy, as he lay dying, is not to be described. There he lay, +singing his old sea-songs; watching the poultry from the window with a +child's delight; scribbling on the slate little messages to his wife, +who lay bedridden in another room; glad to have Psalms read aloud to +him, if they were of a pious strain--checking, with an "I don't think we +need read that, my dear," any that were gloomy or bloody. Fleeming's +wife coming to the house and asking one of the nurses for news of Mrs. +Jenkin, "Madam, I do not know," said the nurse; "for I am really so +carried away by the Captain that I can think of nothing else." One of +the last messages scribbled to his wife, and sent her with a glass of +the champagne that had been ordered for himself, ran, in his most +finished vein of childish madrigal: "The Captain bows to you, my love, +across the table." When the end was near, and it was thought best that +Fleeming should no longer go home, but sleep at Merchiston, he broke his +news to the Captain with some trepidation, knowing that it carried +sentence of death. "Charming, charming--charming arrangement," was the +Captain's only commentary. It was the proper thing for a dying man, of +Captain Jenkin's school of manners, to make some expression of his +spiritual state; nor did he neglect the observance. With his usual +abruptness, "Fleeming," said he, "I suppose you and I feel about all +this as two Christian gentlemen should." A last pleasure was secured for +him. He had been waiting with painful interest for news of Gordon and +Khartoum; and by great good fortune a false report reached him that the +city was relieved, and the men of Sussex (his old neighbours) had been +the first to enter. He sat up in bed and gave three cheers for the +Sussex Regiment. The subsequent correction, if it came in time, was +prudently withheld from the dying man. An hour before midnight on the +5th of February, he passed away: aged eighty-four. + +Word of his death was kept from Mrs. Jenkin; and she survived him no +more than nine-and-forty hours. On the day before her death she received +a letter from her old friend Miss Bell of Manchester, knew the hand, +kissed the envelope and laid it on her heart; so that she too died upon +a pleasure. Half an hour after midnight, on the 8th of February, she +fell asleep: it is supposed in her seventy-eighth year. + +Thus, in the space of less than ten months, the four seniors of this +family were taken away; but taken with such features of opportunity in +time or pleasant courage in the sufferer, that grief was tempered with a +kind of admiration. The effect on Fleeming was profound. His pious +optimism increased and became touched with something mystic and filial. +"The grave is not good, the approaches to it are terrible," he had +written in the beginning of his mother's illness: he thought so no more, +when he had laid father and mother side by side at Stowting. He had +always loved life; in the brief time that now remained to him he seemed +to be half in love with death. "Grief is no duty," he wrote to Miss +Bell; "it was all too beautiful for grief," he said to me, but the +emotion, call it by what name we please, shook him to his depths; his +wife thought he would have broken his heart when he must demolish the +Captain's trophy in the dining-room, and he seemed thenceforth scarcely +the same man. + +These last years were indeed years of an excessive demand upon his +vitality; he was not only worn out with sorrow, he was worn out by hope. +The singular invention to which he gave the name of "Telpherage" had of +late consumed his time, overtaxed his strength, and overheated his +imagination. The words in which he first mentioned his discovery to +me--"I am simply Alnaschar"--were not only descriptive of his state of +mind, they were in a sense prophetic; since, whatever fortune may await +his idea in the future, it was not his to see it bring forth fruit. +Alnaschar he was indeed; beholding about him a world all changed, a +world filled with telpherage wires; and seeing not only himself and +family but all his friends enriched. It was his pleasure, when the +company was floated, to endow those whom he liked with stock; one, at +least, never knew that he was a possible rich man until the grave had +closed over his stealthy benefactor. And however Fleeming chafed among +material and business difficulties, this rainbow vision never faded; and +he, like his father and his mother, may be said to have died upon a +pleasure. But the strain told, and he knew that it was telling. "I am +becoming a fossil," he had written five years before, as a kind of plea +for a holiday visit to his beloved Italy. "Take care! If I am Mr. +Fossil, you will be Mrs. Fossil, and Jack will be Jack Fossil, and all +the boys will be little fossils, and then we shall be a collection." +There was no fear more chimerical for Fleeming; years brought him no +repose; he was as packed with energy, as fiery in hope, as at the first; +weariness, to which he began to be no stranger, distressed, it did not +quiet him. He feared for himself, not without ground, the fate which had +overtaken his mother; others shared the fear. In the changed life now +made for his family, the elders dead, the sons going from home upon +their education, even their tried domestic (Mrs. Alice Dunns) leaving +the house after twenty-two years of service, it was not unnatural that +he should return to dreams of Italy. He and his wife were to go (as he +told me) on "a real honeymoon tour." He had not been alone with his +wife "to speak of," he added, since the birth of his children. But now +he was to enjoy the society of her to whom he wrote, in these last days, +that she was his "Heaven on earth." Now he was to revisit Italy, and see +all the pictures and the buildings and the scenes that he admired so +warmly, and lay aside for a time the irritations of his strenuous +activity. Nor was this all. A trifling operation was to restore his +former lightness of foot; and it was a renovated youth that was to set +forth upon this re-enacted honeymoon. + +The operation was performed; it was of a trifling character, it seemed +to go well, no fear was entertained; and his wife was reading aloud to +him as he lay in bed, when she perceived him to wander in his mind. It +is doubtful if he ever recovered a sure grasp upon the things of life; +and he was still unconscious when he passed away, June the 12th, 1885, +in the fifty-third year of his age. He passed; but something in his +gallant vitality had impressed itself upon his friends, and still +impresses. Not from one or two only, but from many, I hear the same tale +of how the imagination refuses to accept our loss, and instinctively +looks for his reappearing, and how memory retains his voice and image +like things of yesterday. Others, the well-beloved too, die and are +progressively forgotten: two years have passed since Fleeming was laid +to rest beside his father, his mother, and his uncle John; and the +thought and the look of our friend still haunts us. + + + + + END OF VOL. IX + + + PRINTED BY + CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, + LONDON, E.C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, +Volume 9, by Robert Louis Stevenson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS OF R.L. 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