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diff --git a/9229-h/9229-h.htm b/9229-h/9229-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a673eec --- /dev/null +++ b/9229-h/9229-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1114 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Intelligence Office, by Nathaniel Hawthorne</title> + +<style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Intelligence Office, by Nathaniel Hawthorne</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Intelligence Office</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 6, 2003 [eBook #9229]<br /> +[Most recently updated: November 9, 2022]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: David Widger and Al Haines</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTELLIGENCE OFFICE ***</div> + +<h1>The Intelligence Office</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Nathaniel Hawthorne</h2> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p> +Grave figure, with a pair of mysterious spectacles on his nose and a pen behind +his ear, was seated at a desk in the corner of a metropolitan office. The +apartment was fitted up with a counter, and furnished with an oaken cabinet and +a Chair or two, in simple and business-like style. Around the walls were stuck +advertisements of articles lost, or articles wanted, or articles to be disposed +of; in one or another of which classes were comprehended nearly all the +Conveniences, or otherwise, that the imagination of man has contrived. The +interior of the room was thrown into shadow, partly by the tall edifices that +rose on the opposite side of the street, and partly by the immense show-bills +of blue and crimson paper that were expanded over each of the three windows. +Undisturbed by the tramp of feet, the rattle of wheels, the hump of voices, the +shout of the city crier, the scream of the newsboys, and other tokens of the +multitudinous life that surged along in front of the office, the figure at the +desk pored diligently over a folio volume, of ledger-like size and aspect, He +looked like the spirit of a record—the soul of his own great volume made +visible in mortal shape. +</p> + +<p> +But scarcely an instant elapsed without the appearance at the door of some +individual from the busy population whose vicinity was manifested by so much +buzz, and clatter, and outcry. Now, it was a thriving mechanic in quest of a +tenement that should come within his moderate means of rent; now, a ruddy Irish +girl from the banks of Killarney, wandering from kitchen to kitchen of our +land, while her heart still hung in the peat-smoke of her native cottage; now, +a single gentleman looking out for economical board; and now—for this +establishment offered an epitome of worldly pursuits—it was a faded +beauty inquiring for her lost bloom; or Peter Schlemihl, for his lost shadow; +or an author of ten years’ standing, for his vanished reputation; or a moody +man, for yesterday’s sunshine. +</p> + +<p> +At the next lifting of the latch there entered a person with his hat awry upon +his head, his clothes perversely ill-suited to his form, his eyes staring in +directions opposite to their intelligence, and a certain odd unsuitableness +pervading his whole figure. Wherever he might chance to be, whether in palace +or cottage, church or market, on land or sea, or even at his own fireside, he +must have worn the characteristic expression of a man out of his right place. +</p> + +<p> +“This,” inquired he, putting his question in the form of an +assertion,—“this is the Central Intelligence Office?” +</p> + +<p> +“Even so,” answered the figure at the desk, turning another leaf of his volume; +he then looked the applicant in the face and said briefly, “Your business?” +</p> + +<p> +“I want,” said the latter, with tremulous earnestness, “a place!” +</p> + +<p> +“A place! and of what nature?” asked the Intelligencer. “There are many vacant, +or soon to be so, some of which will probably suit, since they range from that +of a footman up to a seat at the council-board, or in the cabinet, or a throne, +or a presidential chair.” +</p> + +<p> +The stranger stood pondering before the desk with an unquiet, dissatisfied +air,—a dull, vague pain of heart, expressed by a slight contortion of the +brow,—an earnestness of glance, that asked and expected, yet continually +wavered, as if distrusting. In short, he evidently wanted, not in a physical or +intellectual sense, but with an urgent moral necessity that is the hardest of +all things to satisfy, since it knows not its own object. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, you mistake me!” said he at length, with a gesture of nervous impatience. +“Either of the places you mention, indeed, might answer my purpose; or, more +probably, none of them. I want my place! my own place! my true place in the +world! my proper sphere! my thing to do, which Nature intended me to perform +when she fashioned me thus awry, and which I have vainly sought all my +lifetime! Whether it be a footman’s duty or a king’s is of little consequence, +so it be naturally mine. Can you help me here?” +</p> + +<p> +“I will enter your application,” answered the Intelligencer, at the same time +writing a few lines in his volume. “But to undertake such a business, I tell +you frankly, is quite apart from the ground covered by my official duties. Ask +for something specific, and it may doubtless be negotiated for you, on your +compliance with the conditions. But were I to go further, I should have the +whole population of the city upon my shoulders; since far the greater +proportion of them are, more or less, in your predicament.” +</p> + +<p> +The applicant sank into a fit of despondency, and passed out of the door +without again lifting his eyes; and, if he died of the disappointment, he was +probably buried in the wrong tomb, inasmuch as the fatality of such people +never deserts them, and, whether alive or dead, they are invariably out of +place. +</p> + +<p> +Almost immediately another foot was heard on the threshold. A youth entered +hastily, and threw a glance around the office to ascertain whether the man of +intelligence was alone. He then approached close to the desk, blushed like a +maiden, and seemed at a loss how to broach his business. +</p> + +<p> +“You come upon an affair of the heart,” said the official personage, looking +into him through his mysterious spectacles. “State it in as few words as may +be.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are right,” replied the youth. “I have a heart to dispose of.” +</p> + +<p> +“You seek an exchange?” said the Intelligencer. “Foolish youth, why not be +contented with your own?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because,” exclaimed the young man, losing his embarrassment in a passionate +glow,—“because my heart burns me with an intolerable fire; it tortures me +all day long with yearnings for I know not what, and feverish throbbings, and +the pangs of a vague sorrow; and it awakens me in the night-time with a quake, +when there is nothing to be feared. I cannot endure it any longer. It were +wiser to throw away such a heart, even if it brings me nothing in return.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, very well,” said the man of office, making an entry in his volume. “Your +affair will be easily transacted. This species of brokerage makes no +inconsiderable part of my business; and there is always a large assortment of +the article to select from. Here, if I mistake not, comes a pretty fair +sample.” +</p> + +<p> +Even as he spoke the door was gently and slowly thrust ajar, affording a +glimpse of the slender figure of a young girl, who, as she timidly entered, +seemed to bring the light and cheerfulness of the outer atmosphere into the +somewhat gloomy apartment. We know not her errand there, nor can we reveal +whether the young man gave up his heart into her custody. If so, the +arrangement was neither better nor worse than in ninety-nine cases out of a +hundred, where the parallel sensibilities of a similar age, importunate +affections, and the easy satisfaction of characters not deeply conscious of +themselves, supply the place of any profounder sympathy. +</p> + +<p> +Not always, however, was the agency of the passions and affections an office of +so little trouble. It happened, rarely, indeed, in proportion to the cases that +came under an ordinary rule, but still it did happen, that a heart was +occasionally brought hither of such exquisite material, so delicately +attempered, and so curiously wrought, that no other heart could be found to +match it. It might almost be considered a misfortune, in a worldly point of +view, to be the possessor of such a diamond of the purest water; since in any +reasonable probability it could only be exchanged for an ordinary pebble, or a +bit of cunningly manufactured glass, or, at least, for a jewel of native +richness, but ill-set, or with some fatal flaw, or an earthy vein running +through its central lustre. To choose another figure, it is sad that hearts +which have their wellspring in the infinite, and contain inexhaustible +sympathies, should ever be doomed to pour themselves into shallow vessels, and +thus lavish their rich affections on the ground. Strange that the finer and +deeper nature, whether in man or woman, while possessed of every other delicate +instinct, should so often lack that most invaluable one of preserving itself +front contamination with what is of a baser kind! Sometimes, it is true, the +spiritual fountain is kept pure by a wisdom within itself, and sparkles into +the light of heaven without a stain from the earthy strata through which it had +gushed upward. And sometimes, even here on earth, the pure mingles with the +pure, and the inexhaustible is recompensed with the infinite. But these +miracles, though he should claim the credit of them, are far beyond the scope +of such a superficial agent in human affairs as the figure in the mysterious +spectacles. +</p> + +<p> +Again the door was opened, admitting the bustle of the city with a fresher +reverberation into the Intelligence Office. Now entered a man of woe-begone and +downcast look; it was such an aspect as if he had lost the very soul out of his +body, and had traversed all the world over, searching in the dust of the +highways, and along the shady footpaths, and beneath the leaves of the forest, +and among the sands of the sea-shore, in hopes to recover it again. He had bent +an anxious glance along the pavement of the street as he came hitherward; he +looked also in the angle of the doorstep, and upon the floor of the room; and, +finally, coming up to the Man of Intelligence, he gazed through the inscrutable +spectacles which the latter wore, as if the lost treasure might be hidden +within his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“I have lost—” he began; and then he paused. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said the Intelligencer, “I see that you have lost,—but what?” +</p> + +<p> +“I have lost a precious jewel!” replied the unfortunate person, “the like of +which is not to be found among any prince’s treasures. While I possessed it, +the contemplation of it was my sole and sufficient happiness. No price should +have purchased it of me; but it has fallen from my bosom where I wore it in my +careless wanderings about the city.” +</p> + +<p> +After causing the stranger to describe the marks of his lost jewel, the +Intelligencer opened a drawer of the oaken cabinet which has been mentioned as +forming a part of the furniture of the room. Here were deposited whatever +articles had been picked up in the streets, until the right owners should claim +them. It was a strange and heterogeneous collection. Not the least remarkable +part of it was a great number of wedding-rings, each one of which had been +riveted upon the finger with holy vows, and all the mystic potency that the +most solemn rites could attain, but had, nevertheless, proved too slippery for +the wearer’s vigilance. The gold of some was worn thin, betokening the +attrition of years of wedlock; others, glittering from the jeweller’s shop, +must have been lost within the honeymoon. There were ivory tablets, the leaves +scribbled over with sentiments that had been the deepest truths of the writer’s +earlier years, but which were now quite obliterated from his memory. So +scrupulously were articles preserved in this depository, that not even withered +flowers were rejected; white roses, and blush-roses, and moss-roses, fit +emblems of virgin purity and shamefacedness, which bad been lost or flung away, +and trampled into the pollution of the streets; locks of hair,—the golden +and the glossy dark,—the long tresses of woman and the crisp curls of +man, signified that lovers were now and then so heedless of the faith intrusted +to them as to drop its symbol from the treasure-place of the bosom. Many of +these things were imbued with perfumes, and perhaps a sweet scent had departed +from the lives of their former possessors ever since they had so wilfully or +negligently lost them. Here were gold pencil-cases, little ruby hearts with +golden arrows through them, bosom-pins, pieces of coin, and small articles of +every description, comprising nearly all that have been lost since a long time +ago. Most of them, doubtless, had a history and a meaning, if there were time +to search it out and room to tell it. Whoever has missed anything valuable, +whether out of his heart, mind, or pocket, would do well to make inquiry at the +Central Intelligence Office. +</p> + +<p> +And in the corner of one of the drawers of the oaken cabinet, after +considerable research, was found a great pearl, looking like the soul of +celestial purity, congealed and polished. +</p> + +<p> +“There is my jewel! my very pearl!” cried the stranger, almost beside himself +with rapture. “It is mine! Give it me this moment! or I shall perish!” +</p> + +<p> +“I perceive,” said the Man of Intelligence, examining it more closely, “that +this is the Pearl of Great Price!” +</p> + +<p> +“The very same,” answered the stranger. “Judge, then, of my misery at losing it +out of my bosom! Restore it to me! I must not live without it an instant to +longer.” +</p> + +<p> +“Pardon me,” rejoined the Intelligencer, calmly, “you ask what is beyond my +duty. This pearl, as you well know, is held upon a peculiar tenure; and having +once let it escape from your keeping, you have no greater claim to +it—nay, not so great—as any other person. I cannot give it back.” +</p> + +<p> +Nor could the entreaties of the miserable man—who saw before his eyes the +jewel of his life without the power to reclaim it—soften the heart of +this stern being, impassive to human sympathy, though exercising such an +apparent influence over human fortunes. Finally the loser of the inestimable +pearl clutched his hands among his hair, and ran madly forth into the world, +which was affrighted at his desperate looks. There passed him on the doorstep a +fashionable young gentleman, whose business was to inquire for a damask +rosebud, the gift of his lady-love, which he had lost out of his buttonhole +within a hour after receiving it. So various were the errands of those who +visited this Central Office, where all human wishes seemed to be made known, +and, so far as destiny would allow, negotiated to their fulfilment. +</p> + +<p> +The next that entered was a man beyond the middle age, bearing the look of one +who knew the world and his own course in it. He had just alighted from a +handsome private carriage, which had orders to wait in the street while its +owner transacted his business. This person came up to the desk with a quick, +determined step, and looked the Intelligencer in the face with a resolute eye; +though, at the same time, some secret trouble gleamed from it in red and dusky +light. +</p> + +<p> +“I have an estate to dispose of,” said he, with a brevity that seemed +characteristic. +</p> + +<p> +“Describe it,” said the Intelligencer. +</p> + +<p> +The applicant proceeded to give the boundaries of his property, its nature, +comprising tillage, pasture, woodland, and pleasure-grounds, in ample circuit; +together with a mansion-house, in the construction of which it had been his +object to realize a castle in the air, hardening its shadowy walls into +granite, and rendering its visionary splendor perceptible to the awakened eye. +Judging from his description, it was beautiful enough to vanish like a dream, +yet substantial enough to endure for centuries. He spoke, too, of the gorgeous +furniture, the refinements of upholstery, and all the luxurious artifices that +combined to render this a residence where life might flow onward in a stream of +golden days, undisturbed by the ruggedness which fate loves to fling into it. +</p> + +<p> +“I am a man of strong will,” said he, in conclusion; “and at my first setting +out in life, as a poor, unfriended youth, I resolved to make myself the +possessor of such a mansion and estate as this, together with the abundant +revenue necessary to uphold it. I have succeeded to the extent of my utmost +wish. And this is the estate which I have now concluded to dispose of.” +</p> + +<p> +“And your terms?” asked the Intelligencer, after taking down the particulars +with which the stranger had supplied him. +</p> + +<p> +“Easy, abundantly easy!” answered the successful man, smiling, but with a stern +and almost frightful contraction of the brow, as if to quell an inward pang. “I +have been engaged in various sorts of business,—a distiller, a trader to +Africa, an East India merchant, a speculator in the stocks,—and, in the +course of these affairs, have contracted an encumbrance of a certain nature. +The purchaser of the estate shall merely be required to assume this burden to +himself.” +</p> + +<p> +“I understand you,” said the Man of Intelligence, putting his pen behind his +ear. “I fear that no bargain can be negotiated on these conditions. Very +probably the next possessor may acquire the estate with a similar encumbrance, +but it will be of his own contracting, and will not lighten your burden in the +least.” +</p> + +<p> +“And am I to live on,” fiercely exclaimed the stranger, “with the dirt of these +accursed acres and the granite of this infernal mansion crushing down my soul? +How, if I should turn the edifice into an almshouse or a hospital, or tear it +down and build a church?” +</p> + +<p> +“You can at least make the experiment,” said the Intelligencer; “but the whole +matter is one which you must settle for yourself.” +</p> + +<p> +The man of deplorable success withdrew, and got into his coach, which rattled +off lightly over the wooden pavements, though laden with the weight of much +land, a stately house, and ponderous heaps of gold, all compressed into an evil +conscience. +</p> + +<p> +There now appeared many applicants for places; among the most noteworthy of +whom was a small, smoke-dried figure, who gave himself out to be one of the bad +spirits that had waited upon Dr. Faustus in his laboratory. He pretended to +show a certificate of character, which, he averred, had been given him by that +famous necromancer, and countersigned by several masters whom he had +subsequently served. +</p> + +<p> +“I am afraid, my good friend,” observed the Intelligencer, “that your chance of +getting a service is but poor. Nowadays, men act the evil spirit for themselves +and their neighbors, and play the part more effectually than ninety-nine out of +a hundred of your fraternity.” +</p> + +<p> +But, just as the poor fiend was assuming a vaporous consistency, being about to +vanish through the floor in sad disappointment and chagrin, the editor of a +political newspaper chanced to enter the office in quest of a scribbler of +party paragraphs. The former servant of Dr. Faustus, with some misgivings as to +his sufficiency of venom, was allowed to try his hand in this capacity. Next +appeared, likewise seeking a service, the mysterious man in Red, who had aided +Bonaparte in his ascent to imperial power. He was examined as to his +qualifications by an aspiring politician, but finally rejected, as lacking +familiarity with the cunning tactics of the present day. +</p> + +<p> +People continued to succeed each other with as much briskness as if everybody +turned aside, out of the roar and tumult of the city, to record here some want, +or superfluity, or desire. Some had goods or possessions, of which they wished +to negotiate the sale. A China merchant had lost his health by a long residence +in that wasting climate. He very liberally offered his disease, and his wealth +along with it, to any physician who would rid him of both together. A soldier +offered his wreath of laurels for as good a leg as that which it had cost him +on the battle-field. One poor weary wretch desired nothing but to be +accommodated with any creditable method of laying down his life; for misfortune +and pecuniary troubles had so subdued his spirits that he could no longer +conceive the possibility of happiness, nor had the heart to try for it. +Nevertheless, happening to, overhear some conversation in the Intelligence +Office respecting wealth to be rapidly accumulated by a certain mode of +speculation, he resolved to live out this one other experiment of better +fortune. Many persons desired to exchange their youthful vices for others +better suited to the gravity of advancing age; a few, we are glad to say, made +earnest, efforts to exchange vice for virtue, and, hard as the bargain was, +succeeded in effecting it. But it was remarkable that what all were the least +willing to give up, even on the most advantageous terms, were the habits, the +oddities, the characteristic traits, the little ridiculous indulgences, +somewhere between faults and follies, of which nobody but themselves could +understand the fascination. +</p> + +<p> +The great folio, in which the Man of Intelligence recorded all these freaks of +idle hearts, and aspirations of deep hearts, and desperate longings of +miserable hearts, and evil prayers of perverted hearts, would be curious +reading were it possible to obtain it for publication. Human character in its +individual developments-human nature in the mass—may best be studied in +its wishes; and this was the record of them all. There was an endless diversity +of mode and circumstance, yet withal such a similarity in the real groundwork, +that any one page of the volume-whether written in the days before the Flood, +or the yesterday that is just gone by, or to be written on the morrow that is +close at hand, or a thousand ages hence—might serve as a specimen of the +whole. Not but that there were wild sallies of fantasy that could scarcely +occur to more than one man’s brain, whether reasonable or lunatic. The +strangest wishes—yet most incident to men who had gone deep into +scientific pursuits, and attained a high intellectual stage, though not the +loftiest—were, to contend with Nature, and wrest from her some secret, or +some power, which she had seen fit to withhold from mortal grasp. She loves to +delude her aspiring students, and mock them with mysteries that seem but just +beyond their utmost reach. To concoct new minerals, to produce new forms of +vegetable life, to create an insect, if nothing higher in the living scale, is +a sort of wish that has often revelled in the breast of a man of science. An +astronomer, who lived far more among the distant worlds of space than in this +lower sphere, recorded a wish to behold the opposite side of the moon, which, +unless the system of the firmament be reversed, she can never turn towards the +earth. On the same page of the volume was written the wish of a little child to +have the stars for playthings. +</p> + +<p> +The most ordinary wish, that was written down with wearisome recurrence, was, +of course, for wealth, wealth, wealth, in sums from a few shillings up to +unreckonable thousands. But in reality this often-repeated expression covered +as many different desires. Wealth is the golden essence of the outward world, +embodying almost everything that exists beyond the limits of the soul; and +therefore it is the natural yearning for the life in the midst of which we find +ourselves, and of which gold is the condition of enjoyment, that men abridge +into this general wish. Here and there, it is true, the volume testified to +some heart so perverted as to desire gold for its own sake. Many wished for +power; a strange desire indeed, since it is but another form of slavery. Old +people wished for the delights of youth; a fop for a fashionable coat; an idle +reader, for a new novel; a versifier, for a rhyme to some stubborn word; a +painter, for Titian’s secret of coloring; a prince, for a cottage; a +republican, for a kingdom and a palace; a libertine, for his neighbor’s wife; a +man of palate, for green peas; and a poor man, for a crust of bread. The +ambitious desires of public men, elsewhere so craftily concealed, were here +expressed openly and boldly, side by side with the unselfish wishes of the +philanthropist for the welfare of the race, so beautiful, so comforting, in +contrast with the egotism that continually weighed self against the world. Into +the darker secrets of the Book of Wishes we will not penetrate. +</p> + +<p> +It would be an instructive employment for a student of mankind, perusing this +volume carefully and comparing its records with men’s perfected designs, as +expressed in their deeds and daily life, to ascertain how far the one accorded +with the other. Undoubtedly, in most cases, the correspondence would be found +remote. The holy and generous wish, that rises like incense from a pure heart +towards heaven, often lavishes its sweet perfume on the blast of evil times. +The foul, selfish, murderous wish, that steams forth from a corrupted heart, +often passes into the spiritual atmosphere without being concreted into an +earthly deed. Yet this volume is probably truer, as a representation of the +human heart, than is the living drama of action as it evolves around us. There +is more of good and more of evil in it; more redeeming points of the bad and +more errors of the virtuous; higher upsoarings, and baser degradation of the +soul; in short, a more perplexing amalgamation of vice and virtue than we +witness in the outward world. Decency and external conscience often produce a +far fairer outside than is warranted by the stains within. And be it owned, oil +the other hand, that a man seldom repeats to his nearest friend, any more than +he realizes in act, the purest wishes, which, at some blessed time or other, +have arisen from the depths of his nature and witnessed for him in this volume. +Yet there is enough on every leaf to make the good man shudder for his own wild +and idle wishes, as well as for the sinner, whose whole life is the incarnation +of a wicked desire. +</p> + +<p> +But again the door is opened, and we hear the tumultuous stir of the +world,—a deep and awful sound, expressing in another form some portion of +what is written in the volume that lies before the Man of Intelligence. A +grandfatherly personage tottered hastily into the office, with such an +earnestness in his infirm alacrity that his white hair floated backward as he +hurried up to the desk, while his dim eyes caught a momentary lustre from his +vehemence of purpose. This venerable figure explained that he was in search of +To-morrow. +</p> + +<p> +“I have spent all my life in pursuit of it,” added the sage old gentleman, +“being assured that To-morrow has some vast benefit or other in store for me. +But I am now getting a little in years, and must make haste; for, unless I +overtake To-morrow soon, I begin to be afraid it will finally escape me.” +</p> + +<p> +“This fugitive To-morrow, my venerable friend,” said the Man of Intelligence, +“is a stray child of Time, and is flying from his father into the region of the +infinite. Continue your pursuit, and you will doubtless come up with him; but +as to the earthly gifts which you expect, he has scattered them all among a +throng of Yesterdays.” +</p> + +<p> +Obliged to content himself with this enigmatical response, the grandsire +hastened forth with a quick clatter of his staff upon the floor; and, as he +disappeared, a little boy scampered through the door in chase of a butterfly +which had got astray amid the barren sunshine of the city. Had the old +gentleman been shrewder, he might have detected To-morrow under the semblance +of that gaudy insect. The golden butterfly glistened through the shadowy +apartment, and brushed its wings against the Book of Wishes, and fluttered +forth again with the child still in pursuit. +</p> + +<p> +A man now entered, in neglected attire, with the aspect of a thinker, but +somewhat too rough-hewn and brawny for a scholar. His face was full of sturdy +vigor, with some finer and keener attribute beneath. Though harsh at first, it +was tempered with the glow of a large, warm heart, which had force enough to +heat his powerful intellect through and through. He advanced to the +Intelligencer and looked at him with a glance of such stern sincerity that +perhaps few secrets were beyond its scope. +</p> + +<p> +“I seek for Truth,” said he. +</p> + +<p> +“It is precisely the most rare pursuit that has ever come under my cognizance,” +replied the Intelligencer, as he made the new inscription in his volume. “Most +men seek to impose some cunning falsehood upon themselves for truth. But I can +lend no help to your researches. You must achieve the miracle for yourself. At +some fortunate moment you may find Truth at your side, or perhaps she may be +mistily discerned far in advance, or possibly behind you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not behind me,” said the seeker; “for I have left nothing on my track without +a thorough investigation. She flits before me, passing now through a naked +solitude, and now mingling with the throng of a popular assembly, and now +writing with the pen of a French philosopher, and now standing at the altar of +an old cathedral, in the guise of a Catholic priest, performing the high mass. +O weary search! But I must not falter; and surely my heart-deep quest of Truth +shall avail at last.” +</p> + +<p> +He paused and fixed his eyes upon the Intelligencer with a depth of +investigation that seemed to hold commerce with the inner nature of this being, +wholly regardless of his external development. +</p> + +<p> +“And what are you?” said he. “It will not satisfy me to point to this fantastic +show of an Intelligence Office and this mockery of business. Tell me what is +beneath it, and what your real agency in life and your influence upon mankind.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yours is a mind,” answered the Man of Intelligence, “before which the forms +and fantasies that conceal the inner idea from the multitude vanish at once and +leave the naked reality beneath. Know, then, the secret. My agency in worldly +action, my connection with the press, and tumult, and intermingling, and +development of human affairs, is merely delusive. The desire of man’s heart +does for him whatever I seem to do. I am no minister of action, but the +Recording Spirit.” +</p> + +<p> +What further secrets were then spoken remains a mystery, inasmuch as the roar +of the city, the bustle of human business, the outcry of the jostling masses, +the rush and tumult of man’s life, in its noisy and brief career, arose so high +that it drowned the words of these two talkers; and whether they stood talking +in the moon, or in Vanity Fair, or in a city of this actual world, is more than +I can say. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTELLIGENCE OFFICE ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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