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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9472-8.txt b/9472-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..35b1ba1 --- /dev/null +++ b/9472-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9167 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860 + +Author: Various + +Posting Date: November 4, 2012 [EBook #9472] +Release Date: December, 2005 +First Posted: October 3, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, MAY 1860 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project +Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS + +VOL. V, MAY, 1860, NO. XXXI + + + + + + +INSTINCT. + + +"Instinct is a great matter," quoth Falstaff, when called upon to find +out a device, a "starting-hole," to hide himself from the open and +apparent shame of having run away from the fight and hacked his sword +like a handsaw with his own dagger. Like a valiant lion, he would not +turn upon the true prince, but ran away upon instinct. Although the +peculiar circumstances of the occasion upon which the subject was +presented to Falstaff's mind were not very favorable to a calm +consideration of it, he was undoubtedly correct in saying that instinct +is a great matter. "If, then, the tree may be known by the fruit," says +Falstaff, "as the fruit by the tree, then, peremptorily I speak it, +there is virtue in that Falstaff"; and it is proper that his authority +should be quoted, even upon a question of metaphysical science. + +That psychological endowment of animals which we denominate instinct +has in every age been a matter full of wonder; and men of thought have +found few more interesting subjects of inquiry. But it is confessed +that little has been satisfactorily made out concerning the nature and +limitations of instinct. In former times the habits and mental +characteristics of those orders of animated being which are inferior to +man were observed with but a careless eye; and it was late before the +phenomena of animal life received a careful and reverent examination. +It is vain to inquire what instinct is, before there has been an +accurate observation of its manifestations. It is only from its outward +manifestations that we can know anything of that marvellous inward +nature which is given to animals. We cannot know anything of the +essential constitution of mind, but can know only its properties. This +is all we know even of matter. "If material existence," says Sir +William Hamilton, "could exhibit ten thousand phenomena, and if we +possessed ten thousand senses to apprehend these ten thousand phenomena +of material existence, of existence absolutely and in itself we should +be then as ignorant as we are at present." But this limitation of human +knowledge has not always been kept in view. Men have been solicitous to +penetrate into the higher mysteries of absolute and essential +existence. But in thus reaching out after the unattainable, we have +often passed by the only knowledge which it was possible for us to +gain. Much vague speculation concerning instinct has arisen from the +attempt to resolve the problem of its ultimate nature; and perhaps much +more might have been made out with certainty about it, if no greater +task had been attempted than to classify the phenomena which it +exhibits and determine the nature of its manifestations. In regard to +instinct, as well as everything else, we must be content with finding +out what it seems to us to be, rather than what it is. Even with this +limitation, the inquiry will prove sufficiently difficult. The +properties of instinct are a little more inscrutable than those of the +human mind, inasmuch as we have our own consciousness to assist us in +this case, while we are left to infer the peculiarities of instinct +from its outward manifestations only. And moreover, the inquiry +involves an understanding of the workings of the human mind; for it is +only when viewed in contrast with the rational endowments of man that +the character of instinct is best known. All other questions connected +with the subject are subordinate to this one of the apparent difference +between instinct and reason. + +Many definitions have been given of instinctive actions. These differ +widely in their extent, and are for the most part quite inadequate. +Some writers have ranged under this term all those customary habits and +actions which are common to all the individuals of a species. According +to this definition, almost every action of animated life is +instinctive. But the general idea of an instinctive action is much more +restricted; it is one that is performed without instruction and prior +to experience,--and not for the immediate gratification of the agent, +but only as the means for the attainment of some ulterior end. To apply +the term instinct to the regular and involuntary movements of the +bodily organs, such as the beating of the heart and the action of the +organs of respiration, is manifestly an extension of the ordinary +acceptation of the term. Organic actions of a similar character are +also performed by plants, and are purely mechanical. "In the lowest and +simplest class of excited movements," says Müller, "the nervous system +would not appear to be concerned. They result from stimuli directly +applied to the muscles, which immediately excite their contractility; +and they are evidently of the same character with the motions of +plants." Thus, the heart is excited to pulsation by the direct contact +of the blood with the muscle. The hand of a sleeping child closes upon +any object which gently touches the palm. And it is in this way, +doubtless, that the Sea Anemone entraps its prey, or anything else that +may come in contact with its tentacles. But so far are these movements +from indicating of themselves the action of any instinctive principle, +that they are no proof of animality; for a precisely analogous power is +possessed by the sensitive plant known as the Fly-Trap of Venus +(_Dionoea muscipula_): "any insect touching the sensitive hairs on the +surface of its leaf instantly causes the leaf to shut up and enclose +the insect, as in a trap; nor is this all; a mucilaginous secretion +acts like a gastric juice on the captive, digests it, and renders it +assimilable by the plant, which thus feeds on the victim, as the +Actinea feeds on the Annelid or Crustacean it may entrap." In the +animal organization a large class of reflex actions are excited, not by +a direct influence, but indirectly by the agency of the nerves and +spinal cord. Such actions are essentially independent of the brain; for +they occur in animals which have no brain, and in those whose brain has +been removed. However marvellous these functions of organic life may +be, there is nothing in them at all resembling that agency properly +called instinct, which may be said to take the place in the inferior +tribes of reason in man. To refer these operations to the same source +as the wonderful instinct that guides the bird in its long migratory +flight, or in the construction of its nest, would be to make the bird a +curiously constructed machine which is operated by impressions from +without upon its sentient nerves. + +Those actions have sometimes been called instinctive which arise from +the appetites and passions; and they have been referred to instinct, +doubtless, because they have one characteristic of instinct,--that they +are not acquired by experience or instruction. "But they differ," says +Professor Bowen, "at least in one important respect from those +instincts of the lower animals which are usually contrasted with human +reason. The objects towards which they are directed are prized for +their own sake; they are sought as _ends_; while instinct teaches +brutes to do many things which are needed only as means for the +attainment of some ulterior purpose." When the butterfly extracts the +nectar from the flowers which she loves most, she meets a want of her +physical nature which demands satisfaction at the moment; but when, in +opposition to her appetite, she proceeds to the flowerless shrub to +deposit her eggs upon the leaves best suited to support her +unthought-of progeny, she is not influenced by any desire for the +immediate gratification of her senses, but is led to the act by some +dim impulse, in order that an ultimate object may be provided for to +which she has no reference at the time. We are surprised to find it +declared, in the very interesting "Psychological Inquiries" of Sir B.C. +Brodie, that the desire for food is the simplest form of an instinct, +and that such an instinct goes far towards explaining others which are +more complicated. It is true that the appetites and passions of animals +have an ultimate object, but they are impelled to action by a desire +for immediate gratification only; but when we speak of an instinct, we +mean something more than a mere want or desire,--we have chiefly in +view the end beyond the blind instrumentality by which it is reached. + +When we watch the movements of a young bee, as it first goes forth from +its waxen cradle, we are forced to recognize an influence at work which +is unlike reason, and which is neither appetite nor any mechanical +principle of organic life. Rising upon the comb, and holding steadily +with its tiny feet, with admirable adroitness the young bee smooths its +wings for its first flight, and rubs its body with its fore legs and +antennae; then walking along the comb to the mouth of the hive, it +mounts into the air, flies forth into the fields, alights upon the +proper flowers, extracts their juices, collects their pollen, and, +kneading it into little balls, deposits them in the sacks upon its +feet; and then returning to its hive, it delivers up the honey and the +wax and the bread which it has gathered and elaborated. In the hive it +works the wax with its paws and feelers into an hexagonal cell with a +rhomboidal bottom, the three plates of which form such angles with each +other as require the least wax and space in the construction of the +cell. All these complex operations the bee performs as adroitly, on the +first morning of its life, as the most experienced workman in the hive. +The tyro gatherer sought the flowery fields upon untried wings, and +returned to its home from this first expedition with unerring flight by +the most direct course through the trackless air. + +This is one instance of that great class of actions which are allowed +on all hands to be strictly instinctive. In the fact, that the occult +faculties which urge the bee to make honey and construct geometrical +cells are in complete development when it first emerges from its cell, +we recognize one of the most striking characteristics of instinct,--its +existence prior to all experience or instruction. The insect tribes +furnish us with many instances in which the young being never sees its +parents, and therefore all possibility of its profiting from their +instructions or of its imitating their actions is cut off. The solitary +wasp, for example, is accustomed to construct a tunnelled nest in which +she deposits her eggs and then brings a number of living caterpillars +and places them in a hole which she has made above each egg; being very +careful to furnish just caterpillars enough to maintain the young worm +from the time of its exclusion from the egg till it can provide for +itself, and to place them so as to be readily accessible the moment +food is required. But what is most curious of all is the fact that the +wasp does not deposit the caterpillars unhurt, for thus they would +disturb or perhaps destroy the young; nor does she sting them to death, +for thus they would soon be in no state of proper preservation; but, as +if understanding these contingencies, she inflicts a disabling wound. +Yet the wasp does not feed upon caterpillars herself, nor has she ever +seen a wasp provide them for her future offspring. She has never seen a +worm such as will spring from her egg, nor can she know that her egg +will produce a worm; and besides, she herself will be dead long before +the unknown worm can be in existence. Therefore she works blindly; +without knowing that her work is to subserve any useful purpose, she +works to a purpose both definite and important; and her acts are +uniform with those of all solitary wasps that have lived before her or +that will live after her; so that we are compelled to refer these +untaught actions to some constant impulse connected with the special +organization of the wasp,--an innate tact, uniform throughout the +species, of which we, not possessing anything of the kind, can form +only a poor conception, but which we call instinct. + +There have been some philosophers, however, who have exercised their +ingenuity in tracing so-called instinctive actions to the operation of +experience. The celebrated Doctor Erasmus Darwin gave, as an +illustration of this view, his opinion that the young of animals know +how to swallow from their experience of swallowing _in utero_. Without +going into any refutation of this position, we would only remark, in +passing, that the act of swallowing is not an instinctive action at +all, but a purely mechanical one. Would not Doctor Darwin have rejoiced +greatly, if he could have brought to the support of his theory the +observation of our own great naturalist, Agassiz, who, knowing the +savage snap of one of the large, full-grown Testudinata, is said to +have asserted, that, under the microscope, he has seen the juvenile +turtle snapping precociously _in embryo_? + +But not only is instinct prior to all experience, it is even superior +to it, and often leads animals to disregard it,--the spontaneous +impulse which Nature has given them being their best guide. The +carrier-pigeon or the bird of passage, taken a long distance from home +by a circuitous route, trusting to this "pilot-sense," flies back in a +straight course; and the hound takes the shortest way home through +fields where he has never previously set foot. + +The existence of instinct prior to all experience or instruction, and +its perfection in the beginning, render cultivation and improvement not +only unnecessary, but impossible. As it is with the individual, so it +is with the race. One generation of the irrational tribes does not +improve upon the preceding or educate its successor. The web which you +watched the spider weaving in your open window last summer, carefully +measuring off each radius of her wheel and each circular mesh by one of +her legs, was just such a web as the spider wove of old when she was +pronounced to be "little upon the earth, yet exceeding wise." + +This incapacity for education is what so widely separates instinct from +the rational powers of man. Man gathers knowledge and transmits it from +generation to generation. He is not born with a ready skill, but with a +capacity for it. His mind is formed destitute of all connate knowledge, +that it may acquire the knowledge of all things. "Man's imperfection at +his nativity is his perfection; while the perfection of brutes at their +nativity is their imperfection." No rational being has ever arrived at +such perfection that he cannot still improve; he can travel on from one +attainment to another in a perpetual progress of improvement. He is, +moreover, free to choose his own path of action; while the being of +instinct is governed by a power which is not subject to his will, and +which confines him to a narrow path which he cannot leave. But +instinct, within its narrow limits, in many cases quite transcends +reason in its achievements. + + "Man's attainments in his own concerns, + Matched with the expertness of the brutes in theirs, + Are ofttimes vanquished and thrown far behind." + +Perhaps man has never made a structure as perfect in all its +adaptations as the honeycomb. Yet when Virgil spoke of the belief that +bees have a portion of the mind divine, nothing was known of the +wonderful mathematical properties of this beautiful fabric; and the +demonstration of them which has been made within the present century is +beyond the comprehension of far the larger part of mankind. If the bee +comprehended the problem which it has been working out for these many +ages before man was able to solve it, would its intellectual powers be +inferior to his in degree, if they were the same in kind? The +water-spider weaves for herself a cocoon, makes it impervious to water, +and fastens it by loose threads to the leaves of plants growing at the +bottom of a still pool. She carries down air in a bag made for this +purpose, till the water is expelled from the cell through the opening +below. The spider lived quite dry in her little air-chamber beneath the +water ages before the diving-bell was invented; but that she understood +anything of the doctrines of space and gravity, no one would venture to +assert. + +It has been the belief of some philosophers, and poets as well, that +man has taken the hint for some of the arts he now practises from the +brute creation. Democritus represents him as having derived the arts of +weaving and sewing from the spider, and the art of building of tempered +clay from the swallow; and we also read in Pliny's "Natural History," +that the nest of the swallow suggested to Toxius, the son of Coelus, +the invention of mortar. According to Lucretius, men learned music from +the song of birds, and Pope describes them as learning from the mole to +plough, from the nautilus to sail, and from bees and ants to form a +political community. Perhaps we were behind the beaver in felling +timber, in leading dams across rivers, and in building cabin +villages,--behind the wasp in making paper, and behind the squirrel and +spider in crossing streams upon rafts. So, if man had needed any +example of war and violence and wrong, he had only to go to the +ant-hill and see the red ants invade the camps of the black and bear +off their little negro prisoners into slavery. + +Whatever truth there may be in these ideas, it is at least conceivable +that man may have profited from the example of these animals. He has +copied from patterns set by Nature in tree and leaf and flower and +plant; he has formed the Gothic arch and column from the trunks and +interlacing boughs of the lofty avenue, the Corinthian capital from the +acanthus foliage embracing a basket, and classic urns and vases from +flowers. But no one could describe one species of the brute world as +having derived a similar lesson from another, and much less from trees +and plants. No species of animals has learnt anything new even from +man, except within the narrow sphere of domestication. + +It is only in particulars that instinct appears superior to reason in +the works it achieves. When an animal is taken, ever so little, out of +the ordinary circumstances in which its instincts act, it is apt to +behave very foolishly. If a woodpecker's egg is hatched by a bird which +builds an open nest upon the branches of a tree, when the young bird is +grown large enough to shuffle about in the nest, induced by its +instinct to suppose that its nest is in a hole walled round on all +sides by the tree, with a long, narrow entrance down from above, it +does not see that it has been inducted into the open nest of another +bird, and is sure to tumble out. The bee and the ant, in a few +particulars, show wonderful sagacity; but remove them from the narrow +compass of their instincts, and all their wisdom is at an end. That +animals are so wise in a few things and so wanting in wisdom in all +others shows that they are endowed with a mental principle essentially +of a different nature from that of the human race. "They do many things +even better than ourselves," says Descartes; "but this does not prove +them to be endowed with reason, for this would prove them to have more +reason than we have, and that they should excel us in all other things +also"; for reason can act not only in one direction, but in all. + +But it will be said that instinct is not invariable,--that it often +displays a capacity of accommodating itself, like reason, to +circumstances, and is therefore a principle the same in kind with +it,--or else that the animal has something of the rational faculty +superadded to the instinctive. But does the animal make these +variations in its conduct from a true perception of their meaning and +purpose? + +It is very natural for us to ascribe to reason those actions of other +animals which would be ascribable to reason, if performed by man. "If," +says Keller, (an old German writer,) "the fly be enabled to choose the +place which suits her best for the deposition of her eggs, (as, for +instance, in my sugar-basin, in which I placed a quantity of decaying +wheat,) she takes a correct survey of every part and selects that in +which she believes her ova will be the best preserved and her young +ones well cared for." The fly, in this instance, apparently exercises +an intelligent choice; but does any one doubt that the selection she +makes is determined wholly by a blind, uncalculating instinct? The +beaver selects a site for his dam at a place where the depth, width, +and rapidity of the stream are most fit. There is a tree upon the bank, +and food and materials for his work in the vicinity. If a man should +attempt to build a beaver's dam, he would abstractly consider all these +elements of fitness. The outward manifestations of the quality of +abstraction are equally observable in either case. But we must not +hastily conclude, because the beaver in one instance acts in a manner +apparently reasonable, that he has any reason of his own; for, when we +come to study the habits of this animal, we find that he displays all +the characteristics of the instinctive principle. If animals are +endowed with instincts which apparently act so much like reason in the +ordinary course of their operations, we should not at once conclude +that there is any need of endowing them with a modicum of reason to +account for their deviations from this course, which do not outwardly +resemble the acts of reason any more strongly. And besides, it is said, +that, if we refer the variations to an intelligent principle, we must +refer the ordinary conduct to the same principle. To use an old +illustration,--if a bird is reasonable and intelligent, when, on +perceiving the swollen waters of the stream approach her half-finished +nest, she builds higher up the bank, she was intelligent while making +her first nest, and was always intelligent; for how otherwise, it is +asked, could she know when to lay down instinct and take up reason? + +Instinct aims at certain definite ends; but these ends cannot always be +reached by the same means, especially when places and circumstances are +not the same. Accommodation is necessary, or it could not always +produce the effects for which it is intended. Would the instinct of the +spider be complete, if, after it has guided her to spin a web so neat +and trim and regular, it did not also lead her to repair her broken +snare, when the cords have been sundered by the struggles of some +powerful captive? But this pliancy of the spider's instinct is no more +remarkable than the contingent operation of the instincts of many +species of animals. "It is remarkable," says Kirby, "that many of the +insects which are occasionally observed to emigrate are not usually +social animals, but seem to congregate, like swallows, merely for the +purpose of emigration." When certain rare emergencies occur, which +render it necessary for the insects to migrate, a contingent instinct +develops itself, and renders an unsocial species gregarious. + +It is probable that most of our domesticated species, exhibiting as +they do in that condition attainments foreign to their natural habits +and faculties in a wild state, were endowed with provisional instincts +with a view to their association with man. But generally the docility +of animals does not extend to attainments which are radically different +from their habits and faculties in a wild state. Casual acquirements, +which have no relation to their exigencies in their natural condition, +never become hereditary, and are not, therefore, instinctive. A young +pointer-dog, which has never been in the fields before, will not only +point at a covey of partridges, but will remain motionless, like a +well-trained dog. The fact that the sagacity of the pointer is +hereditary shows that it is the development of an instinctive +propensity; for simple knowledge is not transmitted by blood from one +generation to another. We have heard of a pig that pointed game, and of +another that was learned in letters; but we ascertain in every such +instance that their foreign acquirements do not reappear in their +progeny, but end with the pupils of the time being. The pig's +peculiarity of pointing did not arise from the development of a +provisional instinct, because it does not become hereditary; but the +same act in the pointer-dog is instinctive,--for, when once brought out +by associating with man, it has remained with the breed, being a part +of the animal's nature, which existed in embryo till it was developed +by a companionship with man, for whose use this faculty was alone +intended. + +Although the animals which especially display these exceptional or +contingent instincts are those which are fitted for the use and comfort +of man and may be domesticated, it is doubtless true that many other +species are in some degree provided with them, and that they thus have +a plasticity in their nature which enables them to exercise, under +particular circumstances, unlooked-for attention, foresight, and +caution. And besides, it is only in analogy with the laws of the +physical world that instinct should admit of a slightly diversified +application. + +It is to be noticed in this connection that many animals are gifted +with a wonderful sensibility of the senses,--the action of which is +sometimes mistaken not only for the action of instinct, but for that of +reason also. The acuteness of the sense of smell in the dog, which +enables him to trace the steps of his master for miles through crowded +streets by the infinitesimal odor which his footsteps left upon the +pavement, is quite beyond our conception. Equally incomprehensible to +us are the keenness of sight and wide range of vision of the eagle, +which enable him to discover the rabbit nipping the clover amid the +thick grass at a distance at which a like object would be to us +altogether imperceptible. The chameleon is enabled to seize the little +insects upon which it feeds by darting forth its wonderfully +constructed tongue with such rapidity and with such delicacy of +perception that "wonder-loving sages" have told us that it feeds upon +the air. + +It has been the belief of some observers that some animals have senses +by which they are enabled to take cognizance of things which are not +revealed directly to our senses. It is easy enough to conceive of +beings endowed with a more perfect perception of the external world, +both in its condition and the number of objects it presents, than we +have, by means of other organs of outward perception. Voltaire, in one +of his philosophical romances, represents an inhabitant of one of the +planets of the Dog-Star as inquiring of the Secretary of the Academy of +Sciences in the planet of Saturn, at which he had recently arrived in a +journey through the heavens, how many senses the men of his globe had; +and when the Academician answered, that they had seventy-two, and were +every day complaining of the smallness of the number, he of the +Dog-Star replied, that in his globe they had very near one thousand +senses, and yet with all these they felt continually a sort of listless +inquietude and vague desire which told them how very imperfect they +were. But we shall not travel so far as this for our illustrations. We +have all seen in the fields and about our houses birds and insects +which seem to take cognizance of the electric state of the atmosphere; +and we have learnt to feel quite sure, when, early in the morning of a +summer's day, we see fresh piles of sand around the holes of the ants, +that a storm is approaching, although the sky may as yet be cloudless +and the air perfectly serene. In like manner birds perceive the +approach of rain, and are all busy oiling and smoothing their feathers +in preparation for it; and then, before the clouds break away, they +come out from their retreats and joyfully hail the return of fair +weather. So, by some analogous sense, the birds of passage are informed +of the approach of winter and the return of spring. + +It is doubtless true that in some animals the senses are immediately +connected with instincts which assist and extend their operation. +Metaphysicians and physiologists are agreed that the perception of +distance is an acquired knowledge. The sense of sight by itself +principally makes us conversant with extension only. The painting upon +the retina of the eye presents all external things with flat surfaces +and at the same distance. Before we can have any correct ideas of +distance, we must be able to compare the result of the sense of sight +with the result of the sense of feeling. By experience we in time come +to judge something of distance by the size of the image which an object +makes upon the retina, but more by our acquired knowledge of the form +and color of external things. It is true that the eyes of many animals +are constructed like those of man; but they do not learn to judge of +distance by the same slow process. It is known from experiment that +some animals have a perfect conception of distance at the moment of +their birth; and the young of the greater part of animals possess some +instinctive perception of this kind. "A flycatcher, for example, just +come out of its shell, has been seen to peck at an insect with an aim +as perfect as if it had been all its life engaged in learning the art." +And so when the hen takes her chickens out into the field for the first +time to feed, they seem to perceive very distinctly the relative +distance of all objects about them, and will run by the straightest +course when she calls them to pick up the little grains which she +points out to them. Without this instinctive power of determining the +relative distance and figure of objects, the young of most animals +would perish before their sense of sight could be perfected, as ours +is, by experience. + +We have now noticed the chief characteristics of instinct: its +existence prior to all experience or instruction; its incapacity of +improvement, except within the narrow sphere of domestication; its +limitation to a few objects, and the certainty of its action within +these limits; the distinctness and permanence of its character for each +species; and its constant hereditary nature. In regard to the +uniformity of instinct throughout each species, it may be further +remarked, that this seems to be very constantly preserved in the lowest +divisions of the animal kingdom. Among the Articulates, also, instinct +appears almost unvarying; and it is in this department among the insect +tribes that the most striking manifestations of instinct are to be met +with. When we arrive among the higher orders of the Vertebrates, we +find in some species that each individual is capable of some +modification of its actions, according to the particular circumstances +in which it finds itself placed. But throughout the long series of +animals, from the polype to man, there is instinctive action more or +less in amount in every species, with, perhaps, the exception of man +alone. The variety of that endowment, which is adapted to definite +objects, means, and results, in each particular one of the five hundred +thousand species estimated to be now living, may well call forth our +admiration and astonishment at the magnitude and extent of the +prospective contrivance of the Creator. How various the relations of +all these animals to each other and to the inanimate world about them! +and yet how admirable the adjustments of that immaterial principle +which regulates their lives, so as to secure the well-being of each and +the symmetry of the general plan! + +There has been much diversity of opinion as to the existence of +instincts in the human species,--some making the whole mind of man +nothing but a bundle of instincts, and others wholly denying him any +endowment of this nature, while others still have given him a complex +mental nature, and have, moreover, declared that intellect and instinct +in him are so interwoven that it is impossible to tell where the one +begins and the other ends. But we believe, with the author of "Ancient +Metaphysics," that in Nature, however intimately things are blended +together and run into each other like different shades of the same +color, the species of things are absolutely distinct, and that there +are certain fixed boundaries which separate them, however difficult it +may be for us to find them out. In regard to intelligence and instinct, +the two principles seem to us to be not more distinctly and widely +separated in their nature than in the provinces of their operation. + +Sir Henry Holland, who believes that intelligence and instinct are +blended in man, admits that instincts, properly so called, form the +_minimum_ in relation to reason, and are difficult of definition from +their connection with his higher mental functions, but that, wherever +we can truly distinguish them, they are the same in principle and +manner of operation as those of other animals. He makes one +distinction, however, between the instincts of man and those of lower +animals,--that in the former they have more of individual character, +are far less numerous and definite in relation to the physical +conditions of life, and more various and extensive in regard to his +moral nature. But, on the other hand, Sir B.C. Brodie seems to be of +opinion that the majority of instincts belonging to man resemble those +of the inferior animals, inasmuch as they relate to the preservation of +the individual and the continuation of the species; and that when man +first began to exist, and for some generations afterwards, the range of +his instincts was much more extensive than it is at the present time. +When authorities so eminent as these differ so widely upon the +question, to what human instincts relate, we see at least that it is +very difficult to define and distinguish these instincts, and we may be +led to doubt their existence at all. Of that marvellous endowment which +guides the bee to fabricate its cells according to laws of the most +rigid mathematical exactness, and guides the swallow in its long flight +to its winter home, we agree with Professor Bowen, that there is no +trace whatever in human nature. The actions of man which have been +loosely described as instinctive belong for the most part to those +classes of actions which we have already shown to be in no proper sense +of the word instinctive, that is, those concerned in the appetites and +in the functions of organic life. There are also numerous automatic and +habitual actions which are liable to be mistaken for instincts. Some +have included in the category of instincts those intuitive perceptions +and primary beliefs which are a part of our constitution, and are the +foundation of all our knowledge. But these propensities of thought and +feeling are of a higher nature than mere instincts; they are immutable +laws of the human mind, which time and physical changes cannot reach: +they do not seem to depend upon the physical organization, but to be +inherent in the soul itself. If these are instincts, then, why are not +all the ways in which the mind exerts itself instincts also, and reason +itself an instinct? + +There is hardly any human action, feeling, or belief, which has not +been ranged under the term instinct. Hunger and thirst have been called +instincts; so have the faculty of speech, the use of the right hand in +preference to the left, the love of society, the desire to possess +property, the desire to avoid danger and prolong life, and the belief +in supernatural agencies, upon which is engrafted the religious +sentiment. We cannot, in this paper, attempt to analyze these and many +other similar examples which have been given as illustrations of +instinct in treatises of high repute, and show that they do not at all +come within that class of actions which we contrast with reason. In +regard to those actions of early infancy which have often been adduced +as illustrations of instinct, the physiologists of the present day are +agreed that they are as mechanical as the act of breathing. To place +these upon the same level with the complex and wonderful operations of +the bee, the ant, and the beaver, is to admit that the instincts of the +latter are merely reflex actions following impressions on the nerves of +sense. + +On the other hand, whether the animals inferior to man ever exercise +any conscious process of reasoning is a question which has often been +discussed, and upon which there is no general agreement. Instances of +the remarkable sagacity of some domesticated animals are often adduced +as proofs of reasoning on their part. Some of these wonderful feats may +be traced to the unconscious faculty of imitation, which even in man +often appears as a blind propensity, although he exercises an active +and rational imitation as well. Sometimes the mere association of +ideas, or the perception by animals that one thing is accompanied by +another or that one event follows another, is mistaken for that higher +principle which in man judges, reflects, and understands causes and +effects. When the dog sees his master take down his gun, his +blandishments show that he anticipates a renewal of the pleasures of +the chase. He does not reflect upon past pleasures; but, seeing the gun +in his master's hand, a confused idea of the feelings that were +associated with the gun in times past is called up. So the ox and the +horse learn to associate certain movements with the voice and gesture +of man. And so a fish, about the most stupid of all animals, comes to a +certain spot at a certain signal to be fed. These combinations are +quite elementary. This is quite another thing from that reciprocal +action of ideas on each other by which man perceives the relations of +things, understands the laws of cause and effect, and not only forms +judgments of the past, but draws conclusions which are laws for the +future. We find in the brute no power of attending to and arranging its +thoughts,--no power of calling up the past at will and reflecting upon +it. The animal has the faculty of memory, and, when this is awakened, +the object remembered may be accompanied by a train or attendance of +accessory notions which have been connected with the object in the +animal's past experience. But it never seems to be able to exercise the +purely voluntary act of recollection. It is not capable of comparing +one thing with another, so far as we can judge. If the animal could +exercise any true act of comparison, there would be no limit to the +exercise of it, and the animal would be an intelligent being; for the +result of a simple act of comparison is judgment, and reasoning is only +a double act of comparison. We have the authority of Sir William +Hamilton for saying that the highest function of mind is nothing higher +than comparison. Hence comes thought,--hence, the power of discovering +truth,--and hence, the mind's highest dignity, in being able to ascend +unassisted to the knowledge of a God. Those who hold that the minds of +the inferior animals are essentially of the same nature with that of +the human race, and differ only in degree, should reflect that the +distinguishing attribute of the human mind does not admit of degrees. +The faculty of comparison, in all its various applications, must be +either wholly denied or else wholly attributed. Hence, Pope is not +philosophical, when he applies the epithet "half-reasoning" to the +elephant. "As reasoning," says Coleridge, "consists wholly in a man's +power of seeing whether any two ideas which happen to be in his mind +are or are not in contradiction with each other, it follows of +necessity, not only that all men have reason, but that every individual +has it in the same degree." We gather also from the same acute writer +that in the simple determination, "black is not white," all the powers +are implied that distinguish man from other animals. If, then, the +brute reasoned at all, he would be a rational being, and would improve +and gain knowledge by experience; and, moreover, he would be a moral +agent, accountable for his conduct. "Would not the brute," asks an able +writer in the "Zoölogical Journal," "take a survey of his lower powers, +and would he not, as man does, either rightly use or pervert them, at +his pleasure?" + +It has been suggested by some one, that, by the law of merciful +adaptation, which extends throughout the universe, thought would not be +imprisoned and pent up forever in an intelligence wanting the power of +expression. But it is also to be noticed that the want of an articulate +language or a system of general signs puts it out of the power of +animals to perform a single act of reasoning. The use of language to +communicate wants and feelings is not peculiar to "word-dividing men," +though enjoyed by them in a much higher degree than by other animals. +Doubtless every species of social animals has some kind of language, +however imperfect it may be. "We never watch the busy workers of the +ant-hill," says Acheta Domestics, (the author of "Episodes of +Insect-Life,") "stopping as they encounter and laying their heads +together, without being pretty certain that they are saying to each +other something quite as significant as 'Fine day.'" And when the +morning wakes the choral song of the birds, they seem to be telling +each other of their happiness. But though animals have a language +appropriate to the expression of their sensations and emotions, they +have no words, "those shadows of the soul, those living sounds." Words +are symbols of thoughts, and may be considered as a revelation of the +human mind. It is this use of language as an instrument of thought, as +a system of general signs, which, according to Bishop Whately, +distinguishes the language of man from that of the brute; and the same +eminent authority declares that without such a system of general signs +the reasoning process could not be conducted. + +It is true, that we often see in the inferior animals manifestations of +deductions of intellect similar to those of the human mind,--only that +they are not made by the animals themselves, but for them and above +their conscious perception. "When a bee," says Dr. Reid, "makes its +combs so geometrically, the geometry is not in the bee, but in that +great Geometrician who made the bee, and made all things in number, +weight, and measure." Since the animal is not conscious of the +intelligence and design which are manifested in its instincts, which it +obeys and works out, the conscious life of the individual must be +wholly a life within the senses. The senses alone can give the animal +only an empirical knowledge of the world of its observation. The senses +may register and report facts, but they can never arrive at an +understanding of necessary truths; the source of this kind of knowledge +is the rational mind, which has an active disposition to draw out these +infallible laws and eternal truths from its own bosom. The main +tendency of the rational mind is not towards mere phenomena, but their +scientific explanation. It seeks to trace effects, as presented to us +by the senses, back to the causes which produced them; or contemplating +things wholly metaphysical, it seeks to follow out the laws which it +has itself discovered, till they have gone through a thousand probable +contingencies and lost themselves in numberless results. It is on +account of this capacity and tendency of the human mind to look through +fact to law, through individuals to classes, through effects to causes, +through phenomena to general principles, that the late Dr. Burnap was +led to declare, in a very interesting course of lectures which he +delivered before the Lowell Institute a few years since, that he +considered the first characteristic difference between the highest +species of animals and the lowest race of man to be a capacity of +science. But is not the whole edifice of human science built upon the +simple faculty of comparison? + +This is the ultimate analysis of all the highest manifestations of the +human mind, whether of judgment, or reason, or intellect, or common +sense, or the power of generalization, or the capacity of science. We +have already quoted Hamilton to this effect, and we, moreover, have his +authority for saying that the faculty of discovering truth, by a +comparison of the notions we have obtained by observation and +experience, is the attribute by which man is distinguished as a +creature higher than the animals. We might also cite Leibnitz to the +effect that men differ from animals in being capable of the formation +of necessary judgments, and hence capable of demonstrative sciences. + +But notwithstanding it seems so apparent that what is customarily +called reason is the distinguishing endowment which makes man the +"paragon of animals," we very often meet with attempts to set up some +other distinction. We cannot here go into an examination of these +various theories, or even allude to them specially. We will, however, +briefly refer to a view which was recently advanced in one of our +leading periodicals, inasmuch as it makes prominent a distinction which +we wish to notice, although it seems to us to be only subordinate to +the distinguishing attribute of the human mind which we have already +pointed out. It is said that self-consciousness is what makes the great +difference between man and other animals; that the latter do not +separate themselves consciously from the world in which they exist; and +that, though they have emotions, impulses, pains, and pleasures, every +change of feeling in them takes at once the form of an outward change +either in place or position. It is not intended, however, to be said +that they have no conscious perception of external things. We cannot +possibly conceive of an animal without this condition of consciousness. +A consciousness of an outward world is an essential quality of the +animal soul; this distinguishes the very lowest form of animal life +from the vegetable world; and hence it cannot possibly be, as has been +suggested by some, that there are any animate beings which have no +endowments superior to those which belong to plants. The plant is not +conscious of an outward world, when it sends out its roots to obtain +the nourishment which is fitting for itself; but the polype, which is +fixed with hundreds of its kind on the same coral-stock, and is able +only to move its mouth and tentacles, is aware of the presence of the +little craw-fish upon which it feeds, and throws out its lasso-cells +and catches it. The world of which the polype has any perception is not +a very large one. The outer world of a bird is vastly greater; and man +knows a world without, which is immeasurably large beyond that of which +any other animal is conscious, because both his physical organs and his +mental faculties bring him into far the most diversified and intimate +relations with all created things. He sees in every flower of the +garden and every beast of the field, in the air and in the sea, in the +earth beneath his feet and in the starry heavens above him, countless +meanings which are hidden to all the living world besides. To him there +is a world which has existed and a world that will exist. "Man," says +Protagoras, "is the measure of the universe." But he has a greater +dignity in being able to apprehend the world of thought within. "Whilst +I study to find how I am a microcosm or little world," says Sir Thomas +Browne, "I find myself something more than the great." Man can make +himself an object to himself and gain the deepest insight into the +workings of his own mind. This internal perception seems never to be +developed in other animals. We have already observed that they have no +thought of their own. The intelligence and design which they often +manifest in their actions are not the workings of their own minds. The +intelligence and design belong to Him who impressed the thought upon +the animal's mind and unceasingly sustains it in action. They +themselves are not conscious of any thought, but only of "certain dim +imperious influences" which urge them on. They are conscious of +feelings and desires and impulses. We could not conceive of the +existence of these affections in animals without their having an +immediate knowledge of them. Even "the function of voluntary motion," +says Hamilton, "which is a function of the animal soul in the +Peripatetic doctrine, ought not, as is generally done, to be excluded +from the phenomena of consciousness and mind." The conscious life of +the irrational tribes seems, then, to be a life almost wholly within +the senses. They have nothing of that higher conscious personality +which belongs to man and is an attribute of a free intellect. + +A general statement of the points made out in the foregoing inquiry +will more clearly show our conception of the nature and limitations of +instinct. First, we limited the word instinct so as to exclude all +those automatic and mechanical actions concerned in the simple +functions of organic life,--as also to exclude the operations of the +passions and appetites, since these seek no other end than their own +gratification. Then it was shown that instinct exists prior to all +experience or memory; that it comes to an instant or speedy perfection, +and is not capable of any improvement or cultivation; that its objects +are precise and limited; that within its proper sphere it often appears +as the highest wisdom, but beyond this is only foolishness; that it +uses complex and laborious means to provide for the future, without any +prescience of it; that it performs important and rational operations +which the animal neither intends nor knows anything about; that it is +permanent for each species, and is transmitted as an hereditary gift of +Nature; and that the few variations in its action result from the +development of provisional faculties, or from blind imitation. We were +led to conclude that instinct is not a free and conscious possession of +the animal itself. We found some points of resemblance between +intelligence in man and instinct in other animals,--but at the same +time points of dissimilarity, such as to make the two principles appear +radically unlike. + +This brief summary presents nearly all that we can satisfactorily make +out respecting instinct; and at the same time it shows how much is +still wanting to a complete solution of all the questions which it +involves. And then there are higher mysteries connected with the +subject, which we do not attempt to penetrate,--mysteries in regard to +the creation and the maintenance of instinctive action: whether it be +the result of particular external conditions acting on the organization +of animals, or whether, as Sir Isaac Newton thought, the Deity himself +is virtually the active and present moving principle in them;--and +mysteries, too, about the future of the brute world: whether, as +Southey wrote, + + "There is another world +For all that live and move,--a better world." + +If we ever find a path which seems about to lead us up to these +mysteries, it speedily closes against us, and leaves us without any +rational hope of attaining their solution. + + + + +MY OWN STORY. + + +"Oh, tell her, brief is life, but love is long." + +"What have I got that you would like to have? Your letters are tied up +and directed to you. Mother will give them to you, when she finds them +in my desk. I could execute my last will myself, if it were not for +giving her additional pain. I will leave everything for her to do +except this: take these letters, and when I am dead, give them to +Frank. There is not a reproach in them, and they are full of wit; but +he won't laugh, when he reads them again. Choose now, what will you +have of mine?" + +"Well," I said, "give me the gold pen-holder that Redmond sent you +after he went away." + +Laura rose up in her bed, and seized me by my shoulder, and shook me, +crying between her teeth, "You love him! you love him!" Then she fell +back on her pillow. "Oh, if he were here now! He went, I say, to marry +the woman he was engaged to before he saw you. He was nearly mad, +though, when he went. The night mother gave them their last party, when +you wore your black lace dress, and had pink roses in your hair, +somehow I hardly knew you that night. I was in the little parlor, +looking at the flowers on the mantelpiece, when Redmond came into the +room, and, rushing up to me, bent down and whispered, 'Did you see her +go? I shall see her no more; she is walking on the beach with Maurice.' +He sighed so loud that I felt embarrassed; for I was afraid that Harry +Lothrop, who was laughing and talking in a corner with two or three +men, would hear him; but he was not aware that they were there. I did +not know what to do, unless I ridiculed him. 'Follow them,' I said. +'Step on her flounces, and Maurice will have a chance to humiliate you +with some of his cutting, exquisite politeness.' He never answered a +word, and I would not look at him, but presently I understood that +there were tears falling. Oh, you need not look towards me with such +longing; he does not cry for you now. They seemed to bring him to his +senses. He stamped his foot; but the carpet was thick; it only made a +thud. Then he buttoned his coat, giving himself a violent twist as he +did it, and looked at me with such a haughty composure, that, if I had +been you, I should have trembled in my shoes. He walked across the room +toward the group of men.--'Ah, Harry,' he said, 'where is Maurice?' +'Don't you know?' they all cried out; 'he has gone as Miss Denham's +escort?' 'By Jove!' said Harry Lothrop,--'Miss Denham was as handsome +as Cleopatra, to-night. Little Maurice is now singing to her. Did he +take his guitar under his arm? It was here; for I saw a green bag near +his hat, when we came in to-night.' Just then we heard the twang of a +guitar under the window, and Redmond, in spite of himself, could not +help a grimace.--Is it not a droll world?" said Laura, after a pause; +"things come about so contrariwise." + +She laughed such a shrill laugh, that I shuddered to hear it, and I +fell a-crying. "But," she continued, "I am going, I trust, where a key +will be given me for this cipher." + +Tears came into her eyes, and an expression of gentleness filled her +face. + +"It is strange," she said, "when I know that I must die, that I should +be so moved by earthly passions and so interested in earthly +speculations. My heart supplicates God for peace and patience, and at +the same moment my thoughts float away in dreams of the past. I shall +soon be wiser; I am convinced of that. The doctrine of compensation +extends beyond this world; if it be not so, why should I die at twenty, +with all this mysterious suffering of soul? You must not wonder over +me, when I am gone, and ask yourself, 'Why did she live?' Believe that +I shall know why I lived, and let it suffice you and encourage you to +go on bravely. Live and make your powers felt. Your nature is affluent, +and you may yet learn how to be happy." + +She sighed softly, and turned her face to the wall, and moved her +fingers as sick people do. She waited for me to cease weeping: my tears +rained over my face so that I could neither see nor speak. + +After I had become calmer, she moved toward me again and took my hand: +her own trembled. + +"It is for the last time, Margaret. My good, skilful father gives me no +medicine now. My sisters have come home; they sit about the house like +mourners, with idle hands, and do not speak with each other. It is +terrible, but it will soon be over." + +She pulled at my hand for me to rise. I staggered up, and met her eyes. +Mine were dry now. + +"Do not come here again. It will be enough for my family to look at my +coffin. I feel better to think you will be spared the pain." + +I nodded. + +"Good-bye!" + +A sob broke in her throat. + +"Margaret,"--she spoke like a little child,--"I am going to heaven." + +I kissed her, but I was blind and dumb. I lifted her half out of the +bed. She clasped her frail arms round me, and hid her face in my bosom. + +"Oh, I love you!" she said. + +Her heart gave such a violent plunge, that I felt it, and laid her back +quickly. She waved her hand to me with a determined smile. I reached +the door, still looking at her, crossed the dark threshold, and passed +out of the house. The bold sunshine smote my face, and the insolent +wind played about me. The whole earth was as brilliant and joyous as if +it had never been furrowed by graves. + +Laura lived some days after my interview with her. She sent me no +message, and I did not go to see her. From the garret-windows of our +house, which was half a mile distant from Laura's, I could see the +windows of the room where she was lying. Three tall poplar-trees +intervened in the landscape. I thought they stood motionless so that +they might not intercept my view while I watched the house of death. +One morning I saw that the blinds had been thrown back and the windows +opened. I knew then that Laura was dead. + +The day after the funeral I gave Frank his letters, his miniature, and +the locket which held a ring of his hair. + +"Is there a fire?" he asked, when I gave them to him; "I want to burn +these things." + +I went to another room with him. + +"I'll leave everything here to-day; and may I never see this cursed +place again! Did she die, do you know, because I held her promise that +she would be my wife?" + +He threw the papers into the grate, and crowded them down with his +boot, and watched them till the last blackened flake disappeared. He +then took from his neck a hair chain, and threw that into the fire +also. + +"It is all done now," he said. + +He shook my hand with a firm grasp and left me. + +A month later Laura's mother sent me a package containing two bundles +of letters. It startled me to see that the direction was dated before +she was taken ill:--"To be given to Margaret in case of my death. +June 5th, 1848." They were my letters, and those which she had +received from Harry Lothrop. On this envelop was written, "Put these +into the black box he gave you." The gold pen-holder came into my hands +also. _Departure_ was engraved on the handle, and Laura's initials were +cut in an emerald in its top. The black box was an ebony, gold-plated +toy, which Harry Lothrop had given me at the same time Redmond gave +Laura the pen-holder. It was when they went away, after a whole +summer's visit in our little town, the year before. I locked the +letters in the black box, and, + + "Whether from reason or from impulse only," + +I know not, but I was prompted to write a line to Harry Lothrop. "Do +not," I said, "write Laura any more letters. Those you have already +written to her are in my keeping, for she is dead. Was it not a +pleasant summer we passed together? The second autumn is already at +hand: time flies the same, whether we are dull or gay. For all this +period what remains except the poor harvest of a few letters?" + +I received in answer an incoherent and agitated letter. What was the +matter with Laura? he asked. He had not heard from her for months. Had +any rupture occurred between her and her friend Frank? Did I suppose +she was ever unhappy? He was shocked at the news, and said he must come +and learn the particulars of the event. He thanked me for my note, and +begged me to believe how sincere was his friendship for my poor friend. + +"Redmond," he continued, "is, for the present, attached to the engineer +corps to which I belong, and he has offered to take charge of my +business while I am a day or two absent. He is in my room at this +moment, holding your note in his hand, and appears painfully +disturbed." + +It was now a little past the time of year when Redmond and Harry +Lothrop had left us,--early autumn. After their departure, Laura and I +had been sentimental enough to talk over the events of their visit. +Recalling these associations, we created an illusion of pleasure which +of course could not last. Harry Lothrop wrote to Laura, but the +correspondence declined and died. As time passed on, we talked less and +less of our visitors, and finally ceased to speak of them. Neither of +us knew or suspected the other of any deep or lasting feeling toward +the two friends. Laura knew Redmond better than I did; at least, she +saw him oftener; in fact, she knew both in a different way. They had +visited her alone; while I had met them almost entirely in society. I +never found so much time to spare as she seemed to have; for everybody +liked her, and everybody sought her. As often as we had talked over our +acquaintance, she was wary of speaking of Redmond. Her last +conversation with me revealed her thoughts, and awakened feelings which +I thought I had buffeted down. The tone of Harry Lothrop's note +perplexed me, and I found myself drifting back into an old state of +mind I had reason to dread. + +As I said, the autumn had come round. Its quiet days, its sombre +nights, filled my soul with melancholy. The lonesome moan of the sea +and the waiting stillness of the woods were just the same a year ago; +but Laura was dead, and Nature grieved me. Yet none of us are in one +mood long, and at this very time there were intervals when I found +something delicious in life, either in myself or the atmosphere. + + "Moreover, something is or seems + That touches me with mystic gleams." + +A golden morning, a starry night, the azure round of the sky, the +undulating horizon of sea, the blue haze which rose and fell over the +distant hills, the freshness of youth, the power of beauty,--all gave +me deep voluptuous dreams. + +I can afford to confess that I possessed beauty; for half my faults and +miseries arose from the fact of my being beautiful. I was not vain, but +as conscious of my beauty as I was of that of a flower, and sometimes +it intoxicated me. For, in spite of the comforting novels of the Jane +Eyre school, it is hardly possible to set an undue value upon beauty; +it defies ennui. + +As I expected, Harry Lothrop came to see me. The sad remembrance of +Laura's death prevented any ceremony between us; we met as old +acquaintances, of course, although we had never conversed together half +an hour without interruption. I began with the theme of Laura's illness +and death, and the relation which she had held toward me. All at once I +discovered, without evidence, that he was indifferent to what I was +saying; but I talked on mechanically, and like a phantasm the truth +came to my mind. The real man was there,--not the one I had carelessly +looked at and known through Laura. + +I became silent. + +He twisted his fingers in the fringe of my scarf, which had fallen off, +and I watched them. + +"Why," I abruptly asked, "have I not known you before?" + +He let go the fringe, and folded his hands, and in a dreamy voice +replied,-- + +"Redmond admires you." + +"What a pity!" I said. "And you,--you admire me, or yourself, just now; +which?" + +He flushed slightly, but continued with a bland voice, which irritated +and interested me. + +"All that time I was so near you, and you scarcely saw me; what a +chance I had to study you! Your friend was intelligent and sympathetic, +so we struck a league of friendship: I could dare so much with her, +because I knew that she was engaged to marry Mr. Ballard. I own that I +have been troubled about her since I went away. How odd it is that I am +here alone with you in this room! how many times I have wished it! I +liked you best here; and while absent, the remembrance of it has been +inseparable from the remembrance of you,--a picture within a picture. I +know all that the room contains,--the white vases, and the wire +baskets, with pots of Egyptian lilies and damask roses, the books bound +in green and gold, the engravings of nymphs and fauns, the crimson bars +in the carpet, the flowers on the cushions, and, best of all, the +arched window and its low seat. But I had promised myself never to see +you: it was all I could do for Laura. She is dead, and I am here." + +I rose and walked to the window, and looked out on the misty sea, and +felt strangely. + +"Another lover," I thought,--"and Redmond's friend, and Laura's. But it +all belongs to the comedy we play." + +He came to where I stood. + +"I know you so well," he said,--"your pride, your self-control, even +your foibles: but they attract one, too. You did not escape heart-whole +from Redmond's influence. He is not married yet, but he will be; he is +a chivalrous fellow. It was a desperate matter between you two,--a +hand-to-hand struggle. It is over with you both, I believe: you are +something alike. Now may I offer you my friendship? If I love you, let +me say so. Do not resist me. I appeal to the spirit of coquetry which +tempted you before you saw me to-night. You are dressed to please me." + +I was thinking what I should say, when he skilfully turned the +conversation into an ordinary channel. He shook off his dreamy manner, +and talked with his old vivacity. I was charmed a little; an +association added to the charm, I fancy. It was late at night when he +took his leave. He had arranged it all; for a man brought his carriage +to the door and drove him to the next town, where he had procured it to +come over from the railway. + +When I was shut in my room for the night, rage took possession of me. I +tore off my dress, twisted my hair with vehemence, and hurried to bed +and tried to go to sleep, but could not, of course. As when we press +our eyelids together for meditation or sleep, violet rings and changing +rays of light flash and fade before the darkened eyeballs, so in the +dark unrest of my mind the past flashed up, and this is what I saw:-- + +The county ball, where Laura and I first met Redmond, Harry Lothrop, +and Maurice. We were struggling through the crowd of girls at the +dressing-room door, to rejoin Frank, who was waiting for us. As we +passed out, satisfied with the mutual inspection of our dresses of +white silk, which were trimmed with bunches of rose-geranium, we saw a +group of strangers close by us, buttoning their gloves, looking at +their boots, and comparing looks. Laura pushed her fan against my arm; +we looked at each other, and made signs behind Frank, and were caught +in the act, not only by him, but by a tall gentleman in the group which +she had signalled me to notice. + +The shadow of a smile was travelling over his face as I caught his eye, +but he turned away so suddenly that I had no opportunity for +embarrassment. An usher gave us a place near the band, at the head of +the hall. + +"Do not be reckless, Laura," I said,--"at least till the music gives +you an excuse." + +"You are obliged to me, you know," she answered, "for directing your +attention to such attractive prey. Being in bonds myself, I can only +use my eyes for you: don't be ungrateful." + +The band struck up a crashing polka, and she and Frank whirled away, +with a hundred others. I found a seat and amused myself by contrasting +the imperturbable countenances of the musicians with those of the +dancers. The perfumes the women wore floated by me. These odors, the +rhythmic motion of the dancers, and the hard, energetic music +exhilarated me. The music ended, and the crowd began to buzz. The loud, +inarticulate speech of a brilliant crowd is like good wine. As my +acquaintances gathered about me, I began to feel its electricity, and +grew blithe and vivacious. Presently I saw one of the ushers speaking +to Frank, who went down the hall with him. + +"Oh, my prophetic soul!" said Laura, "they are coming." + +Frank came back with the three, and introduced them. Redmond asked me +for the first quadrille, and Harry Lothrop engaged Laura. Frank said to +me behind his handkerchief,--"It's _en rčgle_; I know where they came +from; their fathers are brave, and their mothers are virtuous." + +The quadrille had not commenced, so I talked with several persons near; +but I felt a constraint, for I knew I was closely observed by the +stranger, who was entirely quiet. Curiosity made me impatient for the +dance to begin; and when we took our places, I was cool enough to +examine him. Tall, slender, and swarthy, with a delicate moustache over +a pair of thin scarlet lips, penetrating eyes, and a tranquil air. My +antipodes in looks, for I was short and fair; my hair was straight and +black like his, but my eyes were blue, and my mouth wide and full. + +"What an unnaturally pleasant thing a ball-room is!" he said,--"before +the dust rises and the lights flare, I mean. But nobody ever leaves +early; as the freshness vanishes, the extravagance deepens. Did you +ever notice how much faster the musicians play as it grows late? When +we open the windows, the fresh breath of the night increases the +delirium within. I have seen the quietest women toss their faded +bouquets out of the windows without a thought of making a comparison +between the flowers and themselves." + +"My poor geraniums!" I said,--"what eloquence!" + +He laughed, and answered,-- + +"My friend Maurice yonder would have said it twice as well." + +We were in the promenade then, and stopped where the said Maurice was +fanning himself against the wall. + +"May I venture to ask you for a waltz, Miss Denham? it is the next +dance on the card," said Maurice;--"but of course you are engaged." + +I gave him my card, and he began to mark it, when Redmond took it, and +placed his own initials against the dance after supper, and the last +one on the list. He left me then, and I saw him a moment after talking +with Laura. + +We passed a gay night. When Laura and I equipped for our ten miles' +ride, it was four in the morning. Redmond helped Frank to pack us in +the carriage, and we rewarded him with a knot of faded leaves. + +"This late event," said Laura, with a ministerial air, after we had +started, "was a providential one. You, my dear Frank, were at liberty +to pursue your favorite pastime of whist, in some remote apartment, +without being conscience-torn respecting me. I have danced very well +without you, thanks to the strangers. And you, Margaret, have had an +unusual opportunity of displaying your latent forces. Three such +different men! But let us drive fast. I am in want of the cup of tea +which mother will have waiting for me." + +We arrived first at my door. As I was going up the steps, Laura broke +the silence; for neither of us had spoken since her remarks. + +"By the way, they are coming here to stay awhile. They are anxious for +some deep-sea fishing. They'll have it, I think." + +I heard Frank's laugh of delight at Laura's wit, as the carriage drove +off. + +It was our last ball that season. + +It was late in the spring; and when Redmond came with his two friends +and settled at the hotel in our town, it was early summer. When I saw +them again, they came with Laura and Frank to pay me a visit. Laura was +already acquainted with them, and asked me if I did not perceive her +superiority in the fact. + +"Let us arrange," said Harry Lothrop, "some systematic plan of +amusement by sea and land. I have a pair of horses, Maurice owns a +guitar, and Redmond's boat will be here in a few days. Jones, our +landlord, has two horses that are tolerable under the saddle. Let us +ride, sail, and be serenaded. The Lake House, Jones again, is eight +miles distant. This is Monday; shall we go there on horse-back +Wednesday?" + +Laura looked mournfully at Frank, who replied to her look,-- + +"You must go; I cannot; I shall go back to business to-morrow." + +I glanced at Redmond; he was contemplating a portrait of myself at the +age of fourteen. + +"Shall we go?" Laura asked him. + +"Nothing, thank you," he answered. + +We all laughed, and Harry Lothrop said,-- + +"Redmond, my boy, how fond you are of pictures!" + +Redmond, with an unmoved face, said,-- + +"Don't be absurd about my absent-mindedness. What were you saying?" + +And he turned to me. + +"Do you like our plan," I asked, "of going to the Lake House? There is +a deep pond, a fine wood, a bridge,--perch, pickerel,--a one-story inn +with a veranda,--ham and eggs, stewed quince, elderberry wine,--and a +romantic road to ride over." + +"I like it." + +Frank opened a discussion on fishing; Laura and I withdrew, and went to +the window-seat. + +"I am light-hearted," I said. + +"It is my duty to be melancholy," she replied; "but I shall not mope +after Frank has gone." + +"'After them the deluge,'" said I. "How long will they stay?" + +"Till they are bored, I fancy." + +"Oh, they are going; we must leave our recess." + +Frank and she remained; the others bid us good-night. + +"I shall not come again till Christmas," he said. "These college-chaps +will amuse you and make the time pass; they are young,--quite suitable +companions for you girls. _Vive la bagatelle!_" + +He sighed, and, drawing Laura's arm in his, rose to go. She groaned +loudly, and he nipped her ears. + +"Good-bye, Margaret; let Laura take care of you. There is a deal of +wisdom in her." + +We shook hands, Laura moaning all the while, and they went home. + +Frank and Laura had been engaged three years. He was about thirty, and +was still too poor to marry. + +Wednesday proved pleasant. We had an early dinner, and our cavalcade +started from Laura's. I rode my small bay horse Folly, a gift from my +absentee brother. His coat was sleeker than satin; his ears moved +perpetually, and his wide nostrils were always in a quiver. He was not +entirely safe, for now and then he jumped unexpectedly; but I had +ridden him a year without accident, and felt enough acquainted with him +not to be afraid. + +Redmond eyed him. + +"You are a bold rider," he said. + +"No," I answered,--"a careful one. Look at the bit, and my whip, too. I +cut his hind legs when he jumps. Observe that I do not wear a long +skirt. I can slip off the saddle, if need be, without danger." + +"That's all very well; but his eyes are vicious; he will serve you a +trick some day." + +"When he does, I'll sell him for a cart-horse." + +Laura and Redmond rode Jones's horses. Harry Lothrop was mounted on his +horse Black, a superb, thick-maned creature, with a cluster of white +stars on one of his shoulders. Maurice rode a wall-eyed pony. Our +friends Dickenson and Jack Parker drove two young ladies in a +carriage,--all the saddle-horses our town could boast of being in use. +We were in high spirits, and rode fast. I was occupied in watching +Folly, who had not been out for several days. At last, tired of tugging +at his mouth, I gave him rein, and he flew along. I tucked the edge of +my skirt under the saddle-flap, slanted forward, and held the bridle +with both hands close to his head. A long sandy reach of road lay +before me. I enjoyed Folly's fierce trotting; but, as I expected, the +good horse Black was on my track, while the rest of the party were far +behind. He soon overtook me. Folly snorted when he heard Black's step. +We pulled up, and the two horses began to sidle and prance, and throw +up their heads so that we could not indulge in a bit of conversation. + +"Brute!" said Harry Lothrop,--"if I were sure of getting on again, I +would dismount and thrash you awfully." + +"Remember Pickwick," I said; "don't do it." + +I had hardly spoken, when the strap of his cap broke, and it fell from +his head to the ground. I laughed, and so did he. + +"I can hold your horse while you dismount for it." + +I stopped Folly, and he forced Black near enough for me to seize the +rein and twist it round my hand; when I had done so, Folly turned his +head, and was tempted to take Black's mane in his teeth; Black felt it, +reared, and came down with his nose in my lap. I could not loose my +hands, which confused me, but I saw Harry Lothrop making a great leap. +Both horses were running now, and he was lying across the saddle, +trying to free my hand. It was over in an instant. He got his seat, and +the horses were checked. + +"Good God!" he said, "your fingers are crushed." + +He pulled off my glove, and turned pale when he saw my purple hand. + +"It is nothing," I said. + +But I was miserably fatigued, and prayed that the Lake House might come +in sight. We were near the wood, which extended to it, and I was +wondering if we should ever reach it, when he said,-- + +"You must dismount, and rest under the first tree. We will wait there +for the rest of the party to come up." + +I did so. Numerous were the inquiries, when they reached us. Laura, +when she heard the story, declared she now believed in Ellen Pickering. +Redmond gave me a searching look, and asked me if the one-story inn had +good beds. + +"I can take a nap, if necessary," I answered, "in one of Mrs. Sampson's +rush-bottomed chairs on the veranda. The croak of the frogs in the pond +and the buzz of the bluebottles shall be my lullaby." + +"No matter how, if you will rest," he said, and assisted me to remount. + +We rode quietly together the rest of the way. After arriving, we girls +went by ourselves into one of Mrs. Sampson's sloping chambers, where +there was a low bedstead, and a thick feather-bed covered with a +patchwork-quilt of the "Job's Trouble" pattern, a small, dim +looking-glass surmounted by a bunch of "sparrow-grass," and an +unpainted floor ornamented with home-made rugs which were embroidered +with pink flower-pots containing worsted rose-bushes, the stalks, +leaves, and flowers all in bright yellow. We hung up our riding-skirts +on ancient wooden pegs, for we had worn others underneath them suitable +for walking, and then tilted the wooden chairs at a comfortable angle +against the wall, put our feet on the rounds, and felt at peace with +all mankind. + +"Alas!" I said, "it is too early for currant-pies." + +"I saw," said one of the girls, "Mrs. Sampson poking the oven, and a +smell of pies was in the air." + +"Let us go into the kitchen," exclaimed Laura. + +The proposal was agreeable; so we went, and found Mrs. Sampson making +plum-cake. + +"The pies are green-gooseberry-pies," whispered Laura,--"very good, +too." + +"Miss Denham," shrieked Mrs. Sampson, "you haven't done growing +yet.--How's your mother and your grandmother?--Have you had a revival +in your church?--I heard of the young men down to Jones's,--our +minister's wife knows their fathers,--first-rate men, she says.--I +thought you would be here with them.--'Sampson,' I said this morning, as +soon as I dressed, 'do pick some gooseberries. I'll have before sundown +twenty pies in this house.' There they are,--six gooseberry, six +custard, and, though it's late for them, six mince, and two awful great +pigeon pies. It's poor trash, I expect; I'm afraid you can't eat it; +but it is as good as anybody's, I suppose." + +We told her we should devour it all, but must first catch some fish; +and we joined the gentlemen on the veranda. A boat was ready for us. +Laura, however, refused to go in it. It was too small; it was wet; she +wanted to walk on the bridge; she could watch us from that; she wanted +some flowers, too. Like many who are not afraid of the ocean, she held +ponds and lakes in abhorrence, and fear kept her from going with us. +Harry Lothrop offered to stay with her, and take lines to fish from the +bridge. She assented, and, after we pushed off, they strolled away. + +The lake was as smooth and white as silver beneath the afternoon sun +and a windless sky; it was bordered with a mound of green bushes, +beyond which stretched deep pine woods. There was no shade, and we soon +grew weary. Jack Parker caught all the fish, which flopped about our +feet. A little way down, where the lake narrowed, we saw Laura and +Harry Lothrop hanging over the bridge. + +"They must be interested in conversation," I thought; "he has not +lifted his line out of the water once." + +Redmond, too, looked over that way often, and at last said,-- + +"We will row up to the bridge, and walk back to the house, if you, +Maurice, will take the boat to the little pier again." + +"Oh, yes," said Maurice. + +We came to the bridge, and Laura reached out her hand to me. + +"Why, dear!" she exclaimed, "you have burnt your face. Why did you," +turning to Redmond, "paddle about so long in the hot sun?" + +Her words were light enough, but the tone of her voice was savage. +Redmond looked surprised; he waved his hand deprecatingly, but said +nothing. We went up toward the house, but Laura lingered behind, and +did not come in till we were ready to go to supper. + +It was past sundown when we rose from the ruins of Mrs. Sampson's pies. +We voted not to start for home till the evening was advanced, so that +we might enjoy the gloom of the pine wood. We sat on the veranda and +heard the sounds of approaching night. The atmosphere was like powdered +gold. Swallows fluttered in the air, delaying to drop into their nests, +and chirped their evening song. We heard the plunge of the little +turtles in the lake, and the noisy crows as they flew home over the +distant tree-tops. They grew dark, and the sky deepened slowly into a +soft gray. A gentle wind arose, and wafted us the sighs of the pines +and their resinous odors. I was happy, but Laura was unaccountably +silent. + +"What is it, Laura?" I asked, in a whisper. + +"Nothing, Margaret,--only it seems to me that we mortals are always +riding or fishing, eating or drinking, and that we never get to living. +To tell you the truth, the pies were too sour. Come, we must go," she +said aloud. + +Redmond himself brought Folly from the stable. + +"We will ride home together," he said. "My calm nag will suit yours +better than Black. Why does your hand tremble?" + +He saw my shaking hands, as I took the rein; the fact was, my wrists +were nearly broken. + +"Nothing shall happen to-night, I assure you," he continued, while he +tightened Folly's girth. + +He contrived to be busy till all the party had disappeared down a turn +of the road. As he was mounting his horse, Mrs. Sampson, who was on the +steps, whispered to me,-- + +"He's a beautiful young man, now!" + +He heard her; he had the ear of a wild animal; he took off his hat to +Mrs. Sampson, and we rode slowly away. + +As soon as we were in the wood, Redmond tied the bridles of the horses +together with his handkerchief. It was so dark that my sight could not +separate him from his horse. They moved beside me, a vague, black +shape. The horses' feet fell without noise in the cool, moist sand. If +our companions were near us, we could not see them, and we did not hear +them. Horses generally keep an even pace, when travelling at +night,--subdued by the darkness, perhaps,--and Folly went along without +swaying an inch. I dropped the rein on his neck, and took hold of the +pommel. My hand fell on Redmond's. Before I could take it away, he had +clasped it, and touched it with his lips. The movement was so sudden +that I half lost my balance, but the horses stepped evenly together. He +threw his arm round me, and recoiled from me as if he had received a +blow. + +"Take up your rein," he said, with a strange voice,--"quick!--we must +ride fast out of this." + +I made no reply, for I was trying to untie the handkerchief. The knot +was too firm. + +"No, no," he said, when he perceived what I was doing, "let it be so." + +"Untie it, Sir!" + +"I will not." + +I put my face down between the horses' necks and bit it apart, and +thrust it into my bosom. + +"Now," I said, "shall we ride fast?" + +He shook his rein, and we rode fiercely,--past our party, who shouted +at us,--through the wood,--over the brow of the great hill, from whose +top we saw the dark, motionless sea,--through the long street,--and +through my father's gateway into the stable-yard, where I leaped from +my horse, and, bridle in hand, said, "Good night!" in a loud voice. + +Redmond swung his hat and galloped off. + +Early next morning, Laura sent me a note:-- + +"DEAR MARGARET,--I have an ague, and mean to have it till Sunday night. +The pines did it. Did you bring home any needles? On Monday, mother +will give one of her whist-parties. I shall add a dozen or two of our +set; you will come. + +"P.S. What do you think of Mr. Harry Lothrop? Good young man, eh?" + +I was glad that Laura had shut herself up for a few days; I dreaded to +see her just now. I suffered from an inexplicable feeling of pride and +disappointment, and did not care to have her discover it. Laura, like +myself, sometimes chose to protect herself against neighborly +invasions. We never kept our doors locked in the country; the sending +in of a card was an unknown process there. Our acquaintances walked in +upon us whenever the whim took them, and it now and then happened to be +an inconvenience to us who loved an occasional fit of solitude. I +determined to keep in-doors for a few days also. Whenever I was in an +unquiet mood, I took to industry; so that day I set about arranging my +drawers, making over my ribbons, and turning my room upside down. I +rehung all my pictures, and moved my bottles and boxes. Then I mended +my stockings, and marked my clothes, which was not a necessary piece of +work, as I never left home. I next attacked the parlor,--washed all the +vases, changed the places of the furniture, and distressed my mother +very much. When evening came, I brushed my hair a good deal, and looked +at my hands, and went to bed early. I could not read then, though I +often took books from the shelves, and I would not think. + +Sunday came round. The church-bells made me lonesome. I looked out of +the window many times that day, and, fixing on the sash one of my +father's ship-glasses, swept the sea, and peered at the islands on the +other side of the bay, gazing through their openings, beyond which I +could see the great dim ocean. Mother came home from church, and said +young Maurice was there, and inquired about me. He hoped I did not take +cold; his friend Redmond had been hoarse ever since our ride, and had +passed most of the time in his own room, drumming on the window-pane +and whistling dirges. Mother dropped her acute eyes on me, while she +was telling me this; but I yawned all expression from my face. + +As Monday night drew near, my numbness of feeling began to pass off; +thought came into my brain by plunges. Now I desired; now I hoped. I +dressed myself in black silk, and wore a cape of black Chantilly lace. +I made my hair as glossy as possible, drew it down on my face, and put +round my head a band composed of minute sticks of coral. When all was +done, I took the candle and held it above my head and surveyed myself +in the glass. I was very pale. The pupils of my eyes were dilated, as +if I had received some impression that would not pass away. My lips had +the redness of youth; their color was deepened by my paleness. + +"How handsome I am!" I thought, as I set down the candle. + +When I entered Laura's parlor, she came toward me and said,-- + +"Artful creature! you knew well, this warm night, that every girl of us +would wear a light dress; so you wore a black one. How well you +understand such matters! You are very clever; your real sensibility +adds effect to your cleverness. I see how it is. Come into this corner. +Have you got a fan? Good gracious! black, with gold spangles;--where +_do_ you buy your things? I can tell you now," she continued, "my +conversation on the bridge the other day." + +She hesitated, and asked me if I liked her new muslin. She did look +well in it; it was a white fabric, with red rose-buds scattered over +it. Her delicate face was shadowed by light brown curls. She was +attractive, and I told her so, and she began again:-- + +"Harry Lothrop said, as he was impaling the half of a worm,-- + +"'Redmond is a handsome fellow, is he not?' + +"'He is too awfully thin,' I answered, 'but his eyes are good.' + +"He gave me a crafty side-look, like that of a parrot, when he means to +bite your finger. + +"'Your friend, too,' he added, 'is really one of the most beautiful +girls I ever saw,--a coquette with a heart.' + +"'Let down your line into the water,' I said. + +"He laughed a little laugh. By-the-by, there is an insidious tenacity +about Mr. Harry Lothrop which irritates me; but I like him, for I think +he understands women. I feel at ease with him, when he is not throwing +out his tenacious feelers. Then he said,-- + +"'Redmond is engaged to his cousin. The girl's mother had the charge of +him through his boyhood. He is ardently attached to her,--the mother, I +mean. She is most anxious to call Redmond her son.' + +"'Didn't you have a bite?' I said. + +"'Well, I think the bait is off the hook,' he answered; and then we +were silent and pondered the water. + +"There are some people I must speak to,"--and Laura moved away without +looking at me. + +I opened my fan, but felt chilly. A bustle near me caused me to raise +my eyes; Redmond was speaking to a lady. He was in black, too, and very +pale. He turned toward me and our eyes met. His expression agitated me +so that I unconsciously rose to my feet and warned him off with my fan; +but he seemed rooted to the spot. Laura took care of us both; she came +and stood between us. I saw her look at him so sweetly and so +mournfully, that he understood her in a moment. He shook his head and +walked abruptly into another room. Laura went again from me without +giving me a look. Maurice came up and I made room for him beside me. We +talked of the riding-party, and then of our first meeting at the ball. +He told me that Redmond's boat had arrived, and what a famous boat it +was, and "what jolly sprees we fellows had, cruising about with her." I +asked him about his guitar, and when we might hear him play. He grew +more chatty and began to tell me about his sister, when Redmond and +Harry Lothrop came over to us, which ended his chat. + +The party was like all parties,--dull at first, and brighter as it grew +late. The old ladies played whist in one room, and the younger part of +the company were in another. Champagne was not a prevalent drink in our +village, but it happened that we had some that night. + +"It may be a sinful beverage," said an old lady near me, "but it is +good." + +Redmond opened a bottle for me, we clinked glasses, and drank to an +indefinite, silent wish. + +"One more," he asked, "and let us change glasses." + +Presently a cloud of delicate warmth spread over my brain, and gave me +courage to seek and meet his glance. There must have been an expression +of irresolution in my face, for he looked at me inquiringly, and then +his own face grew very sad. I felt awkward from my intuition of his +opinion of my mood, when he relieved me by saying something about +Shelley,--a copy of whose poems lay on a table near. From Shelley he +went to his boat, and said he hoped to have some pleasant excursions +with Laura and myself. He "would go at once and talk with Laura's +mother about them." I watched him through the door, while he spoke to +her. She was in a low chair, and he leaned his face on one hand close +to hers. I saw that his natural expression was one of tranquillity and +courage. He was not more than twenty-two, but the firmness of the lines +about his mouth belied his youth. + +"He has a wonderful face," I thought, "and just as wonderful a will." + +I felt my own will rise as I looked at him,--a will that should make me +mistress of myself, powerful enough to contend with, and resist, or +turn to advantage any controlling fate which might come near me. + +"Do you feel like singing?" Harry Lothrop inquired. "Do you know +Byron's song, 'One struggle more and I am free'?" + +"Oh, yes!" I replied,--"it is set to music which suits my voice. I will +sing it." + +Laura had been playing polkas with great spirit. Since the Champagne, +the old ladies had closed their games of whist for talking, and, as it +was nearly time to go, the company was gay. There was laughing and +talking when I began, but silence soon after, for the wine made my +voice husky and effective. I sang as if deeply moved. + +"Lord!" I heard Maurice say to Laura, as I rose from the piano, "what a +girl! she's really tragic." + +I caught Harry Lothrop's eye, as I passed through the door to go +up-stairs; it was burning; I felt as if a hot coal had dropped on me. +Maurice ran into the hall and sprang upon the stair-railing to ask me +if he might be my escort home. That night he serenaded me. He was a +good-hearted, cheerful creature; conceited, as small men are apt to +be,--conceit answering for size with them,--but pleasantly so, and I +learned to like him as much as Redmond did. + +The summer days were passing. We had all sorts of parties,--parties in +houses and out-of-doors; we rode and sailed and walked. Laura walked +and talked much with Harry Lothrop. We did not often see each other +alone, but, when we met, were more serious and affectionate with each +other. We did not speak, except in a general way, of Redmond and Harry +Lothrop. I did not avoid Redmond, nor did I seek him. We had many a +serious conversation in public, as well as many a gay one; but I had +never met him alone since the night we rode through the pines. + +He went away for a fortnight. On the day of his return he came to see +me. He looked so glad, when I entered the room, that I could not help +feeling a wild thrill. I went up to him, but said nothing. He held out +both his hands. I retreated. An angry feeling rushed into my heart. + +"No," I said, "Whose hand did you hold last?" + +He turned deadly pale. + +"That of the woman I am going to marry." + +I smiled to hide the trembling of my lips, and offered my hand to him; +_but he waved it away_, and fell back on his chair, hurriedly drawing +his handkerchief across his face. I saw that he was very faint, and +stood against the door, waiting for him to recover. + +"More than I have played the woman and the fool before you." + +"Yes." + +"I thought so. You seem experienced." + +"I am." + +"Forgive me," he said, gently; "being only a man, I think you can. Good +God!" he exclaimed, "what an infernal self-possession you show!" + +"Redmond, is it not time to end this? The summer has been a long +one,--has it not?--long enough for me to have learned what it is to +live. Our positions are reversed since we have become acquainted. I am +for the first time forgetting self, and you for the first time remember +self. Redmond, you are a noble man. You have a steadfast soul. Do not +be shaken. I am not like you; I am not simple or single-hearted. But I +imitate you. Now come, I beg you will go." + +"Certainly, I will. I have little to say." + +August had nearly gone when Maurice told me they were about to leave. +Laura said we must prepare for retrospection and the fall sewing. + +"Well," I said, "the future looks gloomy, and I must have some new +dresses." + +Maurice came to see me one morning in a state of excitement to say we +were all going to Bird Island to spend the day, dine at the +light-house, and sail home by moonlight. Fifteen of the party were +going down by the sloop Sapphire, and Redmond had begged him to ask if +Laura and I would go in his boat. + +"Do go," said Maurice; "it will be our last excursion together; next +week we are off. I am broken-hearted about it. I shall never be so +happy again. I have actually whimpered once or twice. You should hear +Redmond whistle nowadays. Harry pulls his moustache and laughs his oily +laughs, but he is sorry to go, and kicks his clothes about awfully. By +the way, he is going down in the sloop because Miss Fairfax is +going,--he says,--that tall young lady with crinkled hair;--he hates +her, and hopes to see her sick. May I come for you in the morning, by +ten o'clock? Redmond will be waiting on the wharf." + +"Tell Redmond," I answered, "that I will go; and will you ask Harry +Lothrop not to engage himself for all the reels to Miss Fairfax?" + +He promised to fulfil my message, and went off in high spirits. I +wondered, as I saw him going down the walk, why it was that I felt so +much more natural and friendly with him than with either of his +friends. I often talked confidentially to him; he knew how I loved my +mother, and how I admired my father, and I told him all about my +brother's business. He also knew what I liked best to eat and to wear. +In return, he confided his family secrets to me. I knew his tastes and +wishes. There was no common ground where I met Redmond and Harry +Lothrop. There were too many topics between Redmond and myself to be +avoided, for us to venture upon private or familiar conversation. Harry +Lothrop was an accomplished, fastidious man of the world, I dreaded +boring him, and so I said little. He was several years older than +Redmond, and possessed more knowledge of men, women, and books. Redmond +had no acquirements, he knew enough by nature, and I never saw a person +with more fascination of manner and voice. + +The evening before the sailing-party, I had a melancholy fit. I was +restless, and after dark I put a shawl over my head and went out to +walk. I went up a lonesome road, beyond our house. On one side I heard +the water washing against the shore with regularity, as if it were +breathing. On the other side were meadows, where there were cows +crunching the grass. A mile farther was a low wood of oaks, through +which ran a path. I determined to walk through that. The darkness and a +sharp breeze which blew against me from limitless space made me feel as +if I were the only human creature the elements could find to contend +with, I turned down the little path into the deeper darkness of the +wood, sat down on a heap of dead leaves, and began to cry. + +"Mine is a miserable pride," was my thought,--"that of arming myself +with beauty and talent and going through the world conquering! Girls +are ignorant, till they are disappointed. The only knowledge men +proffer us is the knowledge of the heart; it becomes us to profit by +it. Redmond will marry that girl. He must, and shall. I will empty the +dust and ashes of my heart as soon as the fire goes down: that is, I +think so; but I know that I do not know myself. I have two +natures,--one that acts, and one that is acted upon,--and I cannot +always separate the one from the other." + +Something darkened the opening into the path. Two persons passed in +slowly. I perceived the odor of violets, and felt that one of them must +be Laura. Waiting till they passed beyond me, I rose and went home. + +The next morning was cloudy, and the sea was rough with a high wind; +but we were old sailors, and decided to go on our excursion. The sloop +and Redmond's boat left the wharf at the same time. We expected to be +several hours beating down to Bird Island, for the wind was ahead. +Laura and I, muffled in cloaks, were placed on the thwarts and +neglected; for Redmond and Maurice were busy with the boat. Laura was +silent, and looked ill. Redmond sat at the helm, and kept the boat up +to the wind, which drove the hissing spray over us. The sloop hugged +the shore, and did not feel the blast as we did. I slid along my seat +to be near Redmond. He saw me coming, and put out his hand and drew me +towards him, looking so kindly at me that I was melted. Trying to get +at my handkerchief, which was in my dress-pocket, my cloak flew open, +the wind caught it, and, as I rose to draw it closer, I nearly fell +overboard. Redmond gave a spring to catch me, and the boat lost her +headway. The sail flapped with a loud bang. Maurice swore, and we +chopped about in the short sea. + +"It is your destiny to have a scene, wherever you are," said Laura. "If +I did not feel desperate, I should be frightened. But these green, +crawling waves are so opaque, if we fall in, we shall not see ourselves +drown." + +"Courage! the boat is under way," Maurice cried out; "we are nearly +there." + +And rounding a little point, we saw the light-house at last. The sloop +anchored a quarter of a mile from the shore, the water being shoal, and +Redmond took off her party by instalments. + +"What the deuse was the matter with you at one time?" asked Jack +Parker. "We saw you were having a sort of convulsion. Our cap'n said +you were bold chaps to be trifling with such a top-heavy boat." + +"Miss Denham," said Redmond, "thought she could steer the boat as well +as I could, and so the boat lost headway." + +Harry Lothrop gave Redmond one of his soft smiles, and a vexed look +passed over Redmond's face when he saw it. + +We had to scramble over a low range of rocks to get to the shore. +Redmond anchored his boat by one of them. Bird Island was a famous +place for parties. It was a mile in extent. Not a creature was on it +except the light-house keeper, his wife, and daughter. The gulls made +their nests in its rocky borders; their shrill cries, the incessant +dashing of the waves on the ledges, and the creaking of the lantern in +the stone tower were all the sounds the family heard, except when they +were invaded by some noisy party like ours. They were glad to see us. +The light-house keeper went into the world only when it was necessary +to buy stores, or when his wife and daughter wanted to pay a visit to +the mainland. + +The house was of stone, one story high, with thick walls. The small, +deep-set windows and the low ceilings gave the rooms the air of a +prison; but there was also an air of security about them: for, in +looking from the narrow windows, one felt that the house was a +steadfast ship in the circle of the turbulent sea, whose waves from +every point seemed advancing towards it. A pale, coarse grass grew in +the sand of the island. It was too feeble to resist the acrid breath of +the ocean, so it shuddered perpetually, and bent landward, as if +invoking the protection of its stepmother, the solid earth. + +"It is perfect," said Redmond to me; "I have been looking for this spot +all my life; I am ready to swear that I will never leave it." + +We were sitting in a window, facing each other. He looked out toward +the west, and presently was lost in thought. He folded his arms tightly +across his breast, and his eyes were a hundred miles away. The sound of +a fiddle in the long alley which led from the house to the tower broke +his reverie. + +"We shall be uproarious before we leave," I said; "we always are, when +we come here." + +The fun had already set in. Some of the girls had pinned up their +dresses, and borrowed aprons from the light-house keeper's wife, and +with scorched faces were helping her to make chowder and fry +fish. Others were arranging the table, assisted by the young men, who +put the dishes in the wrong places. Others were singing in the best +room. One or two had brought novels along, and were reading them in +corners. It was all merry and pleasant, but I felt quiet. Redmond +entered into the spirit of the scene. I had never seen him so gay. He +chatted with all the girls, interfering or helping, as the case might +be. Maurice brought his guitar, and had a group about him at the foot +of the tower-stairs. He sung loud, but his voice seemed to +fluctuate;--now it rang through the tower, now it was half overpowered +by the roar of the sea. His poetical temperament led him to choose +songs in harmony with the place, not to suit the company,--melancholy +words set to wild, fitful chords, which rose and died away according to +the skill of the player. I had gone near him, for his singing had +attracted me. + +"You are inspired," I said. + +He nodded. + +"You never sung so before." + +"I feel old to-day," he answered, and he swept his hands across all the +strings; "my ditties are done." + +After dinner Laura asked me to go out with her. We slipped away unseen, +and went to the beach, and seated ourselves on a great rock whose outer +side was lapped by the water. The sun had broken through the clouds, +but shone luridly, giving the sea a leaden tint. The wind was going +down. We had not been there long, when Redmond joined us. He asked us +to go round the island in his boat. Laura declined, and said she would +sit on the rock while we went, if I chose to go. I did choose to go, +and he brought the boat to the rock. He hoisted the sail half up the +mast, and we sailed close to the shore. It rose gradually along the +east side of the island, and terminated in a bold ledge which curved +into the sea. We ran inside the curve, where the water was nearly +smooth. Redmond lowered the sail and the boat drifted toward the ledge +slowly. A tongue of land, covered with pale sedge, was on the left +side. Above the ledge, at the right, we could see the tower of the +light-house. Redmond tied down the helm, and, throwing himself beside +me, leaned his head on his hand, and looked at me a long time without +speaking. I listened to the water, which plashed faintly against the +bows. He covered his face with his hands. I looked out seaward over the +tongue of land; my heart quaked, like the grass which grew upon it. At +last he rose, and I saw that he was crying,--the tears rained fast. + +"My soul is dying," he said, in a stifled voice; "I am not more than +mortal,--I cannot endure it." + +I pointed toward the open sea, which loomed so vague in the distance. + +"The future is like that,--is it not? Courage! we must drift through +it; we shall find something." + +He stamped his foot on the deck. + +"Women always talk so; but men are different. If there is a veil before +us, we must tear it away,--not sit muffled in its folds, and speculate +on what is behind it. Rise." + +I obeyed him. He held me firmly. We were face to face. + +"Look at me." + +I did. His eyes were blazing. + +"Do you love me?" + +"No." + +He placed me on the bench, hoisted the sail, untied the helm, and we +were soon ploughing round to the spot where we had left Laura; but she +was gone. On the rock where she was, perched a solitary gull, which +flew away with a scream as we approached. + +That day was the last that I saw Redmond alone. He was at the party at +Laura's house which took place the night before they left. We did not +bid each other adieu. + +After the three friends had gone, they sent us gifts of remembrance. +Redmond's keepsake was a white fan with forget-me-nots painted on it. +To Laura he sent the pen-holder, which was now mine. + +We missed them, and should have felt their loss, had no deep feeling +been involved; for they gave an impetus to our dull country life, and +the whole summer had been one of excitement and pleasure. We settled by +degrees into our old habits. At Christmas, Frank came. He looked +worried and older. He had heard something of Laura's intimacy with +Harry Lothrop, and was troubled about it, I know: but I believe Laura +was silent on the matter. She was quiet and affectionate toward him +during his visit, and he went back consoled. + +The winter passed. Spring came and went, and we were deep into the +summer when Laura was taken ill. She had had a little cough, which no +one except her mother noticed. Her spirits fell, and she failed fast. +When I saw her last, she had been ill some weeks, and had never felt +strong enough to talk as much as she did in that interview. She nerved +herself to make the effort, and as she bade me farewell, bade farewell +to life also. And now it was all over with her! + + * * * * * + +I fell asleep at length, and woke late. It seemed as if a year had +dropped out of the procession of Time. My heart was still beating with +the emotion which stirred it when Redmond and I were together last. +Recollection had stung me to the quick. A terrible longing urged me to +go and find him. The feeling I had when we were in the boat, face to +face, thrilled my fibres again. I saw his gleaming eyes; I could have +rushed through the air to meet him. But, alas! exaltation of feeling +lasts only a moment; it drops us where it finds us. If it were not so, +how easy to be a hero! The dull reaction of the present, like a slow +avalanche, crushed and ground me into nothingness. + +"Something must happen at last," I thought, "to amuse me, and make time +endurable." + +What can a woman do, when she knows that an epoch of feeling is rounded +off, finished, dead? Go back to her story-books, her dress-making, her +worsted-work? Shall she attempt to rise to mediocrity on the piano or +in drawing, distribute tracts, become secretary of a Dorcas society? or +shall she turn her mind to the matter of cultivating another lover at +once? Few of us women have courage enough to shoulder out the corpses +of what men leave in our hearts. We keep them there, and conceal the +ruins in which they lie. We grow cunning and artful in our tricks, the +longer we practise them. But how we palpitate and shrink and shudder, +when we are alone in the dark! + +After Redmond departed, I had locked up my feelings and thrown the key +away. The death of Laura, and the awakening of my recollections, caused +by the appearance of Harry Lothrop, wrenched the door open. Hitherto I +had acted with the bravery of a girl; I must now behave with the +resolution of a woman. I looked into my heart closely. No skeleton was +there, but the image of a living man,--_Redmond_. + +"I love him," I confessed. "To be his wife and the mother of his +children is the only lot I ever care to choose. He is noble, handsome, +and loyal. But I cannot belong to him, nor can he ever be mine. + + "'Of love that never found his earthly close + What sequel?' + +"What did he do with the remembrance of me? He scattered it, perhaps, +with the ashes of the first cigar he smoked after he went from +me,--made a mound of it, maybe, in honor of Duty. I am as ignorant of +him as if he no longer existed; so this image must be torn away. I will +not burn the lamp of life before it, but will build up the niche where +it stands into a solid wall." + +The ideal happiness of love is so sweet and powerful, that, for a +while, adverse influences only exalt the imagination. When Laura told +me of Redmond's engagement, it did but change my dream of what might be +into what might have been. It was a mirage which continued while he was +present and faded with his departure. Then my heart was locked in the +depths of will, till circumstance brought it a power of revenge. I +think now, if we had spoken freely and truly to each other, I should +have suffered less when I saw his friend. We feel better when the +funeral of our dearest friend is over and we have returned to the +house. There is to be no more preparation, no waiting; the windows may +be opened, and the doors set wide; the very dreariness and desolation +force our attention towards the living. + +"Something will come," I thought; and I determined not to have any more +reveries. "Mr. Harry Lothrop is a pleasant riddle; I shall see him +soon, or he will write." + +It occurred to me then that I had some letters of his already in my +possession,--those he had written to Laura. I found the ebony box, and, +taking from it the sealed package, unfolded the letters one by one, +reading them according to their dates. There was a note among them for +me, from Laura. + +"When you read these letters, Margaret," it said, "you will see that I +must have studied the writer of them in vain. You know now that he made +me unhappy; not that I was in love with him much, but he stirred depths +of feeling which I had no knowledge of, and which between Frank, my +betrothed husband, and myself had no existence. But '_le roi s'amuse._' +Perhaps a strong passion will master this man; but I shall never know. +Will you?" + +I laid the letters back in their place, and felt no very strong desire +to learn anything more of the writer. I did not know then how little +trouble it would be,--my share of making the acquaintance. + +It was not many weeks before Mr. Lothrop came again, and rather +ostentatiously, so that everybody knew of his visit to me. But he saw +none of the friends he had made during his stay the year before. I +happened to see him coming, and went to the door to meet him. Almost +his first words were,-- + +"Maurice is dead. He went to Florida,--took the fever,--which killed +him, of course. He died only a week after--after Laura. Poor fellow! +did he interest you much? I believe he was in love with you, too; but +musical people are never desperate, except when they play a false +note." + +"Yes," I answered; "I was fond of him. His conceit did not trouble me, +and he never fatigued me; he had nothing to conceal. He was a +commonplace man; one liked him, when with him,--and when away, one had +no thought about him." + +"I alone am left you," said my visitor, putting his hat on a chair, and +slowly pulling off his gloves, finger by finger. + +He had slender, white hands, like a woman's, and they were always in +motion. After he had thrown his gloves into his hat, he put his finger +against his cheek, leaned his elbow on the arm of his chair, crossed +his legs, and looked at me with a cunning self-possession. I glanced at +his feet; they were small and well-booted. I looked into his face; it +was not a handsome one; but he had magnetic eyes, of a lightish blue, +and a clever, loose mouth. It is impossible to describe him,--just as +impossible as it is for a man who was born a boor to attain the bearing +of a gentleman; any attempt at it would prove a bungling matter, when +compared with the original. He felt my scrutiny, and knew, too, that I +had never looked at him till then. + +"Do you sing nowadays?" he asked, tapping with his fingers the keys of +the piano behind him. + +"Psalms." + +"They suit you admirably; but I perceive you attend to your dress +still. How effective those velvet bands are! You look older than you +did two years ago." + +"Two years are enough to age a woman." + +"Yes, if she is miserable. Can you be unhappy?" he asked, rising, and +taking a seat beside me. + +There was a tone of sympathy in his voice which made me shudder, I knew +not why. It was neither aversion nor liking; but I dreaded to be thrown +into any tumult of feeling. I realized afterward more fully that it is +next to impossible for a passionate woman to receive the sincere +addresses of a manly man without feeling some fluctuation of soul. +Ignorant spectators call her a coquette for this. Happily, there are +teachers among our own sex, women of cold temperaments, able to +vindicate themselves from the imputation. They spare themselves great +waste of heart and some generous emotion,--also remorse and +self-accusations regarding the want of propriety, and the other +ingredients which go to make up a white-muslin heroine. + +Harry Lothrop saw that my cheek was burning, and made a movement toward +me. I tossed my head back, and moved down the sofa; he did not follow +me, but smiled and mused in his old way. + +And so it went on,--not once, but many times. He wrote me quiet, +persuasive, eloquent letters. By degrees I learned his own history and +that of his family, his prospects and his intentions. He was rich. I +knew well what position I should have, if I were his wife. My beauty +would be splendidly set. I was well enough off, but not rich enough to +harmonize all things according to my taste. I was proud, and he was +refined; if we were married, what better promise of delicacy could be +given than that of pride in a woman, refinement in a man? He brought me +flowers or books, when he came. The flowers were not delicate and +inodorous, but magnificent and deep-scented; and the material of the +books was stalwart and vigorous. I read his favorite authors with him. +He was the first person who ever made any appeal to my intellect. In +short, he was educating me for a purpose. + +Once he offered me a diamond cross. I refused it, and he never asked me +to accept any gift again. His visits were not frequent, and they were +short. However great the distance he accomplished to reach me, he staid +only an evening, and then returned. He came and went at night. In time +I grew to look upon our connection as an established thing. He made me +understand that he loved me, and that he only waited for me to return +it; but he did not say so. + +I lived an idle life, inhaling the perfume of the flowers he gave me, +devouring old literature, the taste for which he had created, and +reading and answering his letters. To be sure, other duties were +fulfilled, I was an affectionate child to my parents, and a proper +acquaintance for my friends. I never lost any sleep now, nor was I +troubled with dreams. I lived in the outward; all my restless activity, +that constant questioning of the heavens and the earth, had ceased +entirely. Five years had passed since I first saw Redmond. I was now +twenty-four. The Fates grew tired of the monotony of my life, I +suppose, for about this time it changed. + +My oldest brother, a bachelor, lived in New York. He asked me to spend +the winter with him; he lived in a quiet hotel, had a suite of rooms, +and could make me comfortable, he said. He had just asked somebody to +marry him, and that somebody wished to make my acquaintance. I was glad +to go. My heart gave a bound at the prospect of change; I was still +young enough to dream of the impossible, when any chance offered itself +to my imagination; so I accepted my brother's invitation with some +elation. + +I had been in New York a month. One day I was out with my future +sister, on a shopping raid; with our hands full of little paper +parcels, we stopped to look into Goupil's window. There was always a +rim of crowd there, so I paid no attention to the jostles we received. +We were looking at an engraving of Ary Scheffer's Françoise de Rimini. +"Not the worst hell," muttered a voice behind me, which I knew. I +started, and pulled Leonora's arm; she turned round, and the fringe of +her cloak-sleeve caught a button on the overcoat of one of the +gentlemen standing together. It was Redmond; the other was his +"ancient," Harry Lothrop. Leonora was arrested; I stood still, of +course. Redmond had not seen my face, for I turned it from him; and his +head was bent down to the task of disengaging his button. + + "'Each only as God wills + Can work; God's puppets, best and worst, + Are we; there is no last nor first,'" + +I thought, and turned my head. He instinctively took off his hat, and +then planted it back on his head firmly, and looked over to Harry +Lothrop, to whom I gave my hand. He knew me before I saw him, I am +convinced; but his dramatic sense kept him silent,--perhaps a deeper +feeling. There was an expression of pain in his face, which impelled me +to take his arm. + +"Let us move on, Leonora," I said; "these are some summer friends of +mine," and I introduced them to her. + +My chief feeling was embarrassment, which was shared by all the party; +for Leonora felt that there was something unusual in the meeting. The +door of the hotel seemed to come round at last, and as we were going +in, Harry Lothrop asked me if he might see me the next morning. + +"Do come," I answered aloud. + +We all bowed, and they disappeared. + +"What an elegant Indian your tall friend is!" said Leonora. + +"Yes,--of the Camanche tribe." + +"But he would look better hanging from his horse's mane than he does in +a long coat." + +"He is spoiled by civilization and white parents. But, Leonora, stay +and dine with me, in my own room. John will not come home till it is +time for the opera. You know we are going. You must make me splendid; +you can torture me into style, I know." + +She consented, provided I would send a note to her mother, explaining +that it was my invitation, and not her old John's, as she irreverently +called him. I did so, and she was delighted to stay. + +"This is fast," she said; "can't we have Champagne and black coffee?" + +She fell to rummaging John's closets, and brought out a dusty, +Chinese-looking affair, which she put on for a dressing-gown. She found +some Chinese straw shoes, and tucked her little feet into them, and +then braided her hair in a long tail, and declared she was ready for +dinner. Her gayety was refreshing, and I did not wonder at John's +admiration. My spirits rose, too, and I astonished Leonora at the table +with my chat; she had never seen me except when quiet. I fell into one +of those unselfish, unasking moods which are the glory of youth: I felt +that the pure heaven of love was in the depths of my being; my soul +shone like a star in its atmosphere; my heart throbbed, and I cried +softly to it,--"Live! live! he is here!" I still chatted with Leonora +and made her laugh, and the child for the first time thoroughly liked +me. We were finishing our dessert, when we heard John's knock. We +allowed him to come in for a moment, and gave him some almonds, which, +he leisurely cracked and ate. + +"Somehow, Margaret," he said, "you remind me of those women who enjoy +the Indian festival of the funeral pile. I have seen the thing done; +you have something of the sort in your mind; be sure to immolate +yourself handsomely. Women are the deuse." + +"Finish your almonds, John," I said, "and go away; we must dress." + +He put his hand on my arm, and whispered,-- + +"Smother that light in your eyes, my girl; it is dangerous. And you +have lived under your mother's eye all your life! You see what I have +done,"--indicating Leonora with his eyebrows,--"taken a baby on my +hands." + +"John, John!" I inwardly ejaculated, "you are an idiot." + +"She shall never suffer what you suffer; she shall have the benefit of +the experience which other women have given me." + +"Very likely," I answered; "I know we often serve you as pioneers +merely." + +He gave a sad nod, and I closed the door upon him. + +"Put these pins into my hair, Leonora, and tell me, how do you like my +new dress?" + +"Paris!" she cried. + +It was a dove-colored silk with a black velvet stripe through it. I +showed her a shawl which John had given me,--a pale-yellow gauzy fabric +with a gold-thread border,--and told her to make me up. She produced +quite a marvellous effect; for this baby understood the art of dress to +perfection. She made my hair into a loose mass, rolling it away from my +face; yet it was firmly fastened. Then she shook out the shawl, and +wrapped me in it, so that my head seemed to be emerging from a +pale-tinted cloud. John said I looked outlandish, but Leonora thought +otherwise. She begged him for some Indian perfume, and he found an +aromatic powder, which she sprinkled inside my gloves and over my shawl. + +We found the opera-house crowded. Our seats were near the stage. John +sat behind us, so that he might slip out into the lobby occasionally; +for the opera was a bore to him. The second act was over; John had left +his seat; I was opening and shutting my fan mechanically, half lost in +thought, when Leonora, who had been looking at the house with her +lorgnette, turned and said,-- + +"Is not that your friend of this morning, on the other side, in the +second row, leaning against the third pillar? There is a +queenish-looking old lady with him. He hasn't spoken to her for a long +time, and she continually looks up at him." + +I took her glass, and discovered Redmond. He looked back at me through +another; I made a slight motion with my handkerchief; he dropped his +glass into the lap of the lady next him and darted out, and in a moment +he was behind me in John's seat. + +"Who is with you?" he asked. + +"Brother," I answered. + +"You intoxicate me with some strange perfume; don't fan it this way." + +I quietly passed the fan to Leonora, who now looked back and spoke to +him. He talked with her a moment, and then she discreetly resumed her +lorgnette. + +"What happened for two years after I left B.? The last year I know +something of." + +"Breakfast, dinner, and tea; the ebb and flow of the tide; and the days +of the week." + +"Nothing more?" And his voice came nearer. + +"A few trifles." + +"They are under lock and key, I suppose?" + +"We do not carry relics about with us." + +"There is the conductor; I must go. Turn your face toward me more." + +I obeyed him, and our eyes met. His searching gaze made me shiver. + +"I have been married," he said, and his eyes were unflinching, "and my +wife is dead." + +All the lights went down, I thought; I struck out my arm to find +Leonora, who caught it and pressed it down. + +"I must get out," I said; and I walked up the alley to the door without +stumbling. + +I knew that I was fainting or dying; as I had never fainted, I did not +know which. Redmond carried me through the cloak-room and put me on a +sofa. + +"I never can speak to him again," I thought, and then I lost sight of +them all. + +A terribly sharp pain through my heart roused me, and I was in a +violent chill. They had thrown water over my face; my hair was matted, +and the water was dripping from it on my naked shoulders. The gloves +had been ripped from my hands, and Leonora was wringing my +handkerchief. + +"The heat made you faint, dear," she said. + +John was walking up and down the room with a phlegmatic countenance, +but he was fuming. + +"My new dress is ruined, John," I said. + +"Hang the dress! How do you feel now?" + +"It is drowned; and I feel better; shall we go home?" + +He went out to order the carriage, and Leonora whispered to me that she +had forgotten Redmond's name. + +"No matter," I answered. I could not have spoken it then. + +When John came, Leonora beckoned to Redmond to introduce himself. John +shook hands with him, gave him an intent look, and told us the carriage +was ready. Redmond followed us, and took leave of us at the +carriage-door. + +Leonora begged me to stay at her house; I refused, for I wished to be +alone. John deposited her with her mother, and we drove home. He gave +me one of his infallible medicines, and told me not to get up in the +morning. But when morning came, I remembered Harry Lothrop was coming, +and made myself ready for him. As human nature is not quite perfect, I +felt unhappy about him, and rather fond of him, and thought he +possessed some admirable qualities. I never could read the old poets +any more without a pang, unless he were with me, directing my eye along +their pages with his long white finger! I never should smell tuberoses +again without feeling faint, unless they were his gift! + +By the time he came I was in a state of romantic regret, and in that +state many a woman has answered, "Yes!" He asked me abruptly if I +thought it would be folly in him to ask me to marry him. The question +turned the tide. + +"No," I answered,--"not folly; for I have thought many times in the +last two years, that I should marry you, if you said I must. But now I +believe that it is not best. You have pursued me patiently; your +self-love made the conquest of me a necessary pleasure. That was well +enough for me; for you made me feel all the while, that, if I loved +you, you were worth possessing. And you are. I like you. But my feeling +for you did not prevent my fainting away at the opera-house last night, +when Redmond told me that his wife was dead." + +"So," he said, "the long-smothered fire has broken out again! Chance +does not befriend me. He saw you last night, and yielded. He said +yesterday he should not tell you. He asked me about you after we left +you, and wished to know if I had seen you much for the last year. I +offered him your last letter to read,--am I not generous?--but he +refused it. + +"'When I see her,' he asked, 'am I at liberty to say what I choose?' + +"On that I could have said, 'No.' Redmond and I have not seen each +other since the period of my first visit to you. He has been nursing +his wife in the mean time, taking journeys with her, and trying all +sorts of cures; and now he seems tied to his aunt and mother-in-law. He +was merely passing through the city with her, and this morning they +have gone again.--Well," after a pause, "there is no need of words +between us. I have in my possession a part of you. Beautiful women are +like flowers which open their leaves wide enough for their perfume to +attract wandering bees; the perfume is wasted, though the honey may be +hid." + +"Alas, what a lesson this man is giving me!" I thought. + +"Farewell, then," he said. He bit his lips, and his clenched hands +trembled; but he mastered his emotion. "You must think of me." + +"And see you, too," I answered. "Everything comes round again, if we +live long enough. Dramatic unities are never preserved in life; if they +were, how poetical would all these things be! But Time whirls us round, +showing us our many-sided feelings as carelessly as a child rattles the +bits of glass in his kaleidoscope." + +"So be it!" he replied. "Adieu!" + +That afternoon I staid at home, and put John's room in order, and +cleaned the dust from his Indian idols, and was extremely busy till he +came in. Then I kissed his whiskers, and told him all my sins, and +cried once or twice during my confession. He petted me a good deal, and +made me eat twice as much dinner as I wanted; he said it was good for +me, and I obeyed him, for I felt uncommonly meek that day. + +Soon after, Redmond sent me a long letter. He said he had been, from a +boy, under an obligation to his aunt, the mother of his wife. It was a +common story, and he would not trouble me with it. He was married soon +after Harry Lothrop's first visit to me, at the time they had received +the news of Laura's death. How much he had thought of Laura afterward, +while he was watching the fading away of his pale blossom! His aunt had +been ill since the death of her daughter, restless, and discontented +with every change. He hoped she was now settled among some old friends +with whom she might find consolation. In conclusion, he wrote,--"My +aunt noticed our hasty exit from the opera-house that night, when I was +brute enough to nearly kill you. I told her that I loved you. She now +feels, after a struggle, that she must let me go. 'Old women have no +rights,' she said to me yesterday. Margaret, may I come, and never leave +you again?" + +My answer may be guessed, for one day he arrived. It was the dusk of a +cheery winter day, the time when home wears so bright a look to those +who seek it. It was an hour before dinner, and I was waiting for John +to come in. The amber evening sky gleamed before the windows, and the +fire made a red core of light in the room. John's sandal-wood boxes +gave out strange odors in the heat, and the pattern of the Persian rug +was just visible. A servant came to the door with a card. I held it to +the grate, and the fire lit up his name. + +"Show him up-stairs," I said. + +I stood in the doorway, and heard his step on every stair. When he +came, I took him by the hand, and drew him into the room. He was +speechless. + +"Oh, Redmond, I love you! How long you were away!" + +He kneeled by me, and put my arms round his neck, and we kissed each +other with the first, best kiss of passion. + +John came in, and I reached out my hand to him and said, "This is my +husband." + +"That's comfortable," he answered. "Won't you stay to dinner?" + +"Oh, yes," replied Redmond; "this is my hotel." + +"I see," said John. + +But after dinner they had a long talk together. John sent me to my +room, and I was glad to go. I walked up and down, crying, I must say, +most of the time, asking forgiveness of myself for my faults, and +remembering Laura and Maurice,--and then thinking Redmond was mine, +with a contraction of the heart which threatened to stifle me. + +John took us up to Leonora's that evening; he said he wanted to see if +Puss would be tantalized with the sight of such a beautiful romantic +couple just from fairy-land, who were now prepared "to live in peace." + +We were married the next day in a church in a by-street. John was the +only witness, and flourished a large silk handkerchief, so that it had +the effect of a triumphal banner. Redmond put the ring on the wrong +finger,--a mistake which the minister kindly rectified. All I had new +for the occasion was a pair of gloves. + +One morning after my marriage, when Redmond and John were smoking +together, I was turning over some boxes, for I was packing to go home +on a visit to our mother. I called Redmond to leave his pipe and come +to me. + +"You have not seen any of my property. Look, here it is:-- + +"One bitten handkerchief. + +"A fan never used. + +"A gold pen-holder. + +"A draggled shawl." + +"Margaret," he said, taking my chin in his hand and bringing his eyes +close to mine, "I am wild with happiness." + +"Your pipe has gone out," we heard John say. + + * * * * * + +THE PLAYMATE. + + + The pines were dark on Ramoth hill, + Their song was soft and low; + The blossoms in the sweet May wind + Were falling like the snow. + + The blossoms drifted at our feet, + The orchard birds sang clear; + The sweetest and the saddest day + It seemed of all the year. + + For, more to me than birds or flowers, + My playmate left her home, + And took with her the laughing spring, + The music and the bloom. + + She kissed the lips of kith and kin, + She laid her hand in mine: + What more could ask the bashful boy + Who fed her father's kine? + + She left us in the bloom of May: + The constant years told o'er + Their seasons with as sweet May morns. + But she came back no more. + + I walk, with noiseless feet, the round + Of uneventful years; + Still o'er and o'er I sow the spring + And reap the autumn ears. + + She lives where all the golden year + Her summer roses blow; + The dusky children of the sun + Before her come and go. + + There haply with her jewelled hands + She smooths her silken gown,-- + No more the homespun lap wherein + I shook the walnuts down. + + The wild grapes wait us by the brook, + The brown nuts on the hill, + And still the May-day flowers make sweet + The woods of Follymill. + + The lilies blossom in the pond, + The bird builds in the tree, + The dark pines sing on Ramoth hill + The slow song of the sea. + + I wonder if she thinks of them, + And how the old time seems,-- + If ever the pines of Ramoth wood + Are sounding in her dreams. + + I see her face, I hear her voice: + Does she remember mine? + And what to her is now the boy + Who fed her father's kine? + + What cares she that the orioles build + For other eyes than ours,-- + That other hands with nuts are filled, + And other laps with flowers? + + O playmate in the golden time! + Our mossy seat is green, + Its fringing violets blossom yet, + The old trees o'er it lean. + + The winds so sweet with birch and fern + A sweeter memory blow; + And there in spring the veeries sing + The song of long ago. + + And still the pines of Ramoth wood + Are moaning like the sea,-- + The moaning of the sea of change + Between myself and thee! + + + + +THE MAROONS OF SURINAM. + + +When that eccentric individual, Captain John Gabriel Stedman, resigned +his commission in the English navy, took the oath of abjuration, and +was appointed ensign in the Scots brigade employed for two centuries by +Holland, he little knew that "their High Mightinesses the States of the +United Provinces" would send him out, within a year, to the forests of +Guiana, to subdue rebel negroes. He never imagined that the year 1773 +would behold him beneath the rainy season in a tropical country, wading +through marshes and splashing through lakes, exploring with his feet +for submerged paths, commanding impracticable troops and commanded by +an insufferable colonel, feeding on gree-gree worms and fed upon by +mosquitoes, howled at by jaguars, hissed at by serpents, and shot at by +those exceedingly unattainable gentlemen, "still longed for, never seen," +the Maroons of Surinam. + +Yet, as our young ensign sailed up the Surinam river, the world of +tropic beauty came upon him with enchantment. Dark, moist verdure was +close around him, rippling waters below; the tall trees of the jungle +and the low mangroves beneath were all hung with long vines and lianas, +a maze of cordage, like a fleet at anchor; odd monkeys travelled +ceaselessly up and down these airy paths, in armies, bearing their +young, like knapsacks, on their backs; macaws and humming-birds, winged +jewels, flew from tree to tree. As they neared Paramaribo, the river +became a smooth canal among luxuriant plantations, the air was perfumed +music, redolent of orange-blossoms and echoing with the songs of birds +and the sweet plash of oars; gay barges came forth to meet them; "while +groups of naked boys and girls were promiscuously playing and +flouncing, like so many tritons and mermaids, in the water." And when +the troops disembarked,--five hundred fine young men, the oldest not +thirty, all arrayed in new uniforms and bearing orange-flowers in their +caps, a bridal wreath for beautiful Guiana,--it is no wonder that the +Creole ladies were in ecstasy, and the boyish recruits little foresaw +the day, when, reduced to a few dozens, barefooted and ragged as +filibusters, their last survivors would gladly reëmbark from a country +beside which even Holland looked dry and even Scotland comfortable. + +For over all that earthly paradise there brooded not alone its terrible +malaria, its days of fever and its nights of deadly chill, but the +worse shadows of oppression and of sin, which neither day nor night +could banish. The first object which met Stedman's eye, as he stepped +on shore, was the figure of a young girl stripped to receive two +hundred lashes, and chained to a hundred-pound-weight. And the few +first days gave a glimpse into a state of society worthy of this +exhibition,--men without mercy, women without modesty, the black man a +slave to the white man's passions, and the white man a slave to his +own. The present West Indian society in its worst forms is probably a +mere dilution of the utter profligacy of those days. Greek or Roman +decline produced nothing more debilitating or destructive than the +ordinary life of a Surinam planter, and his one virtue of hospitality +only led to more unbridled excesses and completed the work of vice. No +wonder that Stedman himself, who, with all his peculiarities, was +essentially simple and manly, soon became disgusted, and made haste to +get into the woods and cultivate the society of the Maroons. + +The rebels against whom this expedition was sent were not the original +Maroons of Surinam, but a later generation. The originals had long +since established their independence, and their leaders were +flourishing their honorary silver-mounted canes in the streets of +Paramaribo. Fugitive negroes had begun to establish themselves in the +woods from the time when the colony was finally ceded by the English to +the Dutch, in 1674. The first open outbreak occurred in 1726, when the +plantations on the Seramica river revolted; it was found impossible to +subdue them, and the government very imprudently resolved to make an +example of eleven captives, and thus terrify the rest of the rebels. +They were tortured to death, eight of the eleven being women; this +drove the others to madness, and plantation after plantation was +visited with fire and sword. After a long conflict, their chief, Adoe, +was induced to make a treaty, in 1749. The rebels promised to keep the +peace, and in turn were promised freedom, money, tools, clothes, and, +finally, arms and ammunition. + +But no permanent peace was ever made upon a barrel of gunpowder as a +basis, and of course an explosion followed this one. The colonists +naturally evaded the last item of the bargain, and the rebels, +receiving the gifts and remarking the omission of the part of Hamlet, +asked contemptuously if the Europeans expected negroes to subsist on +combs and looking-glasses? New hostilities at once began; a new body of +slaves on the Ouca river revolted; the colonial government was changed +in consequence, and fresh troops shipped from Holland; and after four +different embassies had been sent into the woods, the rebels began to +listen to reason. The black generals, Captain Araby and Captain Boston, +agreed upon a truce for a year, during which the colonial government +might decide for peace or war, the Maroons declaring themselves +indifferent. Finally the government chose peace, delivered ammunition, +and made a treaty, in 1761; the white and black plenipotentiaries +exchanged English oaths and then negro oaths, each tasting a drop of +the other's blood during the latter ceremony, amid a volley of +remarkable incantations from the black _gadoman_ or priest. After some +final skirmishes, in which the rebels almost always triumphed, the +treaty was at length accepted by all the various villages of Maroons. +Had they known that at this very time five thousand slaves in Berbice +were just rising against their masters and were looking to them for +assistance, the result might have been different; but this fact had not +reached them, nor had the rumors of insurrection in Brazil, among negro +and Indian slaves. They consented, therefore, to the peace. "They write +from Surinam," says the "Annual Register" for January 23, 1761, "that +the Dutch governor, finding himself unable to subdue the rebel negroes +of that country by force, hath wisely followed the example of Governor +Trelawney at Jamaica, and concluded an amicable treaty with them; in +consequence of which, all the negroes of the woods are acknowledged to +be free, and all that is past is buried in oblivion." So ended a war of +thirty-six years, and in Stedman's day the original three thousand Ouca +and Seramica Maroons had multiplied (almost incredibly) to fifteen +thousand. + +But for the slaves not sharing in this revolt it was not so +easy to "bury the whole past in oblivion." The Maroons had told +some very plain truths to the white ambassadors, and had frankly +advised them, if they wished for peace, to mend their own +manners and treat their slaves humanely. But the planters learned +nothing by experience,--and indeed, the terrible narrations of Stedman +were confirmed by those of Alexander, so lately as 1831. Of course, +therefore, in a colony comprising eighty thousand blacks to four +thousand whites, other revolts were stimulated by the success of this +one. They reached their highest point in 1772, when an insurrection on +the Cottica river, led by a negro named Baron, almost gave the +finishing blow to the colony; the only adequate protection being found +in a body of slaves liberated expressly for that purpose,--a dangerous +and humiliating precedent. "We have been obliged to set three or four +hundred of our stoutest negroes free to defend us," says an honest +letter from Surinam in the "Annual Register" for September 5, 1772. +Fortunately for the safety of the planters, Baron presumed too much +upon his numbers, and injudiciously built a camp too near the +sea-coast, in a marshy fastness, from which he was finally ejected by +twelve hundred Dutch troops, though the chief work was done, Stedman +thinks, by the "black rangers" or liberated slaves. Checked by this +defeat, he again drew back into the forests, resuming his guerrilla +warfare against the plantations. Nothing could dislodge him; +bloodhounds were proposed, but the moisture of the country made them +useless; and thus matters stood when Stedman came sailing, amid +orange-blossoms and music, up the winding Surinam. + +Our young officer went into the woods in the condition of Falstaff, +"heinously unprovided." Coming from the unbounded luxury of the +plantations, he found himself entering "the most horrid and +impenetrable forests, where no kind of refreshment was to be had,"--he +being provisioned only with salt pork and peas. After a wail of sorrow +for this inhuman neglect, he bursts into a gush of gratitude for the +private generosity which relieved his wants at the last moment by the +following list of supplies:--"24 bottles best claret, 12 ditto Madeira, +12 ditto porter, 12 ditto cider, 12 ditto rum, 2 large loaves white +sugar, 2 gallons brandy, 6 bottles muscadel, 2 gallons lemon-juice, 2 +gallons ground coffee, 2 large Westphalia hams, 2 salted bullocks' +tongues, 1 bottle Durham mustard, 6 dozen spermaceti candles." The hams +and tongues seem, indeed, rather a poor halfpennyworth to this +intolerable deal of sack; but this instance of Surinam privation in +those days may open some glimpse at the colonial standards of comfort. +"From this specimen," moralizes our hero, "the reader will easily +perceive, that, if some of the inhabitants of Surinam show themselves +the disgrace of the creation by their cruelties and brutality, others, +by their social feelings, approve themselves an ornament to the human +species. With this instance of virtue and generosity I therefore +conclude this chapter." + +But the troops soon had to undergo worse troubles than those of the +_commisariat_. The rainy season had just set in. "As for the negroes," +said Mr. Klynhaus, the last planter with whom they parted, "you may +depend on never seeing a soul of them, unless they attack you off +guard; but the climate, the climate, will murder you all." Bringing +with them constitutions already impaired by the fevers and dissipation +of Paramaribo, the poor boys began to perish long before they began to +fight. Wading in water all day, hanging their hammocks over water at +night, it seemed a moist existence, even compared with the climate of +England and the soil of Holland. It was "Invent a shovel and be a +magistrate," even more than Andrew Marvell found it in the United +Provinces. In fact, Raynal evidently thinks that nothing but Dutch +experience in hydraulics could ever have cultivated Surinam. + +The two gun-boats which held one division of the expedition were merely +old sugar-barges, roofed over with boards, and looking like coffins. +They were pleasantly named the "Charon" and the "Cerberus," but Stedman +thought that the "Sudden Death" and the "Wilful Murder" would have been +titles more appropriate. The chief duty of the troops consisted in +lying at anchor at the intersections of wooded streams, waiting for +rebels who never came. It was dismal work, and the raw recruits were +full of the same imaginary terrors which have haunted other heroes less +severely tested: the monkeys never rattled the cocoa-nuts against the +trees, but they all heard the axes of Maroon wood-choppers; and when a +sentinel declared, one night, that he had seen a negro go down the +river in a canoe, with his pipe lighted, the whole force was called to +arms--against a firefly. In fact, the insect race brought by far the +most substantial dangers. The rebels eluded the military, but the +chigres, locusts, scorpions, and bush-spiders were ever ready to come +half-way to meet them; likewise serpents and alligators proffered them +the freedom of the forests and exhibited a hospitality almost +excessive. Snakes twenty feet long hung their seductive length from the +trees; jaguars volunteered their society through almost impenetrable +marshes; vampire bats perched by night with lulling endearments upon +their toes. When Stedman describes himself as killing thirty-eight +mosquitoes at one stroke, we must perhaps pardon something to the +spirit of martyrdom. But when we add to these the other woes of his +catalogue,--prickly-heat, ring-worm, putrid-fever, "the growling of +Colonel Fougeaud, dry, sandy savannas, unfordable marshes, burning hot +days, cold and damp nights, heavy rains, and short allowance,"--we can +hardly wonder that three captains died in a month, and that in two +months his detachment of forty-two was reduced to a miserable seven. + +Yet, through all this, Stedman himself kept his health. His theory of +the matter almost recalls the time-honored prescription of "A light +heart and a thin pair of breeches," for he attributes his good +condition to his keeping up his spirits and kicking off his shoes. +Daily bathing in the river had also something to do with it,--and, +indeed, hydropathy (this may not be generally known) was first learned +of the West India Maroons, who did their "packing" in wet clay,--and it +was carried by Dr. Wright to England. But his extraordinary personal +qualities must have contributed most to his preservation. Never did a +"meagre, starved, black, burnt, and ragged tatterdemalion," as he calls +himself, carry about him such a fund of sentiment, philosophy, poetry, +and art. He had a great faculty for sketching, as the engravings in his +volumes, with all their odd peculiarities, show; his deepest woes he +coined always into couplets, and fortified himself against hopeless +despair with Ovid and Valerius Flaccus, Pope's "Homer" and Thomson's +"Seasons." Above all reigned his passion for natural history, a ready +balm for every ill. Here he was never wanting to the occasion, and, to +do justice to Dutch Guiana, the occasion never was wanting to him. Were +his men sickening, the peccaries were always healthy without, and the +cockroaches within the camp; just escaping from a she-jaguar, he +satisfies himself, ere he flees, that the print of her claws on the +sand is precisely the size of a pewter dinner-plate; bitten by a +scorpion, he makes sure of his scientific description in case he should +expire of the bite; is the water undrinkable, there is at least some +rational interest in the number of legs possessed by the centipedes +which preoccupy it. This is the highest triumph of man over his +accidents, when he thus turns his pains to gains, and becomes an +entomologist in the tropics. + +Meanwhile the rebels kept their own course in the forests, and +occasionally descended upon plantations beside the very river on whose +upper waters the useless troops were sickening and dying. Stedman +himself made several campaigns, with long intervals of illness, before +he came any nearer to the enemy than to burn a deserted village or +destroy a rice-field. Sometimes they left the Charon and the Cerberus +moored by grape-vines to the pine-trees, and made expeditions into the +woods single file. Our ensign, true to himself, gives the minutest +schedule of the order of march, and the oddest little diagram of +manikins with cocked hats, and blacker manikins bearing burdens. First, +negroes with bill-hooks to clear the way; then the van-guard; then the +main body, interspersed with negroes bearing boxes of ball-cartridges; +then the rear-guard, with many more negroes, bearing camp-equipage, +provisions, and new rum, surnamed "kill-devil," and appropriately +followed by a sort of palanquin for the disabled. Thus arrayed, they +marched valorously forth into the woods, to some given point; then they +turned, marched back to the boats, then rowed back to camp, and +straightaway went into the hospital. Immediately upon this, the coast +being clear. Baron and his rebels marched out again and proceeded to +business. + +In the course of years, these Maroons had acquired their own peculiar +tactics. They built stockaded fortresses on marshy islands, accessible +by fords which they alone could traverse. These they defended further +by sharp wooden pins, or crows'-feet, concealed beneath the surface of +the miry ground,--and, latterly, by the more substantial protection of +cannon, which they dragged into the woods, and learned to use. Their +bush-fighting was unique. Having always more men than weapons, they +arranged their warriors in threes,--one to use the musket, another to +take his place, if wounded or slain, and a third to drag away the body. +They had Indian stealthiness and swiftness, with more than Indian +discipline; discharged their fire with some approach to regularity, in +three successive lines, the signals being given by the captain's horn. +They were full of ingenuity: marked their movements for each other by +scattered leaves and blazed trees; ran zigzag, to dodge bullets; gave +wooden guns to their unarmed men, to frighten the plantation negroes on +their guerrilla expeditions; and borrowed the red caps of the black +rangers whom they slew, to bewilder the aim of the others. One of +them, finding himself close to the muzzle of a ranger's gun, threw up +his hand hastily. "What!" he exclaimed, "will you fire on one of your +own party?" "God forbid!" cried the ranger, dropping his piece, and was +instantly shot through the body by the Maroon, who the next instant had +disappeared in the woods. + +These rebels were no saints: their worship was obi-worship; the women +had not far outgrown the plantation standard of chastity, and the men +drank "kill-devil" like their betters. Stedman was struck with the +difference between the meaning of the word "good" in rebellious circles +and in reputable. "It must, however, be observed that what we Europeans +call a good character was by the Africans looked upon as detestable, +especially by those born in the woods, whose only crime consisted in +avenging the wrongs done to their forefathers." But if martial virtues +be virtues, such were theirs. Not a rebel ever turned traitor or +informer, ever flinched in battle or under torture, ever violated a +treaty or even a private promise. But it was their power of endurance +which was especially astounding; Stedman is never weary of paying +tribute to this, or of illustrating it in sickening detail; indeed, the +records of the world show nothing to surpass it; "the lifted axe, the +agonizing wheel" proved powerless to subdue it; with every limb lopped, +every bone broken, the victims yet defied their tormentors, laughed, +sang, and died triumphant. + +Of course, they repaid these atrocities in kind. If they had not, it +would have demonstrated the absurd paradox, that slavery educates +higher virtues than freedom. It bewilders all the relations of human +responsibility, if we expect the insurrectionary slave to commit no +outrages; if slavery have not depraved him, it has done him little +harm. If it be the normal tendency of bondage to produce saints like +Uncle Tom, let us all offer ourselves at auction immediately. It is +Cassy and Dred who are the normal protest of human nature against +systems which degrade it. Accordingly, these poor, ignorant Maroons, +who had seen their brothers and sisters flogged, burned, mutilated, +hanged on iron hooks, broken on the wheel, and had been all the while +solemnly assured that this was paternal government, could only repay +the paternalism in the same fashion, when they had the power. Stedman +saw a negro chained to a red-hot distillery-furnace; he saw disobedient +slaves, in repeated instances, punished by the amputation of a leg, and +sent to boat-service for the rest of their lives; and of course the +rebels borrowed these suggestions. They could bear to watch their +captives expire under the lash, for they had previously watched their +parents. If the government rangers received twenty-five florins for +every rebel right-hand which they brought in, of course they risked +their own right-hands in the pursuit. The difference was, that the one +brutality was that of a mighty state, and the other was only the +retaliation of the victims. And after all, Stedman never ventures to +assert that the imitation equalled the original, or that the Maroons +had inflicted nearly so much as they had suffered. + +The leaders of the rebels, especially, were men who had each his own +story of wrongs to tell. Baron, the most formidable, had been the slave +of a Swedish gentleman, who had taught him to read and write, taken him +to Europe, promised to manumit him on his return,--and then, breaking +his word, sold him to a Jew. Baron refused to work for his new master, +was publicly flogged under the gallows, fled to the woods next day, and +became the terror of the colony. Joli Coeur, his first captain, was +avenging the cruel wrongs of his mother. Bonny, another leader, was +born in the woods, his mother having taken refuge there just +previously, to escape from his father, who was also his master. Cojo, +another, had defended his master against the insurgents until he was +obliged by ill usage to take refuge among them; and he still bore upon +his wrist, when Stedman saw him, a silver band, with the inscription,-- +"True to the Europeans." In dealing with wrongs like these, Mr. Carlyle +would have found the despised negroes quite as ready as himself to take +the total-abstinence pledge against rose-water. + +In his first two months' campaign, Stedman never saw the trace of a +Maroon; in the second, he once came upon their trail; in the third, one +captive was brought in, two surrendered themselves voluntarily, and a +large party was found to have crossed a river within a mile of the +camp, ferrying themselves on palm-trunks, according to their fashion. +Deep swamps and scorching sands,--toiling through briers all day, and +sleeping at night in hammocks suspended over stagnant water, with +weapons supported on sticks crossed beneath,--all this was endured for +two years and a half, before Stedman personally came in sight of the +enemy. + +On August 20th, 1775, the troops found themselves at last in the midst +of the rebel settlements. These villages and forts bore a variety of +expressive names, such as "Hide me, O thou surrounding verdure," "I +shall be taken," "The woods lament for me," "Disturb me, if you dare," +"Take a tasting, if you like it," "Come, try me, if you be men," "God +knows me and none else," "I shall moulder before I shall be taken." +Some were only plantation-grounds with a few huts, and were easily laid +waste; but all were protected more or less by their mere situations. +Quagmires surrounded them, covered by a thin crust of verdure, +sometimes broken through by one man's weight, when the victim sank +hopelessly into the black and bottomless depths below. In other +directions there was a solid bottom, but inconveniently covered by +three or four feet of water, through which the troops waded +breast-deep, holding their muskets high in the air, unable to reload +them when once discharged, and liable to be picked off by rebel scouts, +who ingeniously posted themselves in the tops of palm-trees. + +Through this delectable region Colonel Fougeaud and his followers +slowly advanced, drawing near the fatal shore where Captain Meyland's +detachment had just been defeated, and where their mangled remains +still polluted the beach. Passing this point of danger without attack, +they suddenly met a small party of rebels, each bearing on his back a +beautifully-woven hamper of snow-white rice: these loads they threw +down, and disappeared. Next appeared an armed body from the same +direction, who fired upon them once and swiftly retreated; and in a few +moments the soldiers came upon a large field of standing rice, beyond +which lay, like an amphitheatre, the rebel village. But between the +village and the field had been piled successive defences of logs and +branches, behind which simple redoubts the Maroons lay concealed. A +fight ensued, lasting forty minutes, during which nearly every soldier +and ranger was wounded, but, to their great amazement, not one was +killed. This was an enigma to them until after the skirmish, when the +surgeon found that most of them had been struck, not by bullets, but by +various substitutes, such as pebbles, coat-buttons, and bits of silver +coin, which had penetrated only skin-deep. "We also observed that +several of the poor rebel negroes, who had been shot, had only the +shards of Spa-water cans, instead of flints, which could seldom do +execution; and it was certainly owing to these circumstances that we +came off so well." + +The rebels at length retreated, first setting fire to their village; a +hundred or more lightly built houses, some of them two stories high, +were soon in flames; and as this conflagration occupied the only neck +of land between two impassable morasses, the troops were unable to +follow, and the Maroons had left nothing but rice-fields to be +pillaged. That night the military force was encamped in the woods; +their ammunition was almost gone; so they were ordered to lie flat on +the ground, even in case of attack; they could not so much as build a +fire. Before midnight an attack was made on them, partly with bullets +and partly with words; the Maroons were all around them in the forest, +but their object was a puzzle: they spent most of the night in bandying +compliments with the black rangers, whom they alternately denounced, +ridiculed, and challenged to single combat. At last Fougeaud and +Stedman joined in the conversation, and endeavored to make this +midnight volley of talk the occasion for a treaty. This was received +with inextinguishable laughter, which echoed through the woods like a +concert of screech-owls, ending in a _charivari_ of horns and +hallooing. The Colonel, persisting, offered them "life, liberty, +victuals, drink, and all they wanted"; in return, they ridiculed him +unmercifully: he was a half-starved Frenchman, who had run away from +his own country, and would soon run away from theirs; they profoundly +pitied him and his soldiers; they would scorn to spend powder on such +scarecrows; they would rather feed and clothe them, as being poor white +slaves, hired to be shot at and starved for four-pence a day. But as +for the planters, overseers, and rangers, they should die, every one of +them, and Bonny should be governor of the colony. "After this, they +tinkled their bill-hooks, fired a volley, and gave three cheers; which +being answered by the rangers, the clamor ended, and the rebels +dispersed with the rising sun." + +Very aimless nonsense it certainly appeared. But the next day put a new +aspect on it; for it was found, that, under cover of all this noise, +the Maroons had been busily occupied all night, men, women, and +children, in preparing and filling great hampers of the finest rice, +yams, and cassava, from the adjacent provision-grounds, to be used for +subsistence during their escape, leaving only chaff and refuse for the +hungry soldiers. "This was certainly such a masterly trait of +generalship in a savage people, whom we affected to despise, as would +have done honor to any European commander." + +From this time the Maroons fulfilled their threats. Shooting down +without mercy every black ranger who came within their reach,--one of +these rangers being, in Stedman's estimate, worth six white +soldiers,--they left Colonel Fougeaud and his regulars to die of +starvation and fatigue. The enraged Colonel, "finding himself thus +foiled by a naked negro, swore he would pursue Bonny to the world's +end." But he never got any nearer than to Bonny's kitchen-gardens. He +put the troops on half-allowance, sent back for provisions and +ammunition,--and within ten days changed his mind, and retreated to the +settlements in despair. Soon after, this very body of rebels, under +Bonny's leadership, plundered two plantations in the vicinity, and +nearly captured a powder-magazine, which was, however, successfully +defended by some armed slaves. + +For a year longer these expeditions continued. The troops never gained +a victory, and they lost twenty men for every rebel killed; but they +gradually checked the plunder of plantations, destroyed villages and +planting-grounds, and drove the rebels, for the time at least, into the +deeper recesses of the woods or into the adjacent province of Cayenne. +They had the slight satisfaction of burning Bonny's own house, a +two-story wooden hut, built in the fashion of our frontier +guard-houses. They often took single prisoners,--some child, born and +bred in the woods, and frightened equally by the first sight of a white +man and of a cow,--or some warrior, who, on being threatened with +torture, stretched forth both hands in disdain, and said, with Indian +eloquence,--"These hands have made tigers tremble." As for Stedman, he +still went bare-footed, still quarrelled with his colonel, still +sketched the scenery and described the reptiles, still reared gree-gree +worms for his private kitchen, still quoted good poetry and wrote +execrable, still pitied all the sufferers around him, black, white, and +red, until finally he and his comrades were ordered back to Holland in +1776. + +Among all that wasted regiment of weary and broken-down men, there was +probably no one but Stedman who looked backward with longing as they +sailed down the lovely Surinam. True, he bore all his precious +collections with him,--parrots and butterflies, drawings on the backs +of old letters, and journals kept on bones and cartridges. But he had +left behind him a dearer treasure; for there runs through all his +eccentric narrative a single thread of pure romance, in his love for +his beautiful quadroon wife and his only son. + +Within a month after his arrival in the colony, our susceptible ensign +first saw Joanna, a slave-girl of fifteen, at the house of an intimate +friend. Her extreme beauty and modesty first fascinated him, and then +her piteous narrative,--for she was the daughter of a planter, who had +just gone mad and died in despair from the discovery that he could not +legally emancipate his own children from slavery. Soon after, Stedman +was dangerously ill, was neglected and alone; fruits and cordials were +anonymously sent to him, which proved at last to have come from Joanna, +and she came herself, ere long, and nursed him, grateful for the +visible sympathy he had shown to her. This completed the conquest; the +passionate young Englishman, once recovered, loaded her with presents, +which she refused,--talked of purchasing her and educating her in +Europe, which she also declined, as burdening him too greatly,--and +finally, amid the ridicule of all good society in Paramaribo, +surmounted all legal obstacles and was united to the beautiful girl in +honorable marriage. He provided a cottage for her, where he spent his +furloughs, in perfect happiness, for four years. + +The simple idyl of their loves was unbroken by any stain or +disappointment, and yet always shadowed with the deepest anxiety for +the future. Though treated with the utmost indulgence, she was legally +a slave, and so was the boy of whom she became the mother. Cojo, her +uncle, was a captain among the rebels against whom her husband fought. +And up to the time when Stedman was ordered back to Holland, he was +unable to purchase her freedom, nor could he, until the very last +moment, procure the emancipation of his boy. His perfect delight at +this last triumph, when obtained, elicited some satire from his white +friends. "While the well-thinking few highly applauded my sensibility, +many not only blamed, but publicly derided me for my paternal +affection, which was called a weakness, a whim." "Nearly forty +beautiful boys and girls were left to perpetual slavery by their +parents of my acquaintance, and many of them without being so much as +once inquired after at all." + +But Stedman was a true-hearted fellow, if his sentiment did sometimes +run to rodomontade; he left his Joanna only in the hope that a year or +two in Europe would repair his ruined fortunes, and he could return to +treat himself to the purchase of his own wedded wife. He describes, +with unaffected pathos, their parting scene,--though, indeed, there +were several successive partings,--and closes the description in a +manner worthy of that remarkable combination of enthusiasms which +characterized him. "My melancholy having surpassed all description, I +at last determined to weather one or two painful years in her absence; +and in the afternoon went to dissipate my mind at a Mr. Roux' cabinet +of Indian curiosities; where as my eye chanced to fall on a +rattlesnake, I will, before I leave the colony, describe this dangerous +reptile." + +It was impossible to write the history of the Maroons of Surinam except +through the biography of our Ensign, (at last promoted Captain,) +because nearly all we know of them is through his quaint and +picturesque narrative, with its profuse illustrations by his own hand. +It is not fair, therefore, to end without chronicling his safe arrival +in Holland, on June 3d, 1777. It is a remarkable fact, that, after his +life in the woods, even the Dutch looked slovenly to his eyes. "The +inhabitants, who crowded about us, appeared but a disgusting assemblage +of ill-formed and ill-dressed rabble,--so much had my prejudices been +changed by living among Indians and blacks: their eyes seemed to +resemble those of a pig; their complexions were like the color of foul +linen; they seemed to have no teeth, and to be covered over with rags +and dirt. This prejudice, however, was not against these people only, +but against all Europeans in general, when compared to the sparkling +eyes, ivory teeth, shining skin, and remarkable cleanliness of those I +had left behind me." Yet, in spite of these superior attractions, he +never recrossed the Atlantic; for his Joanna died soon after, and his +promising son, being sent to the father, was educated in England, +became a midshipman in the navy, and was lost at sea. With his elegy, +in which the last depths of bathos are sadly sounded by a mourning +parent,--who is induced to print them only by "the effect they had on +the sympathetic and ingenious Mrs. Cowley,"--the "Narrative of a Five +Years' Expedition" closes. + +The war, which had cost the government forty thousand pounds a year, +was ended, and left both parties essentially as when it began. The +Maroons gradually returned to their old abodes, and, being unmolested +themselves, left others unmolested thenceforward. Originally three +thousand,--in Stedman's time, fifteen thousand,--they were estimated at +seventy thousand by Captain Alexander, who saw Guiana in 1831,--and a +recent American scientific expedition, having visited them in their +homes, reported them as still enjoying their wild freedom, and +multiplying, while the Indians on the same soil decay. The beautiful +forests of Surinam still make the morning gorgeous with their beauty, +and the night deadly with their chill; the stately palm still rears, a +hundred feet in air, its straight gray shaft and its head of verdure; +the mora builds its solid, buttressed trunk, a pedestal for the eagle; +the pine of the tropics holds out its myriad hands with water-cups for +the rain and dews, where all the birds and the monkeys may drink their +fill; the trees are garlanded with epiphytes and convolvuli, and +anchored to the earth by a thousand vines. High among their branches, +the red and yellow mockingbirds still build their hanging nests, +uncouth storks and tree-porcupines cling above, and the spotted deer +and the tapir drink from the sluggish stream below. The night is still +made noisy with a thousand cries of bird and beast; and the stillness +of the sultry noon is broken by the slow tolling of the _campańero_, or +bell-bird, far in the deep, dark woods, like the chime of some lost +convent. And as Nature is unchanged there, so apparently is man; the +Maroons still retain their savage freedom, still shoot their wild game +and trap their fish, still raise their rice and cassava, yams and +plantains,--still make cups from the gourd-tree and hammocks from the +silk-grass plant, wine from the palm-tree's sap, brooms from its +leaves, fishing-lines from its fibres, and salt from its ashes. Their +life does not yield, indeed, the very highest results of spiritual +culture; its mental and moral results may not come up to the level of +civilization, but they rise far above the level of slavery. In the +changes of time, the Maroons may yet elevate themselves into the one, +but they will never relapse into the other. + + + + +CIRCUMSTANCE. + + +She had remained, during all that day, with a sick neighbor,--those +eastern wilds of Maine in that epoch frequently making neighbors and +miles synonymous,--and so busy had she been with care and sympathy that +she did not at first observe the approaching night. But finally the +level rays, reddening the snow, threw their gleam upon the wall, and, +hastily donning cloak and hood, she bade her friends farewell and +sallied forth on her return. Home lay some three miles distant, across +a copse, a meadow, and a piece of woods,--the woods being a fringe on +the skirts of the great forests that stretch far away into the North. +That home was one of a dozen log-houses lying a few furlongs apart from +each other, with their half-cleared demesnes separating them at the +rear from a wilderness untrodden save by stealthy native or deadly +panther tribes. + +She was in a nowise exalted frame of spirit,--on the contrary, rather +depressed by the pain she had witnessed and the fatigue she had +endured; but in certain temperaments such a condition throws open the +mental pores, so to speak, and renders one receptive of every +influence. Through the little copse she walked slowly, with her cloak +folded about her, lingering to imbibe the sense of shelter, the sunset +filtered in purple through the mist of woven spray and twig, the +companionship of growth not sufficiently dense to band against her the +sweet home-feeling of a young and tender wintry wood. It was therefore +just on the edge of the evening that she emerged from the place and +began to cross the meadow-land. At one hand lay the forest to which her +path wound; at the other the evening star hung over a tide of failing +orange that slowly slipped down the earth's broad side to sadden other +hemispheres with sweet regret. Walking rapidly now, and with her eyes +wide-open, she distinctly saw in the air before her what was not there +a moment ago, a winding-sheet,--cold, white, and ghastly, waved by the +likeness of four wan hands,--that rose with a long inflation and fell +in rigid folds, while a voice, shaping itself from the hollowness +above, spectral and melancholy, sighed,--"The Lord have mercy on the +people! The Lord have mercy on the people!" Three times the sheet with +its corpse-covering outline waved beneath the pale hands, and the +voice, awful in its solemn and mysterious depth, sighed, "The Lord have +mercy on the people!" Then all was gone, the place was clear again, the +gray sky was obstructed by no deathly blot; she looked about her, shook +her shoulders decidedly, and, pulling on her hood, went forward once +more. + +She might have been a little frightened by such an apparition, if she +had led a life of less reality than frontier settlers are apt to lead; +but dealing with hard fact does not engender a flimsy habit of mind, +and this woman was too sincere and earnest in her character, and too +happy in her situation, to be thrown by antagonism merely upon +superstitious fancies and chimeras of the second-sight. She did not +even believe herself subject to an hallucination, but smiled simply, a +little vexed that her thought could have framed such a glamour from the +day's occurrences, and not sorry to lift the bough of the warder of the +woods and enter and disappear in their sombre path. If she had been +imaginative, she would have hesitated at her first step into a region +whose dangers were not visionary; but I suppose that the thought of a +little child at home would conquer that propensity in the most +habituated. So, biting a bit of spicy birch, she went along. Now and +then she came to a gap where the trees had been partially felled, and +here she found that the lingering twilight was explained by that +peculiar and perhaps electric film which sometimes sheathes the sky in +diffused light for very many hours before a brilliant aurora. Suddenly, +a swift shadow, like the fabulous flying-dragon, writhed through the +air before her, and she felt herself instantly seized and borne aloft. +It was that wild beast--the most savage and serpentine and subtle and +fearless of our latitudes--known by hunters as the Indian Devil, and he +held her in his clutches on the broad floor of a swinging fir-bough. +His long sharp claws were caught in her clothing, he worried them +sagaciously a little, then, finding that ineffectual to free them, he +commenced licking her bare white arm with his rasping tongue and +pouring over her the wide streams of his hot, fetid breath. So quick +had this flashing action been that the woman had had no time for alarm; +moreover, she was not of the screaming kind; but now, as she felt him +endeavoring to disentangle his claws, and the horrid sense of her fate +smote her, and she saw instinctively the fierce plunge of those +weapons, the long strips of living flesh torn from her bones, the +agony, the quivering disgust, itself a worse agony,--while by her side, +and holding her in his great lithe embrace, the monster crouched, his +white tusks whetting and gnashing, his eyes glaring through all the +darkness like balls of red fire,--a shriek, that rang in every forest +hollow, that startled every winter-housed thing, that stirred and woke +the least needle of the tasselled pines, tore through her lips. A +moment afterward, the beast left the arm, once white, now crimson, and +looked up alertly. + +She did not think at this instant to call upon God. She called upon her +husband. It seemed to her that she had but one friend in the world; +that was he; and again the cry, loud, clear, prolonged, echoed through +the woods. It was not the shriek that disturbed the creature at his +relish; he was not born in the woods to be scared of an owl, you know; +what then? It mast have been the echo, most musical, most resonant, +repeated and yet repeated, dying with long sighs of sweet sound, +vibrated from rock to river and back again from depth to depth of cave +and cliff. Her thought flew after it; she knew, that, even if her +husband heard it, he yet could not reach her in time; she saw that +while the beast listened he would not gnaw,--and this she _felt_ +directly, when the rough, sharp, and multiplied stings of his tongue +retouched her arm. Again her lips opened by instinct, but the sound +that issued thence came by reason. She had heard that music charmed +wild beasts,--just this point between life and death intensified every +faculty,--and when she opened her lips the third time, it was not for +shrieking, but for singing. + +A little thread of melody stole out, a rill of tremulous motion; it was +the cradle-song with which she rocked her baby;--how could she sing +that? And then she remembered the baby sleeping rosily on the long +settee before the fire,--the father cleaning his gun, with one foot on +the green wooden rundle,--the merry light from the chimney dancing out +and through the room, on the rafters of the ceiling with their tassels +of onions and herbs, on the log walls painted with lichens and +festooned with apples, on the king's-arm slung across the shelf with +the old pirate's-cutlass, on the snow-pile of the bed, and on the great +brass clock,--dancing, too, and lingering on the baby, with his fringed +gentian eyes, his chubby fists clenched on the pillow, and his fine +breezy hair fanning with the motion of his father's foot. All this +struck her in one, and made a sob of her breath, and she ceased. + +Immediately the long red tongue was thrust forth again. Before it +touched, a song sprang to her lips, a wild sea-song, such as some +sailor might be singing far out on trackless blue water that night, the +shrouds whistling with frost and the sheets glued in ice,--a song with +the wind in its burden and the spray in its chorus. The monster raised +his head and flared the fiery eyeballs upon her, then fretted the +imprisoned claws a moment and was quiet; only the breath like the vapor +from some hell-pit still swathed her. Her voice, at first faint and +fearful, gradually lost its quaver, grew under her control and subject +to her modulation; it rose on long swells, it fell in subtile cadences, +now and then its tones pealed out like bells from distant belfries on +fresh sonorous mornings. She sung the song through, and, wondering lest +his name of Indian Devil were not his true name, and if he would not +detect her, she repeated it. Once or twice now, indeed, the beast +stirred uneasily, turned, and made the bough sway at his movement. As +she ended, he snapped his jaws together, and tore away the fettered +member, curling it under him with a snarl,--when she burst into the +gayest reel that ever answered a fiddle-bow. How many a time she had +heard her husband play it on the homely fiddle made by himself from +birch and cherry-wood! how many a time she had seen it danced on the +floor of their one room, to the patter of wooden clogs and the rustle +of homespun petticoat! how many a time she had danced it herself!--and +did she not remember once, as they joined clasps for right-hands-round, +how it had lent its gay, bright measure to her life? And here she was +singing it alone, in the forest, at midnight, to a wild beast! As she +sent her voice trilling up and down its quick oscillations between joy +and pain, the creature who grasped her uncurled his paw and scratched +the bark from the bough; she must vary the spell; and her voice spun +leaping along the projecting points of tune of a hornpipe. Still +singing, she felt herself twisted about with a low growl and a lifting +of the red lip from the glittering teeth; she broke the hornpipe's +thread, and commenced unravelling a lighter, livelier thing, an Irish +jig. Up and down and round about her voice flew, the beast threw back +his head so that the diabolical face fronted hers, and the torrent of +his breath prepared her for his feast as the anaconda slimes his prey. +Franticly she darted from tune to tune; his restless movements followed +her. She tired herself with dancing and vivid national airs, growing +feverish and singing spasmodically as she felt her horrid tomb yawning +wider. Touching in this manner all the slogan and keen clan cries, the +beast moved again, but only to lay the disengaged paw across her with +heavy satisfaction. She did not dare to pause; through the clear cold +air, the frosty starlight, she sang. If there were yet any tremor in +the tone, it was not fear,--she had learned the secret of sound at +last; nor could it be chill,--far too high a fervor throbbed her +pulses; it was nothing but the thought of the log-house and of what +might be passing within it. She fancied the baby stirring in his sleep +and moving his pretty lips,--her husband rising and opening the door, +looking out after her, and wondering at her absence. She fancied the +light pouring through the chink and then shut in again with all the +safety and comfort and joy, her husband taking down the fiddle and +playing lightly with his head inclined, playing while she sang, while +she sang for her life to an Indian Devil. Then she knew he was fumbling +for and finding some shining fragment and scoring it down the yellowing +hair, and unconsciously her voice forsook the wild war-tunes and +drifted into the half-gay, half-melancholy Rosin the Bow. + +Suddenly she woke pierced with a pang, and the daggered tooth +penetrating her flesh;--dreaming of safety, she had ceased singing and +lost it. The beast had regained the use of all his limbs, and now, +standing and raising his back, bristling and foaming, with sounds that +would have been like hisses but for their deep and fearful sonority, he +withdrew step by step toward the trunk of the tree, still with his +flaming balls upon her. She was all at once free, on one end of the +bough, twenty feet from the ground. She did not measure the distance, +but rose to drop herself down, careless of any death, so that it were +not this. Instantly, as if he scanned her thoughts, the creature +bounded forward with a yell and caught her again in his dreadful hold. +It might be that he was not greatly famished; for, as she suddenly +flung up her voice again, he settled himself composedly on the bough, +still clasping her with invincible pressure to his rough, ravenous +breast, and listening in a fascination to the sad, strange U-la-lu that +now moaned forth in loud, hollow tones above him. He half closed his +eyes, and sleepily reopened and shut them again. + +What rending pains were close at hand! Death! and what a death! worse +than any other that is to be named! Water, be it cold or warm, that +which buoys up blue ice-fields, or which bathes tropical coasts with +currents of balmy bliss, is yet a gentle conqueror, kisses as it kills, +and draws you down gently through darkening fathoms to its heart. Death +at the sword is the festival of trumpet and bugle and banner, with +glory ringing out around you and distant hearts thrilling through +yours. No gnawing disease can bring such hideous end as this; for that +is a fiend bred of your own flesh, and this--is it a fiend, this living +lump of appetites? What dread comes with the thought of perishing in +flames! but fire, let it leap and hiss never so hotly, is something too +remote, too alien, to inspire us with such loathly horror as a wild +beast; if it have a life, that life is too utterly beyond our +comprehension. Fire is not half ourselves; as it devours, arouses +neither hatred nor disgust; is not to be known by the strength of our +lower natures let loose; does not drip our blood into our faces from +foaming chaps, nor mouth nor snarl above us with vitality. Let us be +ended by fire, and we are ashes, for the winds to bear, the leaves to +cover; let us be ended by wild beasts, and the base, cursed thing howls +with us forever through the forest. All this she felt as she charmed +him, and what force it lent to her song God knows. If her voice should +fail! If the damp and cold should give her any fatal hoarseness! If all +the silent powers of the forest did not conspire to help her! The dark, +hollow night rose indifferently over her; the wide, cold air breathed +rudely past her, lifted her wet hair and blew it down again; the great +boughs swung with a ponderous strength, now and then clashed their iron +lengths together and shook off a sparkle of icy spears or some +long-lain weight of snow from their heavy shadows. The green depths +were utterly cold and silent and stern. These beautiful haunts that all +the summer were hers and rejoiced to share with her their bounty, these +heavens that had yielded their largess, these stems that had thrust +their blossoms into her hands, all these friends of three moons ago +forgot her now and knew her no longer. + +Feeling her desolation, wild, melancholy, forsaken songs rose thereon +from that frightful aerie,--weeping, wailing tunes, that sob among the +people from age to age, and overflow with otherwise unexpressed +sadness,--all rude, mournful ballads,--old tearful strains, that +Shakspeare heard the vagrants sing, and that rise and fall like the +wind and tide,--sailor-songs, to be heard only in lone mid-watches +beneath the moon and stars,--ghastly rhyming romances, such as that +famous one of the "Lady Margaret," when + +"She slipped on her gown of green + A piece below the knee,-- +And 'twas all a long, cold winter's night + A dead corse followed she." + +Still the beast lay with closed eyes, yet never relaxing his grasp. +Once a half-whine of enjoyment escaped him,--he fawned his fearful head +upon her; once he scored her cheek with his tongue: savage caresses +that hurt like wounds. How weary she was! and yet how terribly awake! +How fuller and fuller of dismay grew the knowledge that she was only +prolonging her anguish and playing with death! How appalling the +thought that with her voice ceased her existence! Yet she could not +sing forever; her throat was dry and hard; her very breath was a pain; +her mouth was hotter than any desert-worn pilgrim's;--if she could but +drop upon her burning tongue one atom of the ice that glittered about +her!--but both of her arms were pinioned in the giant's vice. She +remembered the winding-sheet, and for the first time in her life +shivered with spiritual fear. Was it hers? She asked herself, as she +sang, what sins she had committed, what life she had led, to find her +punishment so soon and in these pangs,--and then she sought eagerly for +some reason why her husband was not up and abroad to find her. He +failed her,--her one sole hope in life; and without being aware of it, +her voice forsook the songs of suffering and sorrow for old Covenanting +hymns,--hymns with which her mother had lulled her, which the +class-leader pitched in the chimney-corners,--grand and sweet Methodist +hymns, brimming with melody and with all fantastic involutions of tune +to suit that ecstatic worship,--hymns full of the beauty of holiness, +steadfast, relying, sanctified by the salvation they had lent to those +in worse extremity than hers,--for they had found themselves in the +grasp of hell, while she was but in the jaws of death. Out of this +strange music, peculiar to one character of faith, and than which there +is none more beautiful in its degree nor owning a more potent sway of +sound, her voice soared into the glorified chants of churches. What to +her was death by cold or famine or wild beasts? "Though He slay me, yet +will I trust in Him," she sang. High and clear through the frore fair +night, the level moonbeams splintering in the wood, the scarce glints +of stars in the shadowy roof of branches, these sacred anthems +rose,--rose as a hope from despair, as some snowy spray of flower-bells +from blackest mould. Was she not in God's hands? Did not the world +swing at His will? If this were in His great plan of providence, was it +not best, and should she not accept it? + +"He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth." + +Oh, sublime faith of our fathers, where utter self-sacrifice alone was +true love, the fragrance of whose unrequired subjection was pleasant as +that of golden censers swung in purple-vapored chancels! + +Never ceasing in the rhythm of her thoughts, articulated in music as +they thronged, the memory of her first communion flashed over her. +Again she was in that distant place on that sweet spring morning. Again +the congregation rustled out, and the few remained, and she trembled to +find herself among them. + +How well she remembered the devout, quiet faces; too accustomed to the +sacred feast to glow with their inner joy! how well the snowy linen at +the altar, the silver vessels slowly and silently shifting! and as the +cup approached and passed, how the sense of delicious perfume stole in +and heightened the transport of her prayer, and she had seemed, looking +up through the windows where the sky soared blue in constant freshness, +to feel all heaven's balms dripping from the portals, and to scent the +lilies of eternal peace! Perhaps another would not have felt so much +ecstasy as satisfaction on that occasion; but it is a true, if a later +disciple, who has said, "The Lord bestoweth his blessings there, where +he findeth the vessels empty."--"And does it need the walls of a church +to renew my communion?" she asked. "Does not every moment stand a +temple four-square to God? And in that morning, with its buoyant +sunlight, was I any dearer to the Heart of the World than now?" "My +beloved is mine, and I am his," she sang over and over again, with all +varied inflection and profuse tune. How gently all the winter-wrapt +things bent toward her then! into what relation with her had they +grown! how this common dependence was the spell of their intimacy! how +at one with Nature had she become! how all the night and the silence +and the forest seemed to hold its breath, and to send its soul up to +God in her singing! It was no longer despondency, that singing. It was +neither prayer nor petition. She had left imploring, "How long wilt +thou forget me, O Lord?" "Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of +death!" "For in death there is no remembrance of thee";--with countless +other such fragments of supplication. She cried rather, "Yea, though I +walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: +for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me";--and +lingered, and repeated, and sang again, "I shall be satisfied, when I +awake, with thy likeness." + +Then she thought of the Great Deliverance, when he drew her up out of +many waters, and the flashing old psalm pealed forth triumphantly:-- + +"The Lord descended from above, + and bow'd the heavens hie; +And underneath his feet he cast + the darknesse of the skie. +On cherubs and on cherubins + full royally he road: +And on the wings of all the winds + came flying all abroad." + +She forgot how recently, and with what a strange pity for her own +shapeless form that was to be, she had quaintly sung,-- + +"Oh, lovely appearance of death! + What sight upon earth is so fair? +Not all the gay pageants that breathe + Can with a dead body compare!" + +She remembered instead,--"In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy +right hand there are pleasures forevermore"; and, "God will redeem my +soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me"; "He will +swallow up death in victory." Not once now did she say, "Lord, how long +wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling +from the lions"--for she knew that "the young lions roar after their +prey and seek their meat from God." "O Lord, thou preservest man and +beast!" she said. + +She had no comfort or consolation in this season, such as sustained the +Christian martyrs in the amphitheatre. She was not dying for her faith; +there were no palms in heaven for her to wave; but how many a time had +she declared,--"I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, +than to dwell in the tents of wickedness!" And as the broad rays here +and there broke through the dense covert of shade and lay in rivers of +lustre on crystal sheathing and frozen fretting of trunk and limb and +on the great spaces of refraction, they builded up visibly that house, +the shining city on the hill, and singing, "Beautiful for situation, +the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the North, +the city of the Great King," her vision climbed to that higher picture +where the angel shows the dazzling thing, the holy Jerusalem descending +out of heaven from God, with its splendid battlements and gates of +pearls, and its foundations, the eleventh a jacinth, the twelfth an +amethyst,--with its great white throne, and the rainbow round about it, +in sight like unto an emerald:--"And there shall be no night +there,--for the Lord God giveth them light," she sang. + +What whisper of dawn now rustled through the wilderness? How the night +was passing! And still the beast crouched upon the bough, changing only +the posture of his head, that again he might command her with those +charmed eyes;--half their fire was gone; she could almost have released +herself from his custody; yet, had she stirred, no one knows what +malevolent instinct might have dominated anew. But of that she did not +dream; long ago stripped of any expectation, she was experiencing in +her divine rapture how mystically true it is that "he that dwelleth in +the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the +Almighty." + +Slow clarion cries now wound from the distance as the cocks caught the +intelligence of day and reechoed it faintly from farm to farm,--sleepy +sentinels of night, sounding the foe's invasion, and translating that +dim intuition to ringing notes of warning. Still she chanted on. A +remote crash of brushwood told of some other beast on his depredations, +or some night-belated traveller groping his way through the narrow +path. Still she chanted on. The far, faint echoes of the chanticleers +died into distance,--the crashing of the branches grew nearer. No wild +beast that, but a man's step,--a man's form in the moonlight, stalwart +and strong,--on one arm slept a little child, in the other hand he held +his gun. Still she chanted on. + +Perhaps, when her husband last looked forth, he was half ashamed to +find what a fear he felt for her. He knew she would never leave the +child so long but for some direst need,--and yet he may have laughed at +himself, as he lifted and wrapped it with awkward care, and, loading +his gun and strapping on his horn, opened the door again and closed it +behind him, going out and plunging into the darkness and dangers of the +forest. He was more singularly alarmed than he would have been willing +to acknowledge; as he had sat with his bow hovering over the strings, +he had half believed to hear her voice mingling gayly with the +instrument, till he paused and listened if she were not about to lift +the latch and enter. As he drew nearer the heart of the forest, that +intimation of melody seemed to grow more actual, to take body and +breath, to come and go on long swells and ebbs of the night-breeze, to +increase with tune and words, till a strange, shrill singing grew ever +clearer, and, as he stepped into an open space of moonbeams, far up in +the branches, rocked by the wind, and singing, "How beautiful upon the +mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that +publisheth peace," he saw his wife,--his wife,--but, great God in +heaven! how? Some mad exclamation escaped him, but without diverting +her. The child knew the singing voice, though never heard before in +that unearthly key, and turned toward it through the veiling dreams. +With a celerity almost instantaneous, it lay, in the twinkling of an +eye, on the ground at the father's feet, while his gun was raised to +his shoulder and levelled at the monster covering his wife with shaggy +form and flaming gaze,--his wife so ghastly white, so rigid, so stained +with blood, her eyes so fixedly bent above, and her lips, that had +indurated into the chiselled pallor of marble, parted only with that +flood of solemn song. + +I do not know if it were the mother-instinct that for a moment lowered +her eyes,--those eyes, so lately riveted on heaven, now suddenly seeing +all life-long bliss possible. A thrill of joy pierced and shivered +through her like a weapon, her voice trembled in its course, her glance +lost its steady strength, fever-flushes chased each other over her +face, yet she never once ceased chanting. She was quite aware, that, if +her husband shot now, the ball must pierce her body before reaching any +vital part of the beast,--and yet better that death, by his hand, than +the other. But this her husband also knew, and he remained motionless, +just covering the creature with the sight. He dared not fire, lest some +wound not mortal should break the spell exercised by her voice, and the +beast, enraged with pain, should rend her in atoms; moreover, the light +was too uncertain for his aim. So he waited. Now and then he examined +his gun to see if the damp were injuring its charge, now and then he +wiped the great drops from his forehead. Again the cocks crowed with +the passing hour,--the last time they were heard on that night. +Cheerful home sound then, how full of safety and all comfort and rest +it seemed! what sweet morning incidents of sparkling fire and sunshine, +of gay household bustle, shining dresser, and cooing baby, of steaming +cattle in the yard, and brimming milk-pails at the door! what pleasant +voices! what laughter! what security! and here---- + +Now, as she sang on in the slow, endless, infinite moments, the fervent +vision of God's peace was gone. Just as the grave had lost its sting, +she was snatched back again into the arms of earthly hope. In vain she +tried to sing, "There remaineth a rest for the people of God,"--her +eyes trembled on her husband's, and she could think only of him, and of +the child, and of happiness that yet might be, but with what a dreadful +gulf of doubt between! She shuddered now in the suspense; all calm +forsook her; she was tortured with dissolving heats or frozen with icy +blasts; her face contracted, growing small and pinched; her voice was +hoarse and sharp,--every tone cut like a knife,--the notes became heavy +to lift,--withheld by some hostile pressure,--impossible. One gasp, a +convulsive effort, and there was silence,--she had lost her voice. + +The beast made a sluggish movement,--stretched and fawned like one +awaking,--then, as if he would have yet more of the enchantment, +stirred her slightly with his muzzle. As he did so, a sidelong hint of +the man standing below with the raised gun smote him; he sprung round +furiously, and, seizing his prey, was about to leap into some unknown +airy den of the topmost branches now waving to the slow dawn. The late +moon had rounded through the sky so that her gleam at last fell full +upon the bough with fairy frosting; the wintry morning light did not +yet penetrate the gloom. The woman, suspended in mid-air an instant, +cast only one agonized glance beneath,--but across and through it, ere +the lids could fall, shot a withering sheet of flame,--a rifle-crack, +half heard, was lost in the terrible yell of desperation that bounded +after it and filled her ears with savage echoes, and in the wide arc of +some eternal descent she was falling;--but the beast fell under her. I +think that the moment following must have been too sacred for us, and +perhaps the three have no special interest again till they issue from +the shadows of the wilderness upon the white hills that skirt their +home. The father carries the child hushed again into slumber; the +mother follows with no such feeble step as might be anticipated,--and +as they slowly climb the steep under the clear gray sky and the paling +morning star, she stops to gather a spray of the red-rose berries or a +feathery tuft of dead grasses for the chimney-piece of the log-house, +or a handful of brown ones for the child's play,--and of these quiet, +happy folk you would scarcely dream how lately they had stolen from +under the banner and encampment of the great King Death. The husband +proceeds a step or two in advance; the wife lingers over a singular +foot-print in the snow, stoops and examines it, then looks up with a +hurried word. Her husband stands alone on the hill, his arms folded +across the babe, his gun fallen,--stands defined against the pallid sky +like a bronze. What is there in their home, lying below and yellowing +in the light, to fix him with such a stare? She springs to his side. +There is no home there. The log-house, the barns, the neighboring +farms, the fences, are all blotted out and mingled in one smoking ruin. +Desolation and death were indeed there, and beneficence and life in the +forest. Tomahawk and scalping-knife, descending during that night, had +left behind them only this work of their accomplished hatred and one +subtle foot-print in the snow. + +For the rest,--the world was all before them, where to choose. + + * * * * * + +URANIA. + + +Hast thou forgotten whose thou art? + To what high service consecrate? +I gave thee not a noble heart + To wed with such ignoble fate. + +I found thee where the laurels grow + Around the lonely Delphian shrine; +There, where the sacred fountains flow, + I found thee, and I made thee mine. + +I gave thy soul to agony, + And strange unsatisfied desire, +That thou mightst dearer be to me, + And worthier of thy burning lyre. + +O child, thy fate had made thee God, + To thee such powers divine were given; +The paths of fire thou mightst have trod + Had led thee to the stars of heaven. + +And those who in the early dawn + Of beauty sat and sang of day, +Deep in their twilight shades withdrawn, + Had heard thy coming far away,-- + +With haunting music sweet and strange, + And airs ambrosial blown before, +Vague breathings of the floral change + That glorifies the hills of yore: + +Had felt the joy those only find + Who in their secret souls have known +The mystery of the poet mind + That through all beauty feels its own: + +Had felt the God within them rise + To meet thy radiant soul divine; +Had searched with their prophetic eyes + The midnight luminous of thine. + +So fondly did Urania deem! + So proudly did she prophesy! +Oh, ruin of a noble dream + She thought too glorious to die! + +Nor knew thy passionate songs of yore + Were as a promise unfulfilled,-- +A stately portal set before + The palace thou shall never build! + +For is it come to this, at last? + And thou forever must remain +A godlike statue, formed and cast + In marble attitude of pain,-- + +Proud lips that in their scorn are mute, + And haunting eyes of anguished love, +One hand that grasps a silent lute, + And one convulsčd hand above + +That will not strike? Ah, scorn and shame! + Shame for the apostate unforgiven, +Beholding an unconquered fame + In undiscovered fields of heaven! + +For Beauty not by one alone + In her completeness is revealed: +The smiles and tears her face hath shown + To thee from others are concealed. + +Men see not in the midnight sky + All miracles she worketh there: +It is the blindness of the eye + That paints its darkness on the air. + +Two friends who wander by the shore + Look not upon the selfsame seas, +Hearing two voices in the roar, + Because of different memories. + +For him whose love the sea hath drowned, + It moans the music of his wrong; +For him whose life with love is crowned, + It breaks upon the beach in song. + +So dreaming not another's dream, + But still interpreting thine own, +By woodland wild and quiet stream + Thou wanderest in the world alone. + +Then what thou slayest none can save: + Silent and dark oblivion rolls +Over the glory in the grave + Of fierce and suicidal souls. + +From that dark wave no pleading ghost + With pointing hand shall ever rise, +To say,--The world hath treasure lost, + And here the buried treasure lies! + +Beware, and yet beware! my fear + Unfolds a vision in the gloom +Of Beauty borne upon her bier, + And Darkness crouching in the tomb. + +Beware, and yet beware! her end + Is thine; or else, her shadowy hearse +Beside, thy spirit shall descend + The vast sepulchral universe, + +And, with the passion that remains + In desolated hearts, implore +The spectre sitting bound in chains + To yield what he shall not restore:-- + +The mystery whose soul divine + Breathed love, and only love, on thee; +Which better far had not been thine, + Than, having been, to cease to be. + + + + +MARY SOMERVILLE. + + +There have been in every age a few women of genius who have become the +successful rivals of man in the paths which they have severally chosen. +Three instances are of our time. Mrs. Browning is called a poet even by +poets; the artists admit that Rosa Bonheur is a painter; and the +mathematicians accord to Mary Somerville a high rank among themselves. + +"In pure mathematics," said Humboldt, "Mrs. Somerville is strong." Of +no other woman of the age could the remark have been made; and this +would probably be true, were the walks of science as marked by the +feminine footprint as are those of literature. To read mathematical +works is an easy task; the formula can be learned and their meaning +apprehended: to read the most profound of them, with such appreciation +that one stands side by side with the great minds who originated them, +requires a higher order of intellect; and far-reaching indeed is that +which, pondering in the study on a few phenomena known by observation, +develops the theory of worlds, traces back for ages their history, and +sketches the outline of their future destiny. + +Caroline Herschel, the sister of Sir William, was doubtless gifted with +much of the Herschel talent, and, under other circumstances, her mind +might have turned to original research; but she belonged rather to the +last century, and Hanover was not a region favorable to intellectual +efforts in her sex. She lived the life of a simple-hearted, +truth-loving woman; most worthy of the name she bore, she made notes +for her brother, she swept the heavens and found comets for him, she +computed and tabulated his observations; it seems never to have +occurred to her to be other than the patient, helping sister of a truly +great man. + +Mrs. Somerville's life has been more individual. She is the daughter of +Admiral Fairfax, and was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, December 26, +1780, in the house of her uncle, the father of her present husband. + +The home training and the school education of the daughters of Great +Britain are very unlike those of their American sisters. The manners +and customs of the Old World change so slowly, that one can scarcely +assent to a remark made by Sir John Herschel:--"The Englishman sticks +to his old ways, but is not cemented to them." The Englishwoman submits +to authority from her infancy; belonging to the middle class, she does +not expect the higher education of the nobility; a woman, she is not +supposed to desire to enter into the studies of her brothers. A +governess, generally the daughter of a curate, who prefers this +position to that of "companion" to a fine lady, is provided for her in +her early years. If the choice be fortunate and the parents watchful, +the young girl is thoroughly taught in a few branches of what are +commonly considered feminine studies. She learns to read and to speak +French; tutors are employed for music and drawing: every young lady +above the rank of the tradesman's daughter plays well upon the piano; +every one has her portfolio of drawings, in which sketches from Nature +can always be found, and frequently the family portraits. The history +of the country is considered a study suitable for girls; the Englishman +expects that his daughter shall know something of the past, of which he +is so justly proud. + +But the more solid book-learning given to the girls of New England, +even in the public schools, is known only to the daughters of the +higher classes, and among them an instance like that of Lady Jane Grey +could scarcely now be found. As the girls and boys are never taught in +the same schools, no taste is aroused by the example of manly studies. +An English girl is astonished to hear that an American girl passes a +public examination, like her brothers, and with them competes for +prizes; she doubts the truthfulness of some of the representations of +life found in American novels; and so little is the freedom of manners +understood, that the American traveller is frequently asked,--"Can it +really be as Mrs. Stowe represents in America? Does a young lady really +give a party herself?" + +The difference that one would expect is found between the women of +England or Scotland and the women of New England. The young +Englishwoman is tasteful and elegant, mindful of all the proprieties +and graces of social life; she speaks slowly and cautiously, and gives +her opinions with great modesty. These are not at present the +characteristics of the American girl. + +Mary Fairfax passed through the usual routine. At fourteen she had read +the books to be found in her father's house, including the few works +on Navigation which were necessary to him in his profession. She had +thus obtained an idea of the world of science, and it was dull to +return to worsted-work for amusement. The needle, which has been the +fetter of so many women, became, however, in her hand, magnetic, and +pointed her to her destiny. She was in the habit of taking her work +into her brother's study, and listening to his recitations; the +revelations of Geometry were thus opened to her; she listened and +worked for a time, until the desire to know more of this region of form +and law, of harmony and of relations, became too strong to be resisted; +the worsted was thrown aside, and she ventured to ask the tutor to +instruct her. The honest man told her that he was no mathematician: he +could lend her Euclid, but he could do no more. + +The first great step was now taken; Euclid was quickly read; other +books were borrowed from other friends; Bonnycastle's and Euler's +Algebra were obtained, and she exulted in the use of those mystic +symbols, _x, y_, and _z_. Her parents looked on with indifference; so +that the music were not neglected and the governess reported well of +her studies, they felt there was no harm in her amusing herself as she +chose. When the days of the governess were over, the young lady "came +out" in Edinburgh, and mingled much with the best society. This most +picturesque city had long been the resort of the most gifted minds; men +of literature and men of science made the charm of its winter life. +Never was it more the gathering-place of intellect than in the early +part of this century; but there was no room for a woman of genius, and +the young girl's friends advised her to conceal her pursuits. Move as +quietly, however, and as unobtrusively as she might in the brilliant +circle, her genius was not without recognition. There was a word of +encouragement from Professor Playfair. "Persevere in your study," said +he; "it will be a source of happiness to you when all else fails; for +it is the study of truth." She had a champion, too, in the dreaded +critic, Jeffrey. "I am told," said a friend, writing to him, "that the +ladies of Edinburgh are literary, and that one of them sets up as a +blue-stocking and an astronomer." "The lady of whom you speak," replied +Jeffrey, "may wear blue stockings, but her petticoats are so long that +I have never seen them." + +Mrs. Somerville has been twice married. Her first husband, a gentleman +of the name of Greig, regarded her pursuits as her parents had, simply +with indifference. Dr. Somerville, her present husband, has taken the +utmost pains to secure her time for her studies, and has himself +relieved her from many household cares. + +The simplicity of character which belonged to her in early life was not +lost when her reputation became established. The Royal Society, whose +doors do not open at every knock, admitted her to membership, and, by +their order, her bust was sculptured by Chantrey, and now adorns the +hall of the Society in Somerset House. During the sittings for this +purpose, a lady, a friend of the sculptor, him to introduce her to Mrs. +Somerville. Chantrey consented, and made a dinner-party for the +purpose. The two ladies were placed side by side at table, and the +benevolent artist rejoiced to perceive, from the flow of talk, that +they were mutually pleased. The next day, to his astonishment, his +friend called on him in a state of great indignation, believing herself +the victim of a practical joke. "How could you do so?" said she. "You +knew that I did not want to know _that_ Mrs. Somerville; I wanted to +know the astronomer: that lady talked of the theatre, the opera, and +common things." + +The anecdote so often told of Laplace's compliment is literally true. +Mrs. Somerville dined with this great geometer in Paris. "I write +books," said Laplace, "that no one can read. Only two women have ever +read the 'Mécanique Céleste'; both are Scotch women: Mrs. Greig and +yourself." + +Upon the "Mécanique Céleste" Mrs. Somerville's greatest work is +founded. "I simply translated Laplace's work," said she, "from algebra +into common language." That is, she did what very few men and no other +woman could do. It is of this work of Laplace that Bonaparte said, "I +will give to it my first _six months_ of leisure." The student who +reads it by the aid of Dr. Bowditch's notes has little idea of the +difficulties to be met in the original work. Even Dr. Bowditch himself +said, "I never come across one of Laplace's 'Thus it plainly appears,' +without feeling sure that I have got hours of hard study before me, to +fill up the chasm and show _how_ it plainly appears." + +This "translation into common language" was undertaken at the request +of Lord Brougham, who desired a mathematical work suited to the +"Library of Useful Knowledge." The manuscript was submitted to Sir John +Herschel, who expressed himself "delighted with it,--that it was a book +for posterity, but quite above the class for which Lord Brougham's +course was intended." It was published at once, and became the +text-book for the students of Cambridge. + +"The Connection of the Physical Sciences" and the "Physical Geography" +are the later works of Mrs. Somerville. These volumes have probably +been more read in our country than in Europe; for it is a common remark +of the scientific writers of Great Britain, that their "readers are +found in the United States." They contain vast collections of facts in +all branches of Physical Science, connected together by the delicate +web of Mrs. Somerville's own thought, showing an amount and variety of +learning to be compared only to that of Humboldt. + +Provided with an "open sesame" to her heart, in the shape of a letter +from her old friend, Lady Herschel, we sought the acquaintance of Mrs. +Somerville in the spring of 1858. She was at that time residing in +Florence, and, sending the letter and a card to her by the servant, we +awaited the reply in the large Florentine parlor, in the fireplace of +which a wood-fire blazed, suggestive of English comfort,--a suggestion +which in Italy rarely becomes a reality. + +There was the usual delay; then a footstep came slowly through the +outer room, and a very old man, exceedingly tall, with a red silk +handkerchief around his head, entered, and introduced himself as Doctor +Somerville. He is proud of his wife; a pardonable weakness in any man, +especially so in the husband of Mary Somerville. He began at once to +talk of her. "Mrs. Somerville," he said, "was much interested in the +Americans, for she claimed a connection with the family of Washington. +Washington's half-brother, Lawrence, married Anne Fairfax, who was of +the Scotch family of that name. When Mrs. Somerville's father, as +Lieutenant Fairfax, was ordered to America, General Washington wrote to +him as a family relative, and invited him to his house. Lieutenant +Fairfax applied to his commanding officer for leave to accept the +invitation, and it was refused; they never met. Much to the regret of +the Somervilles, the letter of Washington has been lost. The Fairfaxes +of Virginia are of the same family, and occasionally some member of the +American branch visits his Scotch cousins." + +While Doctor Somerville was talking of these things, Mrs. Somerville +came tripping into the room, speaking with the vivacity of a young +person. She was seventy-seven years old, but appeared twenty years +younger. Her face is pleasing, the forehead low and broad, the eyes +blue,--the features so regular, that, as sculptured by Chantrey, in the +bust at Somerset House, they convey the idea of a very handsome woman. +Neither this bust nor the picture of her, however, gives a correct +impression, except in the outline of the head and shoulders. She spoke +with a strong Scotch accent, and was slightly affected by deafness. + +At this time, Mrs. Somerville was re-writing her "Physical Geography." +She said that she worked as well as when she was younger, but was more +quickly fatigued; yet, in order to gain time, she had given up her +afternoon nap, without apparent injury to her health. Her working hours +were in the morning, and she never refused a visitor after noon. For +her first work she said she computed a good deal; and here she stepped +quickly into an adjoining room, and brought out a mass of manuscript +computations made for that work, the mere sight of which would give a +headache to most women. The conversation was rather of the familiar and +chatty order, and marked by great simplicity. She touched upon the +recent discoveries in chemical science,--upon California, its gold and +its consequences, some good from which she thought would be found in +the improvement of seamanship,--on the nebulae, more and more of which +she thought would be resolved, while yet there might exist irresolvable +nebulous matter, such as composed the tails of comets, or the +satellites of the planets, which she thought had other uses than as +their subordinates. Of Doctor Whewell's attempt to prove that our +planet is the only one inhabited she spoke with disapprobation; she +said she believed that the other planets might be inhabited by beings +of a higher order than ourselves. + +On subsequent visits, Mrs. Somerville had much to say of the Americans. +She regretted that she so rarely received scientific articles from +America; the papers of Lieutenant Maury alone reached her. She spoke of +the late Doctor Bowditch with great interest, and said she had had some +correspondence with one of his sons; of Professor Peirce as a great +mathematician; and she was much interested in the successful +photography of the stars by Mr. Whipple. To a traveller, thousands of +miles from home, the mere mention of familiar names is cheering. + +Mrs. Somerville resides in Florence on account of the health of her +husband. A little garden, well-stocked with rose-bushes, which she +shows with great pride to her visitors, furnishes her with a means of +healthy recreation after her severe studies. Her children are a son by +Mr. Greig and two daughters by Doctor Somerville. In early life, Mrs. +Somerville was a fine musician: the daughters have inherited this +talent; and having lived long in Florence, they speak Italian with a +perfect accent. "I speak Italian," said Mrs. Somerville; "but no one +could ever take me for other than a Scotchwoman." + +No one can make the acquaintance of this remarkable woman without +increased admiration for her. The ascent of the steep and rugged path +of science has not unfitted her for the drawing-room circle; the hours +of devotion to close study have not been incompatible with the duties +of the wife and the mother; the mind that has turned to rigid +demonstration has not thereby lost its faith in the truths which +figures will not prove. "I have no doubt," said she, in speaking of the +heavenly bodies, "that in another state of existence we shall know more +about these things." + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + +MAY IN ROME. + + +May has come again,--"the delicate-footed May," her feet hidden in +flowers as she wanders over the Campagna, and the cool breeze of the +Campagna blowing back her loosened hair. She calls to us from the open +fields to leave the wells of damp churches and shadowy streets, and to +come abroad and meet her where the mountains look down from roseate +heights of vanishing snow upon plains of waving grain. The hedges have +put on their best draperies of leaves and flowers, and, girdled in at +their waist by double osier bands, stagger luxuriantly along the road +like a drunken Bacchanal procession, crowned with festive ivy, and +holding aloft their snowy clusters of elder-blossoms like _thyrsi_. +Among their green robes may be seen thousands of beautiful +wild-flowers,--the sweet-scented laurustinus, all sorts of running +vetches and wild sweet-pea, the delicate vases of dewy morning-glories, +clusters of eglantine or sweetbrier roses, fragrant acacia-blossoms +covered with bees and buzzing flies, the gold of glowing gorses, and +scores of purple and yellow flowers, of which I know not the names. On +the gray walls, vines, grass, and the humble class of flowers which go +by the ignoble name of weeds straggle and cluster; and over them, held +down by the green cord of the stalk, balance the bursted balloons of +hundreds of flaming scarlet poppies that seem to have fed on fire. The +undulating swell of the Campagna is here ablaze with them for acres, +and there deepening with growing grain, or snowed over with myriads of +daisies. Music and song, too, are not wanting; hundreds of birds are in +the hedges. The lark, "from his moist cabinet rising," rains down his +trills of incessant song from invisible heights of blue sky; and +whenever one passes the wayside groves, a nightingale is sure to bubble +into song. The oranges, too, are in blossom, perfuming the air; +locust-trees are tasselled with odorous flowers; and over the walls of +the Campagna villa bursts a cascade of vines covered with foamy Banksia +roses. + +The Carnival of the kitchen-gardens is now commencing. Peas are already +an old story, strawberries are abundant, and cherries are beginning to +make their appearance, in these first days of May; old women sell them +at every corner, tied together in tempting bunches, as in "the +cherry-orchard" which Miss Edgeworth has made fairy-land in our +childish memories. Asparagus also has long since come; and artichokes +make their daily appearance on the table, sliced up and fried, or +boiled whole, or coming up roasted and gleaming with butter, with more +outside capes and coats than an ideal English coachman of the olden +times. _Finocchi_, too, are here, tasting like anisette, and good to +mix in the salads. And great beans lie about in piles, the _contadini_ +twisting them out of their thick pods with their thumbs, to eat them +raw. Nay, even the _signoria_ of the noble families do the same, as +they walk through the gardens, and think them such a luxury that they +eat them raw for breakfast. But over and above all other vegetables are +the lettuces, which are one of the great staples of food for the Roman +people, and so crisp, fresh, delicate, and high-flavored, that be who +eats them once will hold Nebuchadnezzar no longer a subject for +compassion, but rather of envy. Drowned in fresh olive-oil and strong +with vinegar, they are a feast for the gods; and even in their natural +state, without condiments, they are by no means to be despised. At the +corners of the streets they lie piled in green heaps, and are sold at a +_baiocco_ for five heads. At noontide, the _contadini_ and laborers +feed upon them without even the condiment of salt, crunching their +white teeth through the crisp, wet leaves, and alternating a bite at a +great wedge of bread; and toward nightfall, one may see carts laden +high up with closely packed masses of them, coming in from the Campagna +for the market. In a word, the _festa_ of the vegetables, at which they +do not eat, but are eaten, and the Carnival of the kitchen-garden have +come. + +But--a thousand, thousand pardons, O mighty Cavolo!--how have I dared +omit thy august name? On my knees, O potentest of vegetables, I crave +forgiveness! I will burn at thy shrine ten waxen candles, in penance, +if thou wilt pardon the sin and shame of my forgetfulness! The smoke of +thy altar-fires, the steam of thy incense, and the odors of thy +sanctity rise from every hypaethral shrine in Rome. Out-doors and +in-doors, wherever the foot wanders, on palatial stairs or in the hut +of poverty, in the convent pottage and the _Lepre_ soup, in the wooden +platter of the beggar and the silver tureen of the prince, thou fillest +our nostrils, thou satisfiest our stomach. Thou hast no false pride; +great as thou art, thou condescendest to be exchanged for a _baiocco_. +Dear enchantress! to thee, and to thy glorious cousin Broccoli, that +tender-hearted, efflorescent nymph, the Egeria of the _osteria con +cucina_, the peerless maid that goes with the steak and accepts +martyrdom without moan, to drive away the demon of Hunger from her +devoted followers,--all honor! Far away, whenever I inhale thy odor, I +shall think of "Roman Joys"; a whiff from thine altar in a foreign land +will bear me back to the Eternal City, "the City of the Soul," the City +of the Cabbage, the home of the Dioscuri, _Cavolo_ and _Broccoli!_ Yes, +as Paris is recalled by the odor of chocolate, and London by the damp +steam of malt, so shall Rome come back when my nostrils are filled with +thy penetrative fragrance! + +Saunter out at any of the city-gates, or lean over the wall at San +Giovanni, (and where will you find a more charming spot?) or look down +from the windows of the Villa Negroni, and your eye will surely fall on +one of the Roman kitchen-gardens, patterned out in even rows and +squares of green. Nothing can be prettier or more tasteful in their +arrangement than these variegated carpets of vegetables. A great +cistern of running water crowns the height of the ground, which is used +for the purposes of irrigation, and towards nightfall the vent is +opened, and you may see the gardeners imbanking the channelled rows to +let the inundation flow through hundreds of little lanes of +intersection and canals between the beds, and then banking them up at +the entrance when a sufficient quantity of water has entered. In this +way they fertilize and refresh the soil, which else would parch under +the continuous sun. And this, indeed, is all the fertilization they +need,--so strong is the soil all over the Campagna. The accretions and +decay of thousands of years have covered it with a loam whose richness +and depth are astonishing. Dig where you will, for ten feet down, and +you do not pass through its wonderfully fertile loam into gravel, and +the slightest labor is repaid a hundred-fold. + +As one looks from the Villa Negroni windows, he cannot fail to be +impressed by the strange changes through which this wonderful city has +passed. The very spot on which Nero, the insane emperor-artist, fiddled +while Rome was burning has now become a vast kitchen-garden, belonging +to Prince Massimo, (himself a descendant, as he claims, of Fabius +Cunctator,) where men no longer, but only lettuces, asparagus, and +artichokes, are ruthlessly cut down. The inundations are not for mock +sea-fights among slaves, but for the peaceful purposes of irrigation. +And though the fiddle of Nero is only traditional, the trumpets of the +French, murdering many an unhappy strain near by, are a most melancholy +fact. In the bottom of the valley, a noble old villa, covered with +frescoes, has been turned into a manufactory of bricks, and the very +Villa Negroni itself is now doomed to be the site of a railway station. +Yet here the princely family of Negroni lived, and the very lady at +whose house Lucrezia Borgia took her famous revenge may once have +sauntered under the walls, which still glow with ripening oranges, to +feed the gold-fish in the fountain, or walked with stately friends +through the long alleys of clipped cypresses, and pic-nicked _alia +Giorgione_ on lawns which are now but kitchen-gardens, dedicated to San +Cavolo. It pleases me, also, descending in memories to a later time, to +look up at the summer-house built above the gateway, and recall the +days when Shelley and Keats came there to visit their friend Severn, +the artist, (for that was his studio,) and look over the same alleys +and gardens, and speak words one would have been so glad to hear,--and, +coming still later down, to recall the hearty words and brave heart of +America's best sculptor and my dear friend, Crawford. + +But to return to the kitchen-gardens. Pretty as they are to the eye, +they are not considered to be wholesome; and no Roman will live in a +house near one of them, especially if it lie on the southern and +western side, so that the Sirocco and the prevalent summer winds blow +over it. The daily irrigation, in itself, would be sufficient to +frighten all Italians away; for they have a deadly fear of all effluvia +arising from decomposing vegetable substances, and suppose, with a good +deal of truth, that, wherever there is water on the earth, there is +decomposition. But this is not the only reason; for the same prejudice +exists in regard to all kinds of gardens, whether irrigated or +not,--and even to groves of trees and clusters of bushes, or vegetation +of any kind, around a house. This is the real reason why, even in their +country villas, their trees are almost always planted at a distance +from the house, so as to expose it to the sun and to give it a free +ventilation; these they do not care for; damp is their determined foe, +and therefore they will not purchase the luxury of shade from trees at +the risk of the damp it is supposed to engender. On the north, however, +gardens are not thought to be so prejudicial as on the south and +west,--as the cold, dry winds come from the former direction. The +malaria, as we call it, though the term is unknown to Romans, is never +so dangerous as after a slight rain, just sufficient to wet the surface +of the earth without deeply penetrating it; for decomposition is then +stimulated, and the miasma arising from the Campagna is blown abroad. +So long as the earth is dry, there is no danger of fever, except at +morning and nightfall, and then simply because of the heavy dews which +the porous and baked earth then inhales and expires. After the autumn +has given a thorough, drenching rain, Rome is healthy and free from +fever. + +Rome has with strangers the reputation of being unhealthy; but this +opinion I cannot think well founded,--to the extent, at least, of the +common belief. The diseases of children there are ordinarily very +light, while in America and England they are terrible. Scarlet and +typhus fevers, those fearful scourges in the North, are known at Rome +only under most mitigated forms. Cholera has shown no virulence there; +and for diseases of the throat and lungs the air alone is almost +curative. The great curse of the place is the intermittent fever, in +which any other illness is apt to end. But this, except in its peculiar +phase of _Perniciosa_, though a very annoying, is by no means a +dangerous disease, and has the additional advantage of a specific +remedy. The Romans themselves of the better class seldom suffer from +it, and I cannot but think that with a little prudence it may be easily +avoided. Those who are most attacked by it are the laborers and +_contadini_ on the Campagna; and how can it be otherwise with them? +They sleep often on the bare ground, or on a little straw under a +_capanna_ just large enough to admit them on all-fours. Their labor is +exhausting, and performed in the sun, and while in a violent +perspiration they are often exposed to sudden draughts and checks. +Their food is poor, their habits careless, and it would require an iron +constitution to resist what they endure. But, despite the life they +lead and their various exposures, they are for the most part a very +strong and sturdy class. This intermittent fever is undoubtedly a far +from pleasant thing; but Americans who are terrified at it in Rome give +it no thought in Philadelphia, where it is more prevalent,--and while +they call Rome unhealthy, live with undisturbed confidence in cities +where scarlet and typhus fevers annually rage. + +It is a curious fact, that the French soldiers, who in 1848 made the +siege of Rome, suffered no inconvenience or injury to their health from +sleeping on the Campagna, and that, despite the prophecies to the +contrary, very few cases of fever appeared, though the siege lasted +during all the summer months. The reason of this is doubtless to be +found in the fact that they were better clothed, better fed, and in +every way more careful of themselves, than the _contadini_. Foreigners, +too, who visit Rome, are very seldom attacked by intermittent fever; +and it may truly be said, that, when they are, it is, for the most +part, their own fault. There is generally the grossest inconsistency +between their theories and their practice. Believing as they do that +the least exposure will induce fever, they expose themselves with +singular recklessness to the very causes of fever. After hurrying +through the streets and getting into a violent perspiration, they +plunge at once into some damp pit-like church or chill gallery, where +the temperature is at least ten degrees lower than the outer air. The +bald-headed, rosy John Bull, steaming with heat, doffs at once the hat +which he wore in the street, and, of course, is astounded, if the +result prove just what it would be anywhere else,--and if he take cold +and get a fever, charges it to the climate, and not to his own +stupidity and recklessness. Beside this, foreigners will always insist +on carrying their home-habits with them wherever they go, and it is +exceedingly difficult to persuade any one that he does not understand +the climate better than the Italians themselves, whom he puts down as a +poor set of timid ignoramuses. However, the longer one lives in Rome, +the more he learns to value the Italian rules of health. There is +probably no people so careful in these matters as the Italians, and +especially the Romans. They understand their own climate, and they have +a special dislike of death. In France and England suicides are very +common; in Italy they are almost unknown. The American recklessness of +life completely astounds the Italian. He enjoys life, studies every +method to preserve it, and considers any one who risks it unnecessarily +as simply a fool. + +What, then, are their rules of life? In the first place, in all their +habits they are very regular. They eat at stated times, and cannot be +persuaded to partake of anything in the intervals. If it be not their +hour for eating, they will refuse the choicest viands, and will sit at +your table fasting, despite every temptation you can offer them. They +are also very abstemious in their diet, and gluttony is the very rarest +of vices. I do not believe there is another nation in Europe that eats +so sparingly. In the morning they take a cup of coffee, generally +without milk, sopping in it some light _brioche_. Later in the day they +take a slight lunch of soup and macaroni, with a glass of wine. This +lasts them until dinner, which begins with a watery soup; after which +the _lesso_ or boiled meat comes on and is eaten with one vegetable, +which is less a dish than a garnish to the meat; then comes a dish of +some vegetable eaten with bread; then, perhaps, a chop, or another dish +of meat, garnished with a vegetable; some light _dolce_ or fruit, and a +cup of black coffee,--the latter for digestion's sake,--finish the +repast. The quantity is very small, however, compared to what is eaten +in England, France, America, or, though last, not least, Germany. Late +in the evening they have a supper. When dinner is taken in the middle +of the day, lunch is omitted. This is the rule of the better classes. +The workmen and middle classes, after their cup of coffee and bit of +bread or _brioche_ in the morning, take nothing until night, except +another cup of coffee and bread,--and their dinner finishes their meals +after their work is done. From my own observation, I should say that an +Italian does not certainly eat more than half as much as a German, or +two-thirds as much as an American. The climate will not allow of +gormandizing, and much less food is required to sustain the vital +powers than in America, where the atmosphere is so stimulating to the +brain and the digestion, or in England, where the depressing effects of +the climate must be counteracted by stimulants. Go to any _table +d'hôte_ in the season, and you will at once know all the English who +are new comers by their bottle of ale or claret or sherry or brandy; +for the Englishman assimilates with difficulty, and unwillingly puts +off his home-habits. The fresh American will always be recognized by +the morning-dinner, which he calls a breakfast. + +If you wish to keep your health in Italy, follow the example of the +Italians. Eat a third less than you are accustomed to at home. Do not +drink habitually of brandy, porter, ale, or even Marsala, but confine +yourselves to the lighter wines of the country or of France. Do not +walk much in the sun; "only Englishmen and dogs" do that, as the +proverb goes; and especially take heed not to expose yourself, when +warm, to any sudden changes of temperature. If you have heated yourself +with walking in the sun, be careful not to go at once, and especially +towards nightfall, into the lower and shaded streets, which have begun +to gather the damps, and which are kept cool by the high, thick walls +of the houses. Remember that the difference of temperature is very +great between the narrow, shaded streets and the high, sunny Pincio. If +you have the misfortune to be of the male sex, and especially if you +suffer under the sorrow of the first great Caesar in being bald, buy +yourself a little skullcap, (it is as good as his laurels for the +purpose,) and put it on your head whenever you enter the churches and +cold galleries. Almost every fever here is the result of suddenly +checked transpiration of the skin; and if you will take the precaution +to cool yourself before entering churches and galleries, and not to +expose yourself while warm to sudden changes of temperature, you may +live twenty years in Rome without a fever. Do not stand in draughts of +cold air, and shut your windows when you go to bed. There is nothing an +Italian fears like a current of air, and with reason. He will never sit +between two doors or two windows. If he has walked to see you and is in +the least warm, pray him to keep his hat on until he is cool, if you +would be courteous to him. You will find that he will always use the +same _gentilezza_ to you. The reason why you should shut your windows +at night is very simple. The night-air is invariably damp and cold, +contrasting greatly with the warmth of the day, and it is then that the +miasma from the Campagna drifts into the city. And oh, my American +friends! repress your national love for hot rooms and great fires, and +do not make an oven of your _salon_. Bake yourselves, kiln-dry +yourselves, if you choose, in your furnaced houses at home, but, if you +value your health, "reform that altogether" in Italy. Increase your +clothing and suppress your fires, and you will find yourselves better +in head and in pocket. With your great fires you will always be cold +and always have colds; for the houses are not tight, and you only +create great draughts thereby. You will not persuade an Italian to sit +near them;--"_Scusa, Signore_" he will say, "_mi fa male; se non gli +dispiace, mi metto in questo cantone_,"--and with your permission he +takes the farthest corner away from the fire. Seven winters in Rome +have convinced me of the correctness of their rule. Of course, you do +not believe me or them; but it would be better for you, if you +did,--and for me, too, when I come to visit you. + +But I must beg pardon for all this advice; and as my business is not to +write a medical thesis here, let me return to pleasanter things. + +Scarcely does the sun drop behind St. Peter's on the first day of May, +before bonfires begin to blaze from all the country towns on the +mountain-sides, showing like great beacons. This is a custom founded in +great antiquity, and common to the North and South. The first of May is +the Festival of the Holy Apostles in Italy; but in Germany, and still +farther north, in Sweden and Norway, it is _Walpurgisnacht_,--when +goblins, witches, hags, and devils hold high holiday, mounting on their +brooms for the Brocken. And it was on this night that Mephistopheles +carried Faust on his wondrous ride, and showed him the spectre of +Margaret with the red line round her throat. Miss Bremer, in her "Life +in Dalecarlia," gives the following account of the origin of this +custom:--"It is so old," she says, "that there is no perfect certainty +either of its origin or signification. It is, however, believed that it +derives its origin from a heathen sacrificatory festival; and there is +ground for the acceptation that children were sacrificed alive at this +very feast,--and this, in fact, in order to expel or reconcile the evil +spirits, of whom the people believed, that, partly flying, partly +riding, they commenced their passages over fields and woods at the +beginning of spring, and which are to this day called enchanters, +witches, nymphs, and so forth. It is also believed that about this time +the spirits of the earth came forth from out of the bosom of the earth +and the heart of the mountains in order to seek intercourse with the +children of men. Fires were frequently kindled upon the sepulchral +hills, and at these, sacrifices were offered, chiefly to the good +powers, namely, to those who provide for a fruitful year. At present I +should scarcely think there is an individual who believes in such +superstitious stuff. But they still, as in days of yore, kindle fires +upon the mountains on this night, and still look upon it as a bad omen, +if any common or ugly-formed creature, whether beast or man, makes its +appearance at the fire." + +In the Neapolitan towns great fires are built on this festival, around +which the people dance, jumping through the flames, and flinging +themselves about in every wild and fantastic attitude. It is probably a +relic of some old sacrificatory festival to Maia, who has given her +name to this month,--the custom still remaining after its significance +is gone. + +The month of May is the culmination of the spring and the season of +seasons at Rome. No wonder that foreigners who have come when winter +sets in and take wing before April shows her sky sometimes growl at the +weather, and ask if this is the beautiful Italian clime. They have +simply selected the rainy season for their visit; and one cannot expect +to have sun the whole year through, without intermission. Where will +they find more sun in the same season? where will they find milder and +softer air? Days even in the middle of winter, and sometimes weeks, +descend as it were from heaven to fill the soul with delight; and a +lovely day in Rome is lovelier than under any other sky on earth. But +just when foreigners go away in crowds, the weather is settling into +the perfection of spring, and then it is that Rome is most charming. +The rains are over, the sun is a daily blessing, all Nature is bursting +into leaf and flower, and one may spend days on the Campagna without +fear of colds and fever. Stay in Rome during May, if you wish to feel +its beauty. + +The best rule for a traveller who desires to enjoy the charms of every +clime would be to go to the North in the winter and to the South in the +spring and summer. Cold is the speciality of the North, and all its +sports and gayeties take thence their tone. The houses are built to +shut out the demon of Frost, and protect one from his assaults of ice +and snow. Let him howl about your windows and scrawl his wonderful +landscapes on your panes and pile his fantastic wreaths outside, while +you draw round the blazing hearth and enjoy the artificial heat and +warm in the social converse that he provokes. Your punch is all the +better for his threats; by contrast you enjoy the more. Or brave him +outside in a flying sledge, careering with jangling bells over white +wastes of snow, while the stars, as you go, fly through the naked trees +that are glittering with ice-jewels, and your blood tingles with +excitement, and your breath is blown like a white incense to the skies. +That is the real North. How tame he will look to you, when you go back +in August and find a few hard apples, a few tough plums, and some sour +little things which are apologies for grapes! He looks sneaky enough +then, with his make-believe summer, and all his furs off. No, then is +the time for the South. All is simmering outside, and the locust saws +and shrills till he seems to heat the air. You stay in the house at +noon, and know what a virtue there is in thick walls which keep out the +fierce heats, in gaping windows and doors that will not shut because +you need the ventilation. You will not now complain of the stone and +brick floors that you cursed all winter long, and on which you now +sprinkle water to keep the air cool in your rooms. The blunders and +stupidities of winter are all over. The breezy _loggia_ is no longer a +joke. You are glad enough to sit there and drink your wine and look +over the landscape. Manuccia brings in a great basket of grapes that +are grapes, which the wasp envies you as you eat, and comes to share. +And here are luscious figs bursting with seedy sweetness, and apricots +rusted in the sun, and velvety peaches that break into juice in your +mouth, and great black-seeded _cocomeri_. Nature empties her cornucopia +of fruits and flowers and vegetables all over your table. Luxuriously +you enjoy them and fan yourself and take your _siesta_, with full +appreciation of your _dolce far niente_. When the sun begins to slope +westward, if you are in the country, you wander through the green lanes +festooned with vines and pluck the grapes as you go; or, if you are in +the city, you saunter the evening long through the streets, where all +the world are strolling, and take your _granito_ of ice or sherbet, and +talk over the things of the day and the time, and pass as you go home +groups of singers and serenaders with guitars, flutes, and +violins,--serenade, perhaps, sometimes, yourself; and all the time the +great planets and stars palpitate in the near heavens, and the soft air +full of fragrance blows against your cheek. And you can really say, +This is Italy! For it is not what you do, so much as what you feel, +that makes Italy. + +But pray remember, when you go there, that in the South every +arrangement is made for the nine hot months, and not for the three cold +and rainy ones you choose to spend there, and perhaps your views may be +somewhat modified in respect of this "miserable people," who, you say, +"have no idea of comfort,"--meaning, of course, English comfort. +Perhaps, I say; for it is in the nature of travellers to come to sudden +conclusions upon slight premises, to maintain with obstinacy +preconceived notions, and to quarrel with all national traits except +their own. And being English, unless you have a friend in India who has +made you aware that cane-bottom chairs are India-English, you will be +pretty sure to believe that there is no comfort without carpets and +coal; or being an American, you will be apt to undervalue a gallery of +pictures with only a three-ply carpet on the floor, and to "calculate," +that, if they could see your house in Washington Street, they would +feel rather ashamed. However, there is a great deal of human nature in +mankind, wherever you go,--except in Paris, perhaps, where Nature is +rather inhuman and artificial. And when I instance the Englishman and +American as making false judgments, let me not be misunderstood as +supposing them the only nations in that category. No, no! did not my +Parisian acquaintance the other day assure me very gravely, after +lamenting the absurdity of the Italians' not speaking French instead of +their own language,--"But, Sir, what is this Italian? nothing but bad +French!"--and did not another of that same polished nation, in +describing his travels to Naples, say, in answer to the question, +whether he had seen the grand old temples of Paestum,--"Ah, yes, I have +seen Paestum; 'tis a detestable country!--like the Campagna of Rome"? I +am perfectly aware that there are differences of opinion. + +Let me, then, beg you to remain in Rome during the mouth of May, if +you can possibly make your arrangements to do so. + +May is the month of the Madonna, and on every _festa_-day you will see +at the corners of the streets a little improvised shrine, or it may be +only a festooned print of the Madonna hung against the walls of some +house or against the back of a chair, and tended by two or three +children, who hold out to you a plate, as you pass, and beg for +charity, sometimes, I confess, in the most pertinacious way,--the money +thus raised to be expended in oil for the lamps before the Madonna +shrines in the streets. The monasteries of nuns are also busy with +processions and celebrations in honor of "the Mother of God," which are +carried on pleasantly within their precincts and seen only of female +friends. Sometimes you will meet a procession of ladies outside the +gates following a cross on foot, while their carriages come after in a +long file. These are societies which are making the pilgrimage of the +Seven Basilicas outside the Walls. They set out early in the morning, +stopping in each basilica for a half-hour to say their prayers, and +return to Rome at Ave Maria. + +Life, too, is altogether changed now. All the windows are wide open, +and there is at least one head and shoulders leaning out at every +house. And the poorer families are all out on their door-steps, working +and chatting together, while their children run about them in the +streets, sprawling, playing, and fighting. Many a beautiful theme for +the artist is now to be found in these careless and characteristic +groups; and curly-headed Saint Johns may be seen in every street, half +naked, with great black eyes and rounded arms and legs. It is this +which makes Rome so admirable a residence for an artist. All things are +easy and careless in the out-of-doors life of the common people,--all +poses unsought, all groupings accidental, all action unaffected and +unconscious. One meets Nature at every turn,--not braced up in prim +forms, not conscious in manners, not made up into the fashionable or +the proper, but impulsive, free, and simple. With the whole street +looking on, they are as unconscious and natural as if they were where +no eye could see them,--ay, and more natural, too, than it is possible +for some people to be, even in the privacy of their solitary rooms. +They sing at the top of their lungs as they sit on their door-steps at +their work, and often shout from house to house across the street a +long conversation, and sometimes even read letters from upper windows +to their friends below in the street. The men and women who cry their +fruits, vegetables, and wares up and down the city, laden with baskets +or panniers, and often accompanied by a donkey, stop to chat with group +after group, or get into animated debates about prices, or exercise +their wits and lungs at once in repartee in a very amusing way. +Everybody is in dishabille in the morning, but towards twilight the +girls put on their better dresses, and comb their glossy raven hair, +heaping it up in great solid braids, and, hanging two long golden +ear-rings in their ears and _collane_ round their full necks, come +forth conquering and to conquer, and saunter bare-headed up and down +the streets, or lounge about the doorways or piazzas in groups, ready +to give back to any jeerer as good as he sends. You see them marching +along sometimes in a broad platoon of five or six, all their brows as +straight as if they had been ruled, and their great dark eyes flashing +out under them, ready in a moment for a laugh or a frown. What stalwart +creatures they are! What shoulders, bosoms, and backs they have! what a +chance for the lungs under those stout _busti_! and what finished and +elegant heads! They are certainly cast in a large mould, with nothing +belittled or meagre about them, either in feature or figure. + +Early in the morning you will see streaming through the streets or +gathered together in picturesque groups, some standing, some couching +on the pavement, herds of long-haired goats, brown and white and black, +which have been driven, or rather which have followed their shepherd, +into the city to be milked. The majestical, long-bearded, patriarchal +rams shake their bells and parade solemnly round,--while the silken +females clatter their little hoofs as they run from the hand of the +milker when he has filled his can. The shepherd is kept pretty busy, +too, milking at everybody's door; and before the fashionable world is +up at nine, the milk is gone and the goats are off. + +You may know that it is May by the orange and lemon stands, which are +erected in almost every piazza. These are little booths covered with +canvas, and fantastically adorned with lemons and oranges intermixed, +which, piled into pyramids and disposed about everywhere, have a very +gay effect. They are generally placed near a fountain, the water of +which is conducted through a _canna_ into the centre of the booth, and +there, finding its own level again, makes a little spilling fountain +from which the _bibite_ are diluted. Here for a _baiocco_ one buys +lemonade or orangeade and all sorts of curious little drinks or +_bibite_, with a feeble taste of anisette or some other herb to take +off the mawkishness of the water,--or for a half-_baiocco_ one may have +the lemonade without sugar, and in this way it is usually drunk. On all +_festa_-days, little portable tables are carried round the streets, +hung to the neck of the _limonaro_, and set down at convenient spots, +or whenever a customer presents himself, and the cries of "_Acqua +fresca,--limonaro, limonaro,--chi vuol bere?_" are heard on all sides; +and I can assure you, that, after standing on tiptoe for an hour in the +heat and straining your neck and head to get sight of some Church +procession, you are glad enough to go to the extravagance of even a +lemonade with sugar; and smacking your lips, you bless the institution +of the _limonaro_ as one which must have been early instituted by the +Good Samaritan. Listen to his own description of himself in one of the +popular _canzonetti_ sung about the streets by wandering musicians to +the accompaniment of a violin and guitar:-- + + "Ma per altro son uomo ingegnoso, + Non possiedo, ma sono padrone; + Vendo l' acqua con spirto e limone + Finche dura d' estate il calor. + + "Ho an capello di paglia,--ma bello! + Un zinale di sopra fino; + Chi mi osserva nel mio tavolino, + Gli vien sete, se sete non ha. + + "Spaccio spirti, siroppi, acquavite + Fo 'ranciate di nuova invenzione; + Voi vedete quante persone + Chiedon acqua,--e rispondo,--Son quŕ!" + +The _limonaro_ is the exponent, the algebraic power, of the Church +processions which abound this month; and he is as faithful to them as +Boswell to Johnson;--wherever they appear, he is there to console and +refresh. Nor is his office a sinecure now; and let us hope that he has +his small profits, as well as the Church,--though they spell theirs +differently. + +The great procession of the year takes place this month on Corpus +Domini, and is well worth seeing, as being the very finest and most +characteristic of all the Church festivals. It was instituted in honor +of the famous miracle at Bolsena, when the wafer dripped blood, and is, +therefore, in commemoration of one of the cardinal doctrines of the +Roman Church, Transubstantiation, and one of its most theological +miracles. The Papal procession takes place in the morning, in the +piazza of Saint Peter's; and if you would be sure of it, you must be on +the spot as soon as eight o'clock at the latest. The whole circle of +the piazza itself is covered with an awning, festooned gayly with +garlands of box, under which the procession passes; and the ground is +covered with yellow sand, over which box and bay are strewn. The +celebration commences with morning mass in the basilica, and that over, +the procession issues from one door, and, making the whole circuit of +the piazza, returns into the church. First come the _Seminaristi_, or +scholars and attendants of the various hospitals and charity-schools, +such as San Michele and Santo Spirito,--all in white. Then follow the +brown-cowled, long-bearded Franciscans, the white Carmelites, and the +black Benedictines, bearing lighted candles and chanting hoarsely as +they go. You may see pass before you now all the members of these +different conventual orders that there are in Rome, and have an +admirable opportunity to study their physiognomies in mass. If you are +a convert to Romanism, you will perhaps find in their bald beads and +shaven crowns and bearded faces a noble expression of reverence and +humility; but, suffering as I do under the misfortune of being a +heretic, I could but remark on their heads an enormous development of +the two organs of reverence and firmness, and a singular deficiency in +the upper forehead, while there was an almost universal enlargement of +the lower jaw and of the base of the brain. Being, unfortunately, a +friend of Phrenology, as well as a heretic, I drew no very auspicious +augury from these developments; and looking into their faces, the +physiognomical traits were narrow-mindedness, bigotry, or cunning. The +Benedictine heads showed more intellect and will; the Franciscans more +dulness and good-nature. + +But while I am criticizing them, they are passing by, and a picturesque +set of fellows they are. Much as I dislike the conventual creed, I +should be sorry to see the costume disappear. Directly on the heels of +their poverty come the three splendid triple crowns of the Pope, +glittering with gorgeous jewels, and borne in triumph on silken +embroidered cushions, and preceded by the court jeweller. After them +follow the chapters, canons, and choirs of the seven basilicas, +chanting in lofty altos and solid basses and clear ringing tenors from +their old Church books, each basilica bearing a typical tent of colored +stripes and a wooden campanile and a bell which is constantly rung. +Next come the canons of the churches and the _monsignori_, in splendid +dresses and rich capes of beautiful lace falling below their waists; +the bishops clad in cloth of silver with mitres on their heads; the +cardinals brilliant in gold embroidery and gleaming in the sun; and at +last the Pope himself, borne on a platform splendid with silver and +gold, with a rich canopy over his head. Beneath this he kneels, or +rather, seems to kneel; for, though his splendid draperies and train +are skilfully arranged so as to present this semblance, being drawn +behind him over two blocks which are so placed as to represent his +heels, yet in fact he is seated on a sunken bench or chair, as any +careful eye can plainly see. However, kneeling or sitting, just as you +will, there he is, before an altar, holding up the _ostia_, which is +the _corpus Domini_, "the body of God," and surrounded by officers of +the Swiss guards in glittering armor, chamberlains in their beautiful +black and Spanish dresses with ruffs and swords, attendants in scarlet +and purple costumes, and the _guardia nobile_ in their red dress +uniforms. Nothing could be more striking than this group. It is the +very type of the Church,--pompous, rich, splendid, imposing. After them +follow the dragoons mounted,--first a company on black horses, then +another on bays, and then a third on grays; foot-soldiers with flashing +bayonets bring up the rear, and the procession is over. As the last +soldiers enter the church, there is a stir among the gilt equipages of +the cardinals which line one side of the piazza,--the horses toss their +scarlet plumes, the liveried servants sway as the carriages lumber on, +and you may spend a half-hour hunting out your own humble vehicle, if +you have one, or throng homeward on foot with the crowd through the +Borgo and over the bridge of Sant' Angelo. + +This grand procession strikes the note of all the others, and in the +afternoon each parish brings out its banners, arrays itself in its +choicest dresses, and with pomp and music bears the _ostia_ through the +streets, the crowd kneeling before it, and the priests chanting. During +the next _ottava_ or eight days, all the processions take place in +honor of this festival; and when the week has passed, everything ends +with the Papal procession in Saint Peter's piazza, when, without music, +and with uncovered heads, the Pope, cardinals, _monsignori_, canons, +and the rest of the priests and officials, make the round of the +piazza, bearing great Church banners. + +One of the most striking of their celebrations took place this year at +the church of San Rocco in the Ripetta, when the church was made +splendid with lighted candles and gold bands, and a preacher held forth +to a crowded audience in the afternoon. At Ave Maria there was a great +procession, with banners, music, and torches, and all the evening the +people sauntered to and fro in crowds before the church, where a +platform was erected and draped with old tapestries, from which a band +played constantly. Do not believe, my dear Presbyterian friend, that +these spectacles fail deeply to affect the common mind. So long as +human nature remains the same, this splendor and pomp of processions, +these lighted torches and ornamented churches, this triumphant music +and glad holiday of religion will attract more than your plain +conventicles, your ugly meeting-houses, and your compromise with the +bass-viol. For my own part, I do not believe that music and painting +and all the other arts really belong to the Devil, or that God gave him +joy and beauty to deceive with, and kept only the ugly, sour, and sad +for himself. We are always better when we are happy; and we are about +as sure of being good when we are happy, as of being happy when we are +good. Cheerfulness and happiness are, in my humble opinion, duties and +habits to be cultivated; but, if you don't think so, I certainly would +not deny you the privilege of being wretched: don't let us quarrel +about it. + +Rather let us turn to the Artists' Festival, which takes place in this +month, and is one of the great attractions of the season. Formerly, +this festival took place at Cerbara, an ancient Etruscan town on the +Campagna, of which only certain subterranean caves remain. But during +the revolutionary days which followed the disasters of 1848, it was +suspended for two or three years by the interdict of the Papal +government, and when it was again instituted, the place of meeting was +changed to Fidenae, the site of another Etruscan town, with similar +subterranean excavations, which were made the head-quarters of the +festival. But the new railway to Bologna having been laid out directly +over this ground, the artists have been again driven away, and this +year the _festa_ was held, for the first time, in the grove of Egeria, +one of the most beautiful spots on the whole Campagna,--and here it is +to be hoped it will have an abiding rest. + +This festival was instituted by the German artists, and, though the +artists of all nations now join in it, the Germans still remain its +special patrons and directors. Early in the morning, the artists +rendezvous at an appointed _osteria_ outside the walls, dressed in +every sort of grotesque and ludicrous costume which can be imagined. +All the old dresses which can be rummaged out of the studios or +theatres, or pieced together from masking wardrobes, are now in +requisition. Indians and Chinese, ancient warriors and mediaeval +heroes, militia-men and Punches, generals in top-boots and pigtails, +doctors in gigantic wigs and small-clothes, Falstaffs and justices +"with fair round belly with good capon lined," magnificent foolscaps, +wooden swords with terrible inscriptions, gigantic chapeaus with plumes +made of vegetables, in a word, every imaginable absurdity is to be +seen. Arrived at the place of rendezvous, they all breakfast, and then +the line of march is arranged. A great wooden cart, adorned with quaint +devices, garlanded with laurel and bay, bears the president and +committee. This is drawn by great white oxen, who are decorated with +wreaths and flowers and gay trappings, and from it floats the noble +banner of Cerbara or Fidenae. After this follows a strange and motley +train,--some mounted on donkeys, some on horses, and some afoot,--and +the line of march is taken up for the grove of Egeria. What mad jests +and wild fun now take place it is impossible to describe; suffice it to +say, that all are right glad of a little rest when they reach their +destination. + +Now begin to stream out from the city hundreds of carriages,--for all +the world will be abroad to-day to see,--and soon the green slopes are +swarming with gay crowds. Some bring with them a hamper of provisions +and wine, and, spreading them on the grass, lunch and dine when and +where they will; but those who would dine with the artists must have +the order of the _mezzo baiocco_ hanging to their buttonhole, which is +distributed previously in Rome to all the artists who purchase tickets. +Some few there are who also bear upon their breasts the nobler medal of +_troppo merito_, gained on previous days, and those are looked upon +with due reverence. + +But before dinner or lunch there is a high ceremony to take place,--the +great feature of the day. It is the mock-heroic play. This year it was +the meeting of Numa with the nymph Egeria at the grotto; and thither +went the festive procession; and the priest, befilletted and draped in +white, burned upon the altar as a sacrifice a great toy sheep, whose +offence "smelt to heaven"; and then from the niches suddenly appeared +Numa, a gallant youth in spectacles, and Egeria, a Spanish artist with +white dress and fillet, who made vows over the smoking sheep, and then +were escorted back to the sacred grove with festal music by a joyous, +turbulent crowd. + +Last year, however, at Fidenae, it was better. We had a travesty of the +taking of Troy, which was eminently ludicrous, and which deserves a +better description than I can give. Troy was a space inclosed within +paper barriers, about breast-high, painted "to present a wall," and +within these were the Trojans, clad in red, and all wearing gigantic +paper helmets. There was old Priam, in spectacles, with his crown and +robes,--Laocoön, in white, with a white wool beard and wig,--Ulysses, +in a long, yellow beard and mantle,--and Aeneas, with a bald head, in a +blue, long-tailed coat, and tall dickey, looking like the traditional +Englishman in the circus who comes to hire the horse. The Grecians were +encamped at a short distance. All had round, basket-work shields,--some +with their names painted on them in great letters, and some with an odd +device, such as a cat or pig. There were Ulysses, Agamemnon, Ajax, +Nestor, Patroclus, Diomedes, Achilles, "all honorable men." The drama +commenced with the issuing of Paris and Helen from the walls of +Troy,--he in a tall, black French hat, girdled with a gilt crown, and +she in a white dress, with a great wig hanging round her face in a +profusion of carrotty curls. Queer figures enough they were, as they +stepped along together, caricaturing love in a pantomime, he making +terrible demonstrations of his ardent passion, and she finally falling +on his neck in rapture. This over, they seated themselves near by two +large pasteboard rocks, he sitting on his shield and taking out his +flute to play to her, while she brought forth her knitting and ogled +him as he played. While they were thus engaged, came creeping up with +the stage stride of a double step, and dragging one foot behind him, +Menelaus, whom Thersites had, meantime, been taunting, by pointing at +him two great ox-horns. He walked all round the lovers, pantomiming +rage and jealousy in the accredited ballet style, and then, suddenly +approaching, crushed poor Paris's great black hat down over his eyes. +Both, very much frightened, then took to their heels and rushed into +the city, while Menelaus, after shaking Paris's shield, in defiance, at +the walls, retired to the Grecian camp. Then came the preparations for +battle. The Trojans leaned over their paper battlements, with their +fingers to their noses, twiddling them in scorn, while the Greeks shook +their fists back at them. The battle now commenced on the +"ringing-plains of Troy," and was eminently absurd. Paris, in hat and +pantaloons, (_ŕ la mode de Paris_,) soon showed the white feather, and +incontinently fled. Everybody hit nowhere, fiercely striking the ground +or the shields, and always carefully avoiding, as on the stage, to hit +in the right place. At last, however, Patroclus was killed, whereupon +the battle was suspended, and a grand _tableau_ of surprise and horror +took place, from which at last they recovered, and the Greeks prepared +to carry him off on their shoulders. Then terrible to behold was the +grief of Achilles. Homer himself would have wept to see him. He flung +himself on the body, and shrieked, and tore his hair, and violently +shook the corpse, which, under such demonstrations, now and then kicked +up. Finally, he rises and challenges Hector to single combat, and out +comes the valiant Trojan, and a duel ensues with wooden axes. Such +blows and counter blows were never seen, only they never hit, but often +whirled the warrior who dealt them completely round; they tumbled over +their own blows, panted with feigned rage, lost their robes and great +pasteboard helmets, and were even more absurd than Richmond and Richard +ever were on the country boards at a fifth-rate theatre. But Hector is +at last slain and borne away, and a ludicrous lay figure is laid out to +represent him, with bunged-up eyes and a general flabbiness of body and +want of features, charming to behold. On their necks the Trojans bear +him to their walls, and with a sudden jerk pitch him over them head +first, and he tumbles, in a heap, into the city. Then Ulysses harangues +the Greeks. He has brought out a _quarteruola_ barrel of wine, which, +with most expressive pantomime, he shows to be the wooden horse that +must be carried into Troy. His proposition is joyfully accepted, and, +accompanied by all, he rolls the cask up to the walls, and, flourishing +a tin cup in one hand, invites the Trojans to partake. At first there +is confusion in the city, and fingers are twiddled over the walls, but +after a time all go out and drink, and become ludicrously drunk, and +stagger about, embracing each other in the most maudlin style. Even +Helen herself comes out, gets tipsy with the rest, and dances about +like the most disreputable of Maenades. A great scena, however, takes +place as they are about to drink. Laocoön, got up in white wool, +appears, and violently endeavors to dissuade them, but in vain. In the +midst of his harangue, a long string of blown up sausage-skins is +dragged in for the serpent, and suddenly cast about his neck. His sons +and he then form a group, the sausage-snake is twined about them,--only +the old story is reversed, and he bites the serpent instead of the +serpent biting him,--and all die in agony, travestying the ancient +group. + +All, being now drunk, go in, and Ulysses with them. A quantity of straw +is kindled, the smoke rises, the Greeks approach and dash in the paper +walls with clubs, and all is confusion. Then Aeneas, in his blue +long-tailed circus-coat, broad white hat, and tall shirt-collar, +carries off old Anchises on his shoulders with a cigar in his mouth, +and bears him to a painted section of a vessel, which is rocked to and +fro by hand, as if violently agitated by the waves. Aeneas and Anchises +enter the boat, or rather stand behind it so as to conceal their legs, +and off it sets, rocked to and fro constantly,--Aeolus and Tramontana +following behind, with bellows to blow up a wind, and Fair Weather, +with his name written on big back, accompanying them. The violent +motion, however, soon makes Aeneas sick, and as he leans over the side +in a helpless and melancholy manner, and almost gives up the ghost, as +well as more material things, the crowd burst into laughter. However, +at last they reach two painted rocks, and found Latium, and a general +rejoicing takes place.--The donkey who was to have ended all by +dragging the body of Hector round the walls came too late, and this +part of the programme did not take place. + +So much of the entertainment over, preparations are made for dinner. In +the grove of Egeria the plates are spread in circles, while all the +company sing part-songs and dance. At last all is ready, the signal is +given, and the feast takes place after the most rustic manner. Great +barrels of wine covered with green branches stand at one side, from +which flagons are filled and passed round, and the good appetites soon +make direful gaps in the beef and mighty plates of lettuce. After this, +and a little sauntering about for digestion's sake, come the afternoon +sports. And there are donkey races, and tilting at a ring, and +foot-races, and running in sacks. Nothing can be more picturesque than +the scene, with its motley masqueraders, its crowds of spectators +seated along the slopes, its little tents here and there, its races in +the valley, and, above all, the glorious mountains looking down from +the distance. Not till the golden light slopes over the Campagna, +gilding the skeletons of aqueducts, and drawing a delicate veil of +beauty over the mountains, can we tear ourselves away, and rattle back +in our carriage to Rome. + +The wealthy Roman families, who have villas in the immediate vicinity +of Rome, now leave the city to spend a month in them and breathe the +fresh air of spring. Many and many a tradesman who is well to do in the +world has a little _vigna_ outside the gates, where he raises +vegetables and grapes and other fruits; and every _festa_-day you will +be sure to find him and his family out in his little _villetta_, +wandering about the grounds or sitting beneath his arbors, smoking and +chatting with his children around him. His friends who have no villas +of their own here visit him, and often there is a considerable company +thus collected, who, if one may judge from their cheerful countenances +and much laughter, enjoy themselves mightily. Knock at any of these +villa-gates, and, if you happen to have the acquaintance of the owner, +or are evidently a stranger of respectability, you will be received +with much hospitality, invited to partake of the fruit and wine, and +overwhelmed with thanks for your _gentilezza_ when you take your leave; +for the Italians are a most good-natured and social people, and nothing +pleases them better than a stranger who breaks the common round of +topics by accounts of his own land. Everything new is to them +wonderful, just as it is to a child. They are credulous of everything +you tell them about America, which is to them in some measure what it +was to the English in the days of Raleigh, Drake, and Hawkins, and say +"_Per Bacco!_" to every new statement. And they are so magnificently +ignorant, that you have _carte blanche_ for your stories. Never did I +know any one staggered by anything I chose to say, but once. I was +walking with my respectable old _padrone_, Nisi, about his little +garden one day, when an ambition to know something about America +inflamed his breast. + +"Are there any mountains?" he asked. + +I told him "Yes," and, with a chuckle of delight, he cried,-- + +"_Per Bacco!_ And have you any cities?" + +"Yes, a few little ones,"--for I thought I would sing small, contrary +to the general "'Ercles vein" of my countrymen. He was evidently +pleased that they were small, and, swelling with natural pride, said,-- + +"Large as Rome, of course, they could not be"; then, after a moment, he +added, interrogatively, "And rivers, too,--have you any rivers?" + +"A few," I answered. + +"But not as large as our Tiber," he replied,--feeling assured, that, if +the cities were smaller than Rome, as a necessary consequence, the +rivers that flowed by them must be in the same category. + +The bait now offered was too tempting. I measured my respectable and +somewhat obese friend carefully with my eye, for a moment, and then +hurled this terrible fact at him:-- + +"We have some rivers three thousand miles long." + +The effect was awful. He stood and stared at me, as if petrified, for a +moment. Then the blood rushed into his face, and, turning on his heel, +he took off his hat, said suddenly, "_Buona sera_," and carried my fact +and his opinions together up into his private room. I am afraid that +Don Pietro decided, on consideration, that I had been taking +unwarrantable liberties with him, and exceeding all proper bounds, in +my attempt to impose on his good-nature. From that time forward he +asked me no more questions about America. + +And here, by the way, I am reminded of an incident, which, though not +exactly pertinent, may find here a parenthetical place, merely as +illustrating some points of Italian character. One fact and two names +relating to America they know universally,--Columbus and his discovery +of America, and Washington. + +"_Sě, Signore_," said a respectable person some time since, as he was +driving me to see a carriage which he wished to sell me, and therefore +desired to be particularly polite to me and my nation,--"a great man, +your Vashintoni! but I was sorry to hear, the other day, that his +father had died in London." + +"His father dead, and in London?" I stammered, completely confounded at +this extraordinary news, and fearing lest I had been too stupid in +misunderstanding him. + +"Yes," he said, "it is too true that his father Vellintoni is dead. I +read it in the _Diario di Roma_." + +But better than this was the ingenious argument of a _Frate_, whom I +met on board a steamer in going from Leghorn to Genoa, and who, having +pumped out the fact that I was an American, immediately began to +"improve" it in a discourse on Columbus. So he informed me that +Columbus was an Italian, and that he had discovered America, and was a +remarkable man; to all of which I readily assented, as being true, if +not new. But now a severe abstract question began to tax my friend's +powers. He said, "But how could he ever have imagined that the +continent of America was there? That's the question. It is +extraordinary indeed!" And so he sat cogitating, and saying, at +intervals, "_Curioso! Straordinario!_" At last "a light broke in upon +his brain." Some little bird whispered the secret. His face lightened, +and, looking at me, he said, "Perhaps he may have read that it was +there in some old book, and so went to see if it were or no." Vainly I +endeavored to show him that this view would deprive Columbus of his +greatest distinction. He answered invariably, "But without having read +it, how could he ever have known it?"--thus putting the earth upon the +tortoise and leaving the tortoise to account for his own support. + +Imagine that I have told you these stories sitting under the vine and +fig-tree of some _villetta_, while Angiolina has gone to call the +_padrone_, who will only be too glad to see you. But, _ecco!_ at last +our _padrone_ comes. No, it is not the _padrone_, it is the +_vignarualo_, who takes care of his grapes and garden, and who +recognizes us as friends of the _padrone_, and tells us that we are +ourselves _padroni_ of the whole place, and offers us all sorts of +fruits. + +One old custom, which existed in Rome some fifteen years ago, has now +passed away with other good old things. It was the celebration of the +_Fravolata_ or Strawberry-Feast, when men in gala-dress at the height +of the strawberry-season went in procession through the streets, +carrying on their heads enormous wooden platters heaped with this +delicious fruit, accompanied by girls in costume, who, beating their +_tamburelli_, danced along at their sides and sung the praises of the +strawberry. After threading the streets of the city, they passed +singing out of the gates, and at different places on the Campagna spent +the day in festive sports and had an out-door dinner and dance. + +One of these festivals still exists, however, in the picturesque town +of Genzano, which lies above the old crater now filled with the still +waters of Lake Nemi, and is called the _Infiorata di Genzano_, "The +Flower-Festival of Genzano." It takes place on the eighth day of the +Corpus Domini, and receives its name from the popular custom of +spreading flowers upon the pavements of the streets so as to represent +heraldic devices, figures, arabesques, and all sorts of ornamental +designs. The people are all dressed in their effective costumes,--the +girls in _busti_ and silken skirts, with all their corals and jewels +on, and the men with white stockings on their legs, their velvet +jackets dropping over one shoulder, and flowers and rosettes in their +conical hats. The town is then very gay, the bells clang, the incense +steams from the censer in the church, where the organ peals and mass is +said, and a brilliant procession marches over the strewn flower-mosaic, +with music and crucifixes and Church-banners. Hundreds of strangers, +too, are there to look on; and on the Cesarini Piazza and under the +shadow of the long avenues of ilexes that lead to the tower are +hundreds of handsome girls, with their snowy _tovaglie_ peaked over +their heads. The rub and thrum of _tamburelli_ and the clicking of +castanets are heard, too, as twilight comes on, and the _salterello_ is +danced by many a group. This is the national Roman dance, and is named +from the little jumping step which characterizes it. Any number of +couples dance it, though the dance is perfect with two. Some of the +movements are very graceful and piquant, and particularly that where +one of the dancers kneels and whirls her arms on high, clicking her +castanets, while the other circles her round and round, striking his +hands together, and approaching nearer and nearer, till he is ready to +give her a kiss, which she refuses: of course it is the old story of +every national dance,--love and repulse, love and repulse, until the +maiden yields. As one couple panting and rosy retires, another fresh +one takes its place, while the bystanders play on the accordion the +whirling, circling, never-ending tune of the Tarantella, which would +"put a spirit of youth in everything." + +If you are tired of the festival, roam up a few paces out of the crowd, +and you stand upon the brink of Lake Nemi. Over opposite, and crowning +the height where the little town of Nemi perches, frowns the old feudal +castle of the Colonna, with its tall, round tower, where many a +princely family has dwelt and many an unprincely act has been done. +There, in turn, have dwelt the Colonna, Borgia, Piccolomini, Cenci, +Frangipani, and Braschi, and there the descendants of the last-named +family still pass a few weeks in the summer.[1] Below you, silent and +silvery, lies the lake itself,--and rising around it, like a green +bowl, tower its richly wooded banks, covered with gigantic oaks, +ilexes, and chestnuts. This was the ancient grove dedicated to Diana, +which extended to L'Ariccia; and here are still to be seen the vestiges +of an ancient villa built by Julius Caesar. Here, too, if you trust +some of the antiquaries, once stood the temple of Diana Nemorensis,[2] +where human sacrifices were offered, and whose chief-priest, called +_Rex Nemorensis_, obtained his office by slaying his predecessor, and +reigned over these groves by force of his personal arm. Times have, +indeed, changed since the priesthood was thus won and baptized by +blood; and as you stand there, and look, on the one side, at the site +of this ancient temple, which some of the gigantic chestnut-trees may +almost have seen in their youth, and, on the other side, at the +campanile of the Catholic church at Genzano, with its flower-strewn +pavements, you may have as sharp a contrast between the past and the +present as can easily be found. + +[Footnote 1: On the Genzano side stands the castellated villa of the +Cesarini Sforza, looking peacefully across the lake at the rival tower, +which in the old baronial days it used to challenge,--and in its +garden-pond you may see stately white swans oaring their way with rosy +feet along.] + +[Footnote 2: The better opinion of late seems to be that it was on the +slopes of the Val d'Ariccia. But "who shall decide, when doctors +disagree?"] + + + + +THRENODIA. + + +ADDRESSED TO ALFRED TENNYSON, P.L., IN RESPONSE TO VERSES OF HIS "ON A +LATE EVENT IN ENGLAND." + + I heard you In your English home,-- +I read you by my little brook, + Thousands of miles from British foam, +Hid in my dear New England nook: +But heard you with a sullen look; + But read you with a gloomy brow; +And thus unto my Muse I spoke:-- + Who is there to write history now? + + Hallam is dead! and Prescott gone! +And Irving sleeps at Sunnyside! + And now that Lord has wandered on, +Whose laurels must with theirs abide: +I greatly mourned the man who died + First on this dismal roll of death,-- +And him, of all observers eyed, + My townsman here, who spent his breath + + In telling of the things of Spain, +And doing friendly things to friends, + Prescott, well known beyond the main +And past the Pillars, to earth's ends: +Both had my tears: but England sends + Another word across the seas, +Might rouse the dying from his bed: + Oh, bear it gently, ocean-breeze! +That bitter word,--Thy friend is dead! + + Macaulay dead, who made to live +Past kingdoms, with his vivid brain! + Who could such warmth to shadows give, +By the mere magic of his pen, +That Charles and England rose again! + Well sleeps he 'mid the Abbey's dust: +And, Laureate! thy funereal verse + Shall have such echo as it must +From hearts just wrung at Irving's hearse. + + These are two names to mark the year +As one of memorable woe, + Two men to the two nations dear +Laid in one fatal winter low! +About the streets the mourners go; + But I within my chamber rest, +Or walk the room with measured tread, + Murmuring, with head upon my breast, +My God! and is Macaulay dead? + + + + +GENERAL MIRANDA'S EXPEDITION. + + +In November, 1805, a good-looking foreigner, gentlemanlike in dress +and in manner, and apparently fifty years of age, arrived in New York +from England, and took lodgings at Mrs. Avery's, State Street. He +called himself George Martin; but this incognito was intended only for +the vulgar. Some of the principal citizens of New York, who recollected +his first visit to this country twenty years before, knew him as Don +Francisco de Miranda of Caracas, one of the most distinguished +adventurers of that revolutionary era,--a favorite of the Empress of +Russia, a friend of Mr. Pitt, and second in command under Dumouriez in +the Belgian campaign of 1793. To these gentlemen he avowed that for +many years he had meditated the independence of the Spanish-American +Colonies, and meant to make an attempt to carry out his plans. On +Evacuation Day, a New York festival, which is now nearly worn out, they +invited him to a Corporation dinner, as a foreign officer of rank, and +toasted him, wishing him the same success in South America that we had +had here. He then went to Washington, under the name of Molini. There, +as everywhere, he was received by the best society as General Miranda. +The President and the Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, granted him +several private interviews. In January he returned to New York,--and on +the 2d of February departed thence mysteriously in the Leander, a ship +belonging to Mr. Samuel G. Ogden, merchant. + +While the Leander lay at anchor off Staten Island, a gentleman notified +the Naval Officer of the Port, that large quantities of arms and +ammunition had been taken on board of her in boats, at night. He was +informed in return, that the Leander was cleared for Jacquemel, and +that no law existed to prevent her from sailing. No other attempt was +made to detain her; but a few weeks later, rumors affecting the +character of the ship broke out in a more decided form. It was +generally believed at the Tontine Coffee-House that the Leander had +been fitted out by Miranda to attack the Spanish possessions in the +West India Islands or on the Main. And yet the New York journals took +no notice of her until the 21st of February, nineteen days after she +sailed. In the mean time the Marquis Yrujo, backed by the French +Ambassador, had made a formal complaint to Government, and had caused +the insertion in the "Philadelphia Gazette" of a series of +interrogatories to Mr. Madison, which indirectly accused the +Administration of encouraging Miranda's preparations, or at least of +conniving at the expedition. This perverse Marquis, who gave Mr. +Jefferson a taste of the annoyance which Genet, Adet, and Fauchet had +inflicted upon the previous administrations, was clamorous and +persisting. The authorities in Washington thought it proper to order +the arrest of Mr. Ogden, and of Colonel William Smith, son-in-law of +John Adams and Surveyor of the Port of New York, under the Act of 1794. +The prisoners were taken before Judge Tallmadge of the United States +District Court. They were refused counsel, and were forced by threats +of imprisonment to submit to a searching examination. They were then +held to bail, both as principals and witnesses, in the sum of twenty +thousand dollars. Soon after, the President removed Colonel Smith from +his office. + +Such a waste of editorial raw-material appears very singular to +newspaper-readers of the present day, accustomed as they are to see in +print everything that has happened or that might have happened; but we +must recollect that our grandfathers found the excitement necessary to +civilized man in party politics, national and local. This game they +played with a fierce eagerness which is now limited to a small class of +inferior men. + +To the violence and personal spitefulness of their newspaper articles +we have fortunately nothing comparable, even in the speeches of +Honorable Members on Helper and John Brown. The "_Tu quoque_" and the +"_Vos damnamini_" were their favorite logical processes, and "Fool" and +"Liar" the simple and conclusive arguments with which they established +a principle. Not that these ancients suffered at all from a lack of +stirring news. Bonaparte's wonderful campaigns, (Austerlitz had just +been heard of in New York,) the outrages on our sailors by English +cruisers, our merchantmen plundered by French and Spanish privateers, +the irritating behavior of the Dons in Louisiana, kept them abundantly +supplied with this staff of mental life. But they did not care much for +news in the abstract as news, unless they could work it up into +political ammunition and discharge it at each other's heads. We must +not forget, too, that newspaper-editing, the "California of the +spiritually vagabond," as Carlyle calls it, was a recent discovery, and +that the rich mine was but surface-worked. "Our own Reporter" was, like +Milton's original lion, only half unearthed; and deep hidden from +mortal eyes as yet lay the sensation-items-man, who has made the +last-dying-speech-and-confession style of literature the principal +element of our daily press. + +At last the Federal editors gave tongue. It was high time; the town was +in an uproar. They perceived that Miranda might become a useful ally +against Mr. T. Jefferson. His expedition came opportunely, as the +Mammoth Cheese and Black Sally were beginning to grow stale. Mr. Lang +opened the cry in the "New York Gazette" by asserting the complicity of +Government, on the authority of a "gentleman of the first +respectability,"--meaning Mr. Rufus King.--Cheetham, of the "Citizen," +barked back at Lang, a would-be "Solomon," "a foul and abominable +slanderer." Mr. King, he could prove, had been examined, and had +nothing to reveal.--Tom Paine wrote to the "Citizen" to mention that he +had known Miranda in New York in 1783 and in Paris in 1793. Mr. +Littlepage of Virginia, Chamberlain to the King of Poland, had then +informed him that the Empress Catharine had given Miranda four thousand +pounds "as a retaining fee," and that Mr. Pitt had also paid him twelve +hundred pounds for his services in the Nootka Sound business.--All the +Federal papers charged the Government with connivance. You knew the +destination of the Leander; you did not prevent her from sailing; you +nourished the offence until it attained maturity, and then, after +permitting the principals to go upon this expedition, you seize upon +the accessories who remain at home. And in how shameful and illegal a +way! You examine them before a single judge, with no counsel to advise +them. You force them to criminate themselves, and to sign their +confessions, by the threat of imprisonment; and you punish Colonel +Smith before you have tried him, by depriving him of his office. Why, +such a proceeding is worse than any "Inquisitorial Tribunal" or +"Star-Chamber Court."--Nonsense! answered the Democrats. Ogden's and +Smith's testimony does not implicate the Government in the least. It +only proves that Smith has been the dupe of Miranda. The President knew +nothing about the matter. If the object of the Leander's outfit was so +generally spoken of, why did it escape the notice of the Marquis Yrujo? +Why did he not demand her seizure before she sailed? This charge +against the Government is a mere Federal trick. Your friends, the +British, are at the bottom of the expedition, and they have artfully +employed Rufus King, a Federal chief, to throw the blame upon the +Executive of the United States. By ascribing to those who administer +the government the atrocities committed by Transatlantic rulers, you +aim a deadly blow at the character of our system; and your conduct, +base in any view we can take of it, is particularly reprehensible in +the delicate state of our relations with Spain. + +Mr. Cadwallader Golden, of counsel for the defendants, made a motion +before Judge Tallmadge for an order to prevent the District Attorney +from using the preliminary evidence taken at the private examinations. +"It was a proceeding," he said, "arbitrary and subversive of the first +principles of law and liberty,"--"which would have disgraced the reign +of Charles and stained the character of Jeffries." The District +Attorney was heard in opposition, and was successful. + +On the 7th of April, the Grand Jury found a bill against Smith, Ogden, +Miranda, and Thomas Lewis, captain of the Leander, for "setting on foot +and beginning with force and arms a certain military enterprise or +expedition, to be carried on from the United States against the +dominions of a foreign prince: to wit, the dominions of the King of +Spain; the said King of Spain then and there being at peace with the +United States." The Grand Jury, as an evidence of their impartiality, +or of the public feeling, also handed the Judge a presentment of +himself, which he put into his pocket, censuring his conduct in the +private examinations, because "unusual, oppressive, and contrary to +law." + +The trial was set down for the 14th of July. Messrs. Ogden and Smith +did not wait so long for a hearing. They laid their case at once before +the public, in two memorials addressed to Congress, complaining +bitterly of the prosecution, not to say persecution, instituted against +them by the authorities in Washington, and of the cruel and oppressive +measures taken by Judge Tallmadge to carry out the mandates of his +superiors. If they had done wrong, they urged, it was innocently. A war +with Spain was imminent. The critical position of the Louisiana +Boundary question, the President's Message of the 6th of December, and +the documents accompanying it, left no doubts on that point. Were they +not right, then, in supposing, that, under these circumstances, the +President would encourage an expedition against the colonies of a +hostile power? As evidence of Mr. Jefferson's knowledge of Miranda's +schemes, they stated that the General had brought with him from England +a letter to "a gentleman of the first consequence in New York," (Mr. +King,) which contained a sketch of his project: this letter was +forwarded to the Secretary of State and laid before the President by +him. Miranda then went to Washington, saw the President and the +Secretary, and wrote to the memorialists that he had fully unfolded his +plans to both. In the course of a long conversation with Mr. Madison, +he asked for pecuniary assistance and for open encouragement, on the +ground that individuals might not be willing to join in the enterprise, +if Government did not approve it,--particularly as a bill was then +before Congress to prohibit the exportation of arms. He also requested +leave of absence for Colonel Smith, who wished to accompany him. Mr. +Madison answered, that the sentiments of the President could not be +doubted, but that the Government of the United States could afford no +assistance of any kind. Private individuals were at liberty to act as +they pleased, provided they did not violate the laws; and New York +merchants would always advance money, if they saw their advantage in +it. As to the bill Miranda had spoken of, it was unlikely that it would +pass,--and, in fact, it did not. It was impossible, Mr. Madison added, +to grant leave of absence to Colonel Smith, although he thought him +better fitted for military employment than for the custom-house. He +closed the interview by recommending the greatest discretion. + +Miranda, continued the memorialists, remained fourteen days in +Washington after this conversation, and returned to New York confident +of the silent approval of Government. Eleven days before the Leander +sailed, he sent a letter to Mr. Madison, inclosing another to Mr. +Jefferson, both of which he read to Ogden and to Smith. He assured Mr. +Madison that he had conformed in every way to the intentions of +Government, and requested him to keep the secret. To Mr. Jefferson he +wrote in a strain more fashionable ten years before than then, but well +adapted to the sentimentality, both scientific and political, of the +"Philosophic President." Here it is:-- + +"I have the honor to send you, inclosed, the 'Natural and Civil History +of Chili,' of which we conversed at Washington,--and in which you will, +perhaps, find more than in those which have been before published on +the same subject, concerning this beautiful country. + +"If ever the happy prediction, which you have pronounced on the future +destiny of our dear Columbia, is to be accomplished in our day, may +Providence grant that it may be under your auspices, and by the +generous efforts of her own children! We shall then, in some sort, +behold the revival of that age, the return of which the Roman bard +invoked in favor of the human race:-- + +"'The last great age foretold by sacred rhymes + Renews its finished course; Saturnian times + Roll round again; and mighty years, begun + From this first orb, in radiant circles run.'" + +On Miranda's reports, these letters, and the fact that the Leander had +not been seized, they rested their case, and prayed for the +interference of Congress in their behalf. + +Congress unanimously granted the petitioners leave to withdraw. Such +evidence as this, not only hearsay, but heard from the party most +interested in misrepresenting the Administration, was not entitled to +much consideration. It had, moreover, the additional disadvantage of +proving nothing against the President and Secretary, even if every word +of it were admitted as true. + +Public attention was diverted from the Leander, Captain Lewis, to the +Leander, Captain Whitby. This English frigate was cruising off Sandy +Hook, bringing to inward and outward bound vessels, searching them for +articles contraband of war, and helping herself to able-bodied seamen +who looked like British subjects. All of which was meekly submitted to +in 1806. Mr. Jefferson could not overcome his doubts as to the +constitutionality of a fleet, and the Opposition had the twofold +pleasure of chuckling over the insults offered by John Bull to a +government with French proclivities, and of reproaching the party in +power with its supineness and want of spirit. + +But the accident of the 25th of April brought the American people to a +proper sense of their situation, for the moment. On that day, His +British Majesty's ship Leander fired a round-shot into the sloop +Richard, bound to New York, and killed the man at the helm, John +Pierce. The body was brought to the city and borne through the +principal streets, in the midst of universal excitement, anger, and +cries for vengeance. Black streamers were displayed from the houses; +shops were closed; the newspapers appeared in mourning. A public +funeral was attended by the whole population. Captain Whitby was +indicted for murder, and took care to keep out of the reach of United +States law-officers. This homicide happened just in time for the May +election in New York. Both parties attempted to make use of it. The +Federalists proclaimed that the blood of Pierce was on the head of +Jefferson and his followers. These retorted, that the English pirates +were the friends and comrades of the Federalists. Cheetham had seen the +first lieutenant of the Leander, disguised, in company with eight or +ten of them, some days after the murder!!! And the Democratic +Republicans, as was and is still usual, had a majority at the polls. + +From time to time short paragraphs appeared in the papers, advertising +Miranda's success. "His flag was flying on every fort from Cumana to +Laguayra." "The whole of this fine country may be considered as lost to +Spain." Then came tidings of sadder complexion. He had been beaten off +with the loss of forty men, taken prisoners. The Spaniards had +threatened to hang them as pirates, but they would not dare to do it. +The British had furnished Miranda with forty Spanish prisoners, as +hostages, "to avenge the threatened insult to the feelings of every +friend to the rights of self-government in every part of the world." At +last, news arrived from the Gulf which left Miranda's failure in his +first attempt to land no longer doubtful. This, of course, made the +position of Ogden and Smith more dangerous, and their case more difficult +to manage. + +When the trial of Colonel Smith came on, public interest revived, and +became stronger than before. The court-room was crowded by intelligent +spectators during the whole course of the proceedings, The case was +peculiar, and had almost a dramatic interest. Here was a Government +prosecution against a man well known in the community, for an offence +new to our courts; and the heads of that Government, Jefferson and +Madison, were indirectly on trial at the same time:--"For, if Smith and +Ogden are acquitted," said the Federal papers, "then must the whole +guilt rest on the Administration." Apart from the political interest of +the trial, the eminence of the counsel employed would have commanded an +audience anywhere. Never, since New York has had courts of justice, +have so many distinguished lawyers adorned and dignified her bar as in +the first twenty years of this century. In this case, nearly all of the +leaders were retained: Nathan Sandford, District Attorney, and +Pierrepoint Edwards, for the prosecution; for the defence, Cadwallader +Colden, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Thomas Addis Emmet, Richard Harrison, and +Washington Morton.[*] + +[Footnote *: Judge Patterson, of the United States Court, occupied the +bench with Judge Tallmadge, until ill-health obliged him to withdraw. +He died soon after.] + +Mr. Colden handed the Clerk a list of his witnesses, and requested him +to call their names. Among them were those of Madison, Dearborn, +Gallatin, Granger, and Robert Smith, all members of the Government. He +then read the affidavit of service of subpoenas upon them on the 25th +of May, and, inasmuch as these gentlemen had not obeyed the subpoena, +and as Colonel Smith could not safely proceed to trial without their +testimony, he moved that an attachment issue against them. + +The District Attorney opposed the motion, on the ground that the +testimony of these witnesses could not possibly be of any use to the +defendant. None of them were present in New York when the Leander was +fitted out. And even if it could be shown by these witnesses that the +Administration had approved of this illegal expedition, it would not +help the defendant. This is a country governed by laws, and not by +arbitrary edicts. If Colonel Smith had violated these laws, he had +rendered himself liable to punishment. He could not escape by making +the President a _particeps criminis_. An amusing letter was read from +Madison, Dearborn, and Smith, which stated, "that the President, taking +into view the state of our public affairs, has specially signified to +us that our official duties cannot consistently therewith be at this +juncture dispensed with." They suggested that a commission should issue +for the purpose of taking their respective testimonies. + +Colden insisted that this was an attempt of the Executive to interfere +with the Judiciary, which ought not to be tolerated. Counsel in +criminal cases had always the right to stand face to face with +witnesses. It was outrageous that the President should first approve of +the conduct of Colonel Smith, then order a prosecution against him and +forbid his witnesses to attend the trial. + +The Court refused to grant an attachment. And later in the trial, when +the defence offered Rufus King to prove the President's knowledge and +approbation of the enterprise, the Court decided against the admission +of the evidence. + +The history of the expedition in New York, as shown by the testimony, +was briefly this:--Colonel Smith introduced Miranda to Ogden; and Ogden +agreed to furnish his armed ship Leander, and to load her with the +necessary provisions, stores, arms, and ammunition. He estimated his +expenditure at seventy thousand dollars. Miranda had brought with him +from London a bill of exchange on New York for eight hundred pounds, +which had been paid, and had drawn bills on England and on Trinidad for +seven thousand pounds, which had not been paid. This was all that Ogden +had received. But if the enterprise were successful, he was to be paid +two hundred per cent, advance on the ship and cargo. Smith had engaged +fifteen or twenty officers, without informing them of the object of the +expedition, but expressly stipulating in writing that they would not be +employed against England or France, and giving them a general verbal +assurance that they would speedily make their fortunes. In this he was +sincere, for he took his son from college and sent him with Miranda. +Smith had employed John Fink, a Bowery butcher, to engage men who could +serve on horseback. Fink enlisted twenty-three at fifteen dollars a +month, and fifteen more as a bounty. They were not to be taken out of +the territory of the United States. Some of them were told that the +President was raising a mounted guard; others, that they were to guard +the mail from Washington to New Orleans. One of Fink's papers was shown +on the trial, indorsed, "Muster-Roll for the President's Guard." Smith +had furnished the bounty-money, but it did not appear that he had +authorized these misrepresentations of Fink, who developed a talent in +this business which forty years later would have made his fortune as an +emigrant-runner. Abundant proofs of the purchase of military clothing, +arms, powder, shot, and cannon were produced. + +The Counsel for Colonel Smith, unable to get the connivance of the +Administration before the Jury in the shape of evidence, coolly assumed +it as established, and urged it in defence of their client. They used +his memorial to Congress as their brief, enlarged upon the arbitrary +conduct of the Judge in the examinations and upon the tyrannical +interference of the President with their witnesses. As Mr. Emmet +cleverly and classically remarked, quoting from Tacitus's description +of the funeral of Junia, "Perhaps their very absence rendered them more +decided witnesses in our favor." They also maintained that the Act of +1794, under which the prisoner was indicted, did not prohibit an +enterprise of this character. Even if it did, no proof existed that +this expedition was organized in New York. On the contrary, it was +known that Miranda had gone hence to Jacquemel, and had made his +preparations there, in a port out of our jurisdiction. + +This point made, they boldly went a step farther, and declared that the +United States were actually at war with Spain. The affair of the +Kempers, and of Flanagan in Louisiana, the obstruction of the Mobile +Kiver, the depredations upon our commerce by Spanish privateers, were +sufficient proof of a state of war. We had a right to meet force by +force. The President must have been of this opinion, else he could not +have violated his trust by authorizing this expedition. + +The case for the defence, considered in a logical point of view, was +desperate; but no case is desperate before a Jury; and when Mr. Colden, +Mr. Hoffman, and Mr. Emmet had each in his own peculiar mode of +eloquence appealed to the Jury to protect their client, already +punished by removal from his place, without a trial or even a hearing, +for an offence committed with, the sanction of his superior +officers,--when they compared this State prosecution to the attempts +made by despotic European governments to crush innocent men by the +machinery of law, and asserted that it was instituted solely to gratify +the malice of the King of Spain, a bitter enemy to the United +States,--and when they enlarged upon the grandeur of an undertaking to +give liberty to the down-trodden victims of Colonial tyranny, comparing +Miranda and his friends to our own Revolutionary heroes, there could be +but little doubt of the verdict. But there was an uneasy feeling after +the District Attorney had closed. He demolished with ease the arguments +of the other side, for not one of them had sufficient strength to stand +alone. Smith's perpetual excuse, that he had been led astray by the +belief of connivance in Washington, was preposterous. If he had been +anxious to know the sentiments of Government on the subject, he might +at any time within six days have ascertained whether Miranda told him +truth or not. He spoke of the cruelty and reckless folly of all such +attempts upon a neighboring people; asked the Jury how they would like +to see an armed force landed upon our shores to take part with one or +the other of the great political parties; and closed with a few strong +words, as true at this day as then:--"If you acquit the defendant, you +say to the world that the United States have renounced the law of +nations,--that they permit their citizens not only to violate their own +laws with impunity, but to invade the people of other countries with +hostile force in a time of peace, as avarice, ambition, or the thought +of plunder may dictate. Such a decision would justify the acts of the +pirate on the ocean, and would sink our national character to the +barbarism of savage tribes." + +The Jury were out two hours, and brought in a verdict of not guilty, +which gave great satisfaction to Federal editors. A few days afterward, +Mr. Ogden was acquitted.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Jefferson, after the expiration of his second term, +wrote to Don Valentino de Fornonda as follows:-- + +"Your predecessor [Yrujo] wished it to be believed that we were in +unjustifiable coöperation in Miranda's expedition. + +"I solemnly and on my personal truth and honor declare to you that this +was entirely without foundation, and that there was neither coöperation +nor connivance on our part. He informed us he was about to attempt the +liberation of his native country from bondage, and intimated a hope of +our aid, or connivance at least. He was at once informed, that, though +we had great cause of complaint against Spain, and even of war, yet, +whenever we should think proper to act as her enemy, it should be +openly and aboveboard, and that our hostility should never be exercised +by such petty means. We had no suspicion that he expected to engage men +here, but merely to purchase military stores. Against this there was no +law, nor, consequently, any authority for us to interpose. On the other +hand, we deemed it improper to betray his voluntary communication to +the agents of Spain. Although his measures were many days in +preparation at New York, we never had the least intimation or suspicion +of his engaging men in his enterprise until he was gone; and I presume +that the secrecy of his proceedings kept them equally unknown to the +Marquis Yrujo and to the Spanish Consul at New York, since neither of +them gave us any information of the enlistment of men until it was too +late for any measures taken at Washington to prevent their departure."] + +This is a brief account of the first filibuster-trial in the United +States. Other heroes of this profession, compared with whom Smith and +Ogden were spotless, have since come before our courts only to be +turned loose upon the world again. No other result is to be +anticipated. It is an established principle with our fellow-citizens, +that no man is happy, or ought to be, who lives under any other system +of government than our own. Let a lawyer pronounce the magic formula, +"Liberty to the oppressed," or "Free institutions to the victims of +despotism," and, _presto!_--rascality is metamorphosed into merit. +After all, it makes such a difference, when it is only our neighbor's +ox that is gored! + +Here closed the first act of the expedition. Colonel Smith lost his +office, and Mr. Ogden stopped payment. The passengers by the Leander +fared worse. There were two hundred men on board: one hundred and +twenty belonged to the ship; the others had been engaged by Smith and +his agent Fink as officers, dragoons, printers, and armorers. With the +exception of two or three, none of them had seen their commander or +knew their destination. The officers, all gentlemen "of crooked +fortunes," supposed that they were sailing to enlarge the area of +freedom somewhere in America; but what particular region of the Spanish +dominions was to be subjected to this wholesome treatment they neither +knew nor cared, provided they could improve their own financial +condition. Both officers and privates were for the most part +serviceable, steady men, worthy of a more efficient leader. + +On the 12th of February, they were overhauled and searched by H.B.M. +ship Cleopatra. Nineteen men with American protections were carried off +in the frigate's boat, and twelve native Americans taken out of prizes +sent back to replace them. The Leander's papers were examined and +pronounced unsatisfactory. Miranda was obliged to go on board the +Cleopatra, where he had a long private conversation with the captain. +He returned with full liberty to proceed, and with a written pass to +prevent detention or search by British cruisers. This adventure was +made to give an air of respectability to the enterprise; and Miranda +hinted to his suite that the English captain had promised to join him +with his frigate. A day or two later, the Leander took other airs upon +herself. Meeting a small Spanish schooner, laden with logwood, off the +Haytian coast, Lewis fired into her, and ordered the captain on board +with his papers, for the mere pleasure of exercising power. The +Spaniard, as soon as he got back to his own craft, made the best of his +way home and gave the first alarm. + +On the 18th of February, they cast anchor at Jacquemel. Lewis went +immediately to Port au-Prince, to engage the Emperor, a ship commanded +by his brother, to join the expedition. Miranda remained behind to +organize his followers. He at last announced to them that he intended +to land near Caracas; the whole country would rise at his name; his +brave Americans would form the nucleus and the heart of a great army; +there was no Spanish force in the province to resist him. In a general +order, "Parole, America; Countersign, Liberty," he assigned to his +officers their rank in the Columbian army, distributing them into the +Engineers, Artillery, Dragoons, Riflemen, and Foot. Another general +order, "Parole, Warren; Countersign, Bunker's Hill," fixed the uniforms +of the different corps,--to be distinguished by blue, yellow, or green +facings. All hands were set to work upon the crowded deck. Printers +struck off proclamations and blank commissions in the name of "Don +Francisco de Miranda, Commander-in-Chief of the Columbian Army"; +carpenters made pike-handles; armorers repaired the arms bought in New +York; (they had cost little, and were worth less;) the regimental +tailor and his disciples stitched the gay facings upon the new +uniforms; files of awkward fellows were put through the manual exercise +by an old drill-sergeant; and the young gentlemen officers read +diligently in treatises on war, or listened to the discourses of their +general upon the noble art. In the midst of this stir of preparation, +Lewis returned unsuccessful, without the ship Emperor; but Miranda +seemed in no hurry to depart. He continued his lectures and his +drilling until the 28th of March. At last he hoisted the new Columbian +flag,--a tricolor, blue, yellow, and red,--fired a grand salute, and +stood gallantly out of the harbor, where he had wasted six precious +weeks. + +Captain Lewis had chartered at Port-au-Prince the Bee, a small, unarmed +schooner, and had bought the Bacchus, a vessel of the same class, last +from Laguayra, whose captain and men disappeared mysteriously after +their arrival at Jacquemel. Some of the Leander's hands volunteered for +the schooners, to get out of the crowded ship; others were forced on +board, to make up a crew. The little fleet steered for Bonair, but, +through the ignorance of their pilot, or of their captain, found +themselves, after a ten-days' cruise, seventy miles to leeward, off the +Gulf of Venezuela. The Leander was a dull sailer; and, with the wind +and current against her, it took them four days to beat up to the +Island of Aruba, and seven more to reach Bonair. On the evening of the +27th of April, they were lying to off Puerto Cabello, preparing to +land, and sure of success, when they made out two Spanish +_guardacostas_ close in shore, beating up to windward. Miranda thought +them unworthy of attention, and gave the order to stand in. But the +pilot mistook the landmarks, owing to the darkness, and missed the +point agreed upon for landing. The Bacchus was sent in to reconnoitre +and did not return, although signals of recall were repeated throughout +the night. About midnight signals were noticed passing between the fort +at Puerto Cabello and the _guardacostas_; Captain Lewis beat to +quarters, and kept his men at their guns until morning. At daybreak the +Bacchus was seen close in shore, carrying a press of sail and closely +pursued by the Spanish vessels. The Leander bore down with a flowing +sheet upon the enemy, fired a few ineffective shot, and then, for some +reason best known to her captain, or to Miranda, hauled on to the wind, +and sailed away, leaving the schooners to take care of themselves. The +_guardacostas_ soon took possession of both, and carried their prizes, +with sixty prisoners, into Puerto Cabello,[1] before the eyes of their +astonished and indignant comrades, who could not understand such a want +of courage or conduct on the part of their chief. + +[Footnote 1: The unfortunate men taken in the schooners were tried at +Puerto Cabello for piracy. Ten officers were hanged, their heads cut +off and stuck upon poles, and six of them sent to Caracas, two to +Laguayra, and two set up at Puerto Cabello. The other prisoners were +sentenced to the chain-gang. The execution took place on the 21st of +July, the day before Smith was acquitted in New York.] + +After this disaster, the Leander sailed for Bonair for water. Miranda +still assumed a confident tone, and called a council of war to +deliberate whether they should attempt a landing at Coro. The council +decided, that, in view of the loss they had sustained, it would be +advisable to make for Trinidad in search of reinforcements. With wind +and tide against them, and a slow ship, the voyage was long. They were +reduced to their last barrel of bread, when they fell in with the +English sloop-of-war Lily, Captain Campbell, who was looking for +Miranda, and who sent supplies of all kinds on board. On the 6th of +June, they ran into Bridgetown, Barbadoes. Admiral Cochrane, who +commanded on that station, gave Miranda every assistance in his power, +and offered to put some of his smaller vessels under his orders, upon +condition that all goods imported into the new state of Columbia in +British bottoms should be assessed ten per cent, lower than the +products of any other nation, except the United States. Miranda signed +a formal agreement to this effect, and sailed for Trinidad, accompanied +by H.B.M. ships Lily and Express, and the Trimmer, a transport +schooner. Captain Lewis, whose repeated quarrels with Miranda had +affected the discipline of the force, resigned at Barbadoes. He was +succeeded by Captain Johnson, a daring fellow, who risked and lost life +and property in this expedition. + +The Governor of Trinidad, like all the English of the Gulf, was well +disposed to aid in an attack on the Spanish Provinces. Eighty +volunteers of all nations, most of them worthless fellows and +candidates for a commission, joined the fleet at this place. Miranda +was once more in high spirits. His army amounted to four hundred men, +and he had secured the cooperation of the English. Success seemed +certain. He issued a new proclamation to his followers, headed "To +Victory and Wealth," and set sail, accompanied by seven small British +war-vessels and three transports. + +On the 2d of August, the fleet anchored within nine miles of La Vela de +Coro. The next day two hundred and ninety men were landed in the boats +of the squadron. They were all "Mirandanians," the English furnishing +only the means of transportation and the necessary supplies. As the +boats approached the shore, they were fired upon from the bushes which +lined the beach. The Columbians jumped into the water and charged; the +Spaniards retreated to a fort near the shore. This was carried, sword +in hand,--the Spaniards leaping from the walls and flying in all +directions. Miranda then formed his party, and marched to the town, a +quarter of a mile distant, which was evacuated by the Spaniards with +such precipitation that they left their cannon loaded. The inhabitants +had fled, as well as the military, carrying off all their movable +property. The Columbian colors were hoisted, flags of truce sent in all +directions, the printed proclamations distributed about the neighboring +country; but in vain; nobody appeared. + +The same evening the Liberators marched twelve miles in a northwesterly +direction to Coro. They arrived an hour before dawn, and found the town +silent and deserted. Dividing themselves into two parties, they entered +cautiously on opposite sides, for fear of an ambuscade,--but, +unfortunately, when the detachments met in the Grand Plaza, they +mistook each other, in the dusk of the morning, for the enemy, and +fired. Miranda's most efficient officer fell, shot through both thighs. +One man was killed, and seven others badly wounded. Not a soul was +found in the place, except those who were too old or too ill to move, +and the occupants of the prison. The jailer presented himself, +surrendered his keys, and informed the General that the Governor had +forced the citizens to leave their homes. Miranda remained in the +deserted town for five days, endeavoring, by the most alluring +proclamations, to bring the inhabitants back. But it was useless. Not a +man presented himself. He then lost heart, and, instead of advancing +into the country, ordered a retreat to La Vela, and reembarked on the +19th. + +Those he left behind in the Leander had been still more unfortunate. +Captain Johnson had gone in the boats to a river three or four miles to +the eastward, for water, and, while filling his casks, was set upon by +a party of Spanish soldiers. He was killed, fighting bravely, with +fifteen of his men. The remainder escaped with difficulty. + +The discomfited invaders sailed for the Island of Aruba, where their +English allies, pretty well satisfied that nothing could be done with +this expedition, left them. Miranda landed his men and took formal +possession of the island. He sent an ambassador to the Governor of the +neighboring island of Curaçoa, requesting him to surrender. This +request was declined. He was equally unsuccessful in a mission to +Jamaica, begging for assistance from Admiral Dacres. Dacres refused, on +the ground that he had no orders from his Government. + +Miranda remained at Aruba, drilling, issuing proclamations, and holding +courts martial, until the want of provisions brought the enterprise to +an end. An English ship-of-war, which touched at the island, offered +him a safe means of escape. On the 29th of October, after a passage of +twenty-five days, the Liberators arrived at Trinidad, and disbanded in +disgrace. The blue and yellow uniforms they had worn with pride, as +"Columbians," on their last visit, were hastily laid aside to escape +the scoff of the rabble, who jeered them as adventurers and +merry-andrews. Miranda kept out of sight until he could get the +opportunity of a passage to England. All his followers who could find +means to quit the island made their way home as best they could. To +conclude the business, the Leander was sold by order of the courts, and +the few poor fellows who had remained by her received a small share of +the proceeds. Nobody else was paid the smallest fraction of the sums +the General had so liberally promised. + +That a commander, safely landed with three hundred fighting men, in +possession of Coro, whose peninsular situation might have afforded him +an inexpugnable position, master of the sea, and backed by an English +fleet, should have retreated, without effecting anything, from a +country ripe for rebellion since the conspiracy of 1797, can be +explained only in one way: he must have been ignorant of the real +feelings of the people, and totally unfit to lead such an expedition. +Miranda had what we may call a pretty talent for war. He had studied +the principles of the art, and had seen some service. Excited by the +splendid career of Washington, he, like a certain distinguished +Frenchman, determined to imitate him and become the liberator of his +country. When the Giant at a show bends the iron bar, it seems so easy +that every strong man in the crowd thinks he can do as much, until he +tries. It needs a Giant of the first class to handle a people in +revolution. Miranda was not made of that kind of stuff. He was weak and +inefficient, fond of mystery and pomp, easily affected by flattery, +loving dearly to hear himself talk, and unable to control his temper. +His incessant quarrels with Captain Lewis were one cause of the loss of +the schooners off Puerto Cabello. A want of quickness and energy was +felt in all his operations. Delays are proverbially dangerous, but in a +_coup de main_ fatal. The time wasted by him at Jacquemel and at Aruba +was employed by the Spaniards in making preparations for defence. They +had few troops, and did not dare to trust the natives with arms, but +they succeeded in persuading them that Miranda and his men were pagans +and pirates, whose triumph would be ten times more insufferable than +the rule of the mother country. + +If Miranda was incompetent to carry out a liberating expedition, he had +wonderful success in talking it up. For twenty years he had carried +this project about with him in America and in Europe. It was elaborated +to perfection in every part, and there were answers prepared to every +objection. The new government was to be modelled upon the English +Constitution,--an hereditary chief, to be called Inca,--a senate, +nominated by the chief, composed of nobles, but not hereditary,--and a +chamber elected by suffrage, limited by a property qualification. He +had collected all the statistics of population and of trade, to show +what commercial advantages the world might expect from a free South +American government. And, "rising upon a wind of prophecy," he already +saw in the future a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama, and the +Nicaragua route opened. He had laid these plans before Catharine of +Russia, who gave him money to help them on. Mr. Pitt listened, promised +him assistance in return for commercial privileges, and kept him in pay +for years. The French Revolutionists were eager to furnish him with an +army and a fleet. Rufus King, American Ambassador at London, sent word +of the scheme to Hamilton and Knox, who both approved of it. Miranda +seems to have made the same impression upon everybody. His extensive +travels and acquaintance with distinguished men, his knowledge of +facts, dates, and figures, his retentive and ready memory, his +wonderful cleverness in persuading his hearers, are spoken of in the +same terms by all. Dr. Rush wrote to a friend, that Miranda had dined +with him, and had talked about European politics as if he had been "in +the inside of all the kings and princes." He might have been a second +Count de St. Germain, if he had lived in the reign of Louis XIV., +instead of in an era when men had abandoned the philosopher's stone, +and were seeking in politics for a new _magnum opus_, Constitutions, as +the certain means of perfecting the human species. + +Everybody was mistaken in him. Although he talked "like an angel," in +action he was worthless. If he had never undertaken to carry out his +plans, he might have left an excellent reputation, and have remained in +South American memory as the possible Father of his Country: _Capax +imperii, nisi imperasset_. A short sketch of his career may be +interesting, before we dismiss him again to the oblivion from which we +have evoked him for this month. + +Miranda entered the Spanish army in America at the age of seventeen, +and was advanced to be Colonel, a grade seldom or never before reached +by a Creole. He left the service before the close of the Revolutionary +War, travelled in the United States, and was admitted to the society of +Washington and of the leading men of the day. Here, his attainments, +quickness, and insatiable curiosity attracted attention. He knew the +topography and strategy of every battle fought during the war better +than our officers who had been on the field, and soon made himself +familiar with parties, and even with family connections in this +country. His constant topic was the independence of South America. +After the peace of 1783, Miranda went to England: Colonel Smith was +then Secretary of John Adams, the American Minister, and the +acquaintance between them began in London, which ended so disastrously +twenty years later in New York. Leaving England, he travelled over +Europe. At Cherson, he attracted the notice of Prince Potemkin, who +presented him to the Empress at Kiew. In 1790, when the dispute about +Nootka Sound[*] threatened to produce a war between Great Britain and +Spain, he reappeared in London, and proposed to Mr. Pitt his scheme for +revolutionizing the American Colonies. Pitt at once engaged his +services, but Spain yielded, and the project could not be carried out. +Miranda crossed to France, accepted a command in the Republican army, +and served, with credit, in the Netherlands, under Dumouriez, until the +Battle of Neerwinden. In November, 1792, the French rulers conceived +the idea of revolutionizing Spain, both in Europe and in America. +Brissot suggested Miranda as the fittest person for this purpose. He +was to take twelve thousand troops of the line from St. Domingo, +enlist, in addition, ten or fifteen thousand "_braves mulâtres_," and +make a descent, with this force, upon the Main. "_Le nom de Miranda_," +wrote Brissot to Dumouriez, "_lui vaudra une armée; et ses talens, son +courage, son génie, tout nous répond du succčs_." Monge, Gensonné, +Clavičre, Pétion, were pleased with the plan, but Miranda started +difficulties. The French system was too democratic for his taste, and +the pressure of affairs in Europe soon turned the attention of Brissot +and his friends in another direction. + +[Footnote *: In May, 1789, the Spanish sloop-of-war Princesa seized +four English vessels engaged in a trade with the natives of Vancouver's +Island, and took them into a Mexican port as prizes, on the ground that +they had violated the Spanish Colonial laws. The English government +denied the claim of Spain to those distant regions, and insisted upon +ample satisfaction. The King of Spain was obliged to submit to avoid +war, but the question of territory was left open.] + +After the disastrous affair of Neerwinden, Miranda was accused of +misconduct, arrested, and sent to Paris for trial, but was acquitted by +the _Tribunal Révolutionnaire_, and conducted home in triumph. He was +again imprisoned for _incivisme_, during the Reign of Terror, and did +not recover his liberty until the general jail-delivery which followed +the death of Robespierre. He was seized for the third time in 1797, by +the Directory, as an adherent of the Pichegru faction, and banished +from France. + +In January, 1798, Mr. Pitt again sent for Miranda, and a new plan was +arranged for the emancipation of South America. On this occasion, the +coöperation of the United States was confidently relied upon. Both Pitt +and our own rulers foresaw that Spain must inevitably fall a prey to +France, and that the whole of her American possessions would probably +share her fate. Our relations with France were in so critical a +condition, that we were making preparations for defence; and it was, of +course, of the highest importance to our safety, that the Floridas and +Louisiana should not fall into the hands of a powerful enemy. It was +proposed, consequently, to form a commercial and defensive alliance +between England, the United States, and South America. We were to get +the Floridas and Louisiana to the Mississippi, and in return to furnish +a land-force of ten thousand men. Great Britain would provide the +fleet, in consideration of certain important advantages in trade. +Miranda kept his friends in the United States fully advised of the +progress of affairs. Hamilton and Knox were in favor of the project, +provided war were declared. Our provisional army might then have played +a brilliant part. But there was no war. President Adams refused to +listen to Miranda's communications, and patched up our difficulties +with France. Nothing was done by the English. + +In 1801 Lord Sidmouth revived Miranda's hopes, but the Peace of Amiens +put a stop to the preparations. In 1804 Mr. Pitt was again at the head +of affairs, and renewed his intercourse with Miranda. Orders were given +to prepare ships and to enrol men, when the hopes of the third +coalition again suspended the execution of the project. + +It was after this last blow from Fortune that Miranda came to New York +and fitted out the expedition we have undertaken to describe. His +disastrous failure seemed neither to destroy his hopes, nor to shake +the confidence of his English friends in his pretensions. When he +returned to England from Trinidad, he found ministers prepared to +embark with energy in the South American scheme. This time a fleet and +an army were really assembled at Cork, and Sir Arthur Wellesley was to +command them,--when the Spanish Revolution broke out, altered at once +the face of affairs in Europe, and turned Sir Arthur and his army +toward Portugal, to begin that brilliant series of campaigns which +drove the French out of the Peninsula. + +Few men fix their minds pertinaciously upon an object, and adhere to +the pursuit through life, without at least a partial attainment of it. +Miranda, the victim of so many bitter disappointments, at last found +himself for a few months in the position he had so often dreamed of. +When the news of the fall of Seville, and of the dispersion of the +Junta who governed in the name of Ferdinand VII., reached South +America, open rebellion broke out at Caracas. King Joseph Bonaparte had +sent over a proclamation, imploring his trusty and well-beloved South +Americans to come to his paternal arms,--or, if they would not do that, +at least to set up a government for themselves, and not take part with +Ferdinand and England. His emissaries were hunted down and hanged, +wherever caught. Revolutionary Juntas were established all over the +country. On the 19th of April, 1810, the American Confederation of +Venezuela, in Congress assembled, undertook to rule in the name of +Ferdinand VII., but in reality as an independent government. Miranda +was called to the command of the native army. On the 5th of July, 1811, +the Congress published their Declaration of Independence, and a +Constitution, both of them remarkable state-papers. In point of +liberality of sentiment and elegance of style they will bear comparison +with our own celebrated documents of '76 and '87. Indeed, in all these +Spanish political plays, the plot has been good, the text admirable, +but the actors so poor as to spoil the piece. So it fell out in +Venezuela. At first the Patriots were successful; Miranda defeated the +Royalists and took Valencia. The principal towns fell into the hands of +the insurgents. Then, came the terrible earthquake of 1812, which not +only shattered the resources of the Patriots, but was skilfully used by +the Church as a proof that Providence had taken sides against the +rebels. Monteverde, the Spanish general, recaptured Valencia. Congress +placed the dictatorship with unlimited power in Miranda's hands, but he +was not the man for desperate situations. On the 6th of July, the +Royalists took Puerto Cabello; Caracas fell on the 28th; and Miranda, +betrayed by his own party into the hands of the Spaniards, was sent a +prisoner to Cadiz in October. Simon Bolivar and others, men of +different mettle, regained all that had been lost, and cut loose the +Colonies from Spain. From California to Cape Horn the inestimable +system of self-government was established. According to the theory, the +South Americans should have been prosperous and happy; but, +unfortunately, the result has been murder, robbery, and general ruin. +The burden of taking care of one's self, which the North American had +the strength to bear, has crushed the poor half-caste Spaniard. There +are persons who assert that a political regimen which agrees so well +with us must therefore be good for all others. It may be instructive to +such believers in system to compare Humboldt's narrative of the +cultivation shown by the great Colonial Universities of Mexico, Quito, +and Lima, of the pleasing Creole society that entertained him, and the +peaceful quiet and security he noticed throughout country, with the +relations of modern travellers or newspaper-correspondents who visit +those semi-barbarous regions. + +Don Francisco de Miranda did not live to hear of the freedom of his +"Columbia." Before the close of the year 1812 he died in prison, at +Cadiz. Thus perished the most gentlemanlike of filibusters, since the +days when Jason sailed in the Argo to extend the blessing of Greek +institutions over Colchis and to appropriate the Golden Fleece. + + * * * * * + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE MORNING AFTER. + + +Colonel Sprowle's family arose late the next morning. The fatigues and +excitements of the evening and the preparation for it were followed by +a natural collapse, of which somnolence was a leading symptom. The sun +shone into the window at a pretty well opened angle when the Colonel +first found himself sufficiently awake to address his yet slumbering +spouse. + +"Sally!" said the Colonel, in a voice that was a little husky,--for he +had finished off the evening with an extra glass or two of "Madary," +and had a somewhat rusty and headachy sense of renewed existence, on +greeting the rather advanced dawn,--"Sally!" + +"Take care o' them custard-cups! There they go!" + +Poor Mrs. Sprowle was fighting the party over in her dream; and as the +visionary custard-cups crashed down through one lobe of her brain into +another, she gave a start as if an inch of lightning from a quart +Leyden jar had jumped into one of her knuckles with its sudden and +lively _poonk_! + +"Sally!" said the Colonel,--"wake up, wake up! What 'r' y' dreamin' +abaout?" + +Mrs. Sprowle raised herself, by a sort of spasm, _sur son séant_, as +they say in France,--up on end, as we have it in New England. She +looked first to the left, then to the right, then straight before her, +apparently without seeing anything, and at last slowly settled down, +with her two eyes, blank of any particular meaning, directed upon the +Colonel. + +"What time is't?" she said. + +"Ten o'clock. What 'y' been dreamin' abaout? Y' giv a jump like a +hoppergrass. Wake up, wake up! Th' party's over, and y' been asleep all +the mornin'. The party's over, I tell ye! Wake up!" + +"Over!" said Mrs. Sprowle, who began to define her position at +last,--"over! I should think 'twas time 'twas over! It's lasted a +hundud year. I've been workin' for that party longer 'n Methuselah's +lifetime, sence I been asleep. The pies wouldn' bake, and the blo'monge +wouldn' set, and the ice-cream wouldn' freeze, and all the folks kep' +comin' 'n' comin' 'n' comin',--everybody I ever knew in all my +life,--some of 'em's been dead this twenty year 'n' more,--'n' nothin' +for 'em to eat nor drink. The fire wouldn' burn to cook anything, all +we could do. We blowed with the belluses, 'n' we stuffed in paper 'n' +pitch-pine kindlin's, but nothin' could make that fire burn; 'n' all +the time the folks kep' comin', as if they'd never stop,--'n' nothin' +for 'em but empty dishes, 'n' all the borrowed chaney slippin' round on +the waiters 'n' chippin' 'n' crackin'. I wouldn' go through what I been +through t'-night for all th' money in th' Bank,--I do believe it's +harder t' have a party than t'"---- + +Mrs. Sprowle stated the case strongly. + +The Colonel said he didn't know how that might be. She was a better +judge than he was. It was bother enough, anyhow, and he was glad that +it was over. After this, the worthy pair commenced preparations for +rejoining the waking world, and in due time proceeded down-stairs. + +Everybody was late that morning, and nothing had got put to rights. The +house looked as if a small army had been quartered in it over night. +The tables were of course in huge disorder, after the protracted +assault they had undergone. There had been a great battle evidently, +and it had gone against the provisions. Some points had been stormed, +and all their defences annihilated, but here and there were centres of +resistance which had held out against all attacks,--large rounds of +beef, and solid loaves of cake, against which the inexperienced had +wasted their energies in the enthusiasm of youth or uninformed +maturity, while the longer-headed guests were making discoveries of +"shell-oysters" and "patridges" and similar delicacies. + +The breakfast was naturally of a somewhat fragmentary character. A +chicken that had lost his legs in the service of the preceding campaign +was once more put on duty. A great ham stuck with cloves, as Saint +Sebastian was with arrows, was again offered for martyrdom. It would +have been a pleasant sight for a medical man of a speculative turn to +have seen the prospect before the Colonel's family of the next week's +breakfasts, dinners, and suppers. The trail that one of these great +rural parties leaves after it is one of its most formidable +considerations. Every door-handle in the house is suggestive of +sweetmeats for the next week, at least. The most unnatural articles of +diet displace the frugal but nutritious food of unconvulsed periods of +existence. If there is a walking infant about the house, it will +certainly have a more or less fatal fit from overmuch of some +indigestible delicacy. Before the week is out, everybody will be tired +to death of sugary forms of nourishment and long to see the last of the +remnants of the festival. + +The family had not yet arrived at this condition. On the contrary, the +first inspection of the tables suggested the prospect of days of +unstinted luxury; and the younger portion of the household, especially, +were in a state of great excitement as the account of stock was taken +with reference to future internal investments, Some curious facts came +to light during these researches. + +"Where's all the oranges gone to?" said Mrs. Sprowle. "I expected +there'd be ever so many of 'em left. I didn't see many of the folks +eatin' oranges. Where's the skins of 'em? There ought to be six dozen +orange-skins round on the plates, and there a'n't one dozen. And all +the small cakes, too, and all the sugar things that was stuck on the +big cakes.--Has anybody counted the spoons? Some of 'em got swallered, +perhaps. I hope they was plated ones, if they did!" + +The failure of the morning's orange-crop and the deficit in other +expected residual delicacies were not very difficult to account for. In +many of the two-story Rockland families, and in those favored +households of the neighboring villages whose members had been invited +to the great party, there was a very general excitement among the +younger people on the morning after the great event. "Did y' bring home +somethin' from the party? What is it? What is it? Is it frűt-cake? Is +it nuts and oranges and apples? Give me some! Give _me_ some!" Such a +concert of treble voices uttering accents like these had not been heard +since the great Temperance Festival with the celebrated "colation" in +the open air under the trees of the Parnassian Grove,--as the place was +christened by the young ladies of the Institute. The cry of the +children was not in vain. From the pockets of demure fathers, from the +bags of sharp-eyed spinsters, from the folded handkerchiefs of +light-fingered sisters, from the tall hats of sly-winking brothers, +there was a resurrection of the missing oranges and cakes and +sugar-things in many a rejoicing family-circle, enough to astonish the +most hardened "caterer" that ever contracted to feed a thousand people +under canvas. + +The tender recollection of those dear little ones whom extreme youth or +other pressing considerations detain from scenes of festivity--a trait +of affection by no means uncommon among our thoughtful people +--dignifies those social meetings where it is manifested, and +sheds a ray of sunshine on our common nature. It is "an oasis in the +desert,"--to use the striking expression of the last year's +"Valedictorian" of the Apollinean Institute. In the midst of so much +that is purely selfish, it is delightful to meet such disinterested +care for others. When a large family of children are expecting a +parent's return from an entertainment, it will often require great +exertions on his part to provide himself so as to meet their reasonable +expectations. A few rules are worth remembering by all who attend +anniversary dinners in Faneuil Hall or elsewhere. Thus: Lobsters' claws +are always acceptable to children of all ages. Oranges and apples are +to be taken _one at a time_, until the coat-pockets begin to become +inconveniently heavy. Cakes are injured by sitting upon them; it is, +therefore, well to carry a stout tin box of a size to hold as many +pieces as there are children in the domestic circle. A very pleasant +amusement, at the close of one of these banquets, is grabbing for the +flowers with which the table is embellished. These will please the +ladies at home very greatly, and, if the children are at the same time +abundantly supplied with fruits, nuts, cakes, and any little ornamental +articles of confectionery which are of a nature to be unostentatiously +removed, the kind-hearted parent will make a whole household happy, +without any additional expense beyond the outlay for his ticket. + +There were fragmentary delicacies enough left, of one kind and another, +at any rate, to make all the Colonel's family uncomfortable for the +next week. It bid fair to take as long to get rid of the remains of the +great party as it had taken to make ready for it. + +In the mean time Mr. Bernard had been dreaming, as young men dream, of +gliding shapes with bright eyes and burning cheeks, strangely blended +with red planets and hissing meteors, and, shining over all, the white, +unwandering star of the North, girt with its tethered constellations. + +After breakfast he walked into the parlor, where he found Miss Darley. +She was alone, and, holding a school-book in her hand, was at work with +one of the morning's lessons. She hardly noticed him as he entered, +being very busy with her book,--and he paused a moment before speaking, +and looked at her with a kind of reverence. It would not have been +strictly true to call her beautiful. For years,--since her earliest +womanhood,--those slender hands had taken the bread which repaid the +toil of heart and brain from the coarse palms that offered it in the +world's rude market. It was not for herself alone that she had bartered +away the life of her youth, that she had breathed the hot air of +school-rooms, that she had forced her intelligence to posture before +her will, as the exigencies of her place required,--waking to mental +labor,--sleeping to dream of problems,--rolling up the stone of +education for an endless twelvemonth's term, to find it at the bottom +of the hill again when another year called her to its renewed +duties,--schooling her temper in unending inward and outward conflicts, +until neither dulness nor obstinacy nor ingratitude nor insolence could +reach her serene self-possession. Not for herself alone. Poorly as her +prodigal labors were repaid in proportion to the waste of life they +cost, her value was too well established to leave her without what, +under other circumstances, would have been a more than sufficient +compensation. But there were others who looked to her in their need, +and so the modest fountain which might have been filled to its brim was +continually drained through silent-flowing, hidden sluices. + +Out of such a life, inherited from a race which had lived in conditions +not unlike her own, _beauty_, in the common sense of the term, could +hardly find leisure to develop and shape itself. For it must be +remembered, that symmetry and elegance of features and figure, like +perfectly formed crystals in the mineral world, are reached only by +insuring a certain necessary repose to individuals and to generations. +Human beauty is an agricultural product in the country, growing up in +men and women as in corn and cattle, where the soil is good. It is a +luxury almost monopolized by the rich in cities, bred under glass like +their forced pine-apples and peaches. Both in city and country, the +evolution of the physical harmonics which make music to our eyes +requires a combination of favorable circumstances, of which +alternations of unburdened tranquillity with intervals of varied +excitement of mind and body are among the most important. Where +sufficient excitement is wanting, as often happens in the country, the +features, however rich in red and white, get heavy, and the movements +sluggish; where excitement is furnished in excess, as is frequently +the case in cities, the contours and colors are impoverished, and the +nerves begin to make their existence known to the consciousness, as the +face very soon informs us. + +Helen Darley could not, in the nature of things, have possessed the +kind of beauty which pleases the common taste. Her eye was calm, +sad-looking, her features very still, except when her pleasant smile +changed them for a moment, all her outlines were delicate, her voice +was very gentle, but somewhat subdued by years of thoughtful labor, and +on her smooth forehead one little hinted line whispered already that +Care was beginning to mark the trace which Time sooner or later would +make a furrow. She could not be a beauty; if she had been, it would +have been much harder for many persons to be interested in her. For, +although in the abstract we all love beauty, and although, if we were +sent naked souls into some ultramundane warehouse of soul-less bodies +and told to select one to our liking, we should each choose a handsome +one, and never think of the consequences,--it is quite certain that +beauty carries an atmosphere of repulsion as well as of attraction with +it, alike in both sexes. We may be well assured that there are many +persons who no more think of specializing their love of the other sex +upon one endowed with signal beauty, than they think of wanting great +diamonds or thousand-dollar horses. No man or woman can appropriate +beauty without paying for it,--in endowments, in fortune, in position, +in self-surrender, or other valuable stock; and there are a great many +who are too poor, too ordinary, too humble, too busy, too proud, to pay +any of these prices for it. So the unbeautiful get many more lovers +than the beauties; only, as there are more of them, their lovers are +spread thinner and do not make so much show. + +The young master stood looking at Helen Darley with a kind of tender +admiration. She was such a picture of the martyr by the slow social +combustive process, that it almost seemed to him he could see a pale +lambent aureole round her head. + +"I did not see you at the great party last evening," he said, +presently. + +She looked up and answered, "No. I have not much taste for such large +companies. Besides, I do not feel as if my time belonged to me after it +has been paid for. There is always something to do, some lesson or +exercise,--and it so happened, I was very busy last night with the new +problems in geometry. I hope you had a good time." + +"Very. Two or three of our girls were there. Rosa Milburn. What a +beauty she is! I wonder what she feeds on! Wine and musk and chloroform +and coals of fire, I believe; I didn't think there was such color and +flavor in a woman outside the tropics." + +Miss Darley smiled rather faintly; the imagery was not just to her +taste: _femineity_ often finds it very hard to accept the fact of +_muliebrity_. + +"Was"----? + +She stopped short; but her question had asked itself. + +"Elsie there? She was, for an hour or so. She looked frightfully +handsome. I meant to have spoken to her, but she slipped away before I +knew it." + +"I thought she meant to go to the party," said Miss Darley. "Did she +look at you?" + +"She did. Why?" + +"And you did not speak to her?" + +"No. I should have spoken to her, but she was gone when I looked for +her. A strange creature! Isn't there an odd sort of fascination about +her? You have not explained all the mystery about the girl. What does +she come to this school for? She seems to do pretty much as she likes +about studying." + +Miss Darley answered in very low tones. "It was a fancy of hers to +come, and they let her have her way. I don't know what there is about +her, except that she seems to take my life out of me when she looks at +me. I don't like to ask other people about our girls. She says very +little to anybody, and studies, or makes believe study, almost what she +likes. I don't know what she is," (Miss Darley laid her hand, +trembling, on the young master's sleeve,) "but I can tell when she is +in the room without seeing or hearing her. Oh, Mr. Langdon, I am weak +and nervous, and no doubt foolish,--but--if there were women now, as +in the days of our Saviour, possessed of devils, I should think there +was something not human looking out of Elsie Venner's eyes!" + +The poor girl's breast rose and fell tumultuously as she spoke, and her +voice labored, as if some obstruction were rising in her throat. + +A scene might possibly have come of it, but the door opened. Mr. Silas +Peckham. Miss Darley got away as soon as she well could. + +"Why did not Miss Darley go to the party last evening?" said Mr. +Bernard. + +"Well, the fact is," answered Mr. Silas Peckham, "Miss Darley, she's +pootty much took up with the school. She's an industris young +woman,--yis, she _is_ industris,--but perhaps she a'n't quite so spry a +worker as some. Maybe, considerin' she's paid for her time, she isn't +fur out o' the way in occoopyin' herself evenin's,--that is, if so be +she a'n't smart enough to finish up all her work in the daytime. +Edoocation is the great business of the Institoot. Amoosements are +objec's of a secondary natur', accordin' to my v'oo." [The unspellable +pronunciation of this word is the touchstone of New England +Brahminism.] + +Mr. Bernard drew a deep breath, his thin nostrils dilating, as if the +air did not rush in fast enough to cool his blood, while Silas Peckham +was speaking. The Head of the Apollinean Institute delivered himself of +these judicious sentiments in that peculiar acid, penetrating tone, +wadded with a nasal twang, which not rarely becomes hereditary after +three or four generations raised upon east winds, salt fish, and large, +white-bellied, pickled cucumbers. He spoke deliberately, as if weighing +his words well, so that, during his few remarks, Mr. Bernard had time +for a mental accompaniment with variations, accented by certain bodily +changes, which escaped Mr. Peckham's observation. First there was a +feeling of disgust and shame at hearing Helen Darley spoken of like a +dumb working animal. That sent the blood up into his cheeks. Then the +slur upon her probable want of force--_her_ incapacity, who made the +character of the school and left this man to pocket its profits--sent a +thrill of the old Wentworth fire through him, so that his muscles +hardened, his hands closed, and he took the measure of Mr. Silas +Peckham, to see if his head would strike the wall in case he went over +backwards all of a sudden. This would not do, of course, and so the +thrill passed off and the muscles softened again. Then came that state +of tenderness in the heart, overlying wrath in the stomach, in which +the eyes grow moist like a woman's, and there is also a great +boiling-up of objectionable terms out of the deep-water vocabulary, so +that Prudence and Propriety and all the other pious Ps have to jump +upon the lid of speech to keep them from boiling _over_ into fierce +articulation. All this was internal, chiefly, and of course not +recognized by Mr. Silas Peckham. The idea, that any full-grown, +sensible man should have any other notion than that of getting the most +work for the least money out of his assistants, had never suggested +itself to him. + +Mr. Bernard had gone through this paroxysm, and cooled down, in the +period while Mr. Peckham was uttering these words in his thin, shallow +whine, twanging up into the frontal sinuses. What was the use of losing +his temper and throwing away his place, and so, among the consequences +which would necessarily follow, leaving the poor lady-teacher without a +friend to stand by her ready to lay his hand on the grand-inquisitor +before the windlass of his rack had taken one turn too many? + +"No doubt, Mr. Peckham," he said, in a grave, calm voice, "there is a +great deal of work to be done in the school; but perhaps we can +distribute the duties a little more evenly after a time. I shall look +over the girls' themes myself, after this week. Perhaps there will be +some other parts of her labor that I can take on myself. We can arrange +a new programme of studies and recitations." + +"We can do that," said Mr. Silas Peckham. "But I don't propose +mater'lly alterin' Miss Darley's dooties. I don't think she works to +hurt herself. Some of the Trustees have proposed interdoosin' new +branches of study, and I expect you will be pootty much occoopied with +the dooties that belong to your place. On the Sabbath you will be able +to attend divine service three times, which is expected of our +teachers. I shall continoo myself to give Sabbath Scriptur'-readin's to +the young ladies. That is a solemn dooty I can't make up my mind to +commit to other people. My teachers enjoy the Lord's day as a day of +rest. In it they do no manner of work,--except in cases of necessity or +mercy, such as fillin' out diplomas, or when we git crowded jest at the +end of a term, or when there is an extry number of poopils, or other +Providential call to dispense with the ordinance." + +Mr. Bernard had a fine glow in his cheeks by this time,--doubtless +kindled by the thought of the kind consideration Mr. Peckham showed for +his subordinates in allowing them the between-meeting-time on Sundays +except for some special reason. But the morning was wearing away; so he +went to the school-room, taking leave very properly of his respected +principal, who soon took his hat and departed. + +Mr. Peckham visited certain "stores" or shops, where he made inquiries +after various articles in the provision-line, and effected a purchase +or two. Two or three barrels of potatoes, which had sprouted in a +promising way, he secured at a bargain. A side of feminine beef was +also obtained at a low figure. He was entirely satisfied with a couple +of barrels of flour, which, being invoiced "slightly damaged", were to +be had at a reasonable price. + +After this, Silas Peckham felt in good spirits. He had done a pretty +stroke of business. It came into his head whether he might not follow +it up with a still more brilliant speculation. So he turned his steps +in the direction of Colonel Sprowle's. + +It was now eleven o'clock, and the battlefield of last evening was as +we left it. Mr. Peckham's visit was unexpected, perhaps not very well +timed, but the Colonel received him civilly. + +"Beautifully lighted,--these rooms last night!" said Mr. Peckham. +"Winter-strained?" + +The Colonel nodded. + +"How much do you pay for your winter-strained?" + +The Colonel told him the price. + +"Very hahnsome supper,--very hahnsome! Nothin' ever seen like it in +Rockland. Must have been a great heap of things left over." + +The compliment was not ungrateful, and the Colonel acknowledged it by +smiling and saying, "I should think the' was a trifle! Come and look." + +When Silas Peckham saw how many delicacies had survived the evening's +conflict, his commercial spirit rose at once to the point of a +proposal. + +"Colonel Sprowle," said he, "there's meat and cakes and pies and +pickles enough on that table to spread a hahnsome colation. If you'd +like to trade reasonable, I think perhaps I should be willin' to take +'em off your hands. There's been a talk about our havin' a celebration +in the Parnassian Grove, and I think I could work in what your folks +don't want and make myself whole by chargin' a small sum for tickets. +Broken meats, of course, a'n't of the same valoo as fresh provisions; +so I think you might be willin' to trade reasonable." + +Mr. Peckham paused and rested on his proposal. It would not, perhaps, +have been very extraordinary, if Colonel Sprowle had entertained the +proposition. There is no telling beforehand how such things will strike +people. It didn't happen to strike the Colonel favorably. He had a +little red-blooded manhood in him. + +"Sell you them things to make a colation out of?" the Colonel replied. +"Walk up to that table, Mr. Peckham, and help yourself! Fill your +pockets, Mr. Peckham! Fetch a basket, and our hired folks shall fill it +full for ye! Send a cart, if y' like, 'n' carry off them leavin's to +make a celebration for your pupils with! Only let me tell ye this:--as +sure's my name's Hezekiah Spraowle, you'll be known through the taown +'n' through the caounty, from that day forrard, as the Principal of the +Broken-Victuals Institoot!" + +Even provincial human-nature sometimes has a touch of sublimity about +it. Mr. Silas Peckham had gone a little deeper than he meant, and come +upon the "hard pan," as the well-diggers call it, of the Colonel's +character, before he thought of it. A militia-colonel standing on his +sentiments is not to be despised. That was shown pretty well in New +England two or three generations ago. There were a good many plain +officers that talked about their "rigiment" and their "caounty" who +knew very well how to say "Make ready!" "Take aim!" "Fire!"--in the +face of a line of grenadiers with bullets in their guns and bayonets on +them. And though a rustic uniform is not always unexceptionable in its +cut and trimmings, yet there was many an ill-made coat in those old +times that was good enough to be shown to the enemy's front rank, too +often to be left on the field with a round hole in its left lapel that +matched another going right through the brave heart of the plain +country captain or major or colonel who was buried in it under the +crimson turf. + +Mr. Silas Peckham said little or nothing. His sensibilities were not +acute, but he perceived that he had made a miscalculation. He hoped +that there was no offence,--thought it might have been mutooally +agreeable, conclooded he would give up the idee of a colation, and +backed himself out as if unwilling to expose the less guarded aspect of +his person to the risk of accelerating impulses. + +The Colonel shut the door,--cast his eye on the toe of his right boot, +as if it had had a strong temptation,--looked at his watch, then round +the room, and, going to a cupboard, swallowed a glass of deep-red +brandy and water to compose his feelings. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE DOCTOR ORDERS THE BEST SULKY. + + +(_With a Digression on "Hired Help"_) + +"Abel! Slip Cassia into the new sulky, and fetch her round." + +Abel was Dr. Kittredge's hired man. He was born in New Hampshire, a +queer sort of a State, with fat streaks of soil and population where +they breed giants in mind and body, and lean streaks which export +imperfectly nourished young men with promising but neglected appetites, +who may be found in great numbers in all the large towns, or could be +until of late years, when they have been half driven out of their +favorite basement-stories by foreigners, and half coaxed away from them +by California. New Hampshire is in more than one sense the Switzerland +of New England. The "Granite State" being naturally enough deficient in +pudding-stone, its children are apt to wander southward in search of +that deposit,--in the unpetrified condition. + +Abel Stebbins was a good specimen of that extraordinary hybrid or mule +between democracy and chrysocracy, a native-born New-England +serving-man. The Old World has nothing at all like him. He is at once +an emperor and a subordinate. In one hand he holds one five-millionth +part (be the same more or less) of the power that sways the destinies +of the Great Republic. His other hand is in your boot, which he is +about to polish. It is impossible to turn a fellow-citizen whose vote +may make his master--say, rather, employer--Governor or President, or +who may be one or both himself, into a flunky. That article must be +imported ready-made from other centres of civilization. When a +New-Englander has lost his self-respect as a citizen and as a man, he +is demoralized, and cannot be trusted with the money to pay for a +dinner. + +It may be supposed, therefore, that this fractional emperor, this +continent-shaper, finds his position awkward when he goes into service, +and that his employer is apt to find it still more embarrassing. It is +always under protest that the hired man does his duty. Every act of +service is subject to the drawback, "I am as good as you are." This is +so common, at least, as almost to be the rule, and partly accounts for +the rapid disappearance of the indigenous "domestic" from the basements +above mentioned. Paleontologists will by-and-by be examining the floors +of our kitchens for tracks of the extinct native species of +serving-man. The female of the same race is fast dying out; indeed, the +time is not far distant when all the varieties of young _woman_ will +have vanished from New England, as the dodo has perished in the +Mauritius. The young _lady_ is all that we shall have left, and the mop +and duster of the last Almira or Loďzy will be stared at by generations +of Bridgets and Noras as that famous head and foot of the lost bird are +stared at in the Ashmolean Museum. + +Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man, took the true American view of his +difficult position. He sold his time to the Doctor, and, having sold +it, he took care to fulfil his half of the bargain. The Doctor, on his +part, treated him, not like a gentleman, because one does not order a +gentleman to bring up his horse or run his errands, but he treated him +like a man. Every order was given in courteous terms. His reasonable +privileges were respected as much as if they had been guarantied under +hand and seal. The Doctor lent him books from his own library, and gave +him all friendly counsel, as if he were a son or a younger brother. + +Abel had Revolutionary blood in his veins, and though he saw fit to +"hire out," he could never stand the word "servant," or consider +himself the inferior one of the two high contracting parties. When he +came to live with the Doctor, he made up his mind he would dismiss the +old gentleman, if he did not behave according to his notions of +propriety. But he soon found that the Doctor was one of the right sort, +and so determined to keep him. The Doctor soon found, on his side, that +he had a trustworthy, intelligent fellow, who would be invaluable to +him, if he only let him have his own way of doing what was to be done. + +The Doctor's hired man had not the manners of a French valet. He was +grave and taciturn for the most part, he never bowed and rarely smiled, +but was always at work in the daytime and always reading in the +evening. He was hostler, and did all the housework that a man could +properly do, would go to the door or "tend table," bought the +provisions for the family,--in short, did almost everything for them +but get their clothing. There was no office in a perfectly appointed +household, from that of steward down to that of stable-boy, which he +did not cheerfully assume. His round of work not consuming all his +energies, he must needs cultivate the Doctor's garden, which he kept in +one perpetual bloom, from the blowing of the first crocus to the fading +of the last dahlia. + +This garden was Abel's poem. Its half-dozen beds were so many cantos. +Nature crowded them for him with imagery such as no Laureate could copy +in the cold mosaic of language. The rhythm of alternating dawn and +sunset, the strophe and antistrophe still perceptible through all the +sudden shifts of our dithyrambic seasons and echoed in corresponding +floral harmonies, made melody in the soul of Abel, the plain serving- +man. It softened his whole otherwise rigid aspect. He worshipped God +according to the strict way of his fathers; but a florist's Puritanism +is always colored by the petals of his flowers,--and Nature never shows +him a black corolla. + +Perhaps he may have little or nothing to do in this narrative; but as +there must be some who confound the New-England _hired man_, +native-born, with the _servant_ of foreign birth, and as there is the +difference of two continents and two civilizations between them, it did +not seem fair to let Abel bring round the Doctor's mare and sulky +without touching his features in half-shadow into our background. + +The Doctor's mare, Cassia, was so called by her master from her +cinnamon color, cassia being one of the professional names for that +spice or drug. She was of the shade we call sorrel, or, as an +Englishman would perhaps say, chestnut,--a genuine "Morgan" mare, with +a low forehand, as is common in this breed, but with strong quarters +and flat hocks, well ribbed up, with a good eye and a pair of lively +ears,--a first-rate doctor's beast,--would stand until her harness +dropped off her back at the door of a tedious case, and trot over hill +and dale thirty miles in three hours, if there was a child in the next +county with a bean in its windpipe and the Doctor gave her a hint of +the fact. Cassia was not large, but she had a good deal of action, and +was the Doctor's show-horse. There were two other animals in his +stable: Quassia or Quashy, the black horse, and Caustic, the old bay, +with whom he jogged round the village. + +"A long ride to-day?" said Abel, as he brought up the equipage. + +"Just out of the village,--that's all.--There's a kink in her +mane,--pull it out, will you?" + +"Goin' to visit some of the great folks," Abel said to himself. "Wonder +who it is."--Then to the Doctor,--"Anybody get sick at Sprowles's? They +say Deacon Soper had a fit, after eatin' some o' their frozen +victuals." + +The Doctor smiled. He guessed the Deacon would do well enough. He was +only going to ride over to the Dudley mansion-house. + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE DOCTOR CALLS ON ELSIE VENNER. + + +If that primitive physician, CHIRON, M.D., appears as a Centaur, as we +look at him through the lapse of thirty centuries, the modern +country-doctor, if he could be seen about thirty miles off, could not +be distinguished from a wheel-animalcule. He _inhabits_ a +wheel-carriage. He thinks of stationary dwellings as Long Tom Coffin +did of land in general; a house may be well enough for incidental +purposes, but for a "stiddy" residence give him a "kerridge." If he is +classified in the Linnaean scale, he must be set down thus: Genus +_Homo_; Species _Rotifer infusorius_,--the wheel-animal of infusions. + +The Dudley mansion was not a mile from the Doctor's; but it never +occurred to him to think of walking to see any of his patients' +families, if he had any professional object in his visit. Whenever the +narrow sulky turned in at a gate, the rustic who was digging potatoes, +or hoeing corn, or swishing through the grass with his scythe in +wave-like crescents, or stepping short behind a loaded wheel-barrow, +or trudging lazily by the side of the swinging, loose-throated, +short-legged oxen, rocking along the road as if they had just been +landed after a three-months' voyage,--the toiling native, whatever he +was doing, stopped and looked up at the house the doctor was visiting. + +"Somebody sick over there t' Haynes's. Guess th' old man's ailin' +ag'in. Winder's haäf-way open in the chamber,--shouldn't wonder 'f he +was dead and laid aout. Docterin' a'n't no use, when y' see the winders +open like that. Wahl, money a'n't much to speak of to th' old man naow! +He don't want but _tew cents_,--and old Widah Peake, she knows what he +wants them for!" + +Or again,-- + +"Measles raound pootty thick. Briggs's folks's' buried two children +with 'em laäst week. Th' old Doctor, he'd h' ker'd 'em threugh. Struck +in 'n' p'dooeed mot'f cation,--so they say." + +This is only meant as a sample of the kind of way they used to think or +talk, when the narrow sulky turned in at the gate of some house where +there was a visit to be made. + +Oh, that narrow sulky! What hopes, what fears, what comfort, what +anguish, what despair, in the roll of its coming or its parting wheels! +In the spring, when the old people get the coughs which give them a few +shakes and their lives drop in pieces like the ashes of a burned thread +which have kept the threadlike shape until they were stirred,--in the +hot summer noons, when the strong man comes in from the fields, like +the son of the Shunamite, crying, "My head, my head,"--in the dying +autumn days, when youth and maiden lie fever-stricken in many a +household, still-faced, dull-eyed, dark-flushed, dry-lipped, +low-muttering in their daylight dreams, their fingers moving singly +like those of slumbering harpers,--in the dead winter, when the white +plague of the North has caged its wasted victims, shuddering as they +think of the frozen soil which must be quarried like rock to receive +them, if their perpetual convalescence should happen to be interfered +with by any untoward accident,--at every season, the narrow sulky +rolled round freighted with unmeasured burdens of joy and woe. + +The Doctor drove along the southern foot of The Mountain. The "Dudley +mansion" was near the eastern edge of this declivity, where it rose +steepest, with baldest cliffs and densest patches of over-hanging wood. +It seemed almost too steep to climb, but a practised eye could see from +a distance the zigzag lines of the sheep-paths which scaled it like +miniature Alpine roads. A few hundred feet up The Mountain's side was a +dark, deep dell, unwooded, save for a few spindling, crazy--looking +hackmatacks or native larches, with pallid green tufts sticking out +fantastically all over them. It shelved so deeply, that, while the +hemlock-tassels were swinging on the trees around its border, all would +be still at its springy bottom, save that perhaps a single fern would +wave slowly backward and forward like a sabre, with a twist as of a +feathered oar,--and this, when not a breath could be felt, and every +other stem and blade were motionless. There was an old story of one +having perished here in the winter of '86, and his body having been +found in the spring,--whence its common name of "Dead-Man's Hollow." +Higher up there were huge cliffs with chasms, and, it was thought, +concealed caves, where in old times they said that Tories lay +hid,--some hinted not without occasional aid and comfort from the +Dudleys then living in the mansion-house. Still higher and farther west +lay the accursed ledge,--shunned by all, unless it were now and then a +daring youth, or a wandering naturalist who ventured to its edge in the +hope of securing some infantile _Crotalus durissus_, who had not yet +cut his poison-teeth. + +Long, long ago, in old Colonial times, the Honorable Thomas Dudley, +Esquire, a man of note and name and great resources, allied by descent +to the family of "Tom Dudley," as the early Governor is sometimes +irreverently called by our most venerable, but still youthful +antiquary,--and to the other public Dudleys, of course,--of all of whom +he made small account, as being himself an English gentleman, with +little taste for the splendors of provincial office,--early in the last +century, Thomas Dudley had built this mansion. For several generations +it had been dwelt in by descendants of the same name, but soon after +the Revolution it passed by marriage into the hands of the Venners, by +whom it had ever since been held and tenanted. + +As the Doctor turned an angle in the road, all at once the stately old +house rose before him. It was a skilfully managed effect, as it well +might be, for it was no vulgar English architect who had planned the +mansion and arranged its position and approach. The old house rose +before the Doctor crowning a terraced garden, flanked at the left by a +double avenue of tall elms. The flower-beds were edged with box, which +diffused around it that dreamy balsamic odor, full of ante-natal +reminiscences of a lost Paradise, dimly fragrant as might be the +bdellium of ancient Havilah, the land compassed by the river Pison that +went out of Eden. The garden was somewhat neglected, but not in +disgrace,--and in the time of tulips and hyacinths, of roses, of +"snowballs," of honeysuckles, of lilacs, of syringas, it was rich with +blossoms. + +From the front-windows of the mansion the eye reached a far blue +mountain-summit,--no rounded heap, such as often shuts in a +village-landscape, but a sharp peak, clean-angled as Ascutney from the +Dartmouth green. A wide gap through miles of woods had opened this +distant view, and showed more, perhaps, than all the labors of the +architect and the landscape-gardener the large style of the early +Dudleys. + +The great stone chimney of the mansion-house was the centre from which +all the artificial features of the scene appeared to flow. The roofs, +the gables, the dormer-windows, the porches, the clustered offices in +the rear, all seemed to crowd about the great chimney. To this central +pillar the paths all converged. The single poplar behind the +house,--Nature is jealous of proud chimneys, and always loves to put a +poplar near one, so that it may fling a leaf or two down its black +throat every autumn,--the one tall poplar behind the house seemed to +nod and whisper to the grave square column, the elms to sway their +branches towards it. And when the blue smoke rose from its summit, it +seemed to be wafted away to join the azure haze which hung around the +peak in the far distance, so that both should bathe in a common +atmosphere. + +Behind the house were clumps of lilacs with a century's growth upon +them, and looking more like trees than like shrubs. Shaded by a group +of these was the ancient well, of huge circuit, and with a low arch +opening out of its wall about ten feet below the surface,--whether the +door of a crypt for the concealment of treasure, or of a subterranean +passage, or merely of a vault for keeping provisions cool in hot +weather, opinions differed. + +On looking at the house, it was plain that it was built with Old-World +notions of strength and durability, and, so far as might be, with +Old-World materials. The hinges of the doors stretched out like arms, +instead of like hands, as we make them. The bolts were massive enough +for a donjon-keep. The small window-panes were actually inclosed in the +wood of the sashes, instead of being stuck to them with putty, as in +our modern windows. The broad staircase was of easy ascent, and was +guarded by quaintly turned and twisted balusters. The ceilings of the +two rooms of state were moulded with medallion-portraits and rustic +figures, such as may have been seen by many readers in the famous old +Philipse house,--Washington's headquarters,--in the town of Yonkers. +The fireplaces, worthy of the wide-throated central chimney, were +bordered by pictured tiles, some of them with Scripture stories, some +with Watteau-like figures,--tall damsels in slim waists and with spread +enough of skirt for a modern ballroom, with bowing, reclining, or +musical swains of what everybody calls the "conventional" sort,--that +is, the swain adapted to genteel society rather than to a literal +sheep-compelling existence. + +The house was furnished, soon after it was completed, with many heavy +articles made in London from a rare wood just then come into fashion, +not so rare now, and commonly known as mahogany. Time had turned it +very dark, and the stately bedsteads and tall cabinets and claw-footed +chairs and tables were in keeping with the sober dignity of the ancient +mansion. The old "hangings" were yet preserved in the chambers, faded, +but still showing their rich patterns,--properly entitled to their +name, for they were literally hung upon flat wooden frames like +trellis-work, which again were secured to the naked partitions. +There were portraits of different date on the walls of the various +apartments, old painted coats-of-arms, bevel-edged mirrors, and in one +sleeping-room a glass case of wax-work flowers and spangly symbols, +with a legend signifying that E.M. (supposed to be Elizabeth Mascarene) +wished not to be "forgot" + + "When I am dead and lay'd in dust + And all my bones are"---- + +Poor E.M.! Poor everybody that sighs for earthly remembrance in a +planet with a core of fire and a crust of fossils! + +Such was the Dudley mansion-house,--for it kept its ancient name in +spite of the change in the line of descent. Its spacious apartments +looked dreary and desolate; for here Dudley Venner and his daughter +dwelt by themselves, with such servants only as their quiet mode of +life required. He almost lived in his library, the western room on the +ground-floor. Its window looked upon a small plat of green, in the +midst of which was a single grave marked by a plain marble slab. Except +this room, and the chamber where he slept, and the servants' wing, the +rest of the house was all Elsie's. She was always a restless, wandering +child from her early years, and would have her little bed moved from +one chamber to another,--flitting round as the fancy took her. +Sometimes she would drag a mat and a pillow into one of the great empty +rooms, and, wrapping herself in a shawl, coil up and go to sleep in a +corner. Nothing frightened her; the "haunted" chamber, with the torn +hangings that flapped like wings when there was air stirring, was one +of her favorite retreats. + +She had been a very hard creature to manage. Her father could +influence, but not govern her. Old Sophy, born of a slave mother in the +house, could do more with her than anybody, knowing her by long +instinctive study. The other servants were afraid of her. Her father +had sent for governesses, but none of them ever stayed long. She made +them nervous; one of them had a strange fit of sickness; not one of +them ever came back to the house to see her. A young Spanish woman who +taught her dancing succeeded best with her, for she had a passion for +that exercise, and had mastered some of the most difficult dances. + +Long before this period, she had manifested some most extraordinary +singularities of taste or instinct. The extreme sensitiveness of her +father on this point prevented any allusion to them; but there were +stories floating round, some of them even getting into the +papers,--without her name, of course,--which were of a kind to excite +intense curiosity, if not more anxious feelings. This thing was +certain, that at the age of twelve she was missed one night, and was +found sleeping in the open air under a tree, like a wild creature. Very +often she would wander off by day, always without a companion, bringing +home with her a nest, a flower, or even a more questionable trophy of +her ramble, such as showed that there was no place where she was afraid +to venture. Once in a while she had stayed out over night, in which +case the alarm was spread, and men went in search of her, but never +successfully,--so that some said she hid herself in trees, and others +that she had found one of the old Tory caves. + +Some, of course, said she was a crazy girl, and ought to be sent to an +Asylum. But old Dr. Kittredge had shaken his head, and told them to +bear with her, and let her have her way as much as they could, but +watch her, as far as possible, without making her suspicious of them. +He visited her now and then, under the pretext of seeing her father on +business, or of only making a friendly call. + + * * * * * + +The Doctor fastened his horse outside the gate, and walked up the +garden-alley. He stopped suddenly with a start. A strange sound had +jarred upon his ear. It was a sharp prolonged rattle, continuous, but +rising and falling as if in rhythmical cadence. He moved softly towards +the open window from which the sound seemed to proceed. + +Elsie was alone in the room, dancing one of those wild Moorish +fandangos, such as a _matador_ hot from the _Plaza de Toros_ of Seville +or Madrid might love to lie and gaze at. She was a figure to look upon +in silence. The dancing frenzy must have seized upon her while she was +dressing; for she was in her bodice, bare-armed, her hair floating +unbound far below the waist of her barred or banded skirt. She had +caught up her castanets, and rattled them as she danced with a kind of +passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace, +her diamond eyes glittering, her round arms wreathing and unwinding, +alive and vibrant to the tips of the slender fingers. Some passion +seemed to exhaust itself in this dancing paroxysm; for all at once she +reeled from the middle of the floor, and flung herself, as it were in a +careless coil, upon a great tiger's-skin which was spread out in one corner +of the apartment. + +The old Doctor stood motionless, looking at her as she lay panting on +the tawny, black-lined robe of the dead monster, which stretched out +beneath her, its rude flattened outline recalling the Terror of the +Jungle as he crouched for his fatal spring. In a few moments her head +drooped upon her arm, and her glittering eyes closed,--she was +sleeping. He stood looking at her still, steadily, thoughtfully, +tenderly. Presently he lifted his hand to his forehead, as if recalling +some fading remembrance of other years. + +"Poor Catalina!" + +This was all he said. He shook his head,--implying that his visit would +be in vain to-day,--returned to his sulky, and rode away, as if in a +dream. + + * * * * * + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. + + +The romance of "The Marble Faun" will be widely welcomed, not only for +its intrinsic merits, but because it is a sign that its writer, after a +silence of seven or eight years, has determined to resume his place in +the ranks of authorship. In his preface he tells us, that in each of +his previous publications he had unconsciously one person in his eye, +whom he styles his "gentle reader." He meant it "for that one congenial +friend, more comprehensive of his purposes, more appreciative of his. +success, more indulgent of his short-comings, and, in all respects, +closer and kinder than a brother,--that all-sympathizing critic, in +short, whom an author never actually meets, but to whom he implicitly +makes his appeal, whenever he is conscious of having done his best." He +believes that this reader did once exist for him, and duly received the +scrolls he flung "upon whatever wind was blowing, in the faith that +they would find him out." "But," he questions, "is he extant now? In +these many years since he last heard from me, may he not have deemed +his earthly task accomplished, and have withdrawn to the paradise of +gentle readers, wherever it may be, to the enjoyments of which his +kindly charity on my behalf must surely have entitled him?" As we feel +assured that Hawthorne's reputation has been steadily growing with the +lapse of time, he has no cause to fear that the longevity of his gentle +reader will not equal his own. As long as he writes, there will be +readers enough to admire and appreciate. + +The publication of this new romance seems to offer us a fitting +occasion to attempt some description of the peculiarities of the genius +of which it is the latest offspring, and to hazard some judgments on +its predecessors. It is more than twenty-five years since Hawthorne +began that remarkable series of stories and essays which are now +collected in the volumes of "Twice-Told Tales," "The Snow Image and +other Tales," and "Mosses from an Old Manse." From the first he was +recognized by such readers as he chanced to find as a man of genius, +yet for a long time he enjoyed, in his own words, the distinction of +being "the obscurest man of letters in America." His readers were +"gentle" rather than enthusiastic; their fine delight in his creations +was a private perception of subtile excellences of thought and style, +too refined and self-satisfying to be contagious; and the public was +untouched, whilst the "gentle" reader was full of placid enjoyment. +Indeed, we fear that this kind of reader is something of an +Epicurean,--receives a new genius as a private blessing, sent by a +benign Providence to quicken a new life in his somewhat jaded sense of +intellectual pleasure; and after having received a fresh sensation, he +is apt to be serenely indifferent whether the creator of it starve +bodily or pine mentally from the lack of a cordial human shout of +recognition. + +There would appear, on a slight view of the matter, no reason for the +little notice which Hawthorne's early productions received. The +subjects were mostly drawn from the traditions and written records of +New England, and gave the "beautiful strangeness" of imagination to +objects, incidents, and characters which were familiar facts in the +popular mind. The style, while it had a purity, sweetness, and grace +which satisfied the most fastidious and exacting taste, had, at the +same time, more than the simplicity and clearness of an ordinary +school-book. But though the subjects and the style were thus popular, +there was something in the shaping and informing spirit which failed to +awaken interest, or awakened interest without exciting delight. +Misanthropy, when it has its source in passion,--when it is fierce, +bitter, fiery, and scornful,--when it vigorously echoes the aggressive +discontent of the world, and furiously tramples on the institutions and +the men luckily rather than rightfully in the ascendant,--this is +always popular; but a misanthropy which springs from insight,--a +misanthropy which is lounging, languid, sad, and depressing,--a +misanthropy which remorselessly looks through cursing misanthropes and +chirping men of the world with the same sure, detecting glance of +reason,--a misanthropy which has no fanaticism, and which casts the +same ominous doubt on subjectively morbid as on subjectively moral +action,--a misanthropy which has no respect for impulses, but has a +terrible perception of spiritual laws,--this is a misanthropy which can +expect no wide recognition; and it would be vain to deny that traces of +this kind of misanthropy are to be found in Hawthorne's earlier, and +are not altogether absent from his later works. He had spiritual +insight, but it did not penetrate to the sources of spiritual joy; and +his deepest glimpses of truth were calculated rather to sadden than to +inspire. A blandly cynical distrust of human nature was the result of +his most piercing glances into the human soul. He had humor, and +sometimes humor of a delicious kind; but this sunshine of the soul was +but sunshine breaking through or lighting up a sombre and ominous +cloud. There was also observable in his earlier stories a lack of vigor, +as if the power of his nature had been impaired by the very +process--which gave depth and excursiveness to his mental vision. +Throughout, the impression is conveyed of a shy recluse, alternately +bashful in disposition and bold in thought, gifted with original and +various capacities, but capacities which seemed to have developed +themselves in the shade, without sufficient energy of will or desire to +force them, except fitfully, into the sunlight. Shakspeare calls +moonlight the sunlight _sick_; and it is in some such moonlight of the +mind that the genius of Hawthorne found its first expression. A mild +melancholy, sometimes deepening into gloom, sometimes brightened into a +"humorous sadness," characterized his early creations. Like his own +Hepzibah Pyncheon, he appeared "to be walking in a dream"; or rather, +the life and reality assumed by his emotions "made all outward +occurrences unsubstantial, like the teasing phantasms of an unconscious +slumber." Though dealing largely in description, and with the most +accurate perceptions of outward objects, he still, to use again his own +words, gives the impression of a man "chiefly accustomed to look +inward, and to whom external matters are of little value or import, +unless they bear relation to something within his own mind." But that +"something within his own mind" was often an unpleasant something, +perhaps a ghastly occult perception of deformity and sin in what +appeared outwardly fair and good; so that the reader felt a secret +dissatisfaction with the disposition which directed the genius, even in +the homage he awarded to the genius itself. As psychological portraits +of morbid natures, his delineations of character might have given a +purely intellectual satisfaction; but there was audible, to the +delicate ear, a faint and muffled growl of personal discontent, which +showed they were not mere exercises of penetrating imaginative +analysis, but had in them the morbid vitality of a despondent mood. + +Yet, after admitting these peculiarities, nobody who is now drawn to +the "Twice-Told Tales," from his interest in the later romances of +Hawthorne, can fail to wonder a little at the limited number of readers +they attracted on their original publication. For many of these stories +are at once a representation of early New-England life and a criticism +on it. They have much of the deepest truth of history in them. "The +Legends of the Province House," "The Gray Champion," "The Gentle Boy," +"The Minister's Black Veil," "Endicott and the Red Cross," not to +mention others, contain important matter which cannot be found in +Bancroft or Grahame. They exhibit the inward struggles of New-England +men and women with some of the darkest problems of existence, and have +more vital import to thoughtful minds than the records of Indian or +Revolutionary warfare. In the "Prophetic Pictures," "Fancy's Show-Box," +"The Great Carbuncle," "The Haunted Mind," and "Edward Fane's +Rose-Bud," there are flashes of moral insight, which light up, for the +moment, the darkest recesses of the individual mind; and few sermons +reach to the depth of thought and sentiment from which these seemingly +airy sketches draw their sombre life. It is common, for instance, for +religious moralists to insist on the great spiritual truth, that wicked +thoughts and impulses, which circumstances prevent from passing into +wicked acts, are still deeds in the sight of God; but the living truth +subsides into a dead truism, as enforced by commonplace preachers. In +"Fancy's Show-Box," Hawthorne seizes the prolific idea; and the +respectable merchant and respected church-member, in the still hour of +his own meditation, convicts himself of being a liar, cheat, thief, +seducer, and murderer, as he casts his glance over the mental events +which form his spiritual biography. Interspersed with serious histories +and moralities like these, are others which embody the sweet and +playful, though still thoughtful and slightly saturnine action of +Hawthorne's mind,--like "The Seven Vagabonds," "Snow-Flakes," "The +Lily's Quest," "Mr. Higgenbotham's Catastrophe," "Little Annie's +Ramble," "Sights from a Steeple," "Sunday at Home," and "A Rill from +the Town-Pump." + +The "Mosses from an Old Manse" are intellectually and artistically an +advance from the "Twice-Told Tales." The twenty-three stories and +essays which make up the volumes are almost perfect of their kind. Each +is complete in itself, and many might be expanded into long romances by +the simple method of developing the possibilities of their shadowy +types of character into appropriate incidents. In description, +narration, allegory, humor, reason, fancy, subtilty, inventiveness, +they exceed the best productions of Addison; but they want Addison's +sensuous contentment and sweet and kindly spirit. Though the author +denies that he has exhibited his own individual attributes in these +"Mosses," though he professes not to be "one of those supremely +hospitable people who serve up their own hearts delicately fried, with +brain-sauce, as a titbit for their beloved public,"--yet it is none the +less apparent that he has diffused through each tale and sketch the +life of the mental mood to which it owed its existence, and that one +individuality pervades and colors the whole collection. The defect of +the serious stories is, that character is introduced, not as thinking, +but as the illustration of thought. The persons are ghostly, with a sad +lack of flesh and blood. They are phantasmal symbols of a reflective +and imaginative analysis of human passions and aspirations. The +dialogue, especially, is bookish, as though the personages knew their +speech was to be printed, and were careful of the collocation and +rhythm of their words. The author throughout is evidently more +interested in his large, wide, deep, indolently serene, and lazily sure +and critical view of the conflict of ideas and passions, than he is +with the individuals who embody them. He shows moral insight without +moral earnestness. He cannot contract his mind to the patient +delineation of a moral individual, but attempts to use individuals in +order to express the last results of patient moral perception. Young +Goodman Brown and Roger Malvin are not persons; they are the mere, +loose, personal expression of subtile thinking. "The Celestial +Railroad," "The Procession of Life," "Earth's Holocaust," "The Bosom +Serpent," indicate thought of a character equally deep, delicate, and +comprehensive, but the characters are ghosts of men rather than +substantial individualities. In the "Mosses from an Old Manse," we are +really studying the phenomena of human nature, while, for the time, we +beguile ourselves into the belief that we are following the fortunes of +individual natures. + +Up to this time the writings of Hawthorne conveyed the impression of a +genius in which insight so dominated over impulse, that it was rather +mentally and morally curious than mentally and morally impassioned. The +quality evidently wanting to its full expression was intensity. In the +romance of "The Scarlet Letter" he first made his genius efficient by +penetrating it with passion. This book forced itself into attention by +its inherent power; and the author's name, previously known only to a +limited circle of readers, suddenly became a familiar word in the +mouths of the great reading public of America and England. It may be +said, that it "captivated" nobody, but took everybody captive. Its +power could neither be denied nor resisted. There were growls of +disapprobation from novel-readers, that Hester Prynne and the Rev. Mr. +Dimmesdale were subjected to cruel punishments unknown to the +jurisprudence of fiction,--that the author was an inquisitor who put +his victims on the rack,--and that neither amusement nor delight +resulted from seeing the contortions and hearing the groans of these +martyrs of sin; but the fact was no less plain that Hawthorne had for +once compelled the most superficial lovers of romance to submit +themselves to the magic of his genius. The readers of Dickens voted +him, with three times three, to the presidency of their republic of +letters; the readers of Hawthorne were caught by a _coup d'état_, and +fretfully submitted to a despot whom they could not depose. + +The success of "The Scarlet Letter" is an example of the advantage +which an author gains by the simple concentration of his powers on one +absorbing subject. In the "Twice-Told Tales" and the "Mosses from an +Old Manse" Hawthorne had exhibited a wider range of sight and insight +than in "The Scarlet Letter." Indeed, in the little sketch of "Endicott +and the Red Cross," written twenty years before, he had included in a +few sentences the whole matter which he afterwards treated in his +famous story. In describing the various inhabitants of an early +New-England town, as far as they were representative, he touches +incidentally on a "young woman, with no mean share of beauty, whose +doom it was to wear the letter A on the breast of her gown, in the eyes +of all the world and her own children. And even her own children knew +what that initial signified. Sporting with her infamy, the lost and +desperate creature had embroidered the fatal token in scarlet cloth, +with golden thread and the nicest art of needle-work; so that the +capital A might have been thought to mean Admirable, or anything, +rather than Adulteress." Here is the germ of the whole pathos and +terror of "The Scarlet Letter"; but it is hardly noted in the throng of +symbols, equally pertinent, in the few pages of the little sketch from +which we have quoted. + +Two characteristics of Hawthorne's genius stand plainly out, in the +conduct and characterization of the romance of "The Scarlet Letter," +which were less obviously prominent in his previous works. The first +relates to his subordination of external incidents to inward events. +Mr. James's "solitary horseman" does more in one chapter than +Hawthorne's hero in twenty chapters; but then James deals with the arms +of men, while Hawthorne deals with their souls. Hawthorne relies almost +entirely for the interest of his story on what is felt and done within +the minds of his characters. Even his most picturesque descriptions and +narratives are only one-tenth matter to nine-tenths spirit. The results +that follow from one external act of folly or crime are to him enough +for an Iliad of woes. It might be supposed that his whole theory of +Romantic Art was based on these tremendous lines of Wordsworth:-- + + "Action is momentary,-- + The motion of a muscle, this way or that: + Suffering is long, obscure, and infinite." + +The second characteristic of his genius is connected with the first. +With his insight of individual souls he combines a far deeper insight +of the spiritual laws which govern the strangest aberrations of +individual souls. But it seems to us that his mental eye, keen-sighted +and far-sighted as it is, overlooks the merciful modifications of the +austere code whose pitiless action it so clearly discerns. In his long +and patient brooding over the spiritual phenomena of Puritan life, it +is apparent, to the least critical observer, that he has imbibed a deep +personal antipathy to the Puritanic ideal of character; but it is no +less apparent that his intellect and imagination have been strangely +fascinated by the Puritanic idea of justice. His brain has been subtly +infected by the Puritanic perception of Law, without being warmed by +the Puritanic faith in Grace. Individually, he would much prefer to +have been one of his own "Seven Vagabonds" rather than one of the +austerest preachers of the primitive church of New England; but the +austerest preacher of the primitive church of New England would have +been more tender and considerate to a real Mr. Dimmesdale and a real +Hester Prynne than this modern romancer has been to their typical +representatives in the world of imagination. Throughout "The Scarlet +Letter" we seem to be following the guidance of an author who is +personally good-natured, but intellectually and morally relentless. + +"The House of the Seven Gables," Hawthorne's next work, while it has +less concentration of passion and tension of mind than "The Scarlet +Letter," includes a wider range of observation, reflection, and +character; and the morality, dreadful as fate, which hung like a black +cloud over the personages of the previous story, is exhibited in more +relief. Although the book has no imaginative creation equal to little +Pearl, it still contains numerous examples of characterization at once +delicate and deep. Clifford, especially, is a study in psychology, as +well as a marvellously subtile delineation of enfeebled manhood. The +general idea of the story is this,--"that the wrong-doing of one +generation lives into the successive ones, and, divesting itself of +every temporary advantage, becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief"; +and the mode in which this idea is carried out shows great force, +fertility, and refinement of mind. A weird fancy, sporting with the +facts detected by a keen observation, gives to every gable of the Seven +Gables, every room in the House, every burdock growing rankly before +the door, a symbolic significance. The queer mansion is +haunted,--haunted with thoughts which every moment are liable to take +ghostly shape. All the Pyncheons who have resided in it appear to have +infected the very timbers and walls with the spiritual essence of their +lives, and each seems ready to pass from a memory into a presence. The +stern theory of the author regarding the hereditary transmission of +family qualities, and the visiting of the sins of the fathers on the +heads of their children, almost wins our reluctant assent through the +pertinacity with which the generations of the Pyncheon race are made +not merely to live in the blood and brain of their descendants, but to +cling to their old abiding-place on earth, so that to inhabit the house +is to breathe the Pyncheon soul and assimilate the Pyncheon +individuality. The whole representation, masterly as it is, considered +as an effort of intellectual and imaginative power, would still be +morally bleak, were it not for the sunshine and warmth radiated from +the character of Phoebe. In this delightful creation Hawthorne for once +gives himself up to homely human nature, and has succeeded in +delineating a New-England girl, cheerful, blooming, practical, +affectionate, efficient, full of innocence and happiness, with all the +"handiness" and native sagacity of her class, and so true and close to +Nature that the process by which she is slightly idealized is +completely hidden. + +In this romance there is also more humor than in any of his other +works. It peeps out, even in the most serious passages, in a kind of +demure rebellion against the fanaticism of his remorseless +intelligence. In the description of the Pyncheon poultry, which we +think unexcelled by anything in Dickens for quaintly fanciful humor, +the author seems to indulge in a sort of parody on his own doctrine of +the hereditary transmission of family qualities. At any rate, that +strutting chanticleer, with his two meagre wives and one wizened +chicken, is a sly side fleer at the tragic aspect of the law of +descent. Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon, her shop, and her customers, are so +delightful, that the reader would willingly spare a good deal of +Clifford and Judge Pyncheon and Holgrave, for more details of them and +Phoebe. Uncle Venner, also, the old wood-sawyer, who boasts "that he +has seen a good deal of the world, not only in people's kitchens and +back-yards, but at the street-corners, and on the wharves, and in other +places where his business" called him, and who, on the strength of this +comprehensive experience, feels qualified to give the final decision in +every case which tasks the resources of human wisdom, is a very much +more humane and interesting gentleman than the Judge. Indeed, one +cannot but regret that Hawthorne should be so economical of his +undoubted stores of humor,--and that, in the two romances he has since +written, humor, in the form of character, does not appear at all. + +Before proceeding to the consideration of "The Blithedale Romance," it +is necessary to say a few words on the seeming separation of +Hawthorne's genius from his will. He has none of that ability which +enabled Scott and enables Dickens to force their powers into action, +and to make what was begun in drudgery soon assume the character of +inspiration. Hawthorne cannot thus use his genius; his genius always +uses him. This is so true, that he often succeeds better in what calls +forth his personal antipathies than in what calls forth his personal +sympathies. His life of General Pierce, for instance, is altogether +destitute of life; yet in writing it he must have exerted himself to +the utmost, as his object was to urge the claims of an old and dear +friend to the Presidency of the Republic. The style, of course, is +excellent, as it is impossible for Hawthorne to write bad English, but +the genius of the man has deserted him. General Pierce, whom he loves, +he draws so feebly, that one doubts, while reading the biography, if +such a man exists; Hollingsworth, whom he hates, is so vividly +characterized, that the doubt is, while we read the romance, whether +such a man can possibly be fictitious. + +Midway between such a work as the "Life of General Pierce" and "The +Scarlet Letter" may be placed "The Wonder-Book" and "Tanglewood Tales." +In these Hawthorne's genius distinctly appears, and appears in its most +lovable, though not in its deepest form. These delicious stories, +founded on the mythology of Greece, were written for children, but they +delight men and women as well. Hawthorne never pleases grown people so +much as when he writes with an eye to the enjoyment of little people. + +Now "The Blithedale Romance" is far from being so pleasing a +performance as "Tanglewood Tales," yet it very much better illustrates +the operation, indicates the quality, and expresses the power, of the +author's genius. His great books appear not so much created by him as +through him. They have the character of revelations,--he, the +instrument, being often troubled with the burden they impose on his +mind. His profoundest glances into individual souls are like the +marvels of clairvoyance. It would seem, that, in the production of such +a work as "The Blithedale Romance," his mind had hit accidentally, as +it were, on an idea or fact mysteriously related to some morbid +sentiment in the inmost core of his nature, and connecting itself with +numerous scattered observations of human life, lying unrelated in his +imagination. In a sort of meditative dream, his intellect drifts in the +direction to which the subject points, broods patiently over it, looks +at it, looks into it, and at last looks through it to the law by which +it is governed. Gradually, individual beings, definite in spiritual +quality, but shadowy in substantial form, group themselves around this +central conception, and by degrees assume an outward body and +expression corresponding to their internal nature. On the depth and +intensity of the mental mood, the force of the fascination it exerts +over him, and the length of time it holds him captive, depend the +solidity and substance of the individual characterizations. In this way +Miles Coverdale, Hollingsworth, Westervelt, Zenobia, and Priscilla +become real persons to the mind which has called them into being. He +knows every secret and watches every motion of their souls, yet is, in +a measure, independent of them, and pretends to no authority by which +he can alter the destiny which consigns them to misery or happiness. +They drift to their doom by the same law by which they drifted across +the path of his vision. Individually, he abhors Hollingsworth, and +would like to annihilate Westervelt, yet he allows the superb Zenobia +to be their victim; and if his readers object that the effect of the +whole representation is painful, he would doubtless agree with them, +but profess his incapacity honestly to alter a sentence. He professes +to tell the story as it was revealed to him; and the license in which a +romancer might indulge is denied to a biographer of spirits. Show him a +fallacy in his logic of passion and character, point out a false or +defective step in his analysis, and he will gladly alter the whole to +your satisfaction; but four human souls, such as he has described, +being given, their mutual attractions and repulsions will end, he feels +assured, in just such a catastrophe as he has stated. + +Eight years have passed since "The Blithedale Romance" was written, and +during nearly the whole of this period Hawthorne has resided abroad. +"The Marble Faun," which must, on the whole, be considered the greatest +of his works, proves that his genius has widened and deepened in this +interval, without any alteration or modification of its characteristic +merits and characteristic defects. The most obvious excellence of the +work is the vivid truthfulness of its descriptions of Italian life, +manners, and scenery; and, considered merely as a record of a tour in +Italy, it is of great interest and attractiveness. The opinions on Art, +and the special criticisms on the masterpieces of architecture, +sculpture, and painting, also possess a value of their own. The story +might have been told, and the characters fully represented, in +one-third of the space devoted to them, yet description and narration +are so artfully combined that each assists to give interest to the +other. Hawthorne is one of those true observers who concentrate in +observation every power of their minds. He has accurate sight and +piercing insight. When he modifies either the form or the spirit of the +objects he describes, he does it either by viewing them through the +medium of an imagined mind or by obeying associations which they +themselves suggest. We might quote from the descriptive portions of the +work a hundred pages, at least, which would demonstrate how closely +accurate observation is connected with the highest powers of the +intellect and imagination. + +The style of the book is perfect of its kind, and, if Hawthorne had +written nothing else, would entitle him to rank among the great masters +of English composition. Walter Savage Landor is reported to have said +of an author whom he knew in his youth, "My friend wrote excellent +English, a language now obsolete." Had "The Marble Faun" appeared +before he uttered this sarcasm, the wit of the remark would have been +pointless. Hawthorne not only writes English, but the sweetest, +simplest, and clearest English that ever has been made the vehicle of +equal depth, variety, and subtilty of thought and emotion. His mind is +reflected in his style as a face is reflected in a mirror; and the +latter does not give back its image with less appearance of effort than +the former. His excellence consists not so much in using common words +as in making common words express uncommon things. Swift, Addison, +Goldsmith, not to mention others, wrote with as much simplicity; but +the style of neither embodies an individuality so complex, passions so +strange and intense, sentiments so fantastic and preternatural, +thoughts so profound and delicate, and imaginations so remote from the +recognized limits of the ideal, as find an orderly outlet in the pure +English of Hawthorne. He has hardly a word to which Mrs. Trimmer would +primly object, hardly a sentence which would call forth the frosty +anathema of Blair, Hurd, Kames, or Whately, and yet he contrives to +embody in his simple style qualities which would almost excuse the +verbal extravagances of Carlyle. + +In regard to the characterization and plot of "The Marble Faun," there +is room for widely varying opinions. Hilda, Miriam, and Donatello will +be generally received as superior in power and depth to any of +Hawthorne's previous creations of character; Donatello, especially, +must be considered one of the most original and exquisite conceptions +in the whole range of romance; but the story in which they appear will +seem to many an unsolved puzzle, and even the tolerant and +interpretative "gentle reader" will be troubled with the unsatisfactory +conclusion. It is justifiable for a romancer to sting the curiosity of +his readers with a mystery, only on the implied obligation to explain +it at last; but this story begins in mystery only to end in mist. The +suggestive faculty is tormented rather than genially excited, and in +the end is left a prey to doubts. The central idea of the story, the +necessity of sin to convert such a creature as Donatello into a moral +being, is also not happily illustrated in the leading event. When +Donatello kills the wretch who malignantly dogs the steps of Miriam, +all readers think that Donatello committed no sin at all; and the +reason is, that Hawthorne has deprived the persecutor of Miriam of all +human attributes, made him an allegorical representation of one of the +most fiendish forms of unmixed evil, so that we welcome his destruction +with something of the same feeling with which, in following the +allegory of Spenser or Bunyan, we rejoice in the hero's victory over +the Blatant Beast or Giant Despair. Conceding, however, that +Donatello's act was murder, and not "justifiable homicide," we are +still not sure that the author's conception of his nature and of the +change caused in his nature by that act, are carried out with a +felicity corresponding to the original conception. + +In the first volume, and in the early part of the second, the author's +hold on his design is comparatively firm, but it somewhat relaxes as he +proceeds, and in the end it seems almost to escape from his grasp. Few +can be satisfied with the concluding chapters, for the reason that +nothing is really concluded. We are willing to follow the ingenious +processes of Calhoun's deductive logic, because we are sure, that, +however severely they task the faculty of attention, they will lead to +some positive result; but Hawthorne's logic of events leaves us in the +end bewildered in a labyrinth of guesses. The book is, on the whole, +such a great book, that its defects are felt with all the more force. + +In this rapid glance at some of the peculiarities of Hawthorne's +genius, we have not, of course, been able to do full justice to the +special merits of the works we have passed in review; but we trust that +we have said nothing which would convey the impression that we do not +place them among the most remarkable romances produced in an age in +which romance-writing has called forth some of the highest powers of +the human mind. In intellect and imagination, in the faculty of +discerning spirits and detecting laws, we doubt if any living novelist +is his equal; but his genius, in its creative action, has been +heretofore attracted to the dark rather than the bright side of the +interior life of humanity, and the geniality which evidently is in him +has rarely found adequate expression. In the many works which he may +still be expected to write, it is to be hoped that his mind will lose +some of its sadness of tone without losing any of its subtilty and +depth; but, in any event, it would be unjust to deny that he has +already done enough to insure him a commanding position in American +literature as long as American literature has an existence. + + * * * * * + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Le Prime Quattro Edizioni della Divina Commedia Letteralmente +Ristampate per Cura di_ G.G. WARREN LORD VERNON. Londra: Presso Tommaso +e Guglielmo Boone. MDCCCLVIII. 4to. pp. xxvi., 748. + +The zeal with which the study of Dante has been followed by students in +every country of Europe, during the last forty years, is one of the +most illustrative facts of the moral as well as of the intellectual +character of the period. The interest which has attracted men of the +most different tempers and persuasions to this study is not due alone +to the poetic or historic value of his works, however high we may place +them in these respects, but also and especially to the circumstance +that they present a complete and distinct view of the internal life and +spiritual disposition of an age in which the questions which still +chiefly concern men were for the first time positively stated, and +which exhibited in its achievements and its efforts some of the highest +qualities of human nature in a condition of vigor such as they have +never since shown. Dante himself combined a power of imagination beyond +that of any other poet with an intensity and directness of individual +character not less extraordinary. The tendency of modern civilization +is to diminish rather than to strengthen the originality and +independence of individuals. Autocracy and democracy seem to have a +like effect in reducing men to a uniform level of thought and effort. +And thus during a time when these two principles have been brought into +sharp conflict, it is not surprising that the most thoughtful students +should turn to the works of a man who by actual experience, or by force +of imagination, comprehended all the conditions of his own age, and +exhibited in his life and in his writings an individualism of the +noblest sort. The conservative and the reformer, the king and the +radical, the priest and the heretic, the man of affairs and the man of +letters, have taken their seats, side by side, on the scholars' +benches, before the same teacher, and, after listening to his large +discourse, have discussed among themselves the questions in religion, +in philosophy, in morals, politics, or history, which his words +suggested or explained. + +The success which has attended these studies has been in some degree +proportioned to the zeal with which they have been pursued. Dante is +now better understood and more intelligently commented than ever +before. Much remains to be done as regards the clearing up of some +difficult points and the explanation of some dark passages,--and the +obscurity in which Dante intentionally involved some portions of his +writings is such as to leave little hope that their absolute meaning +will ever be satisfactorily established. The history of the study of +the poet, of the comments on his meaning or his text, of the formation +of the commonly received text, and of the translations of the "Divina +Commedia," affords much curious and entertaining matter to the lover of +purely literary and bibliographic narrative, and incidentally +illustrates the general character of each century since his death. As +regards the settlement of the text, no single publication has ever +appeared of equal value to that of the magnificent volume the title of +which stands at the head of this notice. Lord Vernon has been known for +many years as the most munificent fosterer of Dantesque publications. +One after another, precious and costly books upon Dante have appeared, +edited and printed at his expense, showing both a taste and a +liberality as honorable as unusual. + +The first four editions of the "Divina Commedia," of which this volume +is a reprint, are all of excessive rarity. Although each is a document +of the highest importance in determining the text, few of the editors +of the poem have had the means of consulting more than one or two of +them. The volumes are to be found united only in the Library of the +British Museum, and it is but a few years that even that great +collection has included them all. They were printed originally between +1470 and 1480 at Foligno, Jesi, Mantua, and Naples; and their chief +value arises from the fact that they present the various readings of +three, if not four, early and selected manuscripts. The doubt whether +four manuscripts are represented by them is occasioned by the +similarity between the editions of Foligno and Naples, which are of +such a sort (for instance, correspondence in the most unlikely and odd +misprints) as to prove that one must have served as the basis of the +other. But at the same time there are such differences between them as +indicate a separate revision of each, and possibly the consultation by +their editors of different codices. + +Unfortunately, there is no edition of the "Divina Commedia" which can +claim any special authority,--none which has even in a small degree +such authority as belongs to the first folio of Shakspeare's plays. The +text, as now received, rests upon a comparison of manuscripts and early +printed editions; and as affording to scholars the means of an +independent critical judgment upon it, a knowledge of the readings of +these earliest editions is indispensable. But reprints of old books are +proverbially open to error. The reprint of the first folio Shakspeare +is so full of mistakes as to be of comparatively little use. The +character of the Italian language is such that inaccuracies are both +easier and more dangerous than in English. Unless the reprint of the +first four editions were literally correct, it would be of little +value. To secure this correctness, so far as was possible, Lord Vernon +engaged Mr. Panizzi, the chief librarian of the British Museum, to edit +the volume. A more competent editor never lived. Mr. Panizzi is +distinguished not more for his thorough and appreciative acquaintance +with the poetic literature of his country than for the extent and +accuracy of his bibliographical knowledge and the refinement of his +bibliographic skill. There can be no doubt that the reprint is as exact +as the most rigid critic could desire. It is a monument of patience and +of unpretending labor, as well as of typographic beauty,--the work of +the editor having been well seconded by that well-known disciple of +Aldus, Mr. Charles Whittingham. + +Nor is it only in essential variations that these four texts are +important, but also in the illustration which their different spelling +and their varying grammatical forms afford in regard to the language +used by Dante. At the time when these editions appeared, the +orthography of the Italian tongue was not yet established, and its +grammatical inflections not in all cases definitely settled. Printing +had not yet been long enough in use to fix a permanent form upon words. +Moreover, the misprints themselves, which in these early editions are +very numerous, often give hints as to the changes which they may have +induced, or as to the misplacing of letters most likely to occur, and +consequently most likely to lead to unobserved errors of the text. + +The style of the printing in these first editions, and the aid it may +give, or the difficulty it may occasion, are hardly to be understood +without an extract. We open at _Paradiso_, xv. 70. Cacciaguida has just +spoken to his descendant, and then follows, according to the Foligno, +the following passage:-- + + Io mi uolfi abeatrice et quella udio + pria chio parlaffi et arofemi un cenno + che fece crefcer lali aluoler mio + + Poi cominciai con leefftto elfenno + come laprima equalita napparfe + dun pefo per ciafchun di noi fi fenno + + Pero chel fole che nallumo et arfe + colcaldo et conlaluce et fi iguali + che tutte fimiglianze fono fcarfe. + +This looks different enough from the common text, that, for example, of +the Florentine edition of 1844. + + I' mi volsi a Beatrice, e quella udio + Pria ch' io parlassi, ed arrisemi un cenno + Che fece crescer l' ale al voler mio. + + Poi cominciai cosi: L' affetto e il senno, + Come la prima egualitŕ v' apparse, + D' un peso per ciascun di voi si fenno; + + Perocchč al Sol, che v' allumň ed arse + Col caldo e con la luce, en sě iguali, + Che tutte simiglianze sono scarse. + +"I turned to Beatrice, and she heard before I spoke, and smiled on me a +sign which added wings to my desire. Then I began thus: Love and +wisdom, as soon as the primal Equality has appeared to you, become of +one weight in each one of you; since in that Sun, which illuminates and +warms you with heat and light, they are so equal, that every comparison +falls short." + +The three other ancient texts are each quite as different from the +modern one as that which we have given, nor is the passage one that +affords example of unusual variations. It would have been easy to +select many others varying much more than this, but our object is to +show the general character of these first editions. The second line of +the quotation offers a various reading which is supported by the +_arrossemi_ of the Jesi edition, and the _arossemi_ of that of Naples, +as well as by the text of the comment of Benvenuto da Imola, and some +other early authorities. But even were the weight of evidence in its +favor far greater than it is, it could never be received in place of +the thoroughly Dantesque and exquisite expression, _arrisemi un cenno_, +which is found in the Mantua edition. The _napparse_ and the _noi_ of +the fifth and sixth lines and the _nallumo_ of the seventh are plainly +mistakes of the scribe, puzzled by the somewhat obscure meaning of the +passage. Not one of the four editions before us gives us the right +pronouns, but they are found in the Bartolinian codex, (as well as many +others,) and they are established in the rare Aldine edition of 1502, +the chief source of the modern text. In the eighth line, where we now +read _en sě iguali_, the four give us _et_ or _e si iguali_, a reading +from which it is difficult to extract a meaning, unless, with the +Bartolinian, we omit the _che_ in the preceding line, and suppose the +_pero chel_ to stand, not for _perocchč al_, but for _perocchč +il_,--or, retaining the _che_, read the first words _perocch' č il +Sol_, and take the clause as a parenthesis. The meaning, according to +the first supposition, would be, "Love and wisdom are of one measure in +you, (since the Sun [_sc._ the primal Equality] warmed and enlightened +you,) and so equal that," etc. According to the second supposition, we +should translate, "Since it [the primal Equality] is the sun which," +etc. Benvenuto da Imola gives still a third reading, making the _e si +iguali_ into _ee si iguale_, or, in modern orthography, _č sě iguale_; +but, as this spoils the rhyme, it may be left out of account. There +seems to us to be some ground for believing the second reading +suggested above, + + Perocch' č il Sol che v' allumň ed arse + Con caldo e con la luce, e sě iguali. + +to be the true one, not only from its correspondence with most of the +early copies, but from the rarity of the use of _en_ by Dante. There is +but one other passage in the poem where it is found (_Purgatory_, xvi. +121). + +Such is an example, taken at random, of the doubts suggested and the +illustration afforded by these editions in the study of the text. Of +course such minute criticism is of interest only to those few who +reckon Dante's words at their true worth. The common reader may be +content with the text as he finds it in common editions, But Dante, +more than any other author, stimulates his student to research as to +his exact words; for no other author has been so choice in his +selection of them. He is not only the greatest modern master of +condensation in style, but he has the deepest insight into the value +and force of separate words, the most delicate sense of appropriateness +in position, and in the highest degree the poetic faculty of selecting +the word most fitting for the thought and most characteristic in +expression. It rarely happens that the place of a word of any +importance is a matter of indifference in his verse, no regard being +had to the rhythm; and every one sufficiently familiar with the +language in which he wrote to be conscious of its indefinable powers +will feel, though he may be unable to point out specifically, a marked +distinction in the quality and combinations of the words in the +different parts of the poem. The description of the entrance to Hell, +in the third canto of the _Inferno_ is, for instance, hardly more +different from the description of the Terrestrial Paradise, +(_Purgatory_, xxviii.,) in scenery and imagery, than it is in the vague +but absolute qualities of language, in its rhythmical and verbal +essence. + +But, leaving these subtilties, let us look at some of the disputed +passages of the poem, upon which the texts before us may give their +evidence. + +In the episode of Francesca da Rimini, Mr. Barlow has recently +attempted to give currency to a various reading long known, but never +accepted, in the line (_Inferno_, v. 102) in which Francesca expresses +her horror at the manner of her death. She says, _il modo ancor m' +offende_, "the manner still offends me." But for _il modo_ Mr. Barlow +would substitute _il mondo_, "the world still offends me,"--that is, as +we suppose, by holding a false opinion of her conduct. Mr. Barlow's +suggestions are always to be received with respect, but we cannot but +think him wrong in proposing this change. The spirits in Hell are not +supposed to be aware of what is passing upon earth; they are +self-convicted, (_Purgatory_, xxvi. 85, 86,) and Francesca being doomed +to eternal woe, the world could not do her wrong by taxing her with +sin; while, further, the shudder at the method of her death, lasting +even in torment, seems to us a far more imaginative conception than the +one proposed in its stead. Our four texts read _elmodo_. + +In the famous simile (_Inferno_, iii. 112-114) in which Dante compares +the spirits falling from the bank of Acheron to the dead leaves +fluttering from a bough in autumn, giving, as Mr. Ruskin says, "the +most perfect image possible of their utter lightness, feebleness, +passiveness, and scattering agony of despair," our common texts have + + infin che il ramo + Rende alla terra tutte le sue spoglie, + +"Until the branch gives to the earth all its spoils"; but the texts of +Jesi and Mantua, as well as those of the Bartolinian and the Aldus, and +many other early authorities, here put the word _Vede_ in place of +_Rende_, giving a variation which for its poetic worth well deserves to +be marked, if not to be introduced into the received text. "Until the +branch sees all its spoils upon the earth" is a personification quite +in Dante's manner. A confirmation of the value of this reading is given +by the fact that Tasso preferred it to the more common one, and in his +treatise on the "Art of Poetry" praises it as full of energy. + +The value of this work of Lord Vernon's to the students of Dante, in +enabling them to secure accuracy in their statements in regard to the +early texts, has been illustrated to us by finding that Blanc, in his +useful and excellent "Vocabolario Dantesco," has not unfrequently +fallen into error through his inability to consult those first +editions. For example, in the line, (_Inferno_, xviii. 43,) _Perciň a +figuralo i piedi affissi_, as it is commonly given, or, _Perciň a +firgurarlo gli occhi affissi_, as it appears in some editions, Blanc, +who prefers the latter reading, states that _gli occhi_ is found in +_"toutes les anciennes éditions."_ But the truth is, that those of +Foligno and Naples read _ipedi_, that of Jesi has _in piedi_, and that +of Mantua _i pie_. The Aldine of 1502 is the earliest edition we have +seen which has _gli occhi_. + +In the episode of Ugolino, (_Inferno,_ xxxiii.,) the verse which has +given rise to more comment, perhaps than any other is that (the 26th) +in which the Count says, according to the usual reading, that the +narrow window in his tower had shown him many moons before he dreamed +his evil dream: _Piů lune giŕ, quand' i' feci il mal sonno,_ "Many +moons already, when I had my ill slumber." But another reading, found +in a majority of the early MSS. and editions, including those of Jesi +and Mantua gives the variation, _piů lume;_ while the editions of +Foligno and Naples give _lieve_, which, affording no intelligible +meaning, must be regarded as a mere misprint. In spite of the weight +of early authority for _lume_, the reading _lune_ is perhaps to be +preferred, as giving in a word a brief expressive statement of a weary +length of imprisonment,--while _lume_ would only serve to fix the +moment of the dream as having been between the first dawn and the full +day. It is rare that the difference between an _n_ and an _m_ is of +such marked effect. + +In the sixth canto of _Purgatory_, verse 58, Virgil says, "Behold there +a soul which _a posta_ looks toward us." Such at least is the common +reading, and the words _a posta_ are explained as meaning _fixedly._ +But this signification is somewhat forced, _a posta_, or _apposta_, +being more properly used with the meaning of _on purpose_ or +_deliberately_,--and the first four editions supply a reading without +this difficulty, and one which adds a new and significant feature to +the description. They unite in the omission of the letter _a_. The +passage then bears the meaning,--"But behold there a soul which, +_fixed_, or _placed_, alone and all apart, looks toward us." This +reading, beside being supported by the weight of ancient authority, +finds confirmation, in the context, in the terms in which Sordello's +aspect is described: "How lofty and disdainful didst thou stand! how +slow and decorous in the moving of thy eyes!" + +A curious example of the mistakes of the old copies is afforded in the +charming description of the Terrestrial Paradise in the twenty-eighth +canto of the _Purgatory_. Dante says, that the leaves on the trees, +trembling in the soft air, were not so disturbed that the little birds +in their tops ceased from any of their arts,-- + + che gli augelletti per le cime + Lasciasser d' operare ogni lor arte. + +The lines are so plain that a mistake is difficult in them; but, of our +four editions, the Jesi is the only one which gives them correctly. +Foligno and Naples read _angeleti_ for _augelletti_, while Mantua gives +us the astonishing word _intelletti_. Again, in line 98 of the same +canto, all four read, _exaltation dell' acqua_, for the simple and +correct _esalazion dell' acqua_. And in line 131, for _Eunoe si +chiama_, Jesi supplies the curious word _curioce si chiama_. + +These examples of error are not of great importance in themselves, and +are easily corrected, but they serve to illustrate the great frequency +of error in all the early texts of the "Divina Commedia," and the +probability that many errors not so readily discovered may still exist +in the text, making difficulties where none originally existed. They +are of value, furthermore, in the wider range of critical studies, as +illustrating in a striking way the liability to error which existed in +all books so long as they were preserved only by the work of scribes. +Here is a poem which was transmitted in manuscript for only about one +hundred and fifty years, the first four printed editions of which show +differences in almost every line. It is no exaggeration to say that the +variations between the editions of Foligno, Jesi, and Mantua, in +orthography, inflection, and other grammatical and dialectic forms, not +to speak of the less frequent, though still numerous differences in the +words themselves, greatly exceed, throughout the poem, the number of +lines of which it is composed. Yet by a comparison of them one with +another a consistent and generally satisfactory text has been formed. +The bearing of this upon the views to be taken of the condition of the +text of more ancient works, as, for instance, that of the Gospels, is +plain. + +The work before us is so full of matter interesting to the student of +Dante, that we are tempted to go on with further illustrations of it, +though well aware that there are few who have zeal or patience enough +to continue the examination with us. But the number of those in America +who are beginning to read the "Divina Commedia," as something more than +a mere exercise in the Italian language, is increasing, and some of +them, at least, will take pleasure with us in this inquiry concerning +the words, that is, the thoughts of Dante. Why should the minute, but +not fruitless criticism of texts be reserved for the ancient classic +writers? The great poet of the Middle Ages deserves this work at our +hands far more than any of the Latin poets, not excluding even his own +master and guide. + +The eleventh canto of the _Paradiso_ is chiefly occupied with the noble +narrative of the life of St. Francis. Reading it as we do, at such a +distance from the time of the events which it records, and with +feelings that have never been warmed into fervor by the facts or the +legends concerning the Saint, it is hard for us to appreciate at its +full worth the beauty of this canto, and its effect upon those who had +seen and conversed with the first Franciscans. Not a century had yet +passed since the death of St. Francis, and the order which he had +founded kept his memory alive in every part of the Catholic world. A +story which may be true or false, and it matters little which, tells us +that Dante himself in his early manhood had proposed to enter its +ranks. There is no doubt that its vows of poverty and chastity, its +arduous but invigorating rule during its early days, appealed with +strong force to his temperament and his imagination, as promising a +withdrawal from those worldly temptations of which he was conscious, +from that pressure of private and public affairs of which he was +impatient. The contrast between the effects which the life of St. +Francis and that of St. Dominic had upon the poet's mind is shown by +the contrast in tone in which in successive cantos he tells of these +two great pillars of the Church. + +In lines 71 and 72, speaking of Poverty, the bride of the Saint, he +says,-- + + Si che dove Maria rimase giuso, + Ella con Cristo salse in sulia croce: + +"So that whilst Mary remained below, she mounted the cross with +Christ," Such is the common reading. Now in all four of the editions +which are in Lord Vernon's reprint, in Benvenuto da Imola, in the +Bartolinian codex, in the precious codex of Cortona, and in many other +early manuscripts and editions, the word _pianse_ is found in the place +of _salse_; "She lamented upon the cross with Christ." The antithesis, +though less direct, is not less striking, and the phrase seems to us to +become simpler, more natural, and more touching. Yet this reading has +found little favor with recent editors, and one of them goes so far as +to say, "che non solo impoverisce, ma adultera l' idea." + +Passing over other variations, some of them of importance, in this +eleventh canto, we find the last verses standing in most modern +editions,-- + + E vedrŕ il coreggier che argomenta + U' ben s' impingua, se non si vaneggia. + +And the meaning is explained as being,--"And he who is girt with a +leathern cord (_i.e._ the Dominican) will see what is meant by 'Where +well they fatten, if they do not stray.'" But to this there are several +objections. No other example of _coreggier_ thus used is, we believe, +to be found. Moreover, the introduction of a Dominican to learn this +lesson is forced, for it was Dante himself who had had a doubt as to +the meaning of these words, and it was for his instruction that the +discourse in which they were explained was held. We prefer, therefore, +the reading which is found in the editions of Jesi, Foligno, and +Naples, (in part in that of Mantua,) and which is given by many other +ancient texts: _Vedrai_ or _E vedrai il correger che argomenta:_ "Thou +wilt see the reproof which 'Where well they fatten, if they do not +stray,' conveys." This reading has been adopted by Mr. Cayley in his +remarkable translation. + +One more instance of the value of Lord Vernon's work, and we have done. +The 106th, 107th, and 108th verses of the twenty-sixth canto of the +_Paradiso_ are among the most difficult of the poem, and have given +rise to great variety of comment. In the edition of Florence of 1830, +in those of Foscolo, and of Costa, and many others, they stand,-- + + Perch' io la veggio nel verace speglio + Che fa di se pareglie l' altre cose + E nulla face lui di se pareglio. + +And they are explained by Bianchi as meaning, "Because I see it in that +true mirror (i. e. God) which makes other things like to themselves, +(that is, represents them as they are,) while nothing can represent Him +like to Himself." Those who love the quarrels of commentators should +look at the notes in the Variorum editions of Padua or Florence to see +with what amusing asperity they have treated each other's solutions of +the passage. Italian words of abuse have a sonorous quality which gives +grandeur to a skirmish of critics. One is declared by his opponent to +have _ingarbugliato_ the clearest meaning; another _guasta il +sentimento_ and _sproposita in grammatica_; a third brings _falso_ and +_assurdo_ to the charge, and, not satisfied with their force, adds +_blasfemo_; a fourth declares that the third has contrived _capovolgere +la consegitenza_; and so on;--from all which the reader, trying to find +shelter from the pelting of hard words, discovers that the meaning is +not clear even to the most confident of the critics. But, standing +apart from the battle, and looking only at the text, and not at the +bewildered comment, we find in the editions of Foligno, Jesi, and +Naples, and in many other ancient texts, a reading which seems to us +somewhat easier than the one commonly adopted. We copy the lines after +the Foligno:-- + + Per chio laueggio neluerace speglio + che fa dise pareglio alaltre cose + et nulla face lui dise pareglio. + +And we would translate them, "Because I see it in that true mirror who +in Himself affords a likeness to [or of] all other things, while +nothing gives back to Him a likeness of Himself." Here _pareglio_ +corresponds with the Provençal _parelh_ and the later French +_pareil_,--and the Provençal phrase _rendre le parelha_ affords an +example of similar application to that of the word in Dante. + +With us in America, criticism is not rated as it deserves; it is little +followed as a study, and the love for the great masters and poets of +other times and other tongues than our own fails to stimulate the ardor +of students to the thorough examination of their thoughts and words. No +doubt, criticism, as it has too often been pursued, is of small worth, +displaying itself in useless inquiries, and lavishing time and labor +upon insoluble and uninteresting questions. But such is not its true +end. Verbal criticism, rightly viewed, has a dignity which belongs to +few other studies; for it deals with words as the symbols of +thoughts,--with words, which are the most spiritual of the instruments +of human power, the most marvellous of human possessions. It makes +thought accurate, and perception fine. It adds truth to the creations +of imagination by teaching the modes by which they may be best +expressed, and it thus leads to fuller and more appreciative +understanding and enjoyment of the noblest works of the past. There +can, indeed, be no thorough culture without it. + +To restore the balance of our lives, in these days of haste, novelty, +and restlessness, there is a need of a larger infusion into them of +pursuits which have no end of immediate publicity or instant return of +tangible profit,--of pursuits which, while separating us from the +intrusive world around us, should introduce us into the freer, +tranquiller, and more spacious world of noble and everlasting thought. +The greener and lonelier precincts of our minds are now trampled upon +by the hurrying feet of daily events and transient interests. If we +would keep that spiritual region unpolluted, we need to acquaint +ourselves with some other literature than that of newspapers and +magazines, and to entertain as familiars the men long dead, yet living +in their works. As Americans, our birthrights in the past are +imperfect; we are born into the present alone. But he who lives only in +present things lives but half a life, and death comes to him as an +impertinent interruption: by living also in the past we learn to value +the present at its worth, to hold ourselves ready for its end. With +Dante, taking him as a guide and companion in our privater moods, we +may, even in the natural body, pass through the world of spirit. + +It will be a good indication of the improvement in the intellectual +disposition of our people, when the study of Dante becomes more +general. Meanwhile, on the part of his few students in America, we +would offer our thanks to Lord Vernon and to Mr. Panizzi for the aid +which the liberality of the one and the skill and learning of the other +have given to us, and for the honor they have done to the memory of our +common Author and Leader. + +_Notes of Travel and Study in Italy_. By CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. Boston: +Ticknor & Fields. 1860. pp. x., 320. + +There is, perhaps, no country with which we are so intimate as with +Italy,--none of which we are always so willing to hear more. Poets and +prosers have alike compared her to a beautiful woman; and while one +finds nothing but loveliness in her, another shudders at her fatal +fascination. She is the very Witch-Venus of the Middle Ages. Roger +Ascham says, "I was once in _Italy_ myself, but I thank God my abode +there was but nine days; and yet I saw in that little time, in one +city, more liberty to sin than ever I heard tell of in our noble city +of London in nine years." He quotes triumphantly the proverb,--_Inglese +italianato, diavolo incarnato_. A century later, the entertaining +"Richard Lassels, Gent., who Travelled through Italy Five times as +Tutor to several of the _English_ Nobility and Gentry," and who is open +to new engagements in that kind, declares, that, "For the Country +itself, it seemed to me to be _Nature's Darling_, and the _Eldest +Sister_ of all other Countries; carrying away from them all the +greatest blessings and favours, and receiving such gracious looks from +the _Sun_ and _Heaven_, that, if there be any fault in _Italy_, it is, +that her Mother _Nature_ hath cockered her too much, even to make her +become Wanton." Plainly, our Tannhäuser is but too ready to go back to +the Venus-berg! + +A new book on Italy seems a dangerous experiment. Has not all been told +and told and told again? Is it not one chief charm of the land, that it +is changeless without being Chinese? Did not Abbot Samson, in 1159, +_Scotti habitum induens_, (which must have shown his massive calves to +great advantage.) probably see much the same popular characteristics +that Hawthorne saw seven hundred years later? Shall a man try to be +entertaining after Montaigne, aesthetic after Winckelmann, wise after +Goethe, or trenchant after Forsyth? Can he hope to bring back anything +so useful as the _fork_, which honest Tom Coryate made prize of two +centuries and a half ago, and put into the greasy fingers of Northern +barbarians? Is not the "Descrittione" of Leandro Alberti still a +competent itinerary? And can one hope to pick up a fresh Latin +quotation, when Addison and Eustace have been before him with their +scrap-baskets? + +If there be anything which a person of even moderate accomplishments +may be presumed to know, it is Italy. The only open question left seems +to be, whether Shakespeare were the only man that could write his name +who had never been there. We have read our share of Italian travels, +both in prose and verse, but, as the nicely discriminating Dutchman +found that "too moch brahndee was too moch, but too moch lager-beer was +jost hright," so we are inclined to say that too much Italy is just +what we want. After Des Brosses, we are ready for Henri Beyle, and +Ampčre, and Hillard, and About, and Gallenga, and Julia Kavanagh; +"Corinne" only makes us hungry for George Sand. That no one can tell us +anything new is as undeniable as the compensating fact that no one can +tell us anything too old. + +There are two kinds of travellers,--those who tell us what they went to +see, and those who tell us what they saw. The latter class are the only +ones whose journals are worth the sifting; and the value of their eyes +depends on the amount of individual character they took with them, and +of the previous culture that had sharpened and tutored the faculty of +observation. In our conscious age the frankness and naďveté of the +elder voyagers is impossible, and we are weary of those humorous +confidences on the subject of fleas with which we are favored by some +modern travellers, whose motto should be (slightly altered) from +Horace,--_Flea-bit, et toto cantabitur orbe._ A naturalist +self-sacrificing enough may have this experience more cheaply at home. + +The book before us is the record of a second residence in Italy, of +about two years. This in itself is an advantage; since a renewed +experience, after an interval of absence and distraction, enables us to +distinguish what had merely interested us by its strangeness from what +is permanently worthy of study and remembrance. In a second visit we +know at least what we do _not_ wish to see, and our first impressions +have so defined themselves that they afford us a safer standard of +comparison. To most travellers Italy is a land of pure vacation, a +lotus-eating region, "in which it seemeth always afternoon." But Mr. +Norton, whose book shows bow well his time had been employed at home, +could not but spend it to good purpose abroad. The word "study" has a +right to its place on his title-page, and his volume is worthy of a +student. He shows himself to be one who, like Wordsworth, "does not +much or oft delight in personal talk"; there is no gossip between the +covers of his book, no impertinent self-obtrusion. Familiar with what +has been written about Italy by others, he has known how to avoid the +trite highways, and by going back to what was old has found topics that +are really fresh and delightful. The Italy of the ancient Romans is a +foreign country to us, and must always continue so; but the Italy of +the Middle Ages is nearer, not so much in time, as because there is no +impassable rift of religious faith, and consequently of ideas and +motives, between us and it. Far enough away in the centuries to be +picturesque, it is near enough in the sympathy of belief and thought to +be thoroughly intelligible. The chapter on the Brotherhood of the +Misericordia at Florence is remarkably interesting, and the coincidence +which Mr. Norton points out in a note between the circumstances which +led to its foundation and those in which a somewhat similar society +originated in California so lately as 1859 is not only curious, but +pleasant, as showing that there is a natural piety proper to man in all +ages alike. In his account of the building of the Cathedral of Orvieto, +and his notices of Rome as it was when Dante and Petrarch saw it, Mr. +Norton has struck a rich vein, which we hope he will find time to work +more thoroughly hereafter. By the essential fairness of his mind, his +patience in investigation, and his sympathy with what is noble in +character and morally influential in events, he seems to us peculiarly +fitted for that middle ground occupied by the historical essayist, to +whom literature is something coördinate with politics, and who finds a +great book more eventful than a small battle. + +But if, as a scholar and lover of Art, Mr. Norton naturally turns to +the past, he does not fail to tell us whatever he finds worth knowing +in the present. His tone of mind and habitual subjects of thought may +be inferred from the character of the topics that interest him. The +glimpses he gives us of the actual condition of the people of Italy, as +indicated by their practical conception of the religious dogmas of +their Church, by the quality of the cheap literature that is popular +among them, of the tracts provided for their spiritual aliment by +ecclesiastical authority, and of the caricatures produced in 1848-9, +(as in his notice of "Don Pirlone,") are of special value, and show that +he knows where to look for signs of what lies beneath the surface. His +appreciation of the beautiful in Art has not been cultivated at the +expense of his interest in the moral, political, and physical +well-being of man. His touching sketch of the life of Letterato, the +founder of Ragged Schools, shows that moral loveliness attracts his +sympathy as much when embodied in a life of obscure usefulness as when +it gleams in the saints and angels of Fra Angelico. A conscientious +Protestant, he exposes the corruptions of the Established Church in +Italy, not as an anti-Romanist, but because he sees that they are +practically operative in the social and political degradation of the +people. What good there is never escapes his attention, and we learn +from him much that is new and interesting concerning public charities +and private efforts for the elevation of the lower orders. The miles of +statuary in the Vatican do not weary him so much that he cannot at +night make the round of evening schools for the poor. + +We have not read a pleasanter or more instructive book of Italian +travel than this. Mr. Norton's range of interest is so wide that we are +refreshed with continual variety of topic; and his style is pure, +clear, and chaste, without any sacrifice of warmth or richness. It is +always especially agreeable to us to encounter an American who is a +scholar in the true sense of the word, in which sense it is never +dissociated from gentleman. When, as in the present instance, +scholarship is united with a deep and active interest in whatever +concerns the practical well-being of men, we have one of the best +results of our modern civilization. We are no lovers of dilettantism, +but we see in these scholarly tastes and habits which do not seclude a +man from the duties of real life and useful citizenship the only +safeguard against the evils which the rapid heaping-up of wealth is +sure to bring with it. + +We do not always agree with Mr. Norton in his estimate of the +comparative merit of different artists. We think he sometimes makes Mr. +Ruskin's mistake of attributing to positive religious sentiment what is +rather to be ascribed to the negative influence of circumstances and +date. We cannot help thinking that the mere arrangement of their +figures by such painters as Cima da Conegliano and Francesco Francia, +the architectural regularity of their disposition, the sculpturesque +dignity of their attitudes, and the consequent impression of +simplicity and repose which they convey, have much to do with the +religious effect they produce on the mind, as contrasted with the more +dramatic and picturesque conceptions of later artists. When we look at +John Bellino's "Gods come down to taste the Fruits of the Earth," we +cannot think him essentially a more religious man than his great pupil +who painted that truly divine countenance of Christ in "The +Tribute-Money." At the same time we go along with Mr. Norton heartily, +where, in the concluding pages of his book, with equal learning and +eloquence, he points out the causes and traces the progress of the +moral and artistic decline which came over Italy in the sixteenth +century, and whose effect made the seventeenth almost a desert. This is +one of the most striking passages in the volume, and the lesson of it +is brought home to us with a force and fervor worthy of the theme. It +also affords a good type of the quiet vigor of thought and the high +moral purpose which are characteristic of the author. + + +1. _An American Dictionary of the English Language,_ etc., etc. By +NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D. Revised and enlarged by CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH, +Professor in Yale College. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam. 1859. +pp. ccxxxvi., 1512. + +2. _A Dictionary of the English Language._ By JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, LL. +D. Boston: Hickling, Swan, & Brewer. 1860. pp. lxviii,, 1786. + +Since the famous Battle of the Books in St. James's Library, no +literary controversy has been more sharply waged than that between the +adherents of the rival Dictionaries of Doctors Worcester and Webster. +The attack was begun thirty years ago, by Dr. Webster's publishers, +when Dr. Worcester's "Comprehensive Dictionary" first appeared in +print. On the publication of his "Universal and Critical Dictionary," +in 1846, it was renewed, and, not to speak of occasional skirmishes +during the interval, the appearance of Dr. Worcester's enlarged and +finished work brought matters to the crisis of a pitched battle. + +From this long conflict Dr. Worcester has unquestionably come off +victorious. Dr. Webster seemed to assume that he had a kind of monopoly +in the English language, and that whoever ventured to compile a +dictionary was guilty of infringing his patent-right. He drew up a list +of words, and triumphantly asked Dr. Worcester where he had found them, +unless in his two quartos of 1828. Dr. Worcester replied by showing +that most of the words were to be found in previous English +dictionaries, and added, with sly humor, that he freely acknowledged +Dr. Webster's exclusive property in the word "bridegoom," and others +like it, which would be sought for vainly in any volumes but his own. +Dr. Webster's attack was as unfair as the result of it was unfortunate +for himself. + +We have several reasons, which seem to us sufficient, for preferring +Dr. Worcester's Dictionary; but we are not, on that account, disposed +to underrate the remarkable merits of its rival. Dr. Webster was a man +of vigorous mind, and endowed with a genuine faculty of independent +thinking. He has hardly received justice at the hands of his +countrymen, a large portion of whom have too hastily taken a few +obstinate whimsies as the measure of his powers. Utterly fanciful as +are many of his etymologies, we should be false to our duty as critics, +if we did not acknowledge that Dr. Webster possessed in very large +measure the chief qualities which go to the making of a great +philologist. The very tendency to theorize, which led him to adopt +those oddities of spelling by which he may be said to be chiefly known, +united as it was to an understanding of uncommon breadth and clearness, +would under more favorable auspices have given him a very eminent place +among the philosophic students of language. His great mistake was in +attempting to force his peculiar notions upon the world in his +Dictionary, instead of confining them to his Preface, or putting them +forward tentatively in a separate treatise. The importance which he +attached to these trifles ought to have given him a hint that others +might be as obstinate on the other side, and that the prejudices of +taste have much tougher roots than those of opinion. We are inclined to +think that many of the changes proposed by Dr. Webster will be adopted +in the course of time. But it is a matter of little consequence, and +the progress of such reforms is slow. Already two hundred years ago, +James Howel (the author of Charles Lamb's favorite "Epistolae +Ho-Elianae") advocated similar reforms, and, as far as the printers +would let him, carried them out in practice. "The printer hath not bin +so careful as he should have bin," he complains. He especially condemns +the superfluous letters in many of our words, choosing to write _don_, +_com_, and _som_, rather than _done_, _come_, and _some_. "Moreover," +he says, "those words that have the Latin for their original, the +author prefers that orthography rather than the French, whereby divers +letters are spar'd: as _Physic, Logic, Afric_, not _Physique, Logique, +Afrique; favor, honor, labor_, not _favour, honour, labour_, and very +many more; as also he omits the Dutch _k_ in most words; here you shall +read _peeple_, not _pe-ople_, _tresure_, not _tre-asure_, _toung_, not +_ton-gue_, &c.; _Parlement_, not _Parliament_; _busines, witnes, +sicknes_, not _businesse, witnesse, sicknesse_; _star, war, far_, not +_starre, warre, farre_; and multitudes of such words, wherein the two +last letters may well be spar'd. Here you shall also read _pity, piety, +witty_, not _piti-e, pieti-e, witti-e_, as strangers at first sight +pronounce them, and abundance of such like words." + +Howel gives a weak reason for making the changes he proposes, namely, +that the language will thereby be simplified to foreigners. He hints at +the true one when he says that "we do not speak as we write." Dr. +Webster also, speaking of certain words ending in _our_, says, "What +motive could induce them to write these words, and _errour, honour, +favour, inferiour_, &c., in this manner, following neither the Latin +nor the French, I cannot conceive." Had Dr. Webster's knowledge of the +written English language been as great as it undoubtedly was of its +linguistic relations, he would have seen that the _spelling_ followed +the _accent_. The third verse of the Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" +would have satisfied him:-- + + "And bathéd every root in such licoúr"; + +and a little farther on,-- + + "Or swinken with his houdés and laboúre." + +In this respect the spelling of our older writers, where it can be +depended on, and especially of reformers like Howel, is of value, as +throwing some light on the question, how long the Norman pronunciation +lingered in England. Warner, for instance, in his "Albion's England," +spells _creator_ and _creature_ as they are spelt now, but gives the +French accent to both; and we are inclined to think that the charge of +speaking "right Chaucer," brought against the courtiers of Queen +Elizabeth, referred rather to accent than diction. + +The very title of Dr. Webster's Dictionary indicates a radical +misapprehension as to the nature and office of such a work. He calls +the result of his labors an "_American_ Dictionary of the English +Language," as if provincialism were a merit. He evidently thought that +the business of a lexicographer was to _regulate_, not to _record_. +Sometimes also his zeal as an etymologist misled him, as in his famous +attempt to make the word _bridegroom_ more conformable to its supposed +Anglo-Saxon root and its modern Teutonic congeners. It never occurred +to him that we were still as far as ever from the goal, and that it +would be quite as inconvenient to explain that the termination _goom_ +was a derivation from the Anglo-Saxon _guma_ as that it was a +corruption of it; the point to be gained being, after all, that we +should be able to find out the meaning of the English word +_bridegroom_, having no pressing need of _guma_ for conversational +purposes. We have spoken of this word only because we have heard it +brought up against Dr. Webster as often as anything else, and because +the disproportionate antipathy produced by this and a few similar +oddities shows, that, the primary object of all writing being the clear +conveyance of meaning, and not only so, but its conveyance in the most +winning way, a writer blunders who wilfully estranges the reader's eye +or jars upon its habitual associations, and that a lexicographer +blunders still more desperately, who, upon system, teaches to offend in +that kind. And it is amusing in respect to this very word _bridegoom_, +that the whimsey is not Dr. Webster's own, but that the bee was put +into his bonnet by Horne Tooke. + +Webster in these matters was a bit of a Hotspur. He thought to deal +with language as the vehement Percy would have done with the Trent. The +smug and silver stream was to be allowed no more wilful windings, but +to run + + "In a new channel fair and evenly." + +He found an equally hot-headed Glendower, wherever there was an +educated man, ready with the answer,-- + + "Not wind? it shall; it must; you see it + doth." + +"You see _it doth_" is an argument whose force no theorist ever takes +into his reckoning. + +We said that the title "American Dictionary of the English Language" +was an absurdity. Fancy a "Cuban Dictionary of the Spanish Language." +It would be of value only to the comparative philologist, curious in +the changes of meaning, pronunciation, and the like, which +circumstances are always bringing about in languages subjected to new +conditions of life and climate. But we must not forget to say +that the title chosen by Dr. Webster conveyed also a meaning +creditable to his spirit and judgment. He always stoutly maintained the +right of English as spoken in America to all the privileges of a living +language. In opposition to the purists who would have clasped the +language forever within the covers of Johnson, he insisted on the +necessity of coining new words or adapting old ones to express new +things and new relations. It is many years since we read his "Remarks" +(if that was the title) on Pickering's "Vocabulary," and in answer to +the rather supercilious criticisms on himself in the "Anthology"; but +the impression left on our mind by that pamphlet is one of great +respect for the good sense, acuteness, and courage of its author. And +of his Dictionary it may safely be said, that, with all its mistakes, +no work of the kind had then appeared so learned and so comprehensive. +It may be doubted if any living language possessed at that time a +dictionary, or one, at least, the work of a single man, in all respects +its equal. + +But etymologies are not the most important part of a good working +dictionary, the intention of which is not to inform readers and writers +what a word may have meant before the Dispersion, but what it means +now. The pedigree of an adjective or substantive is of little +consequence to ninety-nine men in a hundred, and the writers who have +wielded our mother-tongue with the greatest mastery have been men who +knew what words had most meaning to their neighbors and acquaintances, +and did not stay their pens to ask what ideas the radicals of those +words may possibly have conveyed to the mind of a bricklayer going up +from Padanaram to seek work on the Tower of Babel. A thoroughly good +etymological dictionary of English is yet to seek; and even if we +should ever get one, it will be for students, and not for the laity. +Nor is it the primary object of a common dictionary to trace the +history of the language. Of great interest and importance to scholars, +it is of comparatively little to Smith and Brown and their children at +the public school. It is a work apart, which we hope to see +accomplished by the London Philological Society in a manner worthy of +comparison with what has been partly done for German by the brothers +Grimm,--alas that the illustrious duality should have been broken by +death! A lexicon of that kind should be an index to all the more +eminent books in the language; but we do not hold this to be the office +of a dictionary for daily reference. A dictionary that should embrace +every unusual word, every new compound, every metaphorical turn of +meaning, to be found in our great writers, would be a compendium of the +genius of our authors rather than of our language; and a lexicographer +who rakes the books of second and third-rate men for out-of-the-way +phrases is doing us no favor. A dictionary is not a drag-net to bring +up for us the broken pots and dead kittens, the sewerage of speech, as +well as its living fishes. Nor do we think it a fair test of such a +work, that one should seek in it for every odd word that may have +tickled his fancy in a favorite author. Like most middle-aged readers, +we have our specially private volumes. One of these--but we will not +betray the secret of our loves--contains some rare words, such as the +Gallicism _mistresse-piece_, and the delightful hybrid _pundonnore_ for +trifling points-of-honor; yet we by no means complain that we can find +neither of them in Worcester, and only the former (with a ludicrously +mistaken definition) in Webster. + +A conclusive reason with us for preferring Dr. Worcester's Dictionary +is, that its author has properly understood his functions, and has +aimed to give us a true view of English as it is, and not as he himself +may have wished it should be or thought it ought to he. Its etymologies +are sufficient for the ordinary reader,--sometimes superfluously full, +as where the same word is given over and over again in cognate +languages. We do not see the use, under the word PLAIN, of taking up +room with a list like the following: "L. _planus;_ It. _piano;_ Sp. +_piano;_ Fr. _plain._" Not content with this, Dr. Worcester gives it +once more under PLAN: "L. _planus_, flat; It. _piano_, a plan; Sp. +_piano;_ Fr. _plan._--Dut., Ger., Dan., and Sw. _plan._" Even yet we +have not done with it, for under PLANE we find "L. _planus;_ It. +_piano;_ Sp._plano_, Fr. _plan._" One would think this rather a Polyglot +Lexicon than an English Dictionary. It seems to us that no Romanic +derivative of the Latin root should he given, unless to show that the +word has come into English by that channel. And so of the Teutonic +languages. If we have Danish, Swedish, German, and Dutch, why not +Scotch, Icelandic, Frisic, Swiss, and every other conceivable dialectic +variety? + +Another fault of superfluousness we find in the number of compounded +words, where the meaning is obvious,--such, for instance, as are formed +with the adverb out, which the genius of the language permits without +limit in the case of verbs. Dr. Worcester gives us, among many +others,-- + +"OUT-BABBLE, _v. a._ To surpass in Idle prattle; to exceed in babbling. +_Milton._" + +"OUT-BELLOW, _v. a._ To bellow more or louder than; to exceed or +surpass in bellowing. _Bp. Hall._" + +"OUT-BLEAT, _v. a._ To bleat more than; to exceed in bleating. _Bp. +Hall_." + +"OUT-BRAG, _v. a._ To surpass in bragging. _Shak._" + +"OUT-BRIBE, _v, a._ To exceed in bribing. _Blair._" + +"OUT-BURN, _v. a._ To exceed in burning. _Young._" [The definition here +is hardly complete; since the word means also to burn longer than.] + +"OUT-CANT, _v. a._ To surpass in canting. _Pope._" + +"OUT-CHEAT, _v. a._ To surpass in cheating." + +"OUT-CURSE, _v. a._ To surpass in cursing." + +"OUT-DRINK, _v. a._ To exceed in drinking. _Donne._" + +"OUT-FAWN, _v. a._ To excel in fawning. _Hudibras._" + +"OUT-FEAT, _v. a._ To surpass in feats. _Smart._" + +"OUT-FLASH, _v. a._ To surpass in flashing. _Clarke._" + +Similar words occur at frequent intervals through nine columns. Dr. +Webster is equally relentless, (even roping in a few estrays in his +Appendix,) and we hardly know which has out-worded the other. We were +surprised to find in neither the useful and legitimate substantive form +of _outgo_, as the opposite of _income_. This superfluousness (unless +we apply Voltaire's saying, "_Le superflu, chose bien nécessaire_" to +dictionaries also) is the result, we suppose, of the rivalry of +publishers, who have done their best to persuade the public that +numerosity is the chief excellence in works of this kind, and that +whoever buys their particular quarto may be sure of an honest +pennyworth and of owning a thousand or two more words than his less +judicious neighbors. In this way a false standard is manufactured, to +which the lexicographer must conform, if he would have a remunerative +sale for his book. He accordingly explores every lane and _impasse_ in +the purlieus of Grub Street, and pounces on a new word as a naturalist +would on a new bug,--the stranger and uglier, the better. We regret +that this kind of rivalry has been forced on Dr. Worcester; but he is +so thorough, patient, and conscientious, that he leaves little behind +him for the gleaner. We confess that the amplitude of his research has +surprised us, highly as we were prepared to rate him in this respect +by our familiarity with his former works. We have subjected his Dictionary +to a pretty severe test. From the time of its publication we have made +a point of seeking in it every unusual word, old or new, that we met with +in our reading. We have been disappointed in hardly a single instance, and +we are not acquainted with any other dictionary of which we could say as +much. + +An attempt has been made to damage Dr. Worcester's work by a partial +comparison of his definitions with those of Dr. Webster; and here, +again, the assumption has been, that _number_ was of more importance +than concise completeness. In the case of a quarto dictionary, we +suppose an honest reviewer may confess that he has not read through the +subject of his criticism. We have opened Dr. Webster's volume at +random, and have found some of his definitions as extraordinarily +inaccurate as many of his etymologies. They quite justify a +_double-entendre_ of Daniel Webster's, which we heard him utter many +years ago in court. He had forced such a meaning upon some word in a +paper connected with the case on trial, that the opposing counsel +interrupted him to ask in what dictionary he found the word so defined. +He silenced his questioner instantly with a happy play upon the name +common to himself and the lexicographer: "In _Webster's_ Dictionary, +Sir!" We find in Webster, for example, the following definition of a +word as to whose meaning he could have been set right by any +coasting-skipper that sailed out of New Haven:-- + +"AMID-SHIPS; _in marine language_, the middle of a ship with regard to +her length and breadth." Now, when one ship runs into another at sea +and strikes her _amid-ships_, how is she to contrive to accomplish it +so as to satisfy the requirements of this definition? Or if a sailor is +said to be standing amidships, must he be planted precisely in what he +would probably agree with Dr. Webster in spelling the _center_ of the +main-hatch? Dr. Worcester, quoting Falconer, is of course right. + +We give another of Dr. Webster's definitions, which caught our eye in +looking over his array of words compounded with _out_. "OUTWARD-BOUND; +proceeding from a port or country." Now Dr. Webster does not tell his +readers that the term is exclusively applicable to vessels; and we +should like to know whence a vessel is likely to proceed, unless from a +port,--and where ports are commonly situated, unless in countries? If +an American ship be "proceeding from" the port of Liverpool to some +port in the United States, how soon does she enter on what +lexicographers call "the state of being" homeward-bound? The narrow +limits to which Dr. Webster confines the word would not extend beyond +the jaws of the harbor from which the ship is sailing. Dr. Worcester's +definition is, "OUTWARD-BOUND. (_Naut_.) Bound outward or to foreign +parts. _Crabb_." + +Under the word MORESQUE we find in Webster the following definition: "A +species of painting or carving done after the Moorish manner, +consisting of _grotesque_ pieces and compartments _promiscuously +interspersed_; arabesque. _Gwilt_." (The Italics are our own.) We have +not Mr. Gwilt's Encyclopaedia at hand; but if this be a fair +representation of one of its definitions, it is a very untrustworthy +authority. The last term to be applied to arabesque-work is +_grotesque_, or _promiscuously interspersed_; and the description here +given leaves out the most beautiful kind of arabesque, namely, the +inlaid work of geometrical figures in colored marbles, in which the +Arabs far surpassed the older _opus Alexandrinum_. Nothing could be +less grotesque, less promiscuously interspersed, or more beautiful in +its harmonious variety, than the work of this kind in the famous +_Capella Reale_ at Palermo. + +Dr. Webster defines NIGHT-PIECE as "a piece of painting so colored as +to be supposed seen by candle-light,"--a description which we suspect +would have somewhat puzzled Gherardo della Notte. + +We might give other instances, had we time and space; but our object is +not to depreciate Webster, but only to show that the claim set up for +him of superior exactness in definition is altogether gratuitous. We +have found no inaccuracies comparable with these in Dr. Worcester's +Dictionary, which we tried in precisely the same way, by opening it +here and there at random. Moreover, looking at his work, not +absolutely, but in comparison with Dr. Webster's, (as we are challenged +to do,) we cannot leave out of view that the former is a first edition, +while the latter has had the advantage of repeated revisions. + +Under the word MAGDALEN, we find Webster superior to Worcester. Under +ULAN, we find them both wrong. Dr. Worcester says it means "a species +of militia among the modern Tartars"; and Dr. Webster, "a certain +description of militia among the modern Tartars." In any Polish +dictionary they would have found the word defined as meaning "lancer," +and the Uhlans in the Austrian army can hardly be described as modern +Tartar militia. Both Dictionaries give SLAW, and neither explains it +rightly. The word does not properly belong in an English dictionary, +unless as an American provincialism of very narrow range. As such, it +will be found, properly defined, in Mr. Bartlett's excellent +Vocabulary. Lexicographers who so often cite the Dutch equivalents of +English words should own Dutch dictionaries. Under IMAGINATION, a good +kind of test-word, we find Worcester much superior to Webster, +especially in illustrative citations. + +We have been astonished by some instances of slovenly writing to be +found here and there in Dr. Webster's Dictionary, because he was +capable of writing pure and vigorous English. Under MAGAZINE (and by +the way, Dr. Webster's definition omits altogether the metaphorical +sense of the word) we read that "The first publication of this bind in +England was the _Gentleman's Magazine_, which first appeared in 1731, +under the name of _Sylvanus Urban_, by Edward Cave, and which is still +continued." A reader who knew nothing about the facts would be puzzled +to say what the name of the new periodical really was, whether +_Gentleman's Magazine_ or _Sylvanus Urban_; and a reader who knew +little about English would be led to think that "appeared by" was +equivalent to "was commenced by," unless, indeed, he came to the +conclusion that its apparition took place in the neighborhood of some +cavern known by the name of Edward. + +We have only a word to say as to the _illustrations_, as they are +called, a mistaken profuseness in which disfigures both Dictionaries, +another evil result of bookselling competition. The greater part of +them, especially those in Webster, are fitter for a child's scrap-book +than for a volume intended to go into a student's library. Such +adjuncts seem to us allowable only, if at all, somewhat as they were +introduced by Blunt in his "Glossographia," to make terms of heraldry +more easily comprehensible. They might be admitted to save trouble in +describing geometrical figures, or in explaining certain of the more +frequently occurring terms in architecture and mechanics, but beyond +this they are childish. The publishers of Webster give us all the +coats-of-arms of the States of the American Union, among other equally +impertinent woodcuts. We enter a protest against the whole thing, as an +equally unfair imputation on the taste and the standard of judgment of +intelligent Americans. If we must have illustrations, let them be strictly +so, and not primer-pictures. Both Dictionaries give us the figure of a +crossbow, for instance, as if there could be anywhere a boy of ten years +old who did not know the implement, at least under its other name of +_bow-gun_. Neither cut would give the slightest notion of the thing as +a weapon, nor of the mode in which it was wound up and let off. Dr. +Worcester says that it was intended "for shooting _arrows_," which is not +strictly correct, since the proper name of the missile it discharged +was _bolt_,--something very unlike the shaft used by ordinary bowmen. + +We believe Dr. Worcester's Dictionary to be the most complete and +accurate of any hitherto published. He intrudes no theories of his own +as to pronunciation or orthography, but cites the opinions of the best +authorities, and briefly adds his own where there is occasion. He is no +bigot for the present spelling of certain classes of words, but gives +them, as he should do, in the way they are written by educated men, at +the same time expressing his belief that the drift of the language is +toward a change, wherever he thinks such to be the case. We reprobate, +in the name of literary decency, the methods which have been employed +to give an unfair impression of his work, as if it had been compiled +merely to supplant Webster, and as if the whole matter were a question +of blind partisanship and prejudice. The assigning of such motives as +these, even by implication, to such men, among many others, as Mr. +Marsh and Mr. Bryant, both of whom have expressed themselves in favor +of the new Dictionary, is an insult to American letters. Mr. Marsh, by +the extent of his learning, is probably better qualified than any other +man in America to pronounce judgment in such a case; and Mr. Bryant has +not left it doubtful that he knows what pure and vigorous English is, +whether in verse or prose, or that he could not employ it except to +maintain a well-grounded conviction. + +Apart from more general considerations, there are several reasons which +would induce us to prefer Dr. Worcester's Dictionary. It has the great +advantage, not only that it is constructed on sounder principles, as it +seems to us, but that it is the latest. Stereotyping is an unfortunate +invention, when it tends to perpetuate error or incompleteness, and +already the Appendix of added words in Webster amounts to eighty pages. +For all the words it contains, accordingly, the reader is put to double +pains: he must first search the main body of the work, and then the +supplement. Again, in Worcester, the synonymes are given, each under +its proper head, in the main work; in Webster they form a separate +treatise. One other advantage of Worcester would be conclusive with us, +even were other things equal,--and that is the size of the type, and +the greater clearness of the page, owing to the freshness of the +stereotype-plates. + +We know the inadequacy of such hand-to-mouth criticism as that of a +monthly reviewer must be upon works demanding so minute an examination +as a dictionary deserves. For ourselves, we should wish to own both +Webster and Worcester, but, if we could possess only one, we should +choose the latter. It is a monument to the industry, judgment, and +accuracy of the author, of which he may well be proud. + + +_Elements of Mechanics, for the Use of Colleges, Academies, and High +Schools._ By WILLIAM G. PECK, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia +College. New York: A.S. Barnes & Burr. 1859. + +Text-books on Mechanics are of three sorts. Many teachers, +school-committees, and parents wish to add a taste of Mechanics to the +smatterings of twenty or thirty different subjects which constitute +"liberal education," as understood in American high schools and +colleges. For this purpose it is of the first importance that the +text-book should be brief, for the time to be devoted to it is very +short; secondly, it must divest the subject of every perplexity and +difficulty, that it may be readily understood by all young persons, +though of small capacity and less application. Such a text-book can +contain nothing beyond the statement, without proof, of the more +important principles, illustrated by familiar examples, and simple +explanations of the commonest phenomena of motion, and of the machines +and mechanical forces used in the arts. To a few it seems that more +light comes into a room through two or three broad windows, though they +be all on one side, than through fifty bull's-eyes, scattered on every +wall. But the many prefer bull's-eyes,--fifty narrow, distorted +glimpses in as many directions, rather than a broad, clear view of the +heavens and the earth in one direction. Hence superficial, scanty +text-books on science are the only ones which are popular and salable. + +The thorough study of Mechanics is, or should be, an essential part of +the training of an architect, an engineer, or a machinist; and there +are several text-books, like Weisbach's Mechanics and Engineering, +intended for students preparing for any of these professions, which are +complete mathematical treatises upon the subject. Such text-books are +invaluable; they become standard works, and win for their authors a +well-deserved reputation. + +Professor Peck's book belongs to neither of the two classes of +text-books indicated, but to a class intermediate between the two. It +is at once too good, too difficult a book for general, popular use, and +too incomplete for the purposes of the professional student. As it +assumes that the student is already acquainted with the elements of +Algebra, Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry, and the Calculus, the +successful use of this text-book in the general classes of any academy +or college will be good evidence that the Mathematics are there taught +more thoroughly than is usual in this country. In few American colleges +is the study of the Calculus required of all students. In preparing a +scientific text-book of this sort, originality is neither aimed at nor +required. A judicious selection of materials, correct translation from +the excellent French and German hand-books, with such changes in the +notation as will better adapt it for American use, and a clear, logical +arrangement are the chief merits of such a treatise; and these are +merits which seldom gain much praise, though their absence would expose +the author to censure. The definitions of Professor Peck's book are +exact and concise, every proposition is rigidly demonstrated, and the +illustrations and descriptions are brief, pointed, and intelligible. +Professor Peck says in the Preface, that the book was prepared "to +supply a want felt by the author when engaged in teaching Natural +Philosophy to college classes"; but surely a teacher who prepares a +text-book for his own classes must need a double share of patience and +zeal. Every error which the book contains will be exposed, and the +author will have ample opportunity to repent of all the inaccuracies +which may have crept into his work. Again, the instructor who uses his +own text-book encounters, besides the inevitable monotony of teaching +the same subject year after year, the additional weariness of finding +in the pages of his text-book no mind but his own, which he has read so +often and with so little satisfaction. Even in teaching Mechanics, +there is no exception to the general rule, that two heads are better +than one. + + * * * * * + +_Stories from Famous Ballads_. For Children. By GRACE GREENWOOD, Author +of "History of my Pets," "Merrie England," etc., etc. With +Illustrations by BILLINGS. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. + +All "famous ballads" are so close to Nature in their conceptions, +emotions, incidents, and expressions, that it seems hardly possible to +change their form without losing their soul. The present little volume +proves that they may be turned into prose stories for children, and yet +preserve much of the vitality of their sentiment and the interest of +their narrative. Grace Greenwood, well known for her previous successes +in writing works for the young, has contrived in this, her most +difficult task, to combine simplicity with energy and richness of +diction, and to present the events and characters of the Ballads in the +form best calculated to fill the youthful imagination and kindle the +youthful love of action and adventure. Among the subjects are Patient +Griselda, The King of France's Daughter, Chevy Chase, The Beggar's +Daughter of Bednall Green, Sir Patrick Spens, and Auld Robin Gray. Much +of the author's success in giving prose versions of these, without +making them prosaic, is due to the intense admiration she evidently +feels for the originals. Among American children's books, this volume +deserves a high place. + + * * * * * + +_Mary Staunton; or the Pupils of Marvel Hall_. By the Author of +"Portraits of, my Married Friends." New York: D. Appleton & Co. + +This story has a practical aim, the exposure of the faults of +fashionable boarding-schools. "A good plot, and full of expectation," +as Hotspur said; but the author had not the ability to execute the +design. The satire and denunciation are both weak, and are not relieved +by the introduction of a very silly and threadbare love-story. + + * * * * * + +_Poems_. By the Author of "John Halifax," "A Life for a Life," etc. +Boston: Ticknor & Fields. + +Some of the verses in this little volume are quite pretty, especially +those entitled, "By the Alma River," "The Night before the Mowing," "My +Christian Name," and "My Love Annie." Miss Muloch is not able to take +any high rank as a poetess, and very sensibly does not try. + + * * * * * + +_Title-Hunting_. By E. L. LLEWELLYN, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & +Co. + +This is a miraculously foolish book. Titled villains, impossible +parvenus, abductions, and convents abound in its pages, and all are as +stupid as they are improbable. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Haunted Homestead, and other Nouvellettes. With an Autobiography of +the Author. By Mrs. Emma D.E.N. Southworth, Author of "India," "Lady +of the Isle," etc., etc. Philadelphia. Peterson and Brothers. 12mo. pp. +292. $1.25. + +Adela, the Octoroon. By H. L. Hosmer. Columbus. Follett, Foster, & Co. +12mo. pp. 400. $1.00. + +The Caxtons: A Family Picture. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Hart. +Library Edition. In Two Volumes. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. +pp. 398, 387. $2.00. + +Julian Home: A Tale of College Life. By Frederic W. Farrar, M.A., +Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Author of "Eric; or, Little by +Little." Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. pp. 420. $1.00. + +Bible History: A Text-Book for Seminaries, Schools, and Families. By +Sarah E. Hanna, (formerly Miss Foster,) Principal of the Female +Seminary, Washington, Pa. New York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 290. 76 +cts. + +Elements of Mechanics: For the Use of Colleges, Academies, and High +Schools. By William G. Peck, M. A,, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia +College. New York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 338. $1.50. + +The Human Voice: its Right Management in Speaking, Reading, and +Debating, including the Principles of True Eloquence; together with the +Functions of the Vocal Organs,--the Motion of the Letters of the +Alphabet,--the Cultivation of the Ear,--the Disorders of the Vocal and +Articulating Organs,--Origin and Construction of the English +Language.--Proper Methods of Delivery,--Remedial Effects of Reading and +Speaking, etc. By the Rev. W. W. Cazalet, A. M., Cantab. 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On a Plan entirely New. Designed for the Use +of Universities, Colleges, Academies, Bible Classes, Sabbath Schools, +Families, etc. By the Rev. R.C. Shimeall, a Member of the Presbytery of +New York; Author of an Illuminated Scripture Chart; Dr. Watts's +Scripture History, Enlarged; a Treatise on Prayer; etc. New York. +Barnes & Burr. 4to. pp. 234. $2.00. + +The National Fifth Reader: Containing a Treatise on Elocution; +Exercises in Reading and Declamation; with Biographical Sketches and +Copious Notes. Adapted to the Use of Students in English and American +Literature. By Richard G. Parker, A.M., and J. Madison Watson. New +York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 600. $1.00. + +Popular Music of the Olden Time: A Collection of Ancient Songs, +Ballads, and Dance Tunes, Illustrative of the National Music of +England. With Short Introductions to the Different Reigns, and Notices +of the Airs from Writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. +Also a Short Account of the Minstrels. By W. Chappell, F.S.A. The whole +of the Airs harmonized by G.A. Macfarren. In Two Volumes. London: +Cramer, Beale, & Chappell. New York. Webb & Allen. 8vo. pp. xx., 822. +(Paged as one vol.) $15.75. + +The Material Condition of the People of Massachusetts. By Rev. Theodore +Parker. Reprinted from the Christian Examiner. Boston. Published by the +Fraternity. 16mo. paper, pp. 52. 15 cts. + +Die Teutschen und die Amerikaner. Von K. Heinzen. Boston. Selbstverlag +des Verfassers. 16mo. paper, pp. 69. 25 cts. + +Letters from Switzerland. By Samuel Irenaeus Prime, Author of "Travels +in Europe and the East," etc., etc. New York. Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. +264. $1.00. + +Disquisitions and Notes on the Gospels. Matthew. By John H. Morison. +Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. 12mo. pp. 588. $1.25. + +Chamber's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the +People. Part XII. New York. Appleton & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. 64. 15 cts. + +The Monikins. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Illustrated from Drawings by +F.O.C. Darley. New York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 454. $1.50. + +Life Before Him. A Novel of American Life. New York. Townsend & Co. +12mo. pp. 401. $1.00. + +Against Wind and Tide. By Holme Lee, Author of "Kathie Brande," "Sylvan +Holt's Daughter," etc. New York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 440. $1.00. + +Mrs. Ellis's Housekeeping Made Easy. A Complete Instructor in all +Branches of Cookery and Domestic Economy. Edited by Mrs. Mowatt. New +York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. paper, pp. 120. 25 cts. + +Life's Evening; or, Thoughts for the Aged. By the Author of "Life's +Morning," etc, Boston. Tilton & Co. 16mo. pp. 265. $1.00. + +Wooing and Warring in the Wilderness. By Charles D. Kirk. New York. +Derby & Jackson. 18mo. pp. 288. $1.00. + +The History of Herodotus. A New English Version, edited with Copious +Notes and Appendices, illustrating the History and Geography of +Herodotus, from the most Recent Sources of Information; and embodying +the Chief Results, Historical and Ethnographical, which have been +obtained in the Progress of Cuneiform and Hieroglyphical Discovery. By +George Rawlinson, M.A., late Fellow and Tutor of Exeter College, +Oxford. Assisted by Col. Sir Henry Rawlinson, K.C.B., and Sir J.G. +Wilkinson, F.R.S. In Four Volumes. Vol. III. With Maps and +Illustrations. New York. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. viii., 463. $2.50. + +Cathara Clyde: A Novel. By Inconnu. New York. Scribner. 16mo. PP. 377. +$1.00. + +Napoleon III. in Italy, and other Poems. By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. +New York. Francis & Co. 16mo. pp. 72. 50 cts. + +Say and Seal. By the Author of "Wide, Wide World," and the Author of +"Dollars and Cents." In Two Volumes. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. +16mo, pp. 513, 500. $2.00. + +Walter Ashwood. A Love Story. By Paul Siogvolk, Author of "Schediasms." +New York. Rudd & Carleton. 16mo. pp. 296. $1.00. + +Elementary Anatomy and Physiology, for Colleges, Academies, and other +Schools. By Edward Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., of Amherst College, and +Edward Hitchcock, Jr., M.D., Teacher in Williston Seminary. New York. +Ivison, Phinney, & Co. 12mo. pp. vi., 442. $1.00. + +Fragments from the Study of a Pastor. By Rev. George W. Nichols, A.M. +New York. H.B. Price. 16mo. pp. 252. 75 cts. + +"My Novel"; or, Varieties in English Life. By Pisistratus Caxton. By +Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. Library Edition. In Four Volumes. +Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. pp. 414, 408, 491, 482. $4.00. + +Cousin Maude and Rosamond. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes, Author of "Lena +Rivers," "Meadow Brook," etc. New York. Saxton, Barker, & Co. 12mo. pp. +374. $1.25. + +The Caxtons: A Family Picture. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. +Library Edition. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 505. $1.00. + +Stories of Rainbow and Lucky. By Jacob Abbott. The Three Pines. New +York. Harper & Brothers. 16mo. pp. 190. 50 cts. + +Stories of Inventors and Discoverers in Science and the Useful Arts. A +Book for Old and Young. By John Timbs, F.S.A. With Illustrations. New +York. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/9472-8.zip b/9472-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e11ae92 --- /dev/null +++ b/9472-8.zip diff --git a/9472.txt b/9472.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8abed40 --- /dev/null +++ b/9472.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9167 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860 + +Author: Various + +Posting Date: November 4, 2012 [EBook #9472] +Release Date: December, 2005 +First Posted: October 3, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIC MONTHLY, MAY 1860 *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project +Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS + +VOL. V, MAY, 1860, NO. XXXI + + + + + + +INSTINCT. + + +"Instinct is a great matter," quoth Falstaff, when called upon to find +out a device, a "starting-hole," to hide himself from the open and +apparent shame of having run away from the fight and hacked his sword +like a handsaw with his own dagger. Like a valiant lion, he would not +turn upon the true prince, but ran away upon instinct. Although the +peculiar circumstances of the occasion upon which the subject was +presented to Falstaff's mind were not very favorable to a calm +consideration of it, he was undoubtedly correct in saying that instinct +is a great matter. "If, then, the tree may be known by the fruit," says +Falstaff, "as the fruit by the tree, then, peremptorily I speak it, +there is virtue in that Falstaff"; and it is proper that his authority +should be quoted, even upon a question of metaphysical science. + +That psychological endowment of animals which we denominate instinct +has in every age been a matter full of wonder; and men of thought have +found few more interesting subjects of inquiry. But it is confessed +that little has been satisfactorily made out concerning the nature and +limitations of instinct. In former times the habits and mental +characteristics of those orders of animated being which are inferior to +man were observed with but a careless eye; and it was late before the +phenomena of animal life received a careful and reverent examination. +It is vain to inquire what instinct is, before there has been an +accurate observation of its manifestations. It is only from its outward +manifestations that we can know anything of that marvellous inward +nature which is given to animals. We cannot know anything of the +essential constitution of mind, but can know only its properties. This +is all we know even of matter. "If material existence," says Sir +William Hamilton, "could exhibit ten thousand phenomena, and if we +possessed ten thousand senses to apprehend these ten thousand phenomena +of material existence, of existence absolutely and in itself we should +be then as ignorant as we are at present." But this limitation of human +knowledge has not always been kept in view. Men have been solicitous to +penetrate into the higher mysteries of absolute and essential +existence. But in thus reaching out after the unattainable, we have +often passed by the only knowledge which it was possible for us to +gain. Much vague speculation concerning instinct has arisen from the +attempt to resolve the problem of its ultimate nature; and perhaps much +more might have been made out with certainty about it, if no greater +task had been attempted than to classify the phenomena which it +exhibits and determine the nature of its manifestations. In regard to +instinct, as well as everything else, we must be content with finding +out what it seems to us to be, rather than what it is. Even with this +limitation, the inquiry will prove sufficiently difficult. The +properties of instinct are a little more inscrutable than those of the +human mind, inasmuch as we have our own consciousness to assist us in +this case, while we are left to infer the peculiarities of instinct +from its outward manifestations only. And moreover, the inquiry +involves an understanding of the workings of the human mind; for it is +only when viewed in contrast with the rational endowments of man that +the character of instinct is best known. All other questions connected +with the subject are subordinate to this one of the apparent difference +between instinct and reason. + +Many definitions have been given of instinctive actions. These differ +widely in their extent, and are for the most part quite inadequate. +Some writers have ranged under this term all those customary habits and +actions which are common to all the individuals of a species. According +to this definition, almost every action of animated life is +instinctive. But the general idea of an instinctive action is much more +restricted; it is one that is performed without instruction and prior +to experience,--and not for the immediate gratification of the agent, +but only as the means for the attainment of some ulterior end. To apply +the term instinct to the regular and involuntary movements of the +bodily organs, such as the beating of the heart and the action of the +organs of respiration, is manifestly an extension of the ordinary +acceptation of the term. Organic actions of a similar character are +also performed by plants, and are purely mechanical. "In the lowest and +simplest class of excited movements," says Mueller, "the nervous system +would not appear to be concerned. They result from stimuli directly +applied to the muscles, which immediately excite their contractility; +and they are evidently of the same character with the motions of +plants." Thus, the heart is excited to pulsation by the direct contact +of the blood with the muscle. The hand of a sleeping child closes upon +any object which gently touches the palm. And it is in this way, +doubtless, that the Sea Anemone entraps its prey, or anything else that +may come in contact with its tentacles. But so far are these movements +from indicating of themselves the action of any instinctive principle, +that they are no proof of animality; for a precisely analogous power is +possessed by the sensitive plant known as the Fly-Trap of Venus +(_Dionoea muscipula_): "any insect touching the sensitive hairs on the +surface of its leaf instantly causes the leaf to shut up and enclose +the insect, as in a trap; nor is this all; a mucilaginous secretion +acts like a gastric juice on the captive, digests it, and renders it +assimilable by the plant, which thus feeds on the victim, as the +Actinea feeds on the Annelid or Crustacean it may entrap." In the +animal organization a large class of reflex actions are excited, not by +a direct influence, but indirectly by the agency of the nerves and +spinal cord. Such actions are essentially independent of the brain; for +they occur in animals which have no brain, and in those whose brain has +been removed. However marvellous these functions of organic life may +be, there is nothing in them at all resembling that agency properly +called instinct, which may be said to take the place in the inferior +tribes of reason in man. To refer these operations to the same source +as the wonderful instinct that guides the bird in its long migratory +flight, or in the construction of its nest, would be to make the bird a +curiously constructed machine which is operated by impressions from +without upon its sentient nerves. + +Those actions have sometimes been called instinctive which arise from +the appetites and passions; and they have been referred to instinct, +doubtless, because they have one characteristic of instinct,--that they +are not acquired by experience or instruction. "But they differ," says +Professor Bowen, "at least in one important respect from those +instincts of the lower animals which are usually contrasted with human +reason. The objects towards which they are directed are prized for +their own sake; they are sought as _ends_; while instinct teaches +brutes to do many things which are needed only as means for the +attainment of some ulterior purpose." When the butterfly extracts the +nectar from the flowers which she loves most, she meets a want of her +physical nature which demands satisfaction at the moment; but when, in +opposition to her appetite, she proceeds to the flowerless shrub to +deposit her eggs upon the leaves best suited to support her +unthought-of progeny, she is not influenced by any desire for the +immediate gratification of her senses, but is led to the act by some +dim impulse, in order that an ultimate object may be provided for to +which she has no reference at the time. We are surprised to find it +declared, in the very interesting "Psychological Inquiries" of Sir B.C. +Brodie, that the desire for food is the simplest form of an instinct, +and that such an instinct goes far towards explaining others which are +more complicated. It is true that the appetites and passions of animals +have an ultimate object, but they are impelled to action by a desire +for immediate gratification only; but when we speak of an instinct, we +mean something more than a mere want or desire,--we have chiefly in +view the end beyond the blind instrumentality by which it is reached. + +When we watch the movements of a young bee, as it first goes forth from +its waxen cradle, we are forced to recognize an influence at work which +is unlike reason, and which is neither appetite nor any mechanical +principle of organic life. Rising upon the comb, and holding steadily +with its tiny feet, with admirable adroitness the young bee smooths its +wings for its first flight, and rubs its body with its fore legs and +antennae; then walking along the comb to the mouth of the hive, it +mounts into the air, flies forth into the fields, alights upon the +proper flowers, extracts their juices, collects their pollen, and, +kneading it into little balls, deposits them in the sacks upon its +feet; and then returning to its hive, it delivers up the honey and the +wax and the bread which it has gathered and elaborated. In the hive it +works the wax with its paws and feelers into an hexagonal cell with a +rhomboidal bottom, the three plates of which form such angles with each +other as require the least wax and space in the construction of the +cell. All these complex operations the bee performs as adroitly, on the +first morning of its life, as the most experienced workman in the hive. +The tyro gatherer sought the flowery fields upon untried wings, and +returned to its home from this first expedition with unerring flight by +the most direct course through the trackless air. + +This is one instance of that great class of actions which are allowed +on all hands to be strictly instinctive. In the fact, that the occult +faculties which urge the bee to make honey and construct geometrical +cells are in complete development when it first emerges from its cell, +we recognize one of the most striking characteristics of instinct,--its +existence prior to all experience or instruction. The insect tribes +furnish us with many instances in which the young being never sees its +parents, and therefore all possibility of its profiting from their +instructions or of its imitating their actions is cut off. The solitary +wasp, for example, is accustomed to construct a tunnelled nest in which +she deposits her eggs and then brings a number of living caterpillars +and places them in a hole which she has made above each egg; being very +careful to furnish just caterpillars enough to maintain the young worm +from the time of its exclusion from the egg till it can provide for +itself, and to place them so as to be readily accessible the moment +food is required. But what is most curious of all is the fact that the +wasp does not deposit the caterpillars unhurt, for thus they would +disturb or perhaps destroy the young; nor does she sting them to death, +for thus they would soon be in no state of proper preservation; but, as +if understanding these contingencies, she inflicts a disabling wound. +Yet the wasp does not feed upon caterpillars herself, nor has she ever +seen a wasp provide them for her future offspring. She has never seen a +worm such as will spring from her egg, nor can she know that her egg +will produce a worm; and besides, she herself will be dead long before +the unknown worm can be in existence. Therefore she works blindly; +without knowing that her work is to subserve any useful purpose, she +works to a purpose both definite and important; and her acts are +uniform with those of all solitary wasps that have lived before her or +that will live after her; so that we are compelled to refer these +untaught actions to some constant impulse connected with the special +organization of the wasp,--an innate tact, uniform throughout the +species, of which we, not possessing anything of the kind, can form +only a poor conception, but which we call instinct. + +There have been some philosophers, however, who have exercised their +ingenuity in tracing so-called instinctive actions to the operation of +experience. The celebrated Doctor Erasmus Darwin gave, as an +illustration of this view, his opinion that the young of animals know +how to swallow from their experience of swallowing _in utero_. Without +going into any refutation of this position, we would only remark, in +passing, that the act of swallowing is not an instinctive action at +all, but a purely mechanical one. Would not Doctor Darwin have rejoiced +greatly, if he could have brought to the support of his theory the +observation of our own great naturalist, Agassiz, who, knowing the +savage snap of one of the large, full-grown Testudinata, is said to +have asserted, that, under the microscope, he has seen the juvenile +turtle snapping precociously _in embryo_? + +But not only is instinct prior to all experience, it is even superior +to it, and often leads animals to disregard it,--the spontaneous +impulse which Nature has given them being their best guide. The +carrier-pigeon or the bird of passage, taken a long distance from home +by a circuitous route, trusting to this "pilot-sense," flies back in a +straight course; and the hound takes the shortest way home through +fields where he has never previously set foot. + +The existence of instinct prior to all experience or instruction, and +its perfection in the beginning, render cultivation and improvement not +only unnecessary, but impossible. As it is with the individual, so it +is with the race. One generation of the irrational tribes does not +improve upon the preceding or educate its successor. The web which you +watched the spider weaving in your open window last summer, carefully +measuring off each radius of her wheel and each circular mesh by one of +her legs, was just such a web as the spider wove of old when she was +pronounced to be "little upon the earth, yet exceeding wise." + +This incapacity for education is what so widely separates instinct from +the rational powers of man. Man gathers knowledge and transmits it from +generation to generation. He is not born with a ready skill, but with a +capacity for it. His mind is formed destitute of all connate knowledge, +that it may acquire the knowledge of all things. "Man's imperfection at +his nativity is his perfection; while the perfection of brutes at their +nativity is their imperfection." No rational being has ever arrived at +such perfection that he cannot still improve; he can travel on from one +attainment to another in a perpetual progress of improvement. He is, +moreover, free to choose his own path of action; while the being of +instinct is governed by a power which is not subject to his will, and +which confines him to a narrow path which he cannot leave. But +instinct, within its narrow limits, in many cases quite transcends +reason in its achievements. + + "Man's attainments in his own concerns, + Matched with the expertness of the brutes in theirs, + Are ofttimes vanquished and thrown far behind." + +Perhaps man has never made a structure as perfect in all its +adaptations as the honeycomb. Yet when Virgil spoke of the belief that +bees have a portion of the mind divine, nothing was known of the +wonderful mathematical properties of this beautiful fabric; and the +demonstration of them which has been made within the present century is +beyond the comprehension of far the larger part of mankind. If the bee +comprehended the problem which it has been working out for these many +ages before man was able to solve it, would its intellectual powers be +inferior to his in degree, if they were the same in kind? The +water-spider weaves for herself a cocoon, makes it impervious to water, +and fastens it by loose threads to the leaves of plants growing at the +bottom of a still pool. She carries down air in a bag made for this +purpose, till the water is expelled from the cell through the opening +below. The spider lived quite dry in her little air-chamber beneath the +water ages before the diving-bell was invented; but that she understood +anything of the doctrines of space and gravity, no one would venture to +assert. + +It has been the belief of some philosophers, and poets as well, that +man has taken the hint for some of the arts he now practises from the +brute creation. Democritus represents him as having derived the arts of +weaving and sewing from the spider, and the art of building of tempered +clay from the swallow; and we also read in Pliny's "Natural History," +that the nest of the swallow suggested to Toxius, the son of Coelus, +the invention of mortar. According to Lucretius, men learned music from +the song of birds, and Pope describes them as learning from the mole to +plough, from the nautilus to sail, and from bees and ants to form a +political community. Perhaps we were behind the beaver in felling +timber, in leading dams across rivers, and in building cabin +villages,--behind the wasp in making paper, and behind the squirrel and +spider in crossing streams upon rafts. So, if man had needed any +example of war and violence and wrong, he had only to go to the +ant-hill and see the red ants invade the camps of the black and bear +off their little negro prisoners into slavery. + +Whatever truth there may be in these ideas, it is at least conceivable +that man may have profited from the example of these animals. He has +copied from patterns set by Nature in tree and leaf and flower and +plant; he has formed the Gothic arch and column from the trunks and +interlacing boughs of the lofty avenue, the Corinthian capital from the +acanthus foliage embracing a basket, and classic urns and vases from +flowers. But no one could describe one species of the brute world as +having derived a similar lesson from another, and much less from trees +and plants. No species of animals has learnt anything new even from +man, except within the narrow sphere of domestication. + +It is only in particulars that instinct appears superior to reason in +the works it achieves. When an animal is taken, ever so little, out of +the ordinary circumstances in which its instincts act, it is apt to +behave very foolishly. If a woodpecker's egg is hatched by a bird which +builds an open nest upon the branches of a tree, when the young bird is +grown large enough to shuffle about in the nest, induced by its +instinct to suppose that its nest is in a hole walled round on all +sides by the tree, with a long, narrow entrance down from above, it +does not see that it has been inducted into the open nest of another +bird, and is sure to tumble out. The bee and the ant, in a few +particulars, show wonderful sagacity; but remove them from the narrow +compass of their instincts, and all their wisdom is at an end. That +animals are so wise in a few things and so wanting in wisdom in all +others shows that they are endowed with a mental principle essentially +of a different nature from that of the human race. "They do many things +even better than ourselves," says Descartes; "but this does not prove +them to be endowed with reason, for this would prove them to have more +reason than we have, and that they should excel us in all other things +also"; for reason can act not only in one direction, but in all. + +But it will be said that instinct is not invariable,--that it often +displays a capacity of accommodating itself, like reason, to +circumstances, and is therefore a principle the same in kind with +it,--or else that the animal has something of the rational faculty +superadded to the instinctive. But does the animal make these +variations in its conduct from a true perception of their meaning and +purpose? + +It is very natural for us to ascribe to reason those actions of other +animals which would be ascribable to reason, if performed by man. "If," +says Keller, (an old German writer,) "the fly be enabled to choose the +place which suits her best for the deposition of her eggs, (as, for +instance, in my sugar-basin, in which I placed a quantity of decaying +wheat,) she takes a correct survey of every part and selects that in +which she believes her ova will be the best preserved and her young +ones well cared for." The fly, in this instance, apparently exercises +an intelligent choice; but does any one doubt that the selection she +makes is determined wholly by a blind, uncalculating instinct? The +beaver selects a site for his dam at a place where the depth, width, +and rapidity of the stream are most fit. There is a tree upon the bank, +and food and materials for his work in the vicinity. If a man should +attempt to build a beaver's dam, he would abstractly consider all these +elements of fitness. The outward manifestations of the quality of +abstraction are equally observable in either case. But we must not +hastily conclude, because the beaver in one instance acts in a manner +apparently reasonable, that he has any reason of his own; for, when we +come to study the habits of this animal, we find that he displays all +the characteristics of the instinctive principle. If animals are +endowed with instincts which apparently act so much like reason in the +ordinary course of their operations, we should not at once conclude +that there is any need of endowing them with a modicum of reason to +account for their deviations from this course, which do not outwardly +resemble the acts of reason any more strongly. And besides, it is said, +that, if we refer the variations to an intelligent principle, we must +refer the ordinary conduct to the same principle. To use an old +illustration,--if a bird is reasonable and intelligent, when, on +perceiving the swollen waters of the stream approach her half-finished +nest, she builds higher up the bank, she was intelligent while making +her first nest, and was always intelligent; for how otherwise, it is +asked, could she know when to lay down instinct and take up reason? + +Instinct aims at certain definite ends; but these ends cannot always be +reached by the same means, especially when places and circumstances are +not the same. Accommodation is necessary, or it could not always +produce the effects for which it is intended. Would the instinct of the +spider be complete, if, after it has guided her to spin a web so neat +and trim and regular, it did not also lead her to repair her broken +snare, when the cords have been sundered by the struggles of some +powerful captive? But this pliancy of the spider's instinct is no more +remarkable than the contingent operation of the instincts of many +species of animals. "It is remarkable," says Kirby, "that many of the +insects which are occasionally observed to emigrate are not usually +social animals, but seem to congregate, like swallows, merely for the +purpose of emigration." When certain rare emergencies occur, which +render it necessary for the insects to migrate, a contingent instinct +develops itself, and renders an unsocial species gregarious. + +It is probable that most of our domesticated species, exhibiting as +they do in that condition attainments foreign to their natural habits +and faculties in a wild state, were endowed with provisional instincts +with a view to their association with man. But generally the docility +of animals does not extend to attainments which are radically different +from their habits and faculties in a wild state. Casual acquirements, +which have no relation to their exigencies in their natural condition, +never become hereditary, and are not, therefore, instinctive. A young +pointer-dog, which has never been in the fields before, will not only +point at a covey of partridges, but will remain motionless, like a +well-trained dog. The fact that the sagacity of the pointer is +hereditary shows that it is the development of an instinctive +propensity; for simple knowledge is not transmitted by blood from one +generation to another. We have heard of a pig that pointed game, and of +another that was learned in letters; but we ascertain in every such +instance that their foreign acquirements do not reappear in their +progeny, but end with the pupils of the time being. The pig's +peculiarity of pointing did not arise from the development of a +provisional instinct, because it does not become hereditary; but the +same act in the pointer-dog is instinctive,--for, when once brought out +by associating with man, it has remained with the breed, being a part +of the animal's nature, which existed in embryo till it was developed +by a companionship with man, for whose use this faculty was alone +intended. + +Although the animals which especially display these exceptional or +contingent instincts are those which are fitted for the use and comfort +of man and may be domesticated, it is doubtless true that many other +species are in some degree provided with them, and that they thus have +a plasticity in their nature which enables them to exercise, under +particular circumstances, unlooked-for attention, foresight, and +caution. And besides, it is only in analogy with the laws of the +physical world that instinct should admit of a slightly diversified +application. + +It is to be noticed in this connection that many animals are gifted +with a wonderful sensibility of the senses,--the action of which is +sometimes mistaken not only for the action of instinct, but for that of +reason also. The acuteness of the sense of smell in the dog, which +enables him to trace the steps of his master for miles through crowded +streets by the infinitesimal odor which his footsteps left upon the +pavement, is quite beyond our conception. Equally incomprehensible to +us are the keenness of sight and wide range of vision of the eagle, +which enable him to discover the rabbit nipping the clover amid the +thick grass at a distance at which a like object would be to us +altogether imperceptible. The chameleon is enabled to seize the little +insects upon which it feeds by darting forth its wonderfully +constructed tongue with such rapidity and with such delicacy of +perception that "wonder-loving sages" have told us that it feeds upon +the air. + +It has been the belief of some observers that some animals have senses +by which they are enabled to take cognizance of things which are not +revealed directly to our senses. It is easy enough to conceive of +beings endowed with a more perfect perception of the external world, +both in its condition and the number of objects it presents, than we +have, by means of other organs of outward perception. Voltaire, in one +of his philosophical romances, represents an inhabitant of one of the +planets of the Dog-Star as inquiring of the Secretary of the Academy of +Sciences in the planet of Saturn, at which he had recently arrived in a +journey through the heavens, how many senses the men of his globe had; +and when the Academician answered, that they had seventy-two, and were +every day complaining of the smallness of the number, he of the +Dog-Star replied, that in his globe they had very near one thousand +senses, and yet with all these they felt continually a sort of listless +inquietude and vague desire which told them how very imperfect they +were. But we shall not travel so far as this for our illustrations. We +have all seen in the fields and about our houses birds and insects +which seem to take cognizance of the electric state of the atmosphere; +and we have learnt to feel quite sure, when, early in the morning of a +summer's day, we see fresh piles of sand around the holes of the ants, +that a storm is approaching, although the sky may as yet be cloudless +and the air perfectly serene. In like manner birds perceive the +approach of rain, and are all busy oiling and smoothing their feathers +in preparation for it; and then, before the clouds break away, they +come out from their retreats and joyfully hail the return of fair +weather. So, by some analogous sense, the birds of passage are informed +of the approach of winter and the return of spring. + +It is doubtless true that in some animals the senses are immediately +connected with instincts which assist and extend their operation. +Metaphysicians and physiologists are agreed that the perception of +distance is an acquired knowledge. The sense of sight by itself +principally makes us conversant with extension only. The painting upon +the retina of the eye presents all external things with flat surfaces +and at the same distance. Before we can have any correct ideas of +distance, we must be able to compare the result of the sense of sight +with the result of the sense of feeling. By experience we in time come +to judge something of distance by the size of the image which an object +makes upon the retina, but more by our acquired knowledge of the form +and color of external things. It is true that the eyes of many animals +are constructed like those of man; but they do not learn to judge of +distance by the same slow process. It is known from experiment that +some animals have a perfect conception of distance at the moment of +their birth; and the young of the greater part of animals possess some +instinctive perception of this kind. "A flycatcher, for example, just +come out of its shell, has been seen to peck at an insect with an aim +as perfect as if it had been all its life engaged in learning the art." +And so when the hen takes her chickens out into the field for the first +time to feed, they seem to perceive very distinctly the relative +distance of all objects about them, and will run by the straightest +course when she calls them to pick up the little grains which she +points out to them. Without this instinctive power of determining the +relative distance and figure of objects, the young of most animals +would perish before their sense of sight could be perfected, as ours +is, by experience. + +We have now noticed the chief characteristics of instinct: its +existence prior to all experience or instruction; its incapacity of +improvement, except within the narrow sphere of domestication; its +limitation to a few objects, and the certainty of its action within +these limits; the distinctness and permanence of its character for each +species; and its constant hereditary nature. In regard to the +uniformity of instinct throughout each species, it may be further +remarked, that this seems to be very constantly preserved in the lowest +divisions of the animal kingdom. Among the Articulates, also, instinct +appears almost unvarying; and it is in this department among the insect +tribes that the most striking manifestations of instinct are to be met +with. When we arrive among the higher orders of the Vertebrates, we +find in some species that each individual is capable of some +modification of its actions, according to the particular circumstances +in which it finds itself placed. But throughout the long series of +animals, from the polype to man, there is instinctive action more or +less in amount in every species, with, perhaps, the exception of man +alone. The variety of that endowment, which is adapted to definite +objects, means, and results, in each particular one of the five hundred +thousand species estimated to be now living, may well call forth our +admiration and astonishment at the magnitude and extent of the +prospective contrivance of the Creator. How various the relations of +all these animals to each other and to the inanimate world about them! +and yet how admirable the adjustments of that immaterial principle +which regulates their lives, so as to secure the well-being of each and +the symmetry of the general plan! + +There has been much diversity of opinion as to the existence of +instincts in the human species,--some making the whole mind of man +nothing but a bundle of instincts, and others wholly denying him any +endowment of this nature, while others still have given him a complex +mental nature, and have, moreover, declared that intellect and instinct +in him are so interwoven that it is impossible to tell where the one +begins and the other ends. But we believe, with the author of "Ancient +Metaphysics," that in Nature, however intimately things are blended +together and run into each other like different shades of the same +color, the species of things are absolutely distinct, and that there +are certain fixed boundaries which separate them, however difficult it +may be for us to find them out. In regard to intelligence and instinct, +the two principles seem to us to be not more distinctly and widely +separated in their nature than in the provinces of their operation. + +Sir Henry Holland, who believes that intelligence and instinct are +blended in man, admits that instincts, properly so called, form the +_minimum_ in relation to reason, and are difficult of definition from +their connection with his higher mental functions, but that, wherever +we can truly distinguish them, they are the same in principle and +manner of operation as those of other animals. He makes one +distinction, however, between the instincts of man and those of lower +animals,--that in the former they have more of individual character, +are far less numerous and definite in relation to the physical +conditions of life, and more various and extensive in regard to his +moral nature. But, on the other hand, Sir B.C. Brodie seems to be of +opinion that the majority of instincts belonging to man resemble those +of the inferior animals, inasmuch as they relate to the preservation of +the individual and the continuation of the species; and that when man +first began to exist, and for some generations afterwards, the range of +his instincts was much more extensive than it is at the present time. +When authorities so eminent as these differ so widely upon the +question, to what human instincts relate, we see at least that it is +very difficult to define and distinguish these instincts, and we may be +led to doubt their existence at all. Of that marvellous endowment which +guides the bee to fabricate its cells according to laws of the most +rigid mathematical exactness, and guides the swallow in its long flight +to its winter home, we agree with Professor Bowen, that there is no +trace whatever in human nature. The actions of man which have been +loosely described as instinctive belong for the most part to those +classes of actions which we have already shown to be in no proper sense +of the word instinctive, that is, those concerned in the appetites and +in the functions of organic life. There are also numerous automatic and +habitual actions which are liable to be mistaken for instincts. Some +have included in the category of instincts those intuitive perceptions +and primary beliefs which are a part of our constitution, and are the +foundation of all our knowledge. But these propensities of thought and +feeling are of a higher nature than mere instincts; they are immutable +laws of the human mind, which time and physical changes cannot reach: +they do not seem to depend upon the physical organization, but to be +inherent in the soul itself. If these are instincts, then, why are not +all the ways in which the mind exerts itself instincts also, and reason +itself an instinct? + +There is hardly any human action, feeling, or belief, which has not +been ranged under the term instinct. Hunger and thirst have been called +instincts; so have the faculty of speech, the use of the right hand in +preference to the left, the love of society, the desire to possess +property, the desire to avoid danger and prolong life, and the belief +in supernatural agencies, upon which is engrafted the religious +sentiment. We cannot, in this paper, attempt to analyze these and many +other similar examples which have been given as illustrations of +instinct in treatises of high repute, and show that they do not at all +come within that class of actions which we contrast with reason. In +regard to those actions of early infancy which have often been adduced +as illustrations of instinct, the physiologists of the present day are +agreed that they are as mechanical as the act of breathing. To place +these upon the same level with the complex and wonderful operations of +the bee, the ant, and the beaver, is to admit that the instincts of the +latter are merely reflex actions following impressions on the nerves of +sense. + +On the other hand, whether the animals inferior to man ever exercise +any conscious process of reasoning is a question which has often been +discussed, and upon which there is no general agreement. Instances of +the remarkable sagacity of some domesticated animals are often adduced +as proofs of reasoning on their part. Some of these wonderful feats may +be traced to the unconscious faculty of imitation, which even in man +often appears as a blind propensity, although he exercises an active +and rational imitation as well. Sometimes the mere association of +ideas, or the perception by animals that one thing is accompanied by +another or that one event follows another, is mistaken for that higher +principle which in man judges, reflects, and understands causes and +effects. When the dog sees his master take down his gun, his +blandishments show that he anticipates a renewal of the pleasures of +the chase. He does not reflect upon past pleasures; but, seeing the gun +in his master's hand, a confused idea of the feelings that were +associated with the gun in times past is called up. So the ox and the +horse learn to associate certain movements with the voice and gesture +of man. And so a fish, about the most stupid of all animals, comes to a +certain spot at a certain signal to be fed. These combinations are +quite elementary. This is quite another thing from that reciprocal +action of ideas on each other by which man perceives the relations of +things, understands the laws of cause and effect, and not only forms +judgments of the past, but draws conclusions which are laws for the +future. We find in the brute no power of attending to and arranging its +thoughts,--no power of calling up the past at will and reflecting upon +it. The animal has the faculty of memory, and, when this is awakened, +the object remembered may be accompanied by a train or attendance of +accessory notions which have been connected with the object in the +animal's past experience. But it never seems to be able to exercise the +purely voluntary act of recollection. It is not capable of comparing +one thing with another, so far as we can judge. If the animal could +exercise any true act of comparison, there would be no limit to the +exercise of it, and the animal would be an intelligent being; for the +result of a simple act of comparison is judgment, and reasoning is only +a double act of comparison. We have the authority of Sir William +Hamilton for saying that the highest function of mind is nothing higher +than comparison. Hence comes thought,--hence, the power of discovering +truth,--and hence, the mind's highest dignity, in being able to ascend +unassisted to the knowledge of a God. Those who hold that the minds of +the inferior animals are essentially of the same nature with that of +the human race, and differ only in degree, should reflect that the +distinguishing attribute of the human mind does not admit of degrees. +The faculty of comparison, in all its various applications, must be +either wholly denied or else wholly attributed. Hence, Pope is not +philosophical, when he applies the epithet "half-reasoning" to the +elephant. "As reasoning," says Coleridge, "consists wholly in a man's +power of seeing whether any two ideas which happen to be in his mind +are or are not in contradiction with each other, it follows of +necessity, not only that all men have reason, but that every individual +has it in the same degree." We gather also from the same acute writer +that in the simple determination, "black is not white," all the powers +are implied that distinguish man from other animals. If, then, the +brute reasoned at all, he would be a rational being, and would improve +and gain knowledge by experience; and, moreover, he would be a moral +agent, accountable for his conduct. "Would not the brute," asks an able +writer in the "Zooelogical Journal," "take a survey of his lower powers, +and would he not, as man does, either rightly use or pervert them, at +his pleasure?" + +It has been suggested by some one, that, by the law of merciful +adaptation, which extends throughout the universe, thought would not be +imprisoned and pent up forever in an intelligence wanting the power of +expression. But it is also to be noticed that the want of an articulate +language or a system of general signs puts it out of the power of +animals to perform a single act of reasoning. The use of language to +communicate wants and feelings is not peculiar to "word-dividing men," +though enjoyed by them in a much higher degree than by other animals. +Doubtless every species of social animals has some kind of language, +however imperfect it may be. "We never watch the busy workers of the +ant-hill," says Acheta Domestics, (the author of "Episodes of +Insect-Life,") "stopping as they encounter and laying their heads +together, without being pretty certain that they are saying to each +other something quite as significant as 'Fine day.'" And when the +morning wakes the choral song of the birds, they seem to be telling +each other of their happiness. But though animals have a language +appropriate to the expression of their sensations and emotions, they +have no words, "those shadows of the soul, those living sounds." Words +are symbols of thoughts, and may be considered as a revelation of the +human mind. It is this use of language as an instrument of thought, as +a system of general signs, which, according to Bishop Whately, +distinguishes the language of man from that of the brute; and the same +eminent authority declares that without such a system of general signs +the reasoning process could not be conducted. + +It is true, that we often see in the inferior animals manifestations of +deductions of intellect similar to those of the human mind,--only that +they are not made by the animals themselves, but for them and above +their conscious perception. "When a bee," says Dr. Reid, "makes its +combs so geometrically, the geometry is not in the bee, but in that +great Geometrician who made the bee, and made all things in number, +weight, and measure." Since the animal is not conscious of the +intelligence and design which are manifested in its instincts, which it +obeys and works out, the conscious life of the individual must be +wholly a life within the senses. The senses alone can give the animal +only an empirical knowledge of the world of its observation. The senses +may register and report facts, but they can never arrive at an +understanding of necessary truths; the source of this kind of knowledge +is the rational mind, which has an active disposition to draw out these +infallible laws and eternal truths from its own bosom. The main +tendency of the rational mind is not towards mere phenomena, but their +scientific explanation. It seeks to trace effects, as presented to us +by the senses, back to the causes which produced them; or contemplating +things wholly metaphysical, it seeks to follow out the laws which it +has itself discovered, till they have gone through a thousand probable +contingencies and lost themselves in numberless results. It is on +account of this capacity and tendency of the human mind to look through +fact to law, through individuals to classes, through effects to causes, +through phenomena to general principles, that the late Dr. Burnap was +led to declare, in a very interesting course of lectures which he +delivered before the Lowell Institute a few years since, that he +considered the first characteristic difference between the highest +species of animals and the lowest race of man to be a capacity of +science. But is not the whole edifice of human science built upon the +simple faculty of comparison? + +This is the ultimate analysis of all the highest manifestations of the +human mind, whether of judgment, or reason, or intellect, or common +sense, or the power of generalization, or the capacity of science. We +have already quoted Hamilton to this effect, and we, moreover, have his +authority for saying that the faculty of discovering truth, by a +comparison of the notions we have obtained by observation and +experience, is the attribute by which man is distinguished as a +creature higher than the animals. We might also cite Leibnitz to the +effect that men differ from animals in being capable of the formation +of necessary judgments, and hence capable of demonstrative sciences. + +But notwithstanding it seems so apparent that what is customarily +called reason is the distinguishing endowment which makes man the +"paragon of animals," we very often meet with attempts to set up some +other distinction. We cannot here go into an examination of these +various theories, or even allude to them specially. We will, however, +briefly refer to a view which was recently advanced in one of our +leading periodicals, inasmuch as it makes prominent a distinction which +we wish to notice, although it seems to us to be only subordinate to +the distinguishing attribute of the human mind which we have already +pointed out. It is said that self-consciousness is what makes the great +difference between man and other animals; that the latter do not +separate themselves consciously from the world in which they exist; and +that, though they have emotions, impulses, pains, and pleasures, every +change of feeling in them takes at once the form of an outward change +either in place or position. It is not intended, however, to be said +that they have no conscious perception of external things. We cannot +possibly conceive of an animal without this condition of consciousness. +A consciousness of an outward world is an essential quality of the +animal soul; this distinguishes the very lowest form of animal life +from the vegetable world; and hence it cannot possibly be, as has been +suggested by some, that there are any animate beings which have no +endowments superior to those which belong to plants. The plant is not +conscious of an outward world, when it sends out its roots to obtain +the nourishment which is fitting for itself; but the polype, which is +fixed with hundreds of its kind on the same coral-stock, and is able +only to move its mouth and tentacles, is aware of the presence of the +little craw-fish upon which it feeds, and throws out its lasso-cells +and catches it. The world of which the polype has any perception is not +a very large one. The outer world of a bird is vastly greater; and man +knows a world without, which is immeasurably large beyond that of which +any other animal is conscious, because both his physical organs and his +mental faculties bring him into far the most diversified and intimate +relations with all created things. He sees in every flower of the +garden and every beast of the field, in the air and in the sea, in the +earth beneath his feet and in the starry heavens above him, countless +meanings which are hidden to all the living world besides. To him there +is a world which has existed and a world that will exist. "Man," says +Protagoras, "is the measure of the universe." But he has a greater +dignity in being able to apprehend the world of thought within. "Whilst +I study to find how I am a microcosm or little world," says Sir Thomas +Browne, "I find myself something more than the great." Man can make +himself an object to himself and gain the deepest insight into the +workings of his own mind. This internal perception seems never to be +developed in other animals. We have already observed that they have no +thought of their own. The intelligence and design which they often +manifest in their actions are not the workings of their own minds. The +intelligence and design belong to Him who impressed the thought upon +the animal's mind and unceasingly sustains it in action. They +themselves are not conscious of any thought, but only of "certain dim +imperious influences" which urge them on. They are conscious of +feelings and desires and impulses. We could not conceive of the +existence of these affections in animals without their having an +immediate knowledge of them. Even "the function of voluntary motion," +says Hamilton, "which is a function of the animal soul in the +Peripatetic doctrine, ought not, as is generally done, to be excluded +from the phenomena of consciousness and mind." The conscious life of +the irrational tribes seems, then, to be a life almost wholly within +the senses. They have nothing of that higher conscious personality +which belongs to man and is an attribute of a free intellect. + +A general statement of the points made out in the foregoing inquiry +will more clearly show our conception of the nature and limitations of +instinct. First, we limited the word instinct so as to exclude all +those automatic and mechanical actions concerned in the simple +functions of organic life,--as also to exclude the operations of the +passions and appetites, since these seek no other end than their own +gratification. Then it was shown that instinct exists prior to all +experience or memory; that it comes to an instant or speedy perfection, +and is not capable of any improvement or cultivation; that its objects +are precise and limited; that within its proper sphere it often appears +as the highest wisdom, but beyond this is only foolishness; that it +uses complex and laborious means to provide for the future, without any +prescience of it; that it performs important and rational operations +which the animal neither intends nor knows anything about; that it is +permanent for each species, and is transmitted as an hereditary gift of +Nature; and that the few variations in its action result from the +development of provisional faculties, or from blind imitation. We were +led to conclude that instinct is not a free and conscious possession of +the animal itself. We found some points of resemblance between +intelligence in man and instinct in other animals,--but at the same +time points of dissimilarity, such as to make the two principles appear +radically unlike. + +This brief summary presents nearly all that we can satisfactorily make +out respecting instinct; and at the same time it shows how much is +still wanting to a complete solution of all the questions which it +involves. And then there are higher mysteries connected with the +subject, which we do not attempt to penetrate,--mysteries in regard to +the creation and the maintenance of instinctive action: whether it be +the result of particular external conditions acting on the organization +of animals, or whether, as Sir Isaac Newton thought, the Deity himself +is virtually the active and present moving principle in them;--and +mysteries, too, about the future of the brute world: whether, as +Southey wrote, + + "There is another world +For all that live and move,--a better world." + +If we ever find a path which seems about to lead us up to these +mysteries, it speedily closes against us, and leaves us without any +rational hope of attaining their solution. + + + + +MY OWN STORY. + + +"Oh, tell her, brief is life, but love is long." + +"What have I got that you would like to have? Your letters are tied up +and directed to you. Mother will give them to you, when she finds them +in my desk. I could execute my last will myself, if it were not for +giving her additional pain. I will leave everything for her to do +except this: take these letters, and when I am dead, give them to +Frank. There is not a reproach in them, and they are full of wit; but +he won't laugh, when he reads them again. Choose now, what will you +have of mine?" + +"Well," I said, "give me the gold pen-holder that Redmond sent you +after he went away." + +Laura rose up in her bed, and seized me by my shoulder, and shook me, +crying between her teeth, "You love him! you love him!" Then she fell +back on her pillow. "Oh, if he were here now! He went, I say, to marry +the woman he was engaged to before he saw you. He was nearly mad, +though, when he went. The night mother gave them their last party, when +you wore your black lace dress, and had pink roses in your hair, +somehow I hardly knew you that night. I was in the little parlor, +looking at the flowers on the mantelpiece, when Redmond came into the +room, and, rushing up to me, bent down and whispered, 'Did you see her +go? I shall see her no more; she is walking on the beach with Maurice.' +He sighed so loud that I felt embarrassed; for I was afraid that Harry +Lothrop, who was laughing and talking in a corner with two or three +men, would hear him; but he was not aware that they were there. I did +not know what to do, unless I ridiculed him. 'Follow them,' I said. +'Step on her flounces, and Maurice will have a chance to humiliate you +with some of his cutting, exquisite politeness.' He never answered a +word, and I would not look at him, but presently I understood that +there were tears falling. Oh, you need not look towards me with such +longing; he does not cry for you now. They seemed to bring him to his +senses. He stamped his foot; but the carpet was thick; it only made a +thud. Then he buttoned his coat, giving himself a violent twist as he +did it, and looked at me with such a haughty composure, that, if I had +been you, I should have trembled in my shoes. He walked across the room +toward the group of men.--'Ah, Harry,' he said, 'where is Maurice?' +'Don't you know?' they all cried out; 'he has gone as Miss Denham's +escort?' 'By Jove!' said Harry Lothrop,--'Miss Denham was as handsome +as Cleopatra, to-night. Little Maurice is now singing to her. Did he +take his guitar under his arm? It was here; for I saw a green bag near +his hat, when we came in to-night.' Just then we heard the twang of a +guitar under the window, and Redmond, in spite of himself, could not +help a grimace.--Is it not a droll world?" said Laura, after a pause; +"things come about so contrariwise." + +She laughed such a shrill laugh, that I shuddered to hear it, and I +fell a-crying. "But," she continued, "I am going, I trust, where a key +will be given me for this cipher." + +Tears came into her eyes, and an expression of gentleness filled her +face. + +"It is strange," she said, "when I know that I must die, that I should +be so moved by earthly passions and so interested in earthly +speculations. My heart supplicates God for peace and patience, and at +the same moment my thoughts float away in dreams of the past. I shall +soon be wiser; I am convinced of that. The doctrine of compensation +extends beyond this world; if it be not so, why should I die at twenty, +with all this mysterious suffering of soul? You must not wonder over +me, when I am gone, and ask yourself, 'Why did she live?' Believe that +I shall know why I lived, and let it suffice you and encourage you to +go on bravely. Live and make your powers felt. Your nature is affluent, +and you may yet learn how to be happy." + +She sighed softly, and turned her face to the wall, and moved her +fingers as sick people do. She waited for me to cease weeping: my tears +rained over my face so that I could neither see nor speak. + +After I had become calmer, she moved toward me again and took my hand: +her own trembled. + +"It is for the last time, Margaret. My good, skilful father gives me no +medicine now. My sisters have come home; they sit about the house like +mourners, with idle hands, and do not speak with each other. It is +terrible, but it will soon be over." + +She pulled at my hand for me to rise. I staggered up, and met her eyes. +Mine were dry now. + +"Do not come here again. It will be enough for my family to look at my +coffin. I feel better to think you will be spared the pain." + +I nodded. + +"Good-bye!" + +A sob broke in her throat. + +"Margaret,"--she spoke like a little child,--"I am going to heaven." + +I kissed her, but I was blind and dumb. I lifted her half out of the +bed. She clasped her frail arms round me, and hid her face in my bosom. + +"Oh, I love you!" she said. + +Her heart gave such a violent plunge, that I felt it, and laid her back +quickly. She waved her hand to me with a determined smile. I reached +the door, still looking at her, crossed the dark threshold, and passed +out of the house. The bold sunshine smote my face, and the insolent +wind played about me. The whole earth was as brilliant and joyous as if +it had never been furrowed by graves. + +Laura lived some days after my interview with her. She sent me no +message, and I did not go to see her. From the garret-windows of our +house, which was half a mile distant from Laura's, I could see the +windows of the room where she was lying. Three tall poplar-trees +intervened in the landscape. I thought they stood motionless so that +they might not intercept my view while I watched the house of death. +One morning I saw that the blinds had been thrown back and the windows +opened. I knew then that Laura was dead. + +The day after the funeral I gave Frank his letters, his miniature, and +the locket which held a ring of his hair. + +"Is there a fire?" he asked, when I gave them to him; "I want to burn +these things." + +I went to another room with him. + +"I'll leave everything here to-day; and may I never see this cursed +place again! Did she die, do you know, because I held her promise that +she would be my wife?" + +He threw the papers into the grate, and crowded them down with his +boot, and watched them till the last blackened flake disappeared. He +then took from his neck a hair chain, and threw that into the fire +also. + +"It is all done now," he said. + +He shook my hand with a firm grasp and left me. + +A month later Laura's mother sent me a package containing two bundles +of letters. It startled me to see that the direction was dated before +she was taken ill:--"To be given to Margaret in case of my death. +June 5th, 1848." They were my letters, and those which she had +received from Harry Lothrop. On this envelop was written, "Put these +into the black box he gave you." The gold pen-holder came into my hands +also. _Departure_ was engraved on the handle, and Laura's initials were +cut in an emerald in its top. The black box was an ebony, gold-plated +toy, which Harry Lothrop had given me at the same time Redmond gave +Laura the pen-holder. It was when they went away, after a whole +summer's visit in our little town, the year before. I locked the +letters in the black box, and, + + "Whether from reason or from impulse only," + +I know not, but I was prompted to write a line to Harry Lothrop. "Do +not," I said, "write Laura any more letters. Those you have already +written to her are in my keeping, for she is dead. Was it not a +pleasant summer we passed together? The second autumn is already at +hand: time flies the same, whether we are dull or gay. For all this +period what remains except the poor harvest of a few letters?" + +I received in answer an incoherent and agitated letter. What was the +matter with Laura? he asked. He had not heard from her for months. Had +any rupture occurred between her and her friend Frank? Did I suppose +she was ever unhappy? He was shocked at the news, and said he must come +and learn the particulars of the event. He thanked me for my note, and +begged me to believe how sincere was his friendship for my poor friend. + +"Redmond," he continued, "is, for the present, attached to the engineer +corps to which I belong, and he has offered to take charge of my +business while I am a day or two absent. He is in my room at this +moment, holding your note in his hand, and appears painfully +disturbed." + +It was now a little past the time of year when Redmond and Harry +Lothrop had left us,--early autumn. After their departure, Laura and I +had been sentimental enough to talk over the events of their visit. +Recalling these associations, we created an illusion of pleasure which +of course could not last. Harry Lothrop wrote to Laura, but the +correspondence declined and died. As time passed on, we talked less and +less of our visitors, and finally ceased to speak of them. Neither of +us knew or suspected the other of any deep or lasting feeling toward +the two friends. Laura knew Redmond better than I did; at least, she +saw him oftener; in fact, she knew both in a different way. They had +visited her alone; while I had met them almost entirely in society. I +never found so much time to spare as she seemed to have; for everybody +liked her, and everybody sought her. As often as we had talked over our +acquaintance, she was wary of speaking of Redmond. Her last +conversation with me revealed her thoughts, and awakened feelings which +I thought I had buffeted down. The tone of Harry Lothrop's note +perplexed me, and I found myself drifting back into an old state of +mind I had reason to dread. + +As I said, the autumn had come round. Its quiet days, its sombre +nights, filled my soul with melancholy. The lonesome moan of the sea +and the waiting stillness of the woods were just the same a year ago; +but Laura was dead, and Nature grieved me. Yet none of us are in one +mood long, and at this very time there were intervals when I found +something delicious in life, either in myself or the atmosphere. + + "Moreover, something is or seems + That touches me with mystic gleams." + +A golden morning, a starry night, the azure round of the sky, the +undulating horizon of sea, the blue haze which rose and fell over the +distant hills, the freshness of youth, the power of beauty,--all gave +me deep voluptuous dreams. + +I can afford to confess that I possessed beauty; for half my faults and +miseries arose from the fact of my being beautiful. I was not vain, but +as conscious of my beauty as I was of that of a flower, and sometimes +it intoxicated me. For, in spite of the comforting novels of the Jane +Eyre school, it is hardly possible to set an undue value upon beauty; +it defies ennui. + +As I expected, Harry Lothrop came to see me. The sad remembrance of +Laura's death prevented any ceremony between us; we met as old +acquaintances, of course, although we had never conversed together half +an hour without interruption. I began with the theme of Laura's illness +and death, and the relation which she had held toward me. All at once I +discovered, without evidence, that he was indifferent to what I was +saying; but I talked on mechanically, and like a phantasm the truth +came to my mind. The real man was there,--not the one I had carelessly +looked at and known through Laura. + +I became silent. + +He twisted his fingers in the fringe of my scarf, which had fallen off, +and I watched them. + +"Why," I abruptly asked, "have I not known you before?" + +He let go the fringe, and folded his hands, and in a dreamy voice +replied,-- + +"Redmond admires you." + +"What a pity!" I said. "And you,--you admire me, or yourself, just now; +which?" + +He flushed slightly, but continued with a bland voice, which irritated +and interested me. + +"All that time I was so near you, and you scarcely saw me; what a +chance I had to study you! Your friend was intelligent and sympathetic, +so we struck a league of friendship: I could dare so much with her, +because I knew that she was engaged to marry Mr. Ballard. I own that I +have been troubled about her since I went away. How odd it is that I am +here alone with you in this room! how many times I have wished it! I +liked you best here; and while absent, the remembrance of it has been +inseparable from the remembrance of you,--a picture within a picture. I +know all that the room contains,--the white vases, and the wire +baskets, with pots of Egyptian lilies and damask roses, the books bound +in green and gold, the engravings of nymphs and fauns, the crimson bars +in the carpet, the flowers on the cushions, and, best of all, the +arched window and its low seat. But I had promised myself never to see +you: it was all I could do for Laura. She is dead, and I am here." + +I rose and walked to the window, and looked out on the misty sea, and +felt strangely. + +"Another lover," I thought,--"and Redmond's friend, and Laura's. But it +all belongs to the comedy we play." + +He came to where I stood. + +"I know you so well," he said,--"your pride, your self-control, even +your foibles: but they attract one, too. You did not escape heart-whole +from Redmond's influence. He is not married yet, but he will be; he is +a chivalrous fellow. It was a desperate matter between you two,--a +hand-to-hand struggle. It is over with you both, I believe: you are +something alike. Now may I offer you my friendship? If I love you, let +me say so. Do not resist me. I appeal to the spirit of coquetry which +tempted you before you saw me to-night. You are dressed to please me." + +I was thinking what I should say, when he skilfully turned the +conversation into an ordinary channel. He shook off his dreamy manner, +and talked with his old vivacity. I was charmed a little; an +association added to the charm, I fancy. It was late at night when he +took his leave. He had arranged it all; for a man brought his carriage +to the door and drove him to the next town, where he had procured it to +come over from the railway. + +When I was shut in my room for the night, rage took possession of me. I +tore off my dress, twisted my hair with vehemence, and hurried to bed +and tried to go to sleep, but could not, of course. As when we press +our eyelids together for meditation or sleep, violet rings and changing +rays of light flash and fade before the darkened eyeballs, so in the +dark unrest of my mind the past flashed up, and this is what I saw:-- + +The county ball, where Laura and I first met Redmond, Harry Lothrop, +and Maurice. We were struggling through the crowd of girls at the +dressing-room door, to rejoin Frank, who was waiting for us. As we +passed out, satisfied with the mutual inspection of our dresses of +white silk, which were trimmed with bunches of rose-geranium, we saw a +group of strangers close by us, buttoning their gloves, looking at +their boots, and comparing looks. Laura pushed her fan against my arm; +we looked at each other, and made signs behind Frank, and were caught +in the act, not only by him, but by a tall gentleman in the group which +she had signalled me to notice. + +The shadow of a smile was travelling over his face as I caught his eye, +but he turned away so suddenly that I had no opportunity for +embarrassment. An usher gave us a place near the band, at the head of +the hall. + +"Do not be reckless, Laura," I said,--"at least till the music gives +you an excuse." + +"You are obliged to me, you know," she answered, "for directing your +attention to such attractive prey. Being in bonds myself, I can only +use my eyes for you: don't be ungrateful." + +The band struck up a crashing polka, and she and Frank whirled away, +with a hundred others. I found a seat and amused myself by contrasting +the imperturbable countenances of the musicians with those of the +dancers. The perfumes the women wore floated by me. These odors, the +rhythmic motion of the dancers, and the hard, energetic music +exhilarated me. The music ended, and the crowd began to buzz. The loud, +inarticulate speech of a brilliant crowd is like good wine. As my +acquaintances gathered about me, I began to feel its electricity, and +grew blithe and vivacious. Presently I saw one of the ushers speaking +to Frank, who went down the hall with him. + +"Oh, my prophetic soul!" said Laura, "they are coming." + +Frank came back with the three, and introduced them. Redmond asked me +for the first quadrille, and Harry Lothrop engaged Laura. Frank said to +me behind his handkerchief,--"It's _en regle_; I know where they came +from; their fathers are brave, and their mothers are virtuous." + +The quadrille had not commenced, so I talked with several persons near; +but I felt a constraint, for I knew I was closely observed by the +stranger, who was entirely quiet. Curiosity made me impatient for the +dance to begin; and when we took our places, I was cool enough to +examine him. Tall, slender, and swarthy, with a delicate moustache over +a pair of thin scarlet lips, penetrating eyes, and a tranquil air. My +antipodes in looks, for I was short and fair; my hair was straight and +black like his, but my eyes were blue, and my mouth wide and full. + +"What an unnaturally pleasant thing a ball-room is!" he said,--"before +the dust rises and the lights flare, I mean. But nobody ever leaves +early; as the freshness vanishes, the extravagance deepens. Did you +ever notice how much faster the musicians play as it grows late? When +we open the windows, the fresh breath of the night increases the +delirium within. I have seen the quietest women toss their faded +bouquets out of the windows without a thought of making a comparison +between the flowers and themselves." + +"My poor geraniums!" I said,--"what eloquence!" + +He laughed, and answered,-- + +"My friend Maurice yonder would have said it twice as well." + +We were in the promenade then, and stopped where the said Maurice was +fanning himself against the wall. + +"May I venture to ask you for a waltz, Miss Denham? it is the next +dance on the card," said Maurice;--"but of course you are engaged." + +I gave him my card, and he began to mark it, when Redmond took it, and +placed his own initials against the dance after supper, and the last +one on the list. He left me then, and I saw him a moment after talking +with Laura. + +We passed a gay night. When Laura and I equipped for our ten miles' +ride, it was four in the morning. Redmond helped Frank to pack us in +the carriage, and we rewarded him with a knot of faded leaves. + +"This late event," said Laura, with a ministerial air, after we had +started, "was a providential one. You, my dear Frank, were at liberty +to pursue your favorite pastime of whist, in some remote apartment, +without being conscience-torn respecting me. I have danced very well +without you, thanks to the strangers. And you, Margaret, have had an +unusual opportunity of displaying your latent forces. Three such +different men! But let us drive fast. I am in want of the cup of tea +which mother will have waiting for me." + +We arrived first at my door. As I was going up the steps, Laura broke +the silence; for neither of us had spoken since her remarks. + +"By the way, they are coming here to stay awhile. They are anxious for +some deep-sea fishing. They'll have it, I think." + +I heard Frank's laugh of delight at Laura's wit, as the carriage drove +off. + +It was our last ball that season. + +It was late in the spring; and when Redmond came with his two friends +and settled at the hotel in our town, it was early summer. When I saw +them again, they came with Laura and Frank to pay me a visit. Laura was +already acquainted with them, and asked me if I did not perceive her +superiority in the fact. + +"Let us arrange," said Harry Lothrop, "some systematic plan of +amusement by sea and land. I have a pair of horses, Maurice owns a +guitar, and Redmond's boat will be here in a few days. Jones, our +landlord, has two horses that are tolerable under the saddle. Let us +ride, sail, and be serenaded. The Lake House, Jones again, is eight +miles distant. This is Monday; shall we go there on horse-back +Wednesday?" + +Laura looked mournfully at Frank, who replied to her look,-- + +"You must go; I cannot; I shall go back to business to-morrow." + +I glanced at Redmond; he was contemplating a portrait of myself at the +age of fourteen. + +"Shall we go?" Laura asked him. + +"Nothing, thank you," he answered. + +We all laughed, and Harry Lothrop said,-- + +"Redmond, my boy, how fond you are of pictures!" + +Redmond, with an unmoved face, said,-- + +"Don't be absurd about my absent-mindedness. What were you saying?" + +And he turned to me. + +"Do you like our plan," I asked, "of going to the Lake House? There is +a deep pond, a fine wood, a bridge,--perch, pickerel,--a one-story inn +with a veranda,--ham and eggs, stewed quince, elderberry wine,--and a +romantic road to ride over." + +"I like it." + +Frank opened a discussion on fishing; Laura and I withdrew, and went to +the window-seat. + +"I am light-hearted," I said. + +"It is my duty to be melancholy," she replied; "but I shall not mope +after Frank has gone." + +"'After them the deluge,'" said I. "How long will they stay?" + +"Till they are bored, I fancy." + +"Oh, they are going; we must leave our recess." + +Frank and she remained; the others bid us good-night. + +"I shall not come again till Christmas," he said. "These college-chaps +will amuse you and make the time pass; they are young,--quite suitable +companions for you girls. _Vive la bagatelle!_" + +He sighed, and, drawing Laura's arm in his, rose to go. She groaned +loudly, and he nipped her ears. + +"Good-bye, Margaret; let Laura take care of you. There is a deal of +wisdom in her." + +We shook hands, Laura moaning all the while, and they went home. + +Frank and Laura had been engaged three years. He was about thirty, and +was still too poor to marry. + +Wednesday proved pleasant. We had an early dinner, and our cavalcade +started from Laura's. I rode my small bay horse Folly, a gift from my +absentee brother. His coat was sleeker than satin; his ears moved +perpetually, and his wide nostrils were always in a quiver. He was not +entirely safe, for now and then he jumped unexpectedly; but I had +ridden him a year without accident, and felt enough acquainted with him +not to be afraid. + +Redmond eyed him. + +"You are a bold rider," he said. + +"No," I answered,--"a careful one. Look at the bit, and my whip, too. I +cut his hind legs when he jumps. Observe that I do not wear a long +skirt. I can slip off the saddle, if need be, without danger." + +"That's all very well; but his eyes are vicious; he will serve you a +trick some day." + +"When he does, I'll sell him for a cart-horse." + +Laura and Redmond rode Jones's horses. Harry Lothrop was mounted on his +horse Black, a superb, thick-maned creature, with a cluster of white +stars on one of his shoulders. Maurice rode a wall-eyed pony. Our +friends Dickenson and Jack Parker drove two young ladies in a +carriage,--all the saddle-horses our town could boast of being in use. +We were in high spirits, and rode fast. I was occupied in watching +Folly, who had not been out for several days. At last, tired of tugging +at his mouth, I gave him rein, and he flew along. I tucked the edge of +my skirt under the saddle-flap, slanted forward, and held the bridle +with both hands close to his head. A long sandy reach of road lay +before me. I enjoyed Folly's fierce trotting; but, as I expected, the +good horse Black was on my track, while the rest of the party were far +behind. He soon overtook me. Folly snorted when he heard Black's step. +We pulled up, and the two horses began to sidle and prance, and throw +up their heads so that we could not indulge in a bit of conversation. + +"Brute!" said Harry Lothrop,--"if I were sure of getting on again, I +would dismount and thrash you awfully." + +"Remember Pickwick," I said; "don't do it." + +I had hardly spoken, when the strap of his cap broke, and it fell from +his head to the ground. I laughed, and so did he. + +"I can hold your horse while you dismount for it." + +I stopped Folly, and he forced Black near enough for me to seize the +rein and twist it round my hand; when I had done so, Folly turned his +head, and was tempted to take Black's mane in his teeth; Black felt it, +reared, and came down with his nose in my lap. I could not loose my +hands, which confused me, but I saw Harry Lothrop making a great leap. +Both horses were running now, and he was lying across the saddle, +trying to free my hand. It was over in an instant. He got his seat, and +the horses were checked. + +"Good God!" he said, "your fingers are crushed." + +He pulled off my glove, and turned pale when he saw my purple hand. + +"It is nothing," I said. + +But I was miserably fatigued, and prayed that the Lake House might come +in sight. We were near the wood, which extended to it, and I was +wondering if we should ever reach it, when he said,-- + +"You must dismount, and rest under the first tree. We will wait there +for the rest of the party to come up." + +I did so. Numerous were the inquiries, when they reached us. Laura, +when she heard the story, declared she now believed in Ellen Pickering. +Redmond gave me a searching look, and asked me if the one-story inn had +good beds. + +"I can take a nap, if necessary," I answered, "in one of Mrs. Sampson's +rush-bottomed chairs on the veranda. The croak of the frogs in the pond +and the buzz of the bluebottles shall be my lullaby." + +"No matter how, if you will rest," he said, and assisted me to remount. + +We rode quietly together the rest of the way. After arriving, we girls +went by ourselves into one of Mrs. Sampson's sloping chambers, where +there was a low bedstead, and a thick feather-bed covered with a +patchwork-quilt of the "Job's Trouble" pattern, a small, dim +looking-glass surmounted by a bunch of "sparrow-grass," and an +unpainted floor ornamented with home-made rugs which were embroidered +with pink flower-pots containing worsted rose-bushes, the stalks, +leaves, and flowers all in bright yellow. We hung up our riding-skirts +on ancient wooden pegs, for we had worn others underneath them suitable +for walking, and then tilted the wooden chairs at a comfortable angle +against the wall, put our feet on the rounds, and felt at peace with +all mankind. + +"Alas!" I said, "it is too early for currant-pies." + +"I saw," said one of the girls, "Mrs. Sampson poking the oven, and a +smell of pies was in the air." + +"Let us go into the kitchen," exclaimed Laura. + +The proposal was agreeable; so we went, and found Mrs. Sampson making +plum-cake. + +"The pies are green-gooseberry-pies," whispered Laura,--"very good, +too." + +"Miss Denham," shrieked Mrs. Sampson, "you haven't done growing +yet.--How's your mother and your grandmother?--Have you had a revival +in your church?--I heard of the young men down to Jones's,--our +minister's wife knows their fathers,--first-rate men, she says.--I +thought you would be here with them.--'Sampson,' I said this morning, as +soon as I dressed, 'do pick some gooseberries. I'll have before sundown +twenty pies in this house.' There they are,--six gooseberry, six +custard, and, though it's late for them, six mince, and two awful great +pigeon pies. It's poor trash, I expect; I'm afraid you can't eat it; +but it is as good as anybody's, I suppose." + +We told her we should devour it all, but must first catch some fish; +and we joined the gentlemen on the veranda. A boat was ready for us. +Laura, however, refused to go in it. It was too small; it was wet; she +wanted to walk on the bridge; she could watch us from that; she wanted +some flowers, too. Like many who are not afraid of the ocean, she held +ponds and lakes in abhorrence, and fear kept her from going with us. +Harry Lothrop offered to stay with her, and take lines to fish from the +bridge. She assented, and, after we pushed off, they strolled away. + +The lake was as smooth and white as silver beneath the afternoon sun +and a windless sky; it was bordered with a mound of green bushes, +beyond which stretched deep pine woods. There was no shade, and we soon +grew weary. Jack Parker caught all the fish, which flopped about our +feet. A little way down, where the lake narrowed, we saw Laura and +Harry Lothrop hanging over the bridge. + +"They must be interested in conversation," I thought; "he has not +lifted his line out of the water once." + +Redmond, too, looked over that way often, and at last said,-- + +"We will row up to the bridge, and walk back to the house, if you, +Maurice, will take the boat to the little pier again." + +"Oh, yes," said Maurice. + +We came to the bridge, and Laura reached out her hand to me. + +"Why, dear!" she exclaimed, "you have burnt your face. Why did you," +turning to Redmond, "paddle about so long in the hot sun?" + +Her words were light enough, but the tone of her voice was savage. +Redmond looked surprised; he waved his hand deprecatingly, but said +nothing. We went up toward the house, but Laura lingered behind, and +did not come in till we were ready to go to supper. + +It was past sundown when we rose from the ruins of Mrs. Sampson's pies. +We voted not to start for home till the evening was advanced, so that +we might enjoy the gloom of the pine wood. We sat on the veranda and +heard the sounds of approaching night. The atmosphere was like powdered +gold. Swallows fluttered in the air, delaying to drop into their nests, +and chirped their evening song. We heard the plunge of the little +turtles in the lake, and the noisy crows as they flew home over the +distant tree-tops. They grew dark, and the sky deepened slowly into a +soft gray. A gentle wind arose, and wafted us the sighs of the pines +and their resinous odors. I was happy, but Laura was unaccountably +silent. + +"What is it, Laura?" I asked, in a whisper. + +"Nothing, Margaret,--only it seems to me that we mortals are always +riding or fishing, eating or drinking, and that we never get to living. +To tell you the truth, the pies were too sour. Come, we must go," she +said aloud. + +Redmond himself brought Folly from the stable. + +"We will ride home together," he said. "My calm nag will suit yours +better than Black. Why does your hand tremble?" + +He saw my shaking hands, as I took the rein; the fact was, my wrists +were nearly broken. + +"Nothing shall happen to-night, I assure you," he continued, while he +tightened Folly's girth. + +He contrived to be busy till all the party had disappeared down a turn +of the road. As he was mounting his horse, Mrs. Sampson, who was on the +steps, whispered to me,-- + +"He's a beautiful young man, now!" + +He heard her; he had the ear of a wild animal; he took off his hat to +Mrs. Sampson, and we rode slowly away. + +As soon as we were in the wood, Redmond tied the bridles of the horses +together with his handkerchief. It was so dark that my sight could not +separate him from his horse. They moved beside me, a vague, black +shape. The horses' feet fell without noise in the cool, moist sand. If +our companions were near us, we could not see them, and we did not hear +them. Horses generally keep an even pace, when travelling at +night,--subdued by the darkness, perhaps,--and Folly went along without +swaying an inch. I dropped the rein on his neck, and took hold of the +pommel. My hand fell on Redmond's. Before I could take it away, he had +clasped it, and touched it with his lips. The movement was so sudden +that I half lost my balance, but the horses stepped evenly together. He +threw his arm round me, and recoiled from me as if he had received a +blow. + +"Take up your rein," he said, with a strange voice,--"quick!--we must +ride fast out of this." + +I made no reply, for I was trying to untie the handkerchief. The knot +was too firm. + +"No, no," he said, when he perceived what I was doing, "let it be so." + +"Untie it, Sir!" + +"I will not." + +I put my face down between the horses' necks and bit it apart, and +thrust it into my bosom. + +"Now," I said, "shall we ride fast?" + +He shook his rein, and we rode fiercely,--past our party, who shouted +at us,--through the wood,--over the brow of the great hill, from whose +top we saw the dark, motionless sea,--through the long street,--and +through my father's gateway into the stable-yard, where I leaped from +my horse, and, bridle in hand, said, "Good night!" in a loud voice. + +Redmond swung his hat and galloped off. + +Early next morning, Laura sent me a note:-- + +"DEAR MARGARET,--I have an ague, and mean to have it till Sunday night. +The pines did it. Did you bring home any needles? On Monday, mother +will give one of her whist-parties. I shall add a dozen or two of our +set; you will come. + +"P.S. What do you think of Mr. Harry Lothrop? Good young man, eh?" + +I was glad that Laura had shut herself up for a few days; I dreaded to +see her just now. I suffered from an inexplicable feeling of pride and +disappointment, and did not care to have her discover it. Laura, like +myself, sometimes chose to protect herself against neighborly +invasions. We never kept our doors locked in the country; the sending +in of a card was an unknown process there. Our acquaintances walked in +upon us whenever the whim took them, and it now and then happened to be +an inconvenience to us who loved an occasional fit of solitude. I +determined to keep in-doors for a few days also. Whenever I was in an +unquiet mood, I took to industry; so that day I set about arranging my +drawers, making over my ribbons, and turning my room upside down. I +rehung all my pictures, and moved my bottles and boxes. Then I mended +my stockings, and marked my clothes, which was not a necessary piece of +work, as I never left home. I next attacked the parlor,--washed all the +vases, changed the places of the furniture, and distressed my mother +very much. When evening came, I brushed my hair a good deal, and looked +at my hands, and went to bed early. I could not read then, though I +often took books from the shelves, and I would not think. + +Sunday came round. The church-bells made me lonesome. I looked out of +the window many times that day, and, fixing on the sash one of my +father's ship-glasses, swept the sea, and peered at the islands on the +other side of the bay, gazing through their openings, beyond which I +could see the great dim ocean. Mother came home from church, and said +young Maurice was there, and inquired about me. He hoped I did not take +cold; his friend Redmond had been hoarse ever since our ride, and had +passed most of the time in his own room, drumming on the window-pane +and whistling dirges. Mother dropped her acute eyes on me, while she +was telling me this; but I yawned all expression from my face. + +As Monday night drew near, my numbness of feeling began to pass off; +thought came into my brain by plunges. Now I desired; now I hoped. I +dressed myself in black silk, and wore a cape of black Chantilly lace. +I made my hair as glossy as possible, drew it down on my face, and put +round my head a band composed of minute sticks of coral. When all was +done, I took the candle and held it above my head and surveyed myself +in the glass. I was very pale. The pupils of my eyes were dilated, as +if I had received some impression that would not pass away. My lips had +the redness of youth; their color was deepened by my paleness. + +"How handsome I am!" I thought, as I set down the candle. + +When I entered Laura's parlor, she came toward me and said,-- + +"Artful creature! you knew well, this warm night, that every girl of us +would wear a light dress; so you wore a black one. How well you +understand such matters! You are very clever; your real sensibility +adds effect to your cleverness. I see how it is. Come into this corner. +Have you got a fan? Good gracious! black, with gold spangles;--where +_do_ you buy your things? I can tell you now," she continued, "my +conversation on the bridge the other day." + +She hesitated, and asked me if I liked her new muslin. She did look +well in it; it was a white fabric, with red rose-buds scattered over +it. Her delicate face was shadowed by light brown curls. She was +attractive, and I told her so, and she began again:-- + +"Harry Lothrop said, as he was impaling the half of a worm,-- + +"'Redmond is a handsome fellow, is he not?' + +"'He is too awfully thin,' I answered, 'but his eyes are good.' + +"He gave me a crafty side-look, like that of a parrot, when he means to +bite your finger. + +"'Your friend, too,' he added, 'is really one of the most beautiful +girls I ever saw,--a coquette with a heart.' + +"'Let down your line into the water,' I said. + +"He laughed a little laugh. By-the-by, there is an insidious tenacity +about Mr. Harry Lothrop which irritates me; but I like him, for I think +he understands women. I feel at ease with him, when he is not throwing +out his tenacious feelers. Then he said,-- + +"'Redmond is engaged to his cousin. The girl's mother had the charge of +him through his boyhood. He is ardently attached to her,--the mother, I +mean. She is most anxious to call Redmond her son.' + +"'Didn't you have a bite?' I said. + +"'Well, I think the bait is off the hook,' he answered; and then we +were silent and pondered the water. + +"There are some people I must speak to,"--and Laura moved away without +looking at me. + +I opened my fan, but felt chilly. A bustle near me caused me to raise +my eyes; Redmond was speaking to a lady. He was in black, too, and very +pale. He turned toward me and our eyes met. His expression agitated me +so that I unconsciously rose to my feet and warned him off with my fan; +but he seemed rooted to the spot. Laura took care of us both; she came +and stood between us. I saw her look at him so sweetly and so +mournfully, that he understood her in a moment. He shook his head and +walked abruptly into another room. Laura went again from me without +giving me a look. Maurice came up and I made room for him beside me. We +talked of the riding-party, and then of our first meeting at the ball. +He told me that Redmond's boat had arrived, and what a famous boat it +was, and "what jolly sprees we fellows had, cruising about with her." I +asked him about his guitar, and when we might hear him play. He grew +more chatty and began to tell me about his sister, when Redmond and +Harry Lothrop came over to us, which ended his chat. + +The party was like all parties,--dull at first, and brighter as it grew +late. The old ladies played whist in one room, and the younger part of +the company were in another. Champagne was not a prevalent drink in our +village, but it happened that we had some that night. + +"It may be a sinful beverage," said an old lady near me, "but it is +good." + +Redmond opened a bottle for me, we clinked glasses, and drank to an +indefinite, silent wish. + +"One more," he asked, "and let us change glasses." + +Presently a cloud of delicate warmth spread over my brain, and gave me +courage to seek and meet his glance. There must have been an expression +of irresolution in my face, for he looked at me inquiringly, and then +his own face grew very sad. I felt awkward from my intuition of his +opinion of my mood, when he relieved me by saying something about +Shelley,--a copy of whose poems lay on a table near. From Shelley he +went to his boat, and said he hoped to have some pleasant excursions +with Laura and myself. He "would go at once and talk with Laura's +mother about them." I watched him through the door, while he spoke to +her. She was in a low chair, and he leaned his face on one hand close +to hers. I saw that his natural expression was one of tranquillity and +courage. He was not more than twenty-two, but the firmness of the lines +about his mouth belied his youth. + +"He has a wonderful face," I thought, "and just as wonderful a will." + +I felt my own will rise as I looked at him,--a will that should make me +mistress of myself, powerful enough to contend with, and resist, or +turn to advantage any controlling fate which might come near me. + +"Do you feel like singing?" Harry Lothrop inquired. "Do you know +Byron's song, 'One struggle more and I am free'?" + +"Oh, yes!" I replied,--"it is set to music which suits my voice. I will +sing it." + +Laura had been playing polkas with great spirit. Since the Champagne, +the old ladies had closed their games of whist for talking, and, as it +was nearly time to go, the company was gay. There was laughing and +talking when I began, but silence soon after, for the wine made my +voice husky and effective. I sang as if deeply moved. + +"Lord!" I heard Maurice say to Laura, as I rose from the piano, "what a +girl! she's really tragic." + +I caught Harry Lothrop's eye, as I passed through the door to go +up-stairs; it was burning; I felt as if a hot coal had dropped on me. +Maurice ran into the hall and sprang upon the stair-railing to ask me +if he might be my escort home. That night he serenaded me. He was a +good-hearted, cheerful creature; conceited, as small men are apt to +be,--conceit answering for size with them,--but pleasantly so, and I +learned to like him as much as Redmond did. + +The summer days were passing. We had all sorts of parties,--parties in +houses and out-of-doors; we rode and sailed and walked. Laura walked +and talked much with Harry Lothrop. We did not often see each other +alone, but, when we met, were more serious and affectionate with each +other. We did not speak, except in a general way, of Redmond and Harry +Lothrop. I did not avoid Redmond, nor did I seek him. We had many a +serious conversation in public, as well as many a gay one; but I had +never met him alone since the night we rode through the pines. + +He went away for a fortnight. On the day of his return he came to see +me. He looked so glad, when I entered the room, that I could not help +feeling a wild thrill. I went up to him, but said nothing. He held out +both his hands. I retreated. An angry feeling rushed into my heart. + +"No," I said, "Whose hand did you hold last?" + +He turned deadly pale. + +"That of the woman I am going to marry." + +I smiled to hide the trembling of my lips, and offered my hand to him; +_but he waved it away_, and fell back on his chair, hurriedly drawing +his handkerchief across his face. I saw that he was very faint, and +stood against the door, waiting for him to recover. + +"More than I have played the woman and the fool before you." + +"Yes." + +"I thought so. You seem experienced." + +"I am." + +"Forgive me," he said, gently; "being only a man, I think you can. Good +God!" he exclaimed, "what an infernal self-possession you show!" + +"Redmond, is it not time to end this? The summer has been a long +one,--has it not?--long enough for me to have learned what it is to +live. Our positions are reversed since we have become acquainted. I am +for the first time forgetting self, and you for the first time remember +self. Redmond, you are a noble man. You have a steadfast soul. Do not +be shaken. I am not like you; I am not simple or single-hearted. But I +imitate you. Now come, I beg you will go." + +"Certainly, I will. I have little to say." + +August had nearly gone when Maurice told me they were about to leave. +Laura said we must prepare for retrospection and the fall sewing. + +"Well," I said, "the future looks gloomy, and I must have some new +dresses." + +Maurice came to see me one morning in a state of excitement to say we +were all going to Bird Island to spend the day, dine at the +light-house, and sail home by moonlight. Fifteen of the party were +going down by the sloop Sapphire, and Redmond had begged him to ask if +Laura and I would go in his boat. + +"Do go," said Maurice; "it will be our last excursion together; next +week we are off. I am broken-hearted about it. I shall never be so +happy again. I have actually whimpered once or twice. You should hear +Redmond whistle nowadays. Harry pulls his moustache and laughs his oily +laughs, but he is sorry to go, and kicks his clothes about awfully. By +the way, he is going down in the sloop because Miss Fairfax is +going,--he says,--that tall young lady with crinkled hair;--he hates +her, and hopes to see her sick. May I come for you in the morning, by +ten o'clock? Redmond will be waiting on the wharf." + +"Tell Redmond," I answered, "that I will go; and will you ask Harry +Lothrop not to engage himself for all the reels to Miss Fairfax?" + +He promised to fulfil my message, and went off in high spirits. I +wondered, as I saw him going down the walk, why it was that I felt so +much more natural and friendly with him than with either of his +friends. I often talked confidentially to him; he knew how I loved my +mother, and how I admired my father, and I told him all about my +brother's business. He also knew what I liked best to eat and to wear. +In return, he confided his family secrets to me. I knew his tastes and +wishes. There was no common ground where I met Redmond and Harry +Lothrop. There were too many topics between Redmond and myself to be +avoided, for us to venture upon private or familiar conversation. Harry +Lothrop was an accomplished, fastidious man of the world, I dreaded +boring him, and so I said little. He was several years older than +Redmond, and possessed more knowledge of men, women, and books. Redmond +had no acquirements, he knew enough by nature, and I never saw a person +with more fascination of manner and voice. + +The evening before the sailing-party, I had a melancholy fit. I was +restless, and after dark I put a shawl over my head and went out to +walk. I went up a lonesome road, beyond our house. On one side I heard +the water washing against the shore with regularity, as if it were +breathing. On the other side were meadows, where there were cows +crunching the grass. A mile farther was a low wood of oaks, through +which ran a path. I determined to walk through that. The darkness and a +sharp breeze which blew against me from limitless space made me feel as +if I were the only human creature the elements could find to contend +with, I turned down the little path into the deeper darkness of the +wood, sat down on a heap of dead leaves, and began to cry. + +"Mine is a miserable pride," was my thought,--"that of arming myself +with beauty and talent and going through the world conquering! Girls +are ignorant, till they are disappointed. The only knowledge men +proffer us is the knowledge of the heart; it becomes us to profit by +it. Redmond will marry that girl. He must, and shall. I will empty the +dust and ashes of my heart as soon as the fire goes down: that is, I +think so; but I know that I do not know myself. I have two +natures,--one that acts, and one that is acted upon,--and I cannot +always separate the one from the other." + +Something darkened the opening into the path. Two persons passed in +slowly. I perceived the odor of violets, and felt that one of them must +be Laura. Waiting till they passed beyond me, I rose and went home. + +The next morning was cloudy, and the sea was rough with a high wind; +but we were old sailors, and decided to go on our excursion. The sloop +and Redmond's boat left the wharf at the same time. We expected to be +several hours beating down to Bird Island, for the wind was ahead. +Laura and I, muffled in cloaks, were placed on the thwarts and +neglected; for Redmond and Maurice were busy with the boat. Laura was +silent, and looked ill. Redmond sat at the helm, and kept the boat up +to the wind, which drove the hissing spray over us. The sloop hugged +the shore, and did not feel the blast as we did. I slid along my seat +to be near Redmond. He saw me coming, and put out his hand and drew me +towards him, looking so kindly at me that I was melted. Trying to get +at my handkerchief, which was in my dress-pocket, my cloak flew open, +the wind caught it, and, as I rose to draw it closer, I nearly fell +overboard. Redmond gave a spring to catch me, and the boat lost her +headway. The sail flapped with a loud bang. Maurice swore, and we +chopped about in the short sea. + +"It is your destiny to have a scene, wherever you are," said Laura. "If +I did not feel desperate, I should be frightened. But these green, +crawling waves are so opaque, if we fall in, we shall not see ourselves +drown." + +"Courage! the boat is under way," Maurice cried out; "we are nearly +there." + +And rounding a little point, we saw the light-house at last. The sloop +anchored a quarter of a mile from the shore, the water being shoal, and +Redmond took off her party by instalments. + +"What the deuse was the matter with you at one time?" asked Jack +Parker. "We saw you were having a sort of convulsion. Our cap'n said +you were bold chaps to be trifling with such a top-heavy boat." + +"Miss Denham," said Redmond, "thought she could steer the boat as well +as I could, and so the boat lost headway." + +Harry Lothrop gave Redmond one of his soft smiles, and a vexed look +passed over Redmond's face when he saw it. + +We had to scramble over a low range of rocks to get to the shore. +Redmond anchored his boat by one of them. Bird Island was a famous +place for parties. It was a mile in extent. Not a creature was on it +except the light-house keeper, his wife, and daughter. The gulls made +their nests in its rocky borders; their shrill cries, the incessant +dashing of the waves on the ledges, and the creaking of the lantern in +the stone tower were all the sounds the family heard, except when they +were invaded by some noisy party like ours. They were glad to see us. +The light-house keeper went into the world only when it was necessary +to buy stores, or when his wife and daughter wanted to pay a visit to +the mainland. + +The house was of stone, one story high, with thick walls. The small, +deep-set windows and the low ceilings gave the rooms the air of a +prison; but there was also an air of security about them: for, in +looking from the narrow windows, one felt that the house was a +steadfast ship in the circle of the turbulent sea, whose waves from +every point seemed advancing towards it. A pale, coarse grass grew in +the sand of the island. It was too feeble to resist the acrid breath of +the ocean, so it shuddered perpetually, and bent landward, as if +invoking the protection of its stepmother, the solid earth. + +"It is perfect," said Redmond to me; "I have been looking for this spot +all my life; I am ready to swear that I will never leave it." + +We were sitting in a window, facing each other. He looked out toward +the west, and presently was lost in thought. He folded his arms tightly +across his breast, and his eyes were a hundred miles away. The sound of +a fiddle in the long alley which led from the house to the tower broke +his reverie. + +"We shall be uproarious before we leave," I said; "we always are, when +we come here." + +The fun had already set in. Some of the girls had pinned up their +dresses, and borrowed aprons from the light-house keeper's wife, and +with scorched faces were helping her to make chowder and fry +fish. Others were arranging the table, assisted by the young men, who +put the dishes in the wrong places. Others were singing in the best +room. One or two had brought novels along, and were reading them in +corners. It was all merry and pleasant, but I felt quiet. Redmond +entered into the spirit of the scene. I had never seen him so gay. He +chatted with all the girls, interfering or helping, as the case might +be. Maurice brought his guitar, and had a group about him at the foot +of the tower-stairs. He sung loud, but his voice seemed to +fluctuate;--now it rang through the tower, now it was half overpowered +by the roar of the sea. His poetical temperament led him to choose +songs in harmony with the place, not to suit the company,--melancholy +words set to wild, fitful chords, which rose and died away according to +the skill of the player. I had gone near him, for his singing had +attracted me. + +"You are inspired," I said. + +He nodded. + +"You never sung so before." + +"I feel old to-day," he answered, and he swept his hands across all the +strings; "my ditties are done." + +After dinner Laura asked me to go out with her. We slipped away unseen, +and went to the beach, and seated ourselves on a great rock whose outer +side was lapped by the water. The sun had broken through the clouds, +but shone luridly, giving the sea a leaden tint. The wind was going +down. We had not been there long, when Redmond joined us. He asked us +to go round the island in his boat. Laura declined, and said she would +sit on the rock while we went, if I chose to go. I did choose to go, +and he brought the boat to the rock. He hoisted the sail half up the +mast, and we sailed close to the shore. It rose gradually along the +east side of the island, and terminated in a bold ledge which curved +into the sea. We ran inside the curve, where the water was nearly +smooth. Redmond lowered the sail and the boat drifted toward the ledge +slowly. A tongue of land, covered with pale sedge, was on the left +side. Above the ledge, at the right, we could see the tower of the +light-house. Redmond tied down the helm, and, throwing himself beside +me, leaned his head on his hand, and looked at me a long time without +speaking. I listened to the water, which plashed faintly against the +bows. He covered his face with his hands. I looked out seaward over the +tongue of land; my heart quaked, like the grass which grew upon it. At +last he rose, and I saw that he was crying,--the tears rained fast. + +"My soul is dying," he said, in a stifled voice; "I am not more than +mortal,--I cannot endure it." + +I pointed toward the open sea, which loomed so vague in the distance. + +"The future is like that,--is it not? Courage! we must drift through +it; we shall find something." + +He stamped his foot on the deck. + +"Women always talk so; but men are different. If there is a veil before +us, we must tear it away,--not sit muffled in its folds, and speculate +on what is behind it. Rise." + +I obeyed him. He held me firmly. We were face to face. + +"Look at me." + +I did. His eyes were blazing. + +"Do you love me?" + +"No." + +He placed me on the bench, hoisted the sail, untied the helm, and we +were soon ploughing round to the spot where we had left Laura; but she +was gone. On the rock where she was, perched a solitary gull, which +flew away with a scream as we approached. + +That day was the last that I saw Redmond alone. He was at the party at +Laura's house which took place the night before they left. We did not +bid each other adieu. + +After the three friends had gone, they sent us gifts of remembrance. +Redmond's keepsake was a white fan with forget-me-nots painted on it. +To Laura he sent the pen-holder, which was now mine. + +We missed them, and should have felt their loss, had no deep feeling +been involved; for they gave an impetus to our dull country life, and +the whole summer had been one of excitement and pleasure. We settled by +degrees into our old habits. At Christmas, Frank came. He looked +worried and older. He had heard something of Laura's intimacy with +Harry Lothrop, and was troubled about it, I know: but I believe Laura +was silent on the matter. She was quiet and affectionate toward him +during his visit, and he went back consoled. + +The winter passed. Spring came and went, and we were deep into the +summer when Laura was taken ill. She had had a little cough, which no +one except her mother noticed. Her spirits fell, and she failed fast. +When I saw her last, she had been ill some weeks, and had never felt +strong enough to talk as much as she did in that interview. She nerved +herself to make the effort, and as she bade me farewell, bade farewell +to life also. And now it was all over with her! + + * * * * * + +I fell asleep at length, and woke late. It seemed as if a year had +dropped out of the procession of Time. My heart was still beating with +the emotion which stirred it when Redmond and I were together last. +Recollection had stung me to the quick. A terrible longing urged me to +go and find him. The feeling I had when we were in the boat, face to +face, thrilled my fibres again. I saw his gleaming eyes; I could have +rushed through the air to meet him. But, alas! exaltation of feeling +lasts only a moment; it drops us where it finds us. If it were not so, +how easy to be a hero! The dull reaction of the present, like a slow +avalanche, crushed and ground me into nothingness. + +"Something must happen at last," I thought, "to amuse me, and make time +endurable." + +What can a woman do, when she knows that an epoch of feeling is rounded +off, finished, dead? Go back to her story-books, her dress-making, her +worsted-work? Shall she attempt to rise to mediocrity on the piano or +in drawing, distribute tracts, become secretary of a Dorcas society? or +shall she turn her mind to the matter of cultivating another lover at +once? Few of us women have courage enough to shoulder out the corpses +of what men leave in our hearts. We keep them there, and conceal the +ruins in which they lie. We grow cunning and artful in our tricks, the +longer we practise them. But how we palpitate and shrink and shudder, +when we are alone in the dark! + +After Redmond departed, I had locked up my feelings and thrown the key +away. The death of Laura, and the awakening of my recollections, caused +by the appearance of Harry Lothrop, wrenched the door open. Hitherto I +had acted with the bravery of a girl; I must now behave with the +resolution of a woman. I looked into my heart closely. No skeleton was +there, but the image of a living man,--_Redmond_. + +"I love him," I confessed. "To be his wife and the mother of his +children is the only lot I ever care to choose. He is noble, handsome, +and loyal. But I cannot belong to him, nor can he ever be mine. + + "'Of love that never found his earthly close + What sequel?' + +"What did he do with the remembrance of me? He scattered it, perhaps, +with the ashes of the first cigar he smoked after he went from +me,--made a mound of it, maybe, in honor of Duty. I am as ignorant of +him as if he no longer existed; so this image must be torn away. I will +not burn the lamp of life before it, but will build up the niche where +it stands into a solid wall." + +The ideal happiness of love is so sweet and powerful, that, for a +while, adverse influences only exalt the imagination. When Laura told +me of Redmond's engagement, it did but change my dream of what might be +into what might have been. It was a mirage which continued while he was +present and faded with his departure. Then my heart was locked in the +depths of will, till circumstance brought it a power of revenge. I +think now, if we had spoken freely and truly to each other, I should +have suffered less when I saw his friend. We feel better when the +funeral of our dearest friend is over and we have returned to the +house. There is to be no more preparation, no waiting; the windows may +be opened, and the doors set wide; the very dreariness and desolation +force our attention towards the living. + +"Something will come," I thought; and I determined not to have any more +reveries. "Mr. Harry Lothrop is a pleasant riddle; I shall see him +soon, or he will write." + +It occurred to me then that I had some letters of his already in my +possession,--those he had written to Laura. I found the ebony box, and, +taking from it the sealed package, unfolded the letters one by one, +reading them according to their dates. There was a note among them for +me, from Laura. + +"When you read these letters, Margaret," it said, "you will see that I +must have studied the writer of them in vain. You know now that he made +me unhappy; not that I was in love with him much, but he stirred depths +of feeling which I had no knowledge of, and which between Frank, my +betrothed husband, and myself had no existence. But '_le roi s'amuse._' +Perhaps a strong passion will master this man; but I shall never know. +Will you?" + +I laid the letters back in their place, and felt no very strong desire +to learn anything more of the writer. I did not know then how little +trouble it would be,--my share of making the acquaintance. + +It was not many weeks before Mr. Lothrop came again, and rather +ostentatiously, so that everybody knew of his visit to me. But he saw +none of the friends he had made during his stay the year before. I +happened to see him coming, and went to the door to meet him. Almost +his first words were,-- + +"Maurice is dead. He went to Florida,--took the fever,--which killed +him, of course. He died only a week after--after Laura. Poor fellow! +did he interest you much? I believe he was in love with you, too; but +musical people are never desperate, except when they play a false +note." + +"Yes," I answered; "I was fond of him. His conceit did not trouble me, +and he never fatigued me; he had nothing to conceal. He was a +commonplace man; one liked him, when with him,--and when away, one had +no thought about him." + +"I alone am left you," said my visitor, putting his hat on a chair, and +slowly pulling off his gloves, finger by finger. + +He had slender, white hands, like a woman's, and they were always in +motion. After he had thrown his gloves into his hat, he put his finger +against his cheek, leaned his elbow on the arm of his chair, crossed +his legs, and looked at me with a cunning self-possession. I glanced at +his feet; they were small and well-booted. I looked into his face; it +was not a handsome one; but he had magnetic eyes, of a lightish blue, +and a clever, loose mouth. It is impossible to describe him,--just as +impossible as it is for a man who was born a boor to attain the bearing +of a gentleman; any attempt at it would prove a bungling matter, when +compared with the original. He felt my scrutiny, and knew, too, that I +had never looked at him till then. + +"Do you sing nowadays?" he asked, tapping with his fingers the keys of +the piano behind him. + +"Psalms." + +"They suit you admirably; but I perceive you attend to your dress +still. How effective those velvet bands are! You look older than you +did two years ago." + +"Two years are enough to age a woman." + +"Yes, if she is miserable. Can you be unhappy?" he asked, rising, and +taking a seat beside me. + +There was a tone of sympathy in his voice which made me shudder, I knew +not why. It was neither aversion nor liking; but I dreaded to be thrown +into any tumult of feeling. I realized afterward more fully that it is +next to impossible for a passionate woman to receive the sincere +addresses of a manly man without feeling some fluctuation of soul. +Ignorant spectators call her a coquette for this. Happily, there are +teachers among our own sex, women of cold temperaments, able to +vindicate themselves from the imputation. They spare themselves great +waste of heart and some generous emotion,--also remorse and +self-accusations regarding the want of propriety, and the other +ingredients which go to make up a white-muslin heroine. + +Harry Lothrop saw that my cheek was burning, and made a movement toward +me. I tossed my head back, and moved down the sofa; he did not follow +me, but smiled and mused in his old way. + +And so it went on,--not once, but many times. He wrote me quiet, +persuasive, eloquent letters. By degrees I learned his own history and +that of his family, his prospects and his intentions. He was rich. I +knew well what position I should have, if I were his wife. My beauty +would be splendidly set. I was well enough off, but not rich enough to +harmonize all things according to my taste. I was proud, and he was +refined; if we were married, what better promise of delicacy could be +given than that of pride in a woman, refinement in a man? He brought me +flowers or books, when he came. The flowers were not delicate and +inodorous, but magnificent and deep-scented; and the material of the +books was stalwart and vigorous. I read his favorite authors with him. +He was the first person who ever made any appeal to my intellect. In +short, he was educating me for a purpose. + +Once he offered me a diamond cross. I refused it, and he never asked me +to accept any gift again. His visits were not frequent, and they were +short. However great the distance he accomplished to reach me, he staid +only an evening, and then returned. He came and went at night. In time +I grew to look upon our connection as an established thing. He made me +understand that he loved me, and that he only waited for me to return +it; but he did not say so. + +I lived an idle life, inhaling the perfume of the flowers he gave me, +devouring old literature, the taste for which he had created, and +reading and answering his letters. To be sure, other duties were +fulfilled, I was an affectionate child to my parents, and a proper +acquaintance for my friends. I never lost any sleep now, nor was I +troubled with dreams. I lived in the outward; all my restless activity, +that constant questioning of the heavens and the earth, had ceased +entirely. Five years had passed since I first saw Redmond. I was now +twenty-four. The Fates grew tired of the monotony of my life, I +suppose, for about this time it changed. + +My oldest brother, a bachelor, lived in New York. He asked me to spend +the winter with him; he lived in a quiet hotel, had a suite of rooms, +and could make me comfortable, he said. He had just asked somebody to +marry him, and that somebody wished to make my acquaintance. I was glad +to go. My heart gave a bound at the prospect of change; I was still +young enough to dream of the impossible, when any chance offered itself +to my imagination; so I accepted my brother's invitation with some +elation. + +I had been in New York a month. One day I was out with my future +sister, on a shopping raid; with our hands full of little paper +parcels, we stopped to look into Goupil's window. There was always a +rim of crowd there, so I paid no attention to the jostles we received. +We were looking at an engraving of Ary Scheffer's Francoise de Rimini. +"Not the worst hell," muttered a voice behind me, which I knew. I +started, and pulled Leonora's arm; she turned round, and the fringe of +her cloak-sleeve caught a button on the overcoat of one of the +gentlemen standing together. It was Redmond; the other was his +"ancient," Harry Lothrop. Leonora was arrested; I stood still, of +course. Redmond had not seen my face, for I turned it from him; and his +head was bent down to the task of disengaging his button. + + "'Each only as God wills + Can work; God's puppets, best and worst, + Are we; there is no last nor first,'" + +I thought, and turned my head. He instinctively took off his hat, and +then planted it back on his head firmly, and looked over to Harry +Lothrop, to whom I gave my hand. He knew me before I saw him, I am +convinced; but his dramatic sense kept him silent,--perhaps a deeper +feeling. There was an expression of pain in his face, which impelled me +to take his arm. + +"Let us move on, Leonora," I said; "these are some summer friends of +mine," and I introduced them to her. + +My chief feeling was embarrassment, which was shared by all the party; +for Leonora felt that there was something unusual in the meeting. The +door of the hotel seemed to come round at last, and as we were going +in, Harry Lothrop asked me if he might see me the next morning. + +"Do come," I answered aloud. + +We all bowed, and they disappeared. + +"What an elegant Indian your tall friend is!" said Leonora. + +"Yes,--of the Camanche tribe." + +"But he would look better hanging from his horse's mane than he does in +a long coat." + +"He is spoiled by civilization and white parents. But, Leonora, stay +and dine with me, in my own room. John will not come home till it is +time for the opera. You know we are going. You must make me splendid; +you can torture me into style, I know." + +She consented, provided I would send a note to her mother, explaining +that it was my invitation, and not her old John's, as she irreverently +called him. I did so, and she was delighted to stay. + +"This is fast," she said; "can't we have Champagne and black coffee?" + +She fell to rummaging John's closets, and brought out a dusty, +Chinese-looking affair, which she put on for a dressing-gown. She found +some Chinese straw shoes, and tucked her little feet into them, and +then braided her hair in a long tail, and declared she was ready for +dinner. Her gayety was refreshing, and I did not wonder at John's +admiration. My spirits rose, too, and I astonished Leonora at the table +with my chat; she had never seen me except when quiet. I fell into one +of those unselfish, unasking moods which are the glory of youth: I felt +that the pure heaven of love was in the depths of my being; my soul +shone like a star in its atmosphere; my heart throbbed, and I cried +softly to it,--"Live! live! he is here!" I still chatted with Leonora +and made her laugh, and the child for the first time thoroughly liked +me. We were finishing our dessert, when we heard John's knock. We +allowed him to come in for a moment, and gave him some almonds, which, +he leisurely cracked and ate. + +"Somehow, Margaret," he said, "you remind me of those women who enjoy +the Indian festival of the funeral pile. I have seen the thing done; +you have something of the sort in your mind; be sure to immolate +yourself handsomely. Women are the deuse." + +"Finish your almonds, John," I said, "and go away; we must dress." + +He put his hand on my arm, and whispered,-- + +"Smother that light in your eyes, my girl; it is dangerous. And you +have lived under your mother's eye all your life! You see what I have +done,"--indicating Leonora with his eyebrows,--"taken a baby on my +hands." + +"John, John!" I inwardly ejaculated, "you are an idiot." + +"She shall never suffer what you suffer; she shall have the benefit of +the experience which other women have given me." + +"Very likely," I answered; "I know we often serve you as pioneers +merely." + +He gave a sad nod, and I closed the door upon him. + +"Put these pins into my hair, Leonora, and tell me, how do you like my +new dress?" + +"Paris!" she cried. + +It was a dove-colored silk with a black velvet stripe through it. I +showed her a shawl which John had given me,--a pale-yellow gauzy fabric +with a gold-thread border,--and told her to make me up. She produced +quite a marvellous effect; for this baby understood the art of dress to +perfection. She made my hair into a loose mass, rolling it away from my +face; yet it was firmly fastened. Then she shook out the shawl, and +wrapped me in it, so that my head seemed to be emerging from a +pale-tinted cloud. John said I looked outlandish, but Leonora thought +otherwise. She begged him for some Indian perfume, and he found an +aromatic powder, which she sprinkled inside my gloves and over my shawl. + +We found the opera-house crowded. Our seats were near the stage. John +sat behind us, so that he might slip out into the lobby occasionally; +for the opera was a bore to him. The second act was over; John had left +his seat; I was opening and shutting my fan mechanically, half lost in +thought, when Leonora, who had been looking at the house with her +lorgnette, turned and said,-- + +"Is not that your friend of this morning, on the other side, in the +second row, leaning against the third pillar? There is a +queenish-looking old lady with him. He hasn't spoken to her for a long +time, and she continually looks up at him." + +I took her glass, and discovered Redmond. He looked back at me through +another; I made a slight motion with my handkerchief; he dropped his +glass into the lap of the lady next him and darted out, and in a moment +he was behind me in John's seat. + +"Who is with you?" he asked. + +"Brother," I answered. + +"You intoxicate me with some strange perfume; don't fan it this way." + +I quietly passed the fan to Leonora, who now looked back and spoke to +him. He talked with her a moment, and then she discreetly resumed her +lorgnette. + +"What happened for two years after I left B.? The last year I know +something of." + +"Breakfast, dinner, and tea; the ebb and flow of the tide; and the days +of the week." + +"Nothing more?" And his voice came nearer. + +"A few trifles." + +"They are under lock and key, I suppose?" + +"We do not carry relics about with us." + +"There is the conductor; I must go. Turn your face toward me more." + +I obeyed him, and our eyes met. His searching gaze made me shiver. + +"I have been married," he said, and his eyes were unflinching, "and my +wife is dead." + +All the lights went down, I thought; I struck out my arm to find +Leonora, who caught it and pressed it down. + +"I must get out," I said; and I walked up the alley to the door without +stumbling. + +I knew that I was fainting or dying; as I had never fainted, I did not +know which. Redmond carried me through the cloak-room and put me on a +sofa. + +"I never can speak to him again," I thought, and then I lost sight of +them all. + +A terribly sharp pain through my heart roused me, and I was in a +violent chill. They had thrown water over my face; my hair was matted, +and the water was dripping from it on my naked shoulders. The gloves +had been ripped from my hands, and Leonora was wringing my +handkerchief. + +"The heat made you faint, dear," she said. + +John was walking up and down the room with a phlegmatic countenance, +but he was fuming. + +"My new dress is ruined, John," I said. + +"Hang the dress! How do you feel now?" + +"It is drowned; and I feel better; shall we go home?" + +He went out to order the carriage, and Leonora whispered to me that she +had forgotten Redmond's name. + +"No matter," I answered. I could not have spoken it then. + +When John came, Leonora beckoned to Redmond to introduce himself. John +shook hands with him, gave him an intent look, and told us the carriage +was ready. Redmond followed us, and took leave of us at the +carriage-door. + +Leonora begged me to stay at her house; I refused, for I wished to be +alone. John deposited her with her mother, and we drove home. He gave +me one of his infallible medicines, and told me not to get up in the +morning. But when morning came, I remembered Harry Lothrop was coming, +and made myself ready for him. As human nature is not quite perfect, I +felt unhappy about him, and rather fond of him, and thought he +possessed some admirable qualities. I never could read the old poets +any more without a pang, unless he were with me, directing my eye along +their pages with his long white finger! I never should smell tuberoses +again without feeling faint, unless they were his gift! + +By the time he came I was in a state of romantic regret, and in that +state many a woman has answered, "Yes!" He asked me abruptly if I +thought it would be folly in him to ask me to marry him. The question +turned the tide. + +"No," I answered,--"not folly; for I have thought many times in the +last two years, that I should marry you, if you said I must. But now I +believe that it is not best. You have pursued me patiently; your +self-love made the conquest of me a necessary pleasure. That was well +enough for me; for you made me feel all the while, that, if I loved +you, you were worth possessing. And you are. I like you. But my feeling +for you did not prevent my fainting away at the opera-house last night, +when Redmond told me that his wife was dead." + +"So," he said, "the long-smothered fire has broken out again! Chance +does not befriend me. He saw you last night, and yielded. He said +yesterday he should not tell you. He asked me about you after we left +you, and wished to know if I had seen you much for the last year. I +offered him your last letter to read,--am I not generous?--but he +refused it. + +"'When I see her,' he asked, 'am I at liberty to say what I choose?' + +"On that I could have said, 'No.' Redmond and I have not seen each +other since the period of my first visit to you. He has been nursing +his wife in the mean time, taking journeys with her, and trying all +sorts of cures; and now he seems tied to his aunt and mother-in-law. He +was merely passing through the city with her, and this morning they +have gone again.--Well," after a pause, "there is no need of words +between us. I have in my possession a part of you. Beautiful women are +like flowers which open their leaves wide enough for their perfume to +attract wandering bees; the perfume is wasted, though the honey may be +hid." + +"Alas, what a lesson this man is giving me!" I thought. + +"Farewell, then," he said. He bit his lips, and his clenched hands +trembled; but he mastered his emotion. "You must think of me." + +"And see you, too," I answered. "Everything comes round again, if we +live long enough. Dramatic unities are never preserved in life; if they +were, how poetical would all these things be! But Time whirls us round, +showing us our many-sided feelings as carelessly as a child rattles the +bits of glass in his kaleidoscope." + +"So be it!" he replied. "Adieu!" + +That afternoon I staid at home, and put John's room in order, and +cleaned the dust from his Indian idols, and was extremely busy till he +came in. Then I kissed his whiskers, and told him all my sins, and +cried once or twice during my confession. He petted me a good deal, and +made me eat twice as much dinner as I wanted; he said it was good for +me, and I obeyed him, for I felt uncommonly meek that day. + +Soon after, Redmond sent me a long letter. He said he had been, from a +boy, under an obligation to his aunt, the mother of his wife. It was a +common story, and he would not trouble me with it. He was married soon +after Harry Lothrop's first visit to me, at the time they had received +the news of Laura's death. How much he had thought of Laura afterward, +while he was watching the fading away of his pale blossom! His aunt had +been ill since the death of her daughter, restless, and discontented +with every change. He hoped she was now settled among some old friends +with whom she might find consolation. In conclusion, he wrote,--"My +aunt noticed our hasty exit from the opera-house that night, when I was +brute enough to nearly kill you. I told her that I loved you. She now +feels, after a struggle, that she must let me go. 'Old women have no +rights,' she said to me yesterday. Margaret, may I come, and never leave +you again?" + +My answer may be guessed, for one day he arrived. It was the dusk of a +cheery winter day, the time when home wears so bright a look to those +who seek it. It was an hour before dinner, and I was waiting for John +to come in. The amber evening sky gleamed before the windows, and the +fire made a red core of light in the room. John's sandal-wood boxes +gave out strange odors in the heat, and the pattern of the Persian rug +was just visible. A servant came to the door with a card. I held it to +the grate, and the fire lit up his name. + +"Show him up-stairs," I said. + +I stood in the doorway, and heard his step on every stair. When he +came, I took him by the hand, and drew him into the room. He was +speechless. + +"Oh, Redmond, I love you! How long you were away!" + +He kneeled by me, and put my arms round his neck, and we kissed each +other with the first, best kiss of passion. + +John came in, and I reached out my hand to him and said, "This is my +husband." + +"That's comfortable," he answered. "Won't you stay to dinner?" + +"Oh, yes," replied Redmond; "this is my hotel." + +"I see," said John. + +But after dinner they had a long talk together. John sent me to my +room, and I was glad to go. I walked up and down, crying, I must say, +most of the time, asking forgiveness of myself for my faults, and +remembering Laura and Maurice,--and then thinking Redmond was mine, +with a contraction of the heart which threatened to stifle me. + +John took us up to Leonora's that evening; he said he wanted to see if +Puss would be tantalized with the sight of such a beautiful romantic +couple just from fairy-land, who were now prepared "to live in peace." + +We were married the next day in a church in a by-street. John was the +only witness, and flourished a large silk handkerchief, so that it had +the effect of a triumphal banner. Redmond put the ring on the wrong +finger,--a mistake which the minister kindly rectified. All I had new +for the occasion was a pair of gloves. + +One morning after my marriage, when Redmond and John were smoking +together, I was turning over some boxes, for I was packing to go home +on a visit to our mother. I called Redmond to leave his pipe and come +to me. + +"You have not seen any of my property. Look, here it is:-- + +"One bitten handkerchief. + +"A fan never used. + +"A gold pen-holder. + +"A draggled shawl." + +"Margaret," he said, taking my chin in his hand and bringing his eyes +close to mine, "I am wild with happiness." + +"Your pipe has gone out," we heard John say. + + * * * * * + +THE PLAYMATE. + + + The pines were dark on Ramoth hill, + Their song was soft and low; + The blossoms in the sweet May wind + Were falling like the snow. + + The blossoms drifted at our feet, + The orchard birds sang clear; + The sweetest and the saddest day + It seemed of all the year. + + For, more to me than birds or flowers, + My playmate left her home, + And took with her the laughing spring, + The music and the bloom. + + She kissed the lips of kith and kin, + She laid her hand in mine: + What more could ask the bashful boy + Who fed her father's kine? + + She left us in the bloom of May: + The constant years told o'er + Their seasons with as sweet May morns. + But she came back no more. + + I walk, with noiseless feet, the round + Of uneventful years; + Still o'er and o'er I sow the spring + And reap the autumn ears. + + She lives where all the golden year + Her summer roses blow; + The dusky children of the sun + Before her come and go. + + There haply with her jewelled hands + She smooths her silken gown,-- + No more the homespun lap wherein + I shook the walnuts down. + + The wild grapes wait us by the brook, + The brown nuts on the hill, + And still the May-day flowers make sweet + The woods of Follymill. + + The lilies blossom in the pond, + The bird builds in the tree, + The dark pines sing on Ramoth hill + The slow song of the sea. + + I wonder if she thinks of them, + And how the old time seems,-- + If ever the pines of Ramoth wood + Are sounding in her dreams. + + I see her face, I hear her voice: + Does she remember mine? + And what to her is now the boy + Who fed her father's kine? + + What cares she that the orioles build + For other eyes than ours,-- + That other hands with nuts are filled, + And other laps with flowers? + + O playmate in the golden time! + Our mossy seat is green, + Its fringing violets blossom yet, + The old trees o'er it lean. + + The winds so sweet with birch and fern + A sweeter memory blow; + And there in spring the veeries sing + The song of long ago. + + And still the pines of Ramoth wood + Are moaning like the sea,-- + The moaning of the sea of change + Between myself and thee! + + + + +THE MAROONS OF SURINAM. + + +When that eccentric individual, Captain John Gabriel Stedman, resigned +his commission in the English navy, took the oath of abjuration, and +was appointed ensign in the Scots brigade employed for two centuries by +Holland, he little knew that "their High Mightinesses the States of the +United Provinces" would send him out, within a year, to the forests of +Guiana, to subdue rebel negroes. He never imagined that the year 1773 +would behold him beneath the rainy season in a tropical country, wading +through marshes and splashing through lakes, exploring with his feet +for submerged paths, commanding impracticable troops and commanded by +an insufferable colonel, feeding on gree-gree worms and fed upon by +mosquitoes, howled at by jaguars, hissed at by serpents, and shot at by +those exceedingly unattainable gentlemen, "still longed for, never seen," +the Maroons of Surinam. + +Yet, as our young ensign sailed up the Surinam river, the world of +tropic beauty came upon him with enchantment. Dark, moist verdure was +close around him, rippling waters below; the tall trees of the jungle +and the low mangroves beneath were all hung with long vines and lianas, +a maze of cordage, like a fleet at anchor; odd monkeys travelled +ceaselessly up and down these airy paths, in armies, bearing their +young, like knapsacks, on their backs; macaws and humming-birds, winged +jewels, flew from tree to tree. As they neared Paramaribo, the river +became a smooth canal among luxuriant plantations, the air was perfumed +music, redolent of orange-blossoms and echoing with the songs of birds +and the sweet plash of oars; gay barges came forth to meet them; "while +groups of naked boys and girls were promiscuously playing and +flouncing, like so many tritons and mermaids, in the water." And when +the troops disembarked,--five hundred fine young men, the oldest not +thirty, all arrayed in new uniforms and bearing orange-flowers in their +caps, a bridal wreath for beautiful Guiana,--it is no wonder that the +Creole ladies were in ecstasy, and the boyish recruits little foresaw +the day, when, reduced to a few dozens, barefooted and ragged as +filibusters, their last survivors would gladly reembark from a country +beside which even Holland looked dry and even Scotland comfortable. + +For over all that earthly paradise there brooded not alone its terrible +malaria, its days of fever and its nights of deadly chill, but the +worse shadows of oppression and of sin, which neither day nor night +could banish. The first object which met Stedman's eye, as he stepped +on shore, was the figure of a young girl stripped to receive two +hundred lashes, and chained to a hundred-pound-weight. And the few +first days gave a glimpse into a state of society worthy of this +exhibition,--men without mercy, women without modesty, the black man a +slave to the white man's passions, and the white man a slave to his +own. The present West Indian society in its worst forms is probably a +mere dilution of the utter profligacy of those days. Greek or Roman +decline produced nothing more debilitating or destructive than the +ordinary life of a Surinam planter, and his one virtue of hospitality +only led to more unbridled excesses and completed the work of vice. No +wonder that Stedman himself, who, with all his peculiarities, was +essentially simple and manly, soon became disgusted, and made haste to +get into the woods and cultivate the society of the Maroons. + +The rebels against whom this expedition was sent were not the original +Maroons of Surinam, but a later generation. The originals had long +since established their independence, and their leaders were +flourishing their honorary silver-mounted canes in the streets of +Paramaribo. Fugitive negroes had begun to establish themselves in the +woods from the time when the colony was finally ceded by the English to +the Dutch, in 1674. The first open outbreak occurred in 1726, when the +plantations on the Seramica river revolted; it was found impossible to +subdue them, and the government very imprudently resolved to make an +example of eleven captives, and thus terrify the rest of the rebels. +They were tortured to death, eight of the eleven being women; this +drove the others to madness, and plantation after plantation was +visited with fire and sword. After a long conflict, their chief, Adoe, +was induced to make a treaty, in 1749. The rebels promised to keep the +peace, and in turn were promised freedom, money, tools, clothes, and, +finally, arms and ammunition. + +But no permanent peace was ever made upon a barrel of gunpowder as a +basis, and of course an explosion followed this one. The colonists +naturally evaded the last item of the bargain, and the rebels, +receiving the gifts and remarking the omission of the part of Hamlet, +asked contemptuously if the Europeans expected negroes to subsist on +combs and looking-glasses? New hostilities at once began; a new body of +slaves on the Ouca river revolted; the colonial government was changed +in consequence, and fresh troops shipped from Holland; and after four +different embassies had been sent into the woods, the rebels began to +listen to reason. The black generals, Captain Araby and Captain Boston, +agreed upon a truce for a year, during which the colonial government +might decide for peace or war, the Maroons declaring themselves +indifferent. Finally the government chose peace, delivered ammunition, +and made a treaty, in 1761; the white and black plenipotentiaries +exchanged English oaths and then negro oaths, each tasting a drop of +the other's blood during the latter ceremony, amid a volley of +remarkable incantations from the black _gadoman_ or priest. After some +final skirmishes, in which the rebels almost always triumphed, the +treaty was at length accepted by all the various villages of Maroons. +Had they known that at this very time five thousand slaves in Berbice +were just rising against their masters and were looking to them for +assistance, the result might have been different; but this fact had not +reached them, nor had the rumors of insurrection in Brazil, among negro +and Indian slaves. They consented, therefore, to the peace. "They write +from Surinam," says the "Annual Register" for January 23, 1761, "that +the Dutch governor, finding himself unable to subdue the rebel negroes +of that country by force, hath wisely followed the example of Governor +Trelawney at Jamaica, and concluded an amicable treaty with them; in +consequence of which, all the negroes of the woods are acknowledged to +be free, and all that is past is buried in oblivion." So ended a war of +thirty-six years, and in Stedman's day the original three thousand Ouca +and Seramica Maroons had multiplied (almost incredibly) to fifteen +thousand. + +But for the slaves not sharing in this revolt it was not so +easy to "bury the whole past in oblivion." The Maroons had told +some very plain truths to the white ambassadors, and had frankly +advised them, if they wished for peace, to mend their own +manners and treat their slaves humanely. But the planters learned +nothing by experience,--and indeed, the terrible narrations of Stedman +were confirmed by those of Alexander, so lately as 1831. Of course, +therefore, in a colony comprising eighty thousand blacks to four +thousand whites, other revolts were stimulated by the success of this +one. They reached their highest point in 1772, when an insurrection on +the Cottica river, led by a negro named Baron, almost gave the +finishing blow to the colony; the only adequate protection being found +in a body of slaves liberated expressly for that purpose,--a dangerous +and humiliating precedent. "We have been obliged to set three or four +hundred of our stoutest negroes free to defend us," says an honest +letter from Surinam in the "Annual Register" for September 5, 1772. +Fortunately for the safety of the planters, Baron presumed too much +upon his numbers, and injudiciously built a camp too near the +sea-coast, in a marshy fastness, from which he was finally ejected by +twelve hundred Dutch troops, though the chief work was done, Stedman +thinks, by the "black rangers" or liberated slaves. Checked by this +defeat, he again drew back into the forests, resuming his guerrilla +warfare against the plantations. Nothing could dislodge him; +bloodhounds were proposed, but the moisture of the country made them +useless; and thus matters stood when Stedman came sailing, amid +orange-blossoms and music, up the winding Surinam. + +Our young officer went into the woods in the condition of Falstaff, +"heinously unprovided." Coming from the unbounded luxury of the +plantations, he found himself entering "the most horrid and +impenetrable forests, where no kind of refreshment was to be had,"--he +being provisioned only with salt pork and peas. After a wail of sorrow +for this inhuman neglect, he bursts into a gush of gratitude for the +private generosity which relieved his wants at the last moment by the +following list of supplies:--"24 bottles best claret, 12 ditto Madeira, +12 ditto porter, 12 ditto cider, 12 ditto rum, 2 large loaves white +sugar, 2 gallons brandy, 6 bottles muscadel, 2 gallons lemon-juice, 2 +gallons ground coffee, 2 large Westphalia hams, 2 salted bullocks' +tongues, 1 bottle Durham mustard, 6 dozen spermaceti candles." The hams +and tongues seem, indeed, rather a poor halfpennyworth to this +intolerable deal of sack; but this instance of Surinam privation in +those days may open some glimpse at the colonial standards of comfort. +"From this specimen," moralizes our hero, "the reader will easily +perceive, that, if some of the inhabitants of Surinam show themselves +the disgrace of the creation by their cruelties and brutality, others, +by their social feelings, approve themselves an ornament to the human +species. With this instance of virtue and generosity I therefore +conclude this chapter." + +But the troops soon had to undergo worse troubles than those of the +_commisariat_. The rainy season had just set in. "As for the negroes," +said Mr. Klynhaus, the last planter with whom they parted, "you may +depend on never seeing a soul of them, unless they attack you off +guard; but the climate, the climate, will murder you all." Bringing +with them constitutions already impaired by the fevers and dissipation +of Paramaribo, the poor boys began to perish long before they began to +fight. Wading in water all day, hanging their hammocks over water at +night, it seemed a moist existence, even compared with the climate of +England and the soil of Holland. It was "Invent a shovel and be a +magistrate," even more than Andrew Marvell found it in the United +Provinces. In fact, Raynal evidently thinks that nothing but Dutch +experience in hydraulics could ever have cultivated Surinam. + +The two gun-boats which held one division of the expedition were merely +old sugar-barges, roofed over with boards, and looking like coffins. +They were pleasantly named the "Charon" and the "Cerberus," but Stedman +thought that the "Sudden Death" and the "Wilful Murder" would have been +titles more appropriate. The chief duty of the troops consisted in +lying at anchor at the intersections of wooded streams, waiting for +rebels who never came. It was dismal work, and the raw recruits were +full of the same imaginary terrors which have haunted other heroes less +severely tested: the monkeys never rattled the cocoa-nuts against the +trees, but they all heard the axes of Maroon wood-choppers; and when a +sentinel declared, one night, that he had seen a negro go down the +river in a canoe, with his pipe lighted, the whole force was called to +arms--against a firefly. In fact, the insect race brought by far the +most substantial dangers. The rebels eluded the military, but the +chigres, locusts, scorpions, and bush-spiders were ever ready to come +half-way to meet them; likewise serpents and alligators proffered them +the freedom of the forests and exhibited a hospitality almost +excessive. Snakes twenty feet long hung their seductive length from the +trees; jaguars volunteered their society through almost impenetrable +marshes; vampire bats perched by night with lulling endearments upon +their toes. When Stedman describes himself as killing thirty-eight +mosquitoes at one stroke, we must perhaps pardon something to the +spirit of martyrdom. But when we add to these the other woes of his +catalogue,--prickly-heat, ring-worm, putrid-fever, "the growling of +Colonel Fougeaud, dry, sandy savannas, unfordable marshes, burning hot +days, cold and damp nights, heavy rains, and short allowance,"--we can +hardly wonder that three captains died in a month, and that in two +months his detachment of forty-two was reduced to a miserable seven. + +Yet, through all this, Stedman himself kept his health. His theory of +the matter almost recalls the time-honored prescription of "A light +heart and a thin pair of breeches," for he attributes his good +condition to his keeping up his spirits and kicking off his shoes. +Daily bathing in the river had also something to do with it,--and, +indeed, hydropathy (this may not be generally known) was first learned +of the West India Maroons, who did their "packing" in wet clay,--and it +was carried by Dr. Wright to England. But his extraordinary personal +qualities must have contributed most to his preservation. Never did a +"meagre, starved, black, burnt, and ragged tatterdemalion," as he calls +himself, carry about him such a fund of sentiment, philosophy, poetry, +and art. He had a great faculty for sketching, as the engravings in his +volumes, with all their odd peculiarities, show; his deepest woes he +coined always into couplets, and fortified himself against hopeless +despair with Ovid and Valerius Flaccus, Pope's "Homer" and Thomson's +"Seasons." Above all reigned his passion for natural history, a ready +balm for every ill. Here he was never wanting to the occasion, and, to +do justice to Dutch Guiana, the occasion never was wanting to him. Were +his men sickening, the peccaries were always healthy without, and the +cockroaches within the camp; just escaping from a she-jaguar, he +satisfies himself, ere he flees, that the print of her claws on the +sand is precisely the size of a pewter dinner-plate; bitten by a +scorpion, he makes sure of his scientific description in case he should +expire of the bite; is the water undrinkable, there is at least some +rational interest in the number of legs possessed by the centipedes +which preoccupy it. This is the highest triumph of man over his +accidents, when he thus turns his pains to gains, and becomes an +entomologist in the tropics. + +Meanwhile the rebels kept their own course in the forests, and +occasionally descended upon plantations beside the very river on whose +upper waters the useless troops were sickening and dying. Stedman +himself made several campaigns, with long intervals of illness, before +he came any nearer to the enemy than to burn a deserted village or +destroy a rice-field. Sometimes they left the Charon and the Cerberus +moored by grape-vines to the pine-trees, and made expeditions into the +woods single file. Our ensign, true to himself, gives the minutest +schedule of the order of march, and the oddest little diagram of +manikins with cocked hats, and blacker manikins bearing burdens. First, +negroes with bill-hooks to clear the way; then the van-guard; then the +main body, interspersed with negroes bearing boxes of ball-cartridges; +then the rear-guard, with many more negroes, bearing camp-equipage, +provisions, and new rum, surnamed "kill-devil," and appropriately +followed by a sort of palanquin for the disabled. Thus arrayed, they +marched valorously forth into the woods, to some given point; then they +turned, marched back to the boats, then rowed back to camp, and +straightaway went into the hospital. Immediately upon this, the coast +being clear. Baron and his rebels marched out again and proceeded to +business. + +In the course of years, these Maroons had acquired their own peculiar +tactics. They built stockaded fortresses on marshy islands, accessible +by fords which they alone could traverse. These they defended further +by sharp wooden pins, or crows'-feet, concealed beneath the surface of +the miry ground,--and, latterly, by the more substantial protection of +cannon, which they dragged into the woods, and learned to use. Their +bush-fighting was unique. Having always more men than weapons, they +arranged their warriors in threes,--one to use the musket, another to +take his place, if wounded or slain, and a third to drag away the body. +They had Indian stealthiness and swiftness, with more than Indian +discipline; discharged their fire with some approach to regularity, in +three successive lines, the signals being given by the captain's horn. +They were full of ingenuity: marked their movements for each other by +scattered leaves and blazed trees; ran zigzag, to dodge bullets; gave +wooden guns to their unarmed men, to frighten the plantation negroes on +their guerrilla expeditions; and borrowed the red caps of the black +rangers whom they slew, to bewilder the aim of the others. One of +them, finding himself close to the muzzle of a ranger's gun, threw up +his hand hastily. "What!" he exclaimed, "will you fire on one of your +own party?" "God forbid!" cried the ranger, dropping his piece, and was +instantly shot through the body by the Maroon, who the next instant had +disappeared in the woods. + +These rebels were no saints: their worship was obi-worship; the women +had not far outgrown the plantation standard of chastity, and the men +drank "kill-devil" like their betters. Stedman was struck with the +difference between the meaning of the word "good" in rebellious circles +and in reputable. "It must, however, be observed that what we Europeans +call a good character was by the Africans looked upon as detestable, +especially by those born in the woods, whose only crime consisted in +avenging the wrongs done to their forefathers." But if martial virtues +be virtues, such were theirs. Not a rebel ever turned traitor or +informer, ever flinched in battle or under torture, ever violated a +treaty or even a private promise. But it was their power of endurance +which was especially astounding; Stedman is never weary of paying +tribute to this, or of illustrating it in sickening detail; indeed, the +records of the world show nothing to surpass it; "the lifted axe, the +agonizing wheel" proved powerless to subdue it; with every limb lopped, +every bone broken, the victims yet defied their tormentors, laughed, +sang, and died triumphant. + +Of course, they repaid these atrocities in kind. If they had not, it +would have demonstrated the absurd paradox, that slavery educates +higher virtues than freedom. It bewilders all the relations of human +responsibility, if we expect the insurrectionary slave to commit no +outrages; if slavery have not depraved him, it has done him little +harm. If it be the normal tendency of bondage to produce saints like +Uncle Tom, let us all offer ourselves at auction immediately. It is +Cassy and Dred who are the normal protest of human nature against +systems which degrade it. Accordingly, these poor, ignorant Maroons, +who had seen their brothers and sisters flogged, burned, mutilated, +hanged on iron hooks, broken on the wheel, and had been all the while +solemnly assured that this was paternal government, could only repay +the paternalism in the same fashion, when they had the power. Stedman +saw a negro chained to a red-hot distillery-furnace; he saw disobedient +slaves, in repeated instances, punished by the amputation of a leg, and +sent to boat-service for the rest of their lives; and of course the +rebels borrowed these suggestions. They could bear to watch their +captives expire under the lash, for they had previously watched their +parents. If the government rangers received twenty-five florins for +every rebel right-hand which they brought in, of course they risked +their own right-hands in the pursuit. The difference was, that the one +brutality was that of a mighty state, and the other was only the +retaliation of the victims. And after all, Stedman never ventures to +assert that the imitation equalled the original, or that the Maroons +had inflicted nearly so much as they had suffered. + +The leaders of the rebels, especially, were men who had each his own +story of wrongs to tell. Baron, the most formidable, had been the slave +of a Swedish gentleman, who had taught him to read and write, taken him +to Europe, promised to manumit him on his return,--and then, breaking +his word, sold him to a Jew. Baron refused to work for his new master, +was publicly flogged under the gallows, fled to the woods next day, and +became the terror of the colony. Joli Coeur, his first captain, was +avenging the cruel wrongs of his mother. Bonny, another leader, was +born in the woods, his mother having taken refuge there just +previously, to escape from his father, who was also his master. Cojo, +another, had defended his master against the insurgents until he was +obliged by ill usage to take refuge among them; and he still bore upon +his wrist, when Stedman saw him, a silver band, with the inscription,-- +"True to the Europeans." In dealing with wrongs like these, Mr. Carlyle +would have found the despised negroes quite as ready as himself to take +the total-abstinence pledge against rose-water. + +In his first two months' campaign, Stedman never saw the trace of a +Maroon; in the second, he once came upon their trail; in the third, one +captive was brought in, two surrendered themselves voluntarily, and a +large party was found to have crossed a river within a mile of the +camp, ferrying themselves on palm-trunks, according to their fashion. +Deep swamps and scorching sands,--toiling through briers all day, and +sleeping at night in hammocks suspended over stagnant water, with +weapons supported on sticks crossed beneath,--all this was endured for +two years and a half, before Stedman personally came in sight of the +enemy. + +On August 20th, 1775, the troops found themselves at last in the midst +of the rebel settlements. These villages and forts bore a variety of +expressive names, such as "Hide me, O thou surrounding verdure," "I +shall be taken," "The woods lament for me," "Disturb me, if you dare," +"Take a tasting, if you like it," "Come, try me, if you be men," "God +knows me and none else," "I shall moulder before I shall be taken." +Some were only plantation-grounds with a few huts, and were easily laid +waste; but all were protected more or less by their mere situations. +Quagmires surrounded them, covered by a thin crust of verdure, +sometimes broken through by one man's weight, when the victim sank +hopelessly into the black and bottomless depths below. In other +directions there was a solid bottom, but inconveniently covered by +three or four feet of water, through which the troops waded +breast-deep, holding their muskets high in the air, unable to reload +them when once discharged, and liable to be picked off by rebel scouts, +who ingeniously posted themselves in the tops of palm-trees. + +Through this delectable region Colonel Fougeaud and his followers +slowly advanced, drawing near the fatal shore where Captain Meyland's +detachment had just been defeated, and where their mangled remains +still polluted the beach. Passing this point of danger without attack, +they suddenly met a small party of rebels, each bearing on his back a +beautifully-woven hamper of snow-white rice: these loads they threw +down, and disappeared. Next appeared an armed body from the same +direction, who fired upon them once and swiftly retreated; and in a few +moments the soldiers came upon a large field of standing rice, beyond +which lay, like an amphitheatre, the rebel village. But between the +village and the field had been piled successive defences of logs and +branches, behind which simple redoubts the Maroons lay concealed. A +fight ensued, lasting forty minutes, during which nearly every soldier +and ranger was wounded, but, to their great amazement, not one was +killed. This was an enigma to them until after the skirmish, when the +surgeon found that most of them had been struck, not by bullets, but by +various substitutes, such as pebbles, coat-buttons, and bits of silver +coin, which had penetrated only skin-deep. "We also observed that +several of the poor rebel negroes, who had been shot, had only the +shards of Spa-water cans, instead of flints, which could seldom do +execution; and it was certainly owing to these circumstances that we +came off so well." + +The rebels at length retreated, first setting fire to their village; a +hundred or more lightly built houses, some of them two stories high, +were soon in flames; and as this conflagration occupied the only neck +of land between two impassable morasses, the troops were unable to +follow, and the Maroons had left nothing but rice-fields to be +pillaged. That night the military force was encamped in the woods; +their ammunition was almost gone; so they were ordered to lie flat on +the ground, even in case of attack; they could not so much as build a +fire. Before midnight an attack was made on them, partly with bullets +and partly with words; the Maroons were all around them in the forest, +but their object was a puzzle: they spent most of the night in bandying +compliments with the black rangers, whom they alternately denounced, +ridiculed, and challenged to single combat. At last Fougeaud and +Stedman joined in the conversation, and endeavored to make this +midnight volley of talk the occasion for a treaty. This was received +with inextinguishable laughter, which echoed through the woods like a +concert of screech-owls, ending in a _charivari_ of horns and +hallooing. The Colonel, persisting, offered them "life, liberty, +victuals, drink, and all they wanted"; in return, they ridiculed him +unmercifully: he was a half-starved Frenchman, who had run away from +his own country, and would soon run away from theirs; they profoundly +pitied him and his soldiers; they would scorn to spend powder on such +scarecrows; they would rather feed and clothe them, as being poor white +slaves, hired to be shot at and starved for four-pence a day. But as +for the planters, overseers, and rangers, they should die, every one of +them, and Bonny should be governor of the colony. "After this, they +tinkled their bill-hooks, fired a volley, and gave three cheers; which +being answered by the rangers, the clamor ended, and the rebels +dispersed with the rising sun." + +Very aimless nonsense it certainly appeared. But the next day put a new +aspect on it; for it was found, that, under cover of all this noise, +the Maroons had been busily occupied all night, men, women, and +children, in preparing and filling great hampers of the finest rice, +yams, and cassava, from the adjacent provision-grounds, to be used for +subsistence during their escape, leaving only chaff and refuse for the +hungry soldiers. "This was certainly such a masterly trait of +generalship in a savage people, whom we affected to despise, as would +have done honor to any European commander." + +From this time the Maroons fulfilled their threats. Shooting down +without mercy every black ranger who came within their reach,--one of +these rangers being, in Stedman's estimate, worth six white +soldiers,--they left Colonel Fougeaud and his regulars to die of +starvation and fatigue. The enraged Colonel, "finding himself thus +foiled by a naked negro, swore he would pursue Bonny to the world's +end." But he never got any nearer than to Bonny's kitchen-gardens. He +put the troops on half-allowance, sent back for provisions and +ammunition,--and within ten days changed his mind, and retreated to the +settlements in despair. Soon after, this very body of rebels, under +Bonny's leadership, plundered two plantations in the vicinity, and +nearly captured a powder-magazine, which was, however, successfully +defended by some armed slaves. + +For a year longer these expeditions continued. The troops never gained +a victory, and they lost twenty men for every rebel killed; but they +gradually checked the plunder of plantations, destroyed villages and +planting-grounds, and drove the rebels, for the time at least, into the +deeper recesses of the woods or into the adjacent province of Cayenne. +They had the slight satisfaction of burning Bonny's own house, a +two-story wooden hut, built in the fashion of our frontier +guard-houses. They often took single prisoners,--some child, born and +bred in the woods, and frightened equally by the first sight of a white +man and of a cow,--or some warrior, who, on being threatened with +torture, stretched forth both hands in disdain, and said, with Indian +eloquence,--"These hands have made tigers tremble." As for Stedman, he +still went bare-footed, still quarrelled with his colonel, still +sketched the scenery and described the reptiles, still reared gree-gree +worms for his private kitchen, still quoted good poetry and wrote +execrable, still pitied all the sufferers around him, black, white, and +red, until finally he and his comrades were ordered back to Holland in +1776. + +Among all that wasted regiment of weary and broken-down men, there was +probably no one but Stedman who looked backward with longing as they +sailed down the lovely Surinam. True, he bore all his precious +collections with him,--parrots and butterflies, drawings on the backs +of old letters, and journals kept on bones and cartridges. But he had +left behind him a dearer treasure; for there runs through all his +eccentric narrative a single thread of pure romance, in his love for +his beautiful quadroon wife and his only son. + +Within a month after his arrival in the colony, our susceptible ensign +first saw Joanna, a slave-girl of fifteen, at the house of an intimate +friend. Her extreme beauty and modesty first fascinated him, and then +her piteous narrative,--for she was the daughter of a planter, who had +just gone mad and died in despair from the discovery that he could not +legally emancipate his own children from slavery. Soon after, Stedman +was dangerously ill, was neglected and alone; fruits and cordials were +anonymously sent to him, which proved at last to have come from Joanna, +and she came herself, ere long, and nursed him, grateful for the +visible sympathy he had shown to her. This completed the conquest; the +passionate young Englishman, once recovered, loaded her with presents, +which she refused,--talked of purchasing her and educating her in +Europe, which she also declined, as burdening him too greatly,--and +finally, amid the ridicule of all good society in Paramaribo, +surmounted all legal obstacles and was united to the beautiful girl in +honorable marriage. He provided a cottage for her, where he spent his +furloughs, in perfect happiness, for four years. + +The simple idyl of their loves was unbroken by any stain or +disappointment, and yet always shadowed with the deepest anxiety for +the future. Though treated with the utmost indulgence, she was legally +a slave, and so was the boy of whom she became the mother. Cojo, her +uncle, was a captain among the rebels against whom her husband fought. +And up to the time when Stedman was ordered back to Holland, he was +unable to purchase her freedom, nor could he, until the very last +moment, procure the emancipation of his boy. His perfect delight at +this last triumph, when obtained, elicited some satire from his white +friends. "While the well-thinking few highly applauded my sensibility, +many not only blamed, but publicly derided me for my paternal +affection, which was called a weakness, a whim." "Nearly forty +beautiful boys and girls were left to perpetual slavery by their +parents of my acquaintance, and many of them without being so much as +once inquired after at all." + +But Stedman was a true-hearted fellow, if his sentiment did sometimes +run to rodomontade; he left his Joanna only in the hope that a year or +two in Europe would repair his ruined fortunes, and he could return to +treat himself to the purchase of his own wedded wife. He describes, +with unaffected pathos, their parting scene,--though, indeed, there +were several successive partings,--and closes the description in a +manner worthy of that remarkable combination of enthusiasms which +characterized him. "My melancholy having surpassed all description, I +at last determined to weather one or two painful years in her absence; +and in the afternoon went to dissipate my mind at a Mr. Roux' cabinet +of Indian curiosities; where as my eye chanced to fall on a +rattlesnake, I will, before I leave the colony, describe this dangerous +reptile." + +It was impossible to write the history of the Maroons of Surinam except +through the biography of our Ensign, (at last promoted Captain,) +because nearly all we know of them is through his quaint and +picturesque narrative, with its profuse illustrations by his own hand. +It is not fair, therefore, to end without chronicling his safe arrival +in Holland, on June 3d, 1777. It is a remarkable fact, that, after his +life in the woods, even the Dutch looked slovenly to his eyes. "The +inhabitants, who crowded about us, appeared but a disgusting assemblage +of ill-formed and ill-dressed rabble,--so much had my prejudices been +changed by living among Indians and blacks: their eyes seemed to +resemble those of a pig; their complexions were like the color of foul +linen; they seemed to have no teeth, and to be covered over with rags +and dirt. This prejudice, however, was not against these people only, +but against all Europeans in general, when compared to the sparkling +eyes, ivory teeth, shining skin, and remarkable cleanliness of those I +had left behind me." Yet, in spite of these superior attractions, he +never recrossed the Atlantic; for his Joanna died soon after, and his +promising son, being sent to the father, was educated in England, +became a midshipman in the navy, and was lost at sea. With his elegy, +in which the last depths of bathos are sadly sounded by a mourning +parent,--who is induced to print them only by "the effect they had on +the sympathetic and ingenious Mrs. Cowley,"--the "Narrative of a Five +Years' Expedition" closes. + +The war, which had cost the government forty thousand pounds a year, +was ended, and left both parties essentially as when it began. The +Maroons gradually returned to their old abodes, and, being unmolested +themselves, left others unmolested thenceforward. Originally three +thousand,--in Stedman's time, fifteen thousand,--they were estimated at +seventy thousand by Captain Alexander, who saw Guiana in 1831,--and a +recent American scientific expedition, having visited them in their +homes, reported them as still enjoying their wild freedom, and +multiplying, while the Indians on the same soil decay. The beautiful +forests of Surinam still make the morning gorgeous with their beauty, +and the night deadly with their chill; the stately palm still rears, a +hundred feet in air, its straight gray shaft and its head of verdure; +the mora builds its solid, buttressed trunk, a pedestal for the eagle; +the pine of the tropics holds out its myriad hands with water-cups for +the rain and dews, where all the birds and the monkeys may drink their +fill; the trees are garlanded with epiphytes and convolvuli, and +anchored to the earth by a thousand vines. High among their branches, +the red and yellow mockingbirds still build their hanging nests, +uncouth storks and tree-porcupines cling above, and the spotted deer +and the tapir drink from the sluggish stream below. The night is still +made noisy with a thousand cries of bird and beast; and the stillness +of the sultry noon is broken by the slow tolling of the _campanero_, or +bell-bird, far in the deep, dark woods, like the chime of some lost +convent. And as Nature is unchanged there, so apparently is man; the +Maroons still retain their savage freedom, still shoot their wild game +and trap their fish, still raise their rice and cassava, yams and +plantains,--still make cups from the gourd-tree and hammocks from the +silk-grass plant, wine from the palm-tree's sap, brooms from its +leaves, fishing-lines from its fibres, and salt from its ashes. Their +life does not yield, indeed, the very highest results of spiritual +culture; its mental and moral results may not come up to the level of +civilization, but they rise far above the level of slavery. In the +changes of time, the Maroons may yet elevate themselves into the one, +but they will never relapse into the other. + + + + +CIRCUMSTANCE. + + +She had remained, during all that day, with a sick neighbor,--those +eastern wilds of Maine in that epoch frequently making neighbors and +miles synonymous,--and so busy had she been with care and sympathy that +she did not at first observe the approaching night. But finally the +level rays, reddening the snow, threw their gleam upon the wall, and, +hastily donning cloak and hood, she bade her friends farewell and +sallied forth on her return. Home lay some three miles distant, across +a copse, a meadow, and a piece of woods,--the woods being a fringe on +the skirts of the great forests that stretch far away into the North. +That home was one of a dozen log-houses lying a few furlongs apart from +each other, with their half-cleared demesnes separating them at the +rear from a wilderness untrodden save by stealthy native or deadly +panther tribes. + +She was in a nowise exalted frame of spirit,--on the contrary, rather +depressed by the pain she had witnessed and the fatigue she had +endured; but in certain temperaments such a condition throws open the +mental pores, so to speak, and renders one receptive of every +influence. Through the little copse she walked slowly, with her cloak +folded about her, lingering to imbibe the sense of shelter, the sunset +filtered in purple through the mist of woven spray and twig, the +companionship of growth not sufficiently dense to band against her the +sweet home-feeling of a young and tender wintry wood. It was therefore +just on the edge of the evening that she emerged from the place and +began to cross the meadow-land. At one hand lay the forest to which her +path wound; at the other the evening star hung over a tide of failing +orange that slowly slipped down the earth's broad side to sadden other +hemispheres with sweet regret. Walking rapidly now, and with her eyes +wide-open, she distinctly saw in the air before her what was not there +a moment ago, a winding-sheet,--cold, white, and ghastly, waved by the +likeness of four wan hands,--that rose with a long inflation and fell +in rigid folds, while a voice, shaping itself from the hollowness +above, spectral and melancholy, sighed,--"The Lord have mercy on the +people! The Lord have mercy on the people!" Three times the sheet with +its corpse-covering outline waved beneath the pale hands, and the +voice, awful in its solemn and mysterious depth, sighed, "The Lord have +mercy on the people!" Then all was gone, the place was clear again, the +gray sky was obstructed by no deathly blot; she looked about her, shook +her shoulders decidedly, and, pulling on her hood, went forward once +more. + +She might have been a little frightened by such an apparition, if she +had led a life of less reality than frontier settlers are apt to lead; +but dealing with hard fact does not engender a flimsy habit of mind, +and this woman was too sincere and earnest in her character, and too +happy in her situation, to be thrown by antagonism merely upon +superstitious fancies and chimeras of the second-sight. She did not +even believe herself subject to an hallucination, but smiled simply, a +little vexed that her thought could have framed such a glamour from the +day's occurrences, and not sorry to lift the bough of the warder of the +woods and enter and disappear in their sombre path. If she had been +imaginative, she would have hesitated at her first step into a region +whose dangers were not visionary; but I suppose that the thought of a +little child at home would conquer that propensity in the most +habituated. So, biting a bit of spicy birch, she went along. Now and +then she came to a gap where the trees had been partially felled, and +here she found that the lingering twilight was explained by that +peculiar and perhaps electric film which sometimes sheathes the sky in +diffused light for very many hours before a brilliant aurora. Suddenly, +a swift shadow, like the fabulous flying-dragon, writhed through the +air before her, and she felt herself instantly seized and borne aloft. +It was that wild beast--the most savage and serpentine and subtle and +fearless of our latitudes--known by hunters as the Indian Devil, and he +held her in his clutches on the broad floor of a swinging fir-bough. +His long sharp claws were caught in her clothing, he worried them +sagaciously a little, then, finding that ineffectual to free them, he +commenced licking her bare white arm with his rasping tongue and +pouring over her the wide streams of his hot, fetid breath. So quick +had this flashing action been that the woman had had no time for alarm; +moreover, she was not of the screaming kind; but now, as she felt him +endeavoring to disentangle his claws, and the horrid sense of her fate +smote her, and she saw instinctively the fierce plunge of those +weapons, the long strips of living flesh torn from her bones, the +agony, the quivering disgust, itself a worse agony,--while by her side, +and holding her in his great lithe embrace, the monster crouched, his +white tusks whetting and gnashing, his eyes glaring through all the +darkness like balls of red fire,--a shriek, that rang in every forest +hollow, that startled every winter-housed thing, that stirred and woke +the least needle of the tasselled pines, tore through her lips. A +moment afterward, the beast left the arm, once white, now crimson, and +looked up alertly. + +She did not think at this instant to call upon God. She called upon her +husband. It seemed to her that she had but one friend in the world; +that was he; and again the cry, loud, clear, prolonged, echoed through +the woods. It was not the shriek that disturbed the creature at his +relish; he was not born in the woods to be scared of an owl, you know; +what then? It mast have been the echo, most musical, most resonant, +repeated and yet repeated, dying with long sighs of sweet sound, +vibrated from rock to river and back again from depth to depth of cave +and cliff. Her thought flew after it; she knew, that, even if her +husband heard it, he yet could not reach her in time; she saw that +while the beast listened he would not gnaw,--and this she _felt_ +directly, when the rough, sharp, and multiplied stings of his tongue +retouched her arm. Again her lips opened by instinct, but the sound +that issued thence came by reason. She had heard that music charmed +wild beasts,--just this point between life and death intensified every +faculty,--and when she opened her lips the third time, it was not for +shrieking, but for singing. + +A little thread of melody stole out, a rill of tremulous motion; it was +the cradle-song with which she rocked her baby;--how could she sing +that? And then she remembered the baby sleeping rosily on the long +settee before the fire,--the father cleaning his gun, with one foot on +the green wooden rundle,--the merry light from the chimney dancing out +and through the room, on the rafters of the ceiling with their tassels +of onions and herbs, on the log walls painted with lichens and +festooned with apples, on the king's-arm slung across the shelf with +the old pirate's-cutlass, on the snow-pile of the bed, and on the great +brass clock,--dancing, too, and lingering on the baby, with his fringed +gentian eyes, his chubby fists clenched on the pillow, and his fine +breezy hair fanning with the motion of his father's foot. All this +struck her in one, and made a sob of her breath, and she ceased. + +Immediately the long red tongue was thrust forth again. Before it +touched, a song sprang to her lips, a wild sea-song, such as some +sailor might be singing far out on trackless blue water that night, the +shrouds whistling with frost and the sheets glued in ice,--a song with +the wind in its burden and the spray in its chorus. The monster raised +his head and flared the fiery eyeballs upon her, then fretted the +imprisoned claws a moment and was quiet; only the breath like the vapor +from some hell-pit still swathed her. Her voice, at first faint and +fearful, gradually lost its quaver, grew under her control and subject +to her modulation; it rose on long swells, it fell in subtile cadences, +now and then its tones pealed out like bells from distant belfries on +fresh sonorous mornings. She sung the song through, and, wondering lest +his name of Indian Devil were not his true name, and if he would not +detect her, she repeated it. Once or twice now, indeed, the beast +stirred uneasily, turned, and made the bough sway at his movement. As +she ended, he snapped his jaws together, and tore away the fettered +member, curling it under him with a snarl,--when she burst into the +gayest reel that ever answered a fiddle-bow. How many a time she had +heard her husband play it on the homely fiddle made by himself from +birch and cherry-wood! how many a time she had seen it danced on the +floor of their one room, to the patter of wooden clogs and the rustle +of homespun petticoat! how many a time she had danced it herself!--and +did she not remember once, as they joined clasps for right-hands-round, +how it had lent its gay, bright measure to her life? And here she was +singing it alone, in the forest, at midnight, to a wild beast! As she +sent her voice trilling up and down its quick oscillations between joy +and pain, the creature who grasped her uncurled his paw and scratched +the bark from the bough; she must vary the spell; and her voice spun +leaping along the projecting points of tune of a hornpipe. Still +singing, she felt herself twisted about with a low growl and a lifting +of the red lip from the glittering teeth; she broke the hornpipe's +thread, and commenced unravelling a lighter, livelier thing, an Irish +jig. Up and down and round about her voice flew, the beast threw back +his head so that the diabolical face fronted hers, and the torrent of +his breath prepared her for his feast as the anaconda slimes his prey. +Franticly she darted from tune to tune; his restless movements followed +her. She tired herself with dancing and vivid national airs, growing +feverish and singing spasmodically as she felt her horrid tomb yawning +wider. Touching in this manner all the slogan and keen clan cries, the +beast moved again, but only to lay the disengaged paw across her with +heavy satisfaction. She did not dare to pause; through the clear cold +air, the frosty starlight, she sang. If there were yet any tremor in +the tone, it was not fear,--she had learned the secret of sound at +last; nor could it be chill,--far too high a fervor throbbed her +pulses; it was nothing but the thought of the log-house and of what +might be passing within it. She fancied the baby stirring in his sleep +and moving his pretty lips,--her husband rising and opening the door, +looking out after her, and wondering at her absence. She fancied the +light pouring through the chink and then shut in again with all the +safety and comfort and joy, her husband taking down the fiddle and +playing lightly with his head inclined, playing while she sang, while +she sang for her life to an Indian Devil. Then she knew he was fumbling +for and finding some shining fragment and scoring it down the yellowing +hair, and unconsciously her voice forsook the wild war-tunes and +drifted into the half-gay, half-melancholy Rosin the Bow. + +Suddenly she woke pierced with a pang, and the daggered tooth +penetrating her flesh;--dreaming of safety, she had ceased singing and +lost it. The beast had regained the use of all his limbs, and now, +standing and raising his back, bristling and foaming, with sounds that +would have been like hisses but for their deep and fearful sonority, he +withdrew step by step toward the trunk of the tree, still with his +flaming balls upon her. She was all at once free, on one end of the +bough, twenty feet from the ground. She did not measure the distance, +but rose to drop herself down, careless of any death, so that it were +not this. Instantly, as if he scanned her thoughts, the creature +bounded forward with a yell and caught her again in his dreadful hold. +It might be that he was not greatly famished; for, as she suddenly +flung up her voice again, he settled himself composedly on the bough, +still clasping her with invincible pressure to his rough, ravenous +breast, and listening in a fascination to the sad, strange U-la-lu that +now moaned forth in loud, hollow tones above him. He half closed his +eyes, and sleepily reopened and shut them again. + +What rending pains were close at hand! Death! and what a death! worse +than any other that is to be named! Water, be it cold or warm, that +which buoys up blue ice-fields, or which bathes tropical coasts with +currents of balmy bliss, is yet a gentle conqueror, kisses as it kills, +and draws you down gently through darkening fathoms to its heart. Death +at the sword is the festival of trumpet and bugle and banner, with +glory ringing out around you and distant hearts thrilling through +yours. No gnawing disease can bring such hideous end as this; for that +is a fiend bred of your own flesh, and this--is it a fiend, this living +lump of appetites? What dread comes with the thought of perishing in +flames! but fire, let it leap and hiss never so hotly, is something too +remote, too alien, to inspire us with such loathly horror as a wild +beast; if it have a life, that life is too utterly beyond our +comprehension. Fire is not half ourselves; as it devours, arouses +neither hatred nor disgust; is not to be known by the strength of our +lower natures let loose; does not drip our blood into our faces from +foaming chaps, nor mouth nor snarl above us with vitality. Let us be +ended by fire, and we are ashes, for the winds to bear, the leaves to +cover; let us be ended by wild beasts, and the base, cursed thing howls +with us forever through the forest. All this she felt as she charmed +him, and what force it lent to her song God knows. If her voice should +fail! If the damp and cold should give her any fatal hoarseness! If all +the silent powers of the forest did not conspire to help her! The dark, +hollow night rose indifferently over her; the wide, cold air breathed +rudely past her, lifted her wet hair and blew it down again; the great +boughs swung with a ponderous strength, now and then clashed their iron +lengths together and shook off a sparkle of icy spears or some +long-lain weight of snow from their heavy shadows. The green depths +were utterly cold and silent and stern. These beautiful haunts that all +the summer were hers and rejoiced to share with her their bounty, these +heavens that had yielded their largess, these stems that had thrust +their blossoms into her hands, all these friends of three moons ago +forgot her now and knew her no longer. + +Feeling her desolation, wild, melancholy, forsaken songs rose thereon +from that frightful aerie,--weeping, wailing tunes, that sob among the +people from age to age, and overflow with otherwise unexpressed +sadness,--all rude, mournful ballads,--old tearful strains, that +Shakspeare heard the vagrants sing, and that rise and fall like the +wind and tide,--sailor-songs, to be heard only in lone mid-watches +beneath the moon and stars,--ghastly rhyming romances, such as that +famous one of the "Lady Margaret," when + +"She slipped on her gown of green + A piece below the knee,-- +And 'twas all a long, cold winter's night + A dead corse followed she." + +Still the beast lay with closed eyes, yet never relaxing his grasp. +Once a half-whine of enjoyment escaped him,--he fawned his fearful head +upon her; once he scored her cheek with his tongue: savage caresses +that hurt like wounds. How weary she was! and yet how terribly awake! +How fuller and fuller of dismay grew the knowledge that she was only +prolonging her anguish and playing with death! How appalling the +thought that with her voice ceased her existence! Yet she could not +sing forever; her throat was dry and hard; her very breath was a pain; +her mouth was hotter than any desert-worn pilgrim's;--if she could but +drop upon her burning tongue one atom of the ice that glittered about +her!--but both of her arms were pinioned in the giant's vice. She +remembered the winding-sheet, and for the first time in her life +shivered with spiritual fear. Was it hers? She asked herself, as she +sang, what sins she had committed, what life she had led, to find her +punishment so soon and in these pangs,--and then she sought eagerly for +some reason why her husband was not up and abroad to find her. He +failed her,--her one sole hope in life; and without being aware of it, +her voice forsook the songs of suffering and sorrow for old Covenanting +hymns,--hymns with which her mother had lulled her, which the +class-leader pitched in the chimney-corners,--grand and sweet Methodist +hymns, brimming with melody and with all fantastic involutions of tune +to suit that ecstatic worship,--hymns full of the beauty of holiness, +steadfast, relying, sanctified by the salvation they had lent to those +in worse extremity than hers,--for they had found themselves in the +grasp of hell, while she was but in the jaws of death. Out of this +strange music, peculiar to one character of faith, and than which there +is none more beautiful in its degree nor owning a more potent sway of +sound, her voice soared into the glorified chants of churches. What to +her was death by cold or famine or wild beasts? "Though He slay me, yet +will I trust in Him," she sang. High and clear through the frore fair +night, the level moonbeams splintering in the wood, the scarce glints +of stars in the shadowy roof of branches, these sacred anthems +rose,--rose as a hope from despair, as some snowy spray of flower-bells +from blackest mould. Was she not in God's hands? Did not the world +swing at His will? If this were in His great plan of providence, was it +not best, and should she not accept it? + +"He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth." + +Oh, sublime faith of our fathers, where utter self-sacrifice alone was +true love, the fragrance of whose unrequired subjection was pleasant as +that of golden censers swung in purple-vapored chancels! + +Never ceasing in the rhythm of her thoughts, articulated in music as +they thronged, the memory of her first communion flashed over her. +Again she was in that distant place on that sweet spring morning. Again +the congregation rustled out, and the few remained, and she trembled to +find herself among them. + +How well she remembered the devout, quiet faces; too accustomed to the +sacred feast to glow with their inner joy! how well the snowy linen at +the altar, the silver vessels slowly and silently shifting! and as the +cup approached and passed, how the sense of delicious perfume stole in +and heightened the transport of her prayer, and she had seemed, looking +up through the windows where the sky soared blue in constant freshness, +to feel all heaven's balms dripping from the portals, and to scent the +lilies of eternal peace! Perhaps another would not have felt so much +ecstasy as satisfaction on that occasion; but it is a true, if a later +disciple, who has said, "The Lord bestoweth his blessings there, where +he findeth the vessels empty."--"And does it need the walls of a church +to renew my communion?" she asked. "Does not every moment stand a +temple four-square to God? And in that morning, with its buoyant +sunlight, was I any dearer to the Heart of the World than now?" "My +beloved is mine, and I am his," she sang over and over again, with all +varied inflection and profuse tune. How gently all the winter-wrapt +things bent toward her then! into what relation with her had they +grown! how this common dependence was the spell of their intimacy! how +at one with Nature had she become! how all the night and the silence +and the forest seemed to hold its breath, and to send its soul up to +God in her singing! It was no longer despondency, that singing. It was +neither prayer nor petition. She had left imploring, "How long wilt +thou forget me, O Lord?" "Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of +death!" "For in death there is no remembrance of thee";--with countless +other such fragments of supplication. She cried rather, "Yea, though I +walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: +for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me";--and +lingered, and repeated, and sang again, "I shall be satisfied, when I +awake, with thy likeness." + +Then she thought of the Great Deliverance, when he drew her up out of +many waters, and the flashing old psalm pealed forth triumphantly:-- + +"The Lord descended from above, + and bow'd the heavens hie; +And underneath his feet he cast + the darknesse of the skie. +On cherubs and on cherubins + full royally he road: +And on the wings of all the winds + came flying all abroad." + +She forgot how recently, and with what a strange pity for her own +shapeless form that was to be, she had quaintly sung,-- + +"Oh, lovely appearance of death! + What sight upon earth is so fair? +Not all the gay pageants that breathe + Can with a dead body compare!" + +She remembered instead,--"In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy +right hand there are pleasures forevermore"; and, "God will redeem my +soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me"; "He will +swallow up death in victory." Not once now did she say, "Lord, how long +wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling +from the lions"--for she knew that "the young lions roar after their +prey and seek their meat from God." "O Lord, thou preservest man and +beast!" she said. + +She had no comfort or consolation in this season, such as sustained the +Christian martyrs in the amphitheatre. She was not dying for her faith; +there were no palms in heaven for her to wave; but how many a time had +she declared,--"I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, +than to dwell in the tents of wickedness!" And as the broad rays here +and there broke through the dense covert of shade and lay in rivers of +lustre on crystal sheathing and frozen fretting of trunk and limb and +on the great spaces of refraction, they builded up visibly that house, +the shining city on the hill, and singing, "Beautiful for situation, +the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the North, +the city of the Great King," her vision climbed to that higher picture +where the angel shows the dazzling thing, the holy Jerusalem descending +out of heaven from God, with its splendid battlements and gates of +pearls, and its foundations, the eleventh a jacinth, the twelfth an +amethyst,--with its great white throne, and the rainbow round about it, +in sight like unto an emerald:--"And there shall be no night +there,--for the Lord God giveth them light," she sang. + +What whisper of dawn now rustled through the wilderness? How the night +was passing! And still the beast crouched upon the bough, changing only +the posture of his head, that again he might command her with those +charmed eyes;--half their fire was gone; she could almost have released +herself from his custody; yet, had she stirred, no one knows what +malevolent instinct might have dominated anew. But of that she did not +dream; long ago stripped of any expectation, she was experiencing in +her divine rapture how mystically true it is that "he that dwelleth in +the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the +Almighty." + +Slow clarion cries now wound from the distance as the cocks caught the +intelligence of day and reechoed it faintly from farm to farm,--sleepy +sentinels of night, sounding the foe's invasion, and translating that +dim intuition to ringing notes of warning. Still she chanted on. A +remote crash of brushwood told of some other beast on his depredations, +or some night-belated traveller groping his way through the narrow +path. Still she chanted on. The far, faint echoes of the chanticleers +died into distance,--the crashing of the branches grew nearer. No wild +beast that, but a man's step,--a man's form in the moonlight, stalwart +and strong,--on one arm slept a little child, in the other hand he held +his gun. Still she chanted on. + +Perhaps, when her husband last looked forth, he was half ashamed to +find what a fear he felt for her. He knew she would never leave the +child so long but for some direst need,--and yet he may have laughed at +himself, as he lifted and wrapped it with awkward care, and, loading +his gun and strapping on his horn, opened the door again and closed it +behind him, going out and plunging into the darkness and dangers of the +forest. He was more singularly alarmed than he would have been willing +to acknowledge; as he had sat with his bow hovering over the strings, +he had half believed to hear her voice mingling gayly with the +instrument, till he paused and listened if she were not about to lift +the latch and enter. As he drew nearer the heart of the forest, that +intimation of melody seemed to grow more actual, to take body and +breath, to come and go on long swells and ebbs of the night-breeze, to +increase with tune and words, till a strange, shrill singing grew ever +clearer, and, as he stepped into an open space of moonbeams, far up in +the branches, rocked by the wind, and singing, "How beautiful upon the +mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that +publisheth peace," he saw his wife,--his wife,--but, great God in +heaven! how? Some mad exclamation escaped him, but without diverting +her. The child knew the singing voice, though never heard before in +that unearthly key, and turned toward it through the veiling dreams. +With a celerity almost instantaneous, it lay, in the twinkling of an +eye, on the ground at the father's feet, while his gun was raised to +his shoulder and levelled at the monster covering his wife with shaggy +form and flaming gaze,--his wife so ghastly white, so rigid, so stained +with blood, her eyes so fixedly bent above, and her lips, that had +indurated into the chiselled pallor of marble, parted only with that +flood of solemn song. + +I do not know if it were the mother-instinct that for a moment lowered +her eyes,--those eyes, so lately riveted on heaven, now suddenly seeing +all life-long bliss possible. A thrill of joy pierced and shivered +through her like a weapon, her voice trembled in its course, her glance +lost its steady strength, fever-flushes chased each other over her +face, yet she never once ceased chanting. She was quite aware, that, if +her husband shot now, the ball must pierce her body before reaching any +vital part of the beast,--and yet better that death, by his hand, than +the other. But this her husband also knew, and he remained motionless, +just covering the creature with the sight. He dared not fire, lest some +wound not mortal should break the spell exercised by her voice, and the +beast, enraged with pain, should rend her in atoms; moreover, the light +was too uncertain for his aim. So he waited. Now and then he examined +his gun to see if the damp were injuring its charge, now and then he +wiped the great drops from his forehead. Again the cocks crowed with +the passing hour,--the last time they were heard on that night. +Cheerful home sound then, how full of safety and all comfort and rest +it seemed! what sweet morning incidents of sparkling fire and sunshine, +of gay household bustle, shining dresser, and cooing baby, of steaming +cattle in the yard, and brimming milk-pails at the door! what pleasant +voices! what laughter! what security! and here---- + +Now, as she sang on in the slow, endless, infinite moments, the fervent +vision of God's peace was gone. Just as the grave had lost its sting, +she was snatched back again into the arms of earthly hope. In vain she +tried to sing, "There remaineth a rest for the people of God,"--her +eyes trembled on her husband's, and she could think only of him, and of +the child, and of happiness that yet might be, but with what a dreadful +gulf of doubt between! She shuddered now in the suspense; all calm +forsook her; she was tortured with dissolving heats or frozen with icy +blasts; her face contracted, growing small and pinched; her voice was +hoarse and sharp,--every tone cut like a knife,--the notes became heavy +to lift,--withheld by some hostile pressure,--impossible. One gasp, a +convulsive effort, and there was silence,--she had lost her voice. + +The beast made a sluggish movement,--stretched and fawned like one +awaking,--then, as if he would have yet more of the enchantment, +stirred her slightly with his muzzle. As he did so, a sidelong hint of +the man standing below with the raised gun smote him; he sprung round +furiously, and, seizing his prey, was about to leap into some unknown +airy den of the topmost branches now waving to the slow dawn. The late +moon had rounded through the sky so that her gleam at last fell full +upon the bough with fairy frosting; the wintry morning light did not +yet penetrate the gloom. The woman, suspended in mid-air an instant, +cast only one agonized glance beneath,--but across and through it, ere +the lids could fall, shot a withering sheet of flame,--a rifle-crack, +half heard, was lost in the terrible yell of desperation that bounded +after it and filled her ears with savage echoes, and in the wide arc of +some eternal descent she was falling;--but the beast fell under her. I +think that the moment following must have been too sacred for us, and +perhaps the three have no special interest again till they issue from +the shadows of the wilderness upon the white hills that skirt their +home. The father carries the child hushed again into slumber; the +mother follows with no such feeble step as might be anticipated,--and +as they slowly climb the steep under the clear gray sky and the paling +morning star, she stops to gather a spray of the red-rose berries or a +feathery tuft of dead grasses for the chimney-piece of the log-house, +or a handful of brown ones for the child's play,--and of these quiet, +happy folk you would scarcely dream how lately they had stolen from +under the banner and encampment of the great King Death. The husband +proceeds a step or two in advance; the wife lingers over a singular +foot-print in the snow, stoops and examines it, then looks up with a +hurried word. Her husband stands alone on the hill, his arms folded +across the babe, his gun fallen,--stands defined against the pallid sky +like a bronze. What is there in their home, lying below and yellowing +in the light, to fix him with such a stare? She springs to his side. +There is no home there. The log-house, the barns, the neighboring +farms, the fences, are all blotted out and mingled in one smoking ruin. +Desolation and death were indeed there, and beneficence and life in the +forest. Tomahawk and scalping-knife, descending during that night, had +left behind them only this work of their accomplished hatred and one +subtle foot-print in the snow. + +For the rest,--the world was all before them, where to choose. + + * * * * * + +URANIA. + + +Hast thou forgotten whose thou art? + To what high service consecrate? +I gave thee not a noble heart + To wed with such ignoble fate. + +I found thee where the laurels grow + Around the lonely Delphian shrine; +There, where the sacred fountains flow, + I found thee, and I made thee mine. + +I gave thy soul to agony, + And strange unsatisfied desire, +That thou mightst dearer be to me, + And worthier of thy burning lyre. + +O child, thy fate had made thee God, + To thee such powers divine were given; +The paths of fire thou mightst have trod + Had led thee to the stars of heaven. + +And those who in the early dawn + Of beauty sat and sang of day, +Deep in their twilight shades withdrawn, + Had heard thy coming far away,-- + +With haunting music sweet and strange, + And airs ambrosial blown before, +Vague breathings of the floral change + That glorifies the hills of yore: + +Had felt the joy those only find + Who in their secret souls have known +The mystery of the poet mind + That through all beauty feels its own: + +Had felt the God within them rise + To meet thy radiant soul divine; +Had searched with their prophetic eyes + The midnight luminous of thine. + +So fondly did Urania deem! + So proudly did she prophesy! +Oh, ruin of a noble dream + She thought too glorious to die! + +Nor knew thy passionate songs of yore + Were as a promise unfulfilled,-- +A stately portal set before + The palace thou shall never build! + +For is it come to this, at last? + And thou forever must remain +A godlike statue, formed and cast + In marble attitude of pain,-- + +Proud lips that in their scorn are mute, + And haunting eyes of anguished love, +One hand that grasps a silent lute, + And one convulsed hand above + +That will not strike? Ah, scorn and shame! + Shame for the apostate unforgiven, +Beholding an unconquered fame + In undiscovered fields of heaven! + +For Beauty not by one alone + In her completeness is revealed: +The smiles and tears her face hath shown + To thee from others are concealed. + +Men see not in the midnight sky + All miracles she worketh there: +It is the blindness of the eye + That paints its darkness on the air. + +Two friends who wander by the shore + Look not upon the selfsame seas, +Hearing two voices in the roar, + Because of different memories. + +For him whose love the sea hath drowned, + It moans the music of his wrong; +For him whose life with love is crowned, + It breaks upon the beach in song. + +So dreaming not another's dream, + But still interpreting thine own, +By woodland wild and quiet stream + Thou wanderest in the world alone. + +Then what thou slayest none can save: + Silent and dark oblivion rolls +Over the glory in the grave + Of fierce and suicidal souls. + +From that dark wave no pleading ghost + With pointing hand shall ever rise, +To say,--The world hath treasure lost, + And here the buried treasure lies! + +Beware, and yet beware! my fear + Unfolds a vision in the gloom +Of Beauty borne upon her bier, + And Darkness crouching in the tomb. + +Beware, and yet beware! her end + Is thine; or else, her shadowy hearse +Beside, thy spirit shall descend + The vast sepulchral universe, + +And, with the passion that remains + In desolated hearts, implore +The spectre sitting bound in chains + To yield what he shall not restore:-- + +The mystery whose soul divine + Breathed love, and only love, on thee; +Which better far had not been thine, + Than, having been, to cease to be. + + + + +MARY SOMERVILLE. + + +There have been in every age a few women of genius who have become the +successful rivals of man in the paths which they have severally chosen. +Three instances are of our time. Mrs. Browning is called a poet even by +poets; the artists admit that Rosa Bonheur is a painter; and the +mathematicians accord to Mary Somerville a high rank among themselves. + +"In pure mathematics," said Humboldt, "Mrs. Somerville is strong." Of +no other woman of the age could the remark have been made; and this +would probably be true, were the walks of science as marked by the +feminine footprint as are those of literature. To read mathematical +works is an easy task; the formula can be learned and their meaning +apprehended: to read the most profound of them, with such appreciation +that one stands side by side with the great minds who originated them, +requires a higher order of intellect; and far-reaching indeed is that +which, pondering in the study on a few phenomena known by observation, +develops the theory of worlds, traces back for ages their history, and +sketches the outline of their future destiny. + +Caroline Herschel, the sister of Sir William, was doubtless gifted with +much of the Herschel talent, and, under other circumstances, her mind +might have turned to original research; but she belonged rather to the +last century, and Hanover was not a region favorable to intellectual +efforts in her sex. She lived the life of a simple-hearted, +truth-loving woman; most worthy of the name she bore, she made notes +for her brother, she swept the heavens and found comets for him, she +computed and tabulated his observations; it seems never to have +occurred to her to be other than the patient, helping sister of a truly +great man. + +Mrs. Somerville's life has been more individual. She is the daughter of +Admiral Fairfax, and was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, December 26, +1780, in the house of her uncle, the father of her present husband. + +The home training and the school education of the daughters of Great +Britain are very unlike those of their American sisters. The manners +and customs of the Old World change so slowly, that one can scarcely +assent to a remark made by Sir John Herschel:--"The Englishman sticks +to his old ways, but is not cemented to them." The Englishwoman submits +to authority from her infancy; belonging to the middle class, she does +not expect the higher education of the nobility; a woman, she is not +supposed to desire to enter into the studies of her brothers. A +governess, generally the daughter of a curate, who prefers this +position to that of "companion" to a fine lady, is provided for her in +her early years. If the choice be fortunate and the parents watchful, +the young girl is thoroughly taught in a few branches of what are +commonly considered feminine studies. She learns to read and to speak +French; tutors are employed for music and drawing: every young lady +above the rank of the tradesman's daughter plays well upon the piano; +every one has her portfolio of drawings, in which sketches from Nature +can always be found, and frequently the family portraits. The history +of the country is considered a study suitable for girls; the Englishman +expects that his daughter shall know something of the past, of which he +is so justly proud. + +But the more solid book-learning given to the girls of New England, +even in the public schools, is known only to the daughters of the +higher classes, and among them an instance like that of Lady Jane Grey +could scarcely now be found. As the girls and boys are never taught in +the same schools, no taste is aroused by the example of manly studies. +An English girl is astonished to hear that an American girl passes a +public examination, like her brothers, and with them competes for +prizes; she doubts the truthfulness of some of the representations of +life found in American novels; and so little is the freedom of manners +understood, that the American traveller is frequently asked,--"Can it +really be as Mrs. Stowe represents in America? Does a young lady really +give a party herself?" + +The difference that one would expect is found between the women of +England or Scotland and the women of New England. The young +Englishwoman is tasteful and elegant, mindful of all the proprieties +and graces of social life; she speaks slowly and cautiously, and gives +her opinions with great modesty. These are not at present the +characteristics of the American girl. + +Mary Fairfax passed through the usual routine. At fourteen she had read +the books to be found in her father's house, including the few works +on Navigation which were necessary to him in his profession. She had +thus obtained an idea of the world of science, and it was dull to +return to worsted-work for amusement. The needle, which has been the +fetter of so many women, became, however, in her hand, magnetic, and +pointed her to her destiny. She was in the habit of taking her work +into her brother's study, and listening to his recitations; the +revelations of Geometry were thus opened to her; she listened and +worked for a time, until the desire to know more of this region of form +and law, of harmony and of relations, became too strong to be resisted; +the worsted was thrown aside, and she ventured to ask the tutor to +instruct her. The honest man told her that he was no mathematician: he +could lend her Euclid, but he could do no more. + +The first great step was now taken; Euclid was quickly read; other +books were borrowed from other friends; Bonnycastle's and Euler's +Algebra were obtained, and she exulted in the use of those mystic +symbols, _x, y_, and _z_. Her parents looked on with indifference; so +that the music were not neglected and the governess reported well of +her studies, they felt there was no harm in her amusing herself as she +chose. When the days of the governess were over, the young lady "came +out" in Edinburgh, and mingled much with the best society. This most +picturesque city had long been the resort of the most gifted minds; men +of literature and men of science made the charm of its winter life. +Never was it more the gathering-place of intellect than in the early +part of this century; but there was no room for a woman of genius, and +the young girl's friends advised her to conceal her pursuits. Move as +quietly, however, and as unobtrusively as she might in the brilliant +circle, her genius was not without recognition. There was a word of +encouragement from Professor Playfair. "Persevere in your study," said +he; "it will be a source of happiness to you when all else fails; for +it is the study of truth." She had a champion, too, in the dreaded +critic, Jeffrey. "I am told," said a friend, writing to him, "that the +ladies of Edinburgh are literary, and that one of them sets up as a +blue-stocking and an astronomer." "The lady of whom you speak," replied +Jeffrey, "may wear blue stockings, but her petticoats are so long that +I have never seen them." + +Mrs. Somerville has been twice married. Her first husband, a gentleman +of the name of Greig, regarded her pursuits as her parents had, simply +with indifference. Dr. Somerville, her present husband, has taken the +utmost pains to secure her time for her studies, and has himself +relieved her from many household cares. + +The simplicity of character which belonged to her in early life was not +lost when her reputation became established. The Royal Society, whose +doors do not open at every knock, admitted her to membership, and, by +their order, her bust was sculptured by Chantrey, and now adorns the +hall of the Society in Somerset House. During the sittings for this +purpose, a lady, a friend of the sculptor, him to introduce her to Mrs. +Somerville. Chantrey consented, and made a dinner-party for the +purpose. The two ladies were placed side by side at table, and the +benevolent artist rejoiced to perceive, from the flow of talk, that +they were mutually pleased. The next day, to his astonishment, his +friend called on him in a state of great indignation, believing herself +the victim of a practical joke. "How could you do so?" said she. "You +knew that I did not want to know _that_ Mrs. Somerville; I wanted to +know the astronomer: that lady talked of the theatre, the opera, and +common things." + +The anecdote so often told of Laplace's compliment is literally true. +Mrs. Somerville dined with this great geometer in Paris. "I write +books," said Laplace, "that no one can read. Only two women have ever +read the 'Mecanique Celeste'; both are Scotch women: Mrs. Greig and +yourself." + +Upon the "Mecanique Celeste" Mrs. Somerville's greatest work is +founded. "I simply translated Laplace's work," said she, "from algebra +into common language." That is, she did what very few men and no other +woman could do. It is of this work of Laplace that Bonaparte said, "I +will give to it my first _six months_ of leisure." The student who +reads it by the aid of Dr. Bowditch's notes has little idea of the +difficulties to be met in the original work. Even Dr. Bowditch himself +said, "I never come across one of Laplace's 'Thus it plainly appears,' +without feeling sure that I have got hours of hard study before me, to +fill up the chasm and show _how_ it plainly appears." + +This "translation into common language" was undertaken at the request +of Lord Brougham, who desired a mathematical work suited to the +"Library of Useful Knowledge." The manuscript was submitted to Sir John +Herschel, who expressed himself "delighted with it,--that it was a book +for posterity, but quite above the class for which Lord Brougham's +course was intended." It was published at once, and became the +text-book for the students of Cambridge. + +"The Connection of the Physical Sciences" and the "Physical Geography" +are the later works of Mrs. Somerville. These volumes have probably +been more read in our country than in Europe; for it is a common remark +of the scientific writers of Great Britain, that their "readers are +found in the United States." They contain vast collections of facts in +all branches of Physical Science, connected together by the delicate +web of Mrs. Somerville's own thought, showing an amount and variety of +learning to be compared only to that of Humboldt. + +Provided with an "open sesame" to her heart, in the shape of a letter +from her old friend, Lady Herschel, we sought the acquaintance of Mrs. +Somerville in the spring of 1858. She was at that time residing in +Florence, and, sending the letter and a card to her by the servant, we +awaited the reply in the large Florentine parlor, in the fireplace of +which a wood-fire blazed, suggestive of English comfort,--a suggestion +which in Italy rarely becomes a reality. + +There was the usual delay; then a footstep came slowly through the +outer room, and a very old man, exceedingly tall, with a red silk +handkerchief around his head, entered, and introduced himself as Doctor +Somerville. He is proud of his wife; a pardonable weakness in any man, +especially so in the husband of Mary Somerville. He began at once to +talk of her. "Mrs. Somerville," he said, "was much interested in the +Americans, for she claimed a connection with the family of Washington. +Washington's half-brother, Lawrence, married Anne Fairfax, who was of +the Scotch family of that name. When Mrs. Somerville's father, as +Lieutenant Fairfax, was ordered to America, General Washington wrote to +him as a family relative, and invited him to his house. Lieutenant +Fairfax applied to his commanding officer for leave to accept the +invitation, and it was refused; they never met. Much to the regret of +the Somervilles, the letter of Washington has been lost. The Fairfaxes +of Virginia are of the same family, and occasionally some member of the +American branch visits his Scotch cousins." + +While Doctor Somerville was talking of these things, Mrs. Somerville +came tripping into the room, speaking with the vivacity of a young +person. She was seventy-seven years old, but appeared twenty years +younger. Her face is pleasing, the forehead low and broad, the eyes +blue,--the features so regular, that, as sculptured by Chantrey, in the +bust at Somerset House, they convey the idea of a very handsome woman. +Neither this bust nor the picture of her, however, gives a correct +impression, except in the outline of the head and shoulders. She spoke +with a strong Scotch accent, and was slightly affected by deafness. + +At this time, Mrs. Somerville was re-writing her "Physical Geography." +She said that she worked as well as when she was younger, but was more +quickly fatigued; yet, in order to gain time, she had given up her +afternoon nap, without apparent injury to her health. Her working hours +were in the morning, and she never refused a visitor after noon. For +her first work she said she computed a good deal; and here she stepped +quickly into an adjoining room, and brought out a mass of manuscript +computations made for that work, the mere sight of which would give a +headache to most women. The conversation was rather of the familiar and +chatty order, and marked by great simplicity. She touched upon the +recent discoveries in chemical science,--upon California, its gold and +its consequences, some good from which she thought would be found in +the improvement of seamanship,--on the nebulae, more and more of which +she thought would be resolved, while yet there might exist irresolvable +nebulous matter, such as composed the tails of comets, or the +satellites of the planets, which she thought had other uses than as +their subordinates. Of Doctor Whewell's attempt to prove that our +planet is the only one inhabited she spoke with disapprobation; she +said she believed that the other planets might be inhabited by beings +of a higher order than ourselves. + +On subsequent visits, Mrs. Somerville had much to say of the Americans. +She regretted that she so rarely received scientific articles from +America; the papers of Lieutenant Maury alone reached her. She spoke of +the late Doctor Bowditch with great interest, and said she had had some +correspondence with one of his sons; of Professor Peirce as a great +mathematician; and she was much interested in the successful +photography of the stars by Mr. Whipple. To a traveller, thousands of +miles from home, the mere mention of familiar names is cheering. + +Mrs. Somerville resides in Florence on account of the health of her +husband. A little garden, well-stocked with rose-bushes, which she +shows with great pride to her visitors, furnishes her with a means of +healthy recreation after her severe studies. Her children are a son by +Mr. Greig and two daughters by Doctor Somerville. In early life, Mrs. +Somerville was a fine musician: the daughters have inherited this +talent; and having lived long in Florence, they speak Italian with a +perfect accent. "I speak Italian," said Mrs. Somerville; "but no one +could ever take me for other than a Scotchwoman." + +No one can make the acquaintance of this remarkable woman without +increased admiration for her. The ascent of the steep and rugged path +of science has not unfitted her for the drawing-room circle; the hours +of devotion to close study have not been incompatible with the duties +of the wife and the mother; the mind that has turned to rigid +demonstration has not thereby lost its faith in the truths which +figures will not prove. "I have no doubt," said she, in speaking of the +heavenly bodies, "that in another state of existence we shall know more +about these things." + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + +MAY IN ROME. + + +May has come again,--"the delicate-footed May," her feet hidden in +flowers as she wanders over the Campagna, and the cool breeze of the +Campagna blowing back her loosened hair. She calls to us from the open +fields to leave the wells of damp churches and shadowy streets, and to +come abroad and meet her where the mountains look down from roseate +heights of vanishing snow upon plains of waving grain. The hedges have +put on their best draperies of leaves and flowers, and, girdled in at +their waist by double osier bands, stagger luxuriantly along the road +like a drunken Bacchanal procession, crowned with festive ivy, and +holding aloft their snowy clusters of elder-blossoms like _thyrsi_. +Among their green robes may be seen thousands of beautiful +wild-flowers,--the sweet-scented laurustinus, all sorts of running +vetches and wild sweet-pea, the delicate vases of dewy morning-glories, +clusters of eglantine or sweetbrier roses, fragrant acacia-blossoms +covered with bees and buzzing flies, the gold of glowing gorses, and +scores of purple and yellow flowers, of which I know not the names. On +the gray walls, vines, grass, and the humble class of flowers which go +by the ignoble name of weeds straggle and cluster; and over them, held +down by the green cord of the stalk, balance the bursted balloons of +hundreds of flaming scarlet poppies that seem to have fed on fire. The +undulating swell of the Campagna is here ablaze with them for acres, +and there deepening with growing grain, or snowed over with myriads of +daisies. Music and song, too, are not wanting; hundreds of birds are in +the hedges. The lark, "from his moist cabinet rising," rains down his +trills of incessant song from invisible heights of blue sky; and +whenever one passes the wayside groves, a nightingale is sure to bubble +into song. The oranges, too, are in blossom, perfuming the air; +locust-trees are tasselled with odorous flowers; and over the walls of +the Campagna villa bursts a cascade of vines covered with foamy Banksia +roses. + +The Carnival of the kitchen-gardens is now commencing. Peas are already +an old story, strawberries are abundant, and cherries are beginning to +make their appearance, in these first days of May; old women sell them +at every corner, tied together in tempting bunches, as in "the +cherry-orchard" which Miss Edgeworth has made fairy-land in our +childish memories. Asparagus also has long since come; and artichokes +make their daily appearance on the table, sliced up and fried, or +boiled whole, or coming up roasted and gleaming with butter, with more +outside capes and coats than an ideal English coachman of the olden +times. _Finocchi_, too, are here, tasting like anisette, and good to +mix in the salads. And great beans lie about in piles, the _contadini_ +twisting them out of their thick pods with their thumbs, to eat them +raw. Nay, even the _signoria_ of the noble families do the same, as +they walk through the gardens, and think them such a luxury that they +eat them raw for breakfast. But over and above all other vegetables are +the lettuces, which are one of the great staples of food for the Roman +people, and so crisp, fresh, delicate, and high-flavored, that be who +eats them once will hold Nebuchadnezzar no longer a subject for +compassion, but rather of envy. Drowned in fresh olive-oil and strong +with vinegar, they are a feast for the gods; and even in their natural +state, without condiments, they are by no means to be despised. At the +corners of the streets they lie piled in green heaps, and are sold at a +_baiocco_ for five heads. At noontide, the _contadini_ and laborers +feed upon them without even the condiment of salt, crunching their +white teeth through the crisp, wet leaves, and alternating a bite at a +great wedge of bread; and toward nightfall, one may see carts laden +high up with closely packed masses of them, coming in from the Campagna +for the market. In a word, the _festa_ of the vegetables, at which they +do not eat, but are eaten, and the Carnival of the kitchen-garden have +come. + +But--a thousand, thousand pardons, O mighty Cavolo!--how have I dared +omit thy august name? On my knees, O potentest of vegetables, I crave +forgiveness! I will burn at thy shrine ten waxen candles, in penance, +if thou wilt pardon the sin and shame of my forgetfulness! The smoke of +thy altar-fires, the steam of thy incense, and the odors of thy +sanctity rise from every hypaethral shrine in Rome. Out-doors and +in-doors, wherever the foot wanders, on palatial stairs or in the hut +of poverty, in the convent pottage and the _Lepre_ soup, in the wooden +platter of the beggar and the silver tureen of the prince, thou fillest +our nostrils, thou satisfiest our stomach. Thou hast no false pride; +great as thou art, thou condescendest to be exchanged for a _baiocco_. +Dear enchantress! to thee, and to thy glorious cousin Broccoli, that +tender-hearted, efflorescent nymph, the Egeria of the _osteria con +cucina_, the peerless maid that goes with the steak and accepts +martyrdom without moan, to drive away the demon of Hunger from her +devoted followers,--all honor! Far away, whenever I inhale thy odor, I +shall think of "Roman Joys"; a whiff from thine altar in a foreign land +will bear me back to the Eternal City, "the City of the Soul," the City +of the Cabbage, the home of the Dioscuri, _Cavolo_ and _Broccoli!_ Yes, +as Paris is recalled by the odor of chocolate, and London by the damp +steam of malt, so shall Rome come back when my nostrils are filled with +thy penetrative fragrance! + +Saunter out at any of the city-gates, or lean over the wall at San +Giovanni, (and where will you find a more charming spot?) or look down +from the windows of the Villa Negroni, and your eye will surely fall on +one of the Roman kitchen-gardens, patterned out in even rows and +squares of green. Nothing can be prettier or more tasteful in their +arrangement than these variegated carpets of vegetables. A great +cistern of running water crowns the height of the ground, which is used +for the purposes of irrigation, and towards nightfall the vent is +opened, and you may see the gardeners imbanking the channelled rows to +let the inundation flow through hundreds of little lanes of +intersection and canals between the beds, and then banking them up at +the entrance when a sufficient quantity of water has entered. In this +way they fertilize and refresh the soil, which else would parch under +the continuous sun. And this, indeed, is all the fertilization they +need,--so strong is the soil all over the Campagna. The accretions and +decay of thousands of years have covered it with a loam whose richness +and depth are astonishing. Dig where you will, for ten feet down, and +you do not pass through its wonderfully fertile loam into gravel, and +the slightest labor is repaid a hundred-fold. + +As one looks from the Villa Negroni windows, he cannot fail to be +impressed by the strange changes through which this wonderful city has +passed. The very spot on which Nero, the insane emperor-artist, fiddled +while Rome was burning has now become a vast kitchen-garden, belonging +to Prince Massimo, (himself a descendant, as he claims, of Fabius +Cunctator,) where men no longer, but only lettuces, asparagus, and +artichokes, are ruthlessly cut down. The inundations are not for mock +sea-fights among slaves, but for the peaceful purposes of irrigation. +And though the fiddle of Nero is only traditional, the trumpets of the +French, murdering many an unhappy strain near by, are a most melancholy +fact. In the bottom of the valley, a noble old villa, covered with +frescoes, has been turned into a manufactory of bricks, and the very +Villa Negroni itself is now doomed to be the site of a railway station. +Yet here the princely family of Negroni lived, and the very lady at +whose house Lucrezia Borgia took her famous revenge may once have +sauntered under the walls, which still glow with ripening oranges, to +feed the gold-fish in the fountain, or walked with stately friends +through the long alleys of clipped cypresses, and pic-nicked _alia +Giorgione_ on lawns which are now but kitchen-gardens, dedicated to San +Cavolo. It pleases me, also, descending in memories to a later time, to +look up at the summer-house built above the gateway, and recall the +days when Shelley and Keats came there to visit their friend Severn, +the artist, (for that was his studio,) and look over the same alleys +and gardens, and speak words one would have been so glad to hear,--and, +coming still later down, to recall the hearty words and brave heart of +America's best sculptor and my dear friend, Crawford. + +But to return to the kitchen-gardens. Pretty as they are to the eye, +they are not considered to be wholesome; and no Roman will live in a +house near one of them, especially if it lie on the southern and +western side, so that the Sirocco and the prevalent summer winds blow +over it. The daily irrigation, in itself, would be sufficient to +frighten all Italians away; for they have a deadly fear of all effluvia +arising from decomposing vegetable substances, and suppose, with a good +deal of truth, that, wherever there is water on the earth, there is +decomposition. But this is not the only reason; for the same prejudice +exists in regard to all kinds of gardens, whether irrigated or +not,--and even to groves of trees and clusters of bushes, or vegetation +of any kind, around a house. This is the real reason why, even in their +country villas, their trees are almost always planted at a distance +from the house, so as to expose it to the sun and to give it a free +ventilation; these they do not care for; damp is their determined foe, +and therefore they will not purchase the luxury of shade from trees at +the risk of the damp it is supposed to engender. On the north, however, +gardens are not thought to be so prejudicial as on the south and +west,--as the cold, dry winds come from the former direction. The +malaria, as we call it, though the term is unknown to Romans, is never +so dangerous as after a slight rain, just sufficient to wet the surface +of the earth without deeply penetrating it; for decomposition is then +stimulated, and the miasma arising from the Campagna is blown abroad. +So long as the earth is dry, there is no danger of fever, except at +morning and nightfall, and then simply because of the heavy dews which +the porous and baked earth then inhales and expires. After the autumn +has given a thorough, drenching rain, Rome is healthy and free from +fever. + +Rome has with strangers the reputation of being unhealthy; but this +opinion I cannot think well founded,--to the extent, at least, of the +common belief. The diseases of children there are ordinarily very +light, while in America and England they are terrible. Scarlet and +typhus fevers, those fearful scourges in the North, are known at Rome +only under most mitigated forms. Cholera has shown no virulence there; +and for diseases of the throat and lungs the air alone is almost +curative. The great curse of the place is the intermittent fever, in +which any other illness is apt to end. But this, except in its peculiar +phase of _Perniciosa_, though a very annoying, is by no means a +dangerous disease, and has the additional advantage of a specific +remedy. The Romans themselves of the better class seldom suffer from +it, and I cannot but think that with a little prudence it may be easily +avoided. Those who are most attacked by it are the laborers and +_contadini_ on the Campagna; and how can it be otherwise with them? +They sleep often on the bare ground, or on a little straw under a +_capanna_ just large enough to admit them on all-fours. Their labor is +exhausting, and performed in the sun, and while in a violent +perspiration they are often exposed to sudden draughts and checks. +Their food is poor, their habits careless, and it would require an iron +constitution to resist what they endure. But, despite the life they +lead and their various exposures, they are for the most part a very +strong and sturdy class. This intermittent fever is undoubtedly a far +from pleasant thing; but Americans who are terrified at it in Rome give +it no thought in Philadelphia, where it is more prevalent,--and while +they call Rome unhealthy, live with undisturbed confidence in cities +where scarlet and typhus fevers annually rage. + +It is a curious fact, that the French soldiers, who in 1848 made the +siege of Rome, suffered no inconvenience or injury to their health from +sleeping on the Campagna, and that, despite the prophecies to the +contrary, very few cases of fever appeared, though the siege lasted +during all the summer months. The reason of this is doubtless to be +found in the fact that they were better clothed, better fed, and in +every way more careful of themselves, than the _contadini_. Foreigners, +too, who visit Rome, are very seldom attacked by intermittent fever; +and it may truly be said, that, when they are, it is, for the most +part, their own fault. There is generally the grossest inconsistency +between their theories and their practice. Believing as they do that +the least exposure will induce fever, they expose themselves with +singular recklessness to the very causes of fever. After hurrying +through the streets and getting into a violent perspiration, they +plunge at once into some damp pit-like church or chill gallery, where +the temperature is at least ten degrees lower than the outer air. The +bald-headed, rosy John Bull, steaming with heat, doffs at once the hat +which he wore in the street, and, of course, is astounded, if the +result prove just what it would be anywhere else,--and if he take cold +and get a fever, charges it to the climate, and not to his own +stupidity and recklessness. Beside this, foreigners will always insist +on carrying their home-habits with them wherever they go, and it is +exceedingly difficult to persuade any one that he does not understand +the climate better than the Italians themselves, whom he puts down as a +poor set of timid ignoramuses. However, the longer one lives in Rome, +the more he learns to value the Italian rules of health. There is +probably no people so careful in these matters as the Italians, and +especially the Romans. They understand their own climate, and they have +a special dislike of death. In France and England suicides are very +common; in Italy they are almost unknown. The American recklessness of +life completely astounds the Italian. He enjoys life, studies every +method to preserve it, and considers any one who risks it unnecessarily +as simply a fool. + +What, then, are their rules of life? In the first place, in all their +habits they are very regular. They eat at stated times, and cannot be +persuaded to partake of anything in the intervals. If it be not their +hour for eating, they will refuse the choicest viands, and will sit at +your table fasting, despite every temptation you can offer them. They +are also very abstemious in their diet, and gluttony is the very rarest +of vices. I do not believe there is another nation in Europe that eats +so sparingly. In the morning they take a cup of coffee, generally +without milk, sopping in it some light _brioche_. Later in the day they +take a slight lunch of soup and macaroni, with a glass of wine. This +lasts them until dinner, which begins with a watery soup; after which +the _lesso_ or boiled meat comes on and is eaten with one vegetable, +which is less a dish than a garnish to the meat; then comes a dish of +some vegetable eaten with bread; then, perhaps, a chop, or another dish +of meat, garnished with a vegetable; some light _dolce_ or fruit, and a +cup of black coffee,--the latter for digestion's sake,--finish the +repast. The quantity is very small, however, compared to what is eaten +in England, France, America, or, though last, not least, Germany. Late +in the evening they have a supper. When dinner is taken in the middle +of the day, lunch is omitted. This is the rule of the better classes. +The workmen and middle classes, after their cup of coffee and bit of +bread or _brioche_ in the morning, take nothing until night, except +another cup of coffee and bread,--and their dinner finishes their meals +after their work is done. From my own observation, I should say that an +Italian does not certainly eat more than half as much as a German, or +two-thirds as much as an American. The climate will not allow of +gormandizing, and much less food is required to sustain the vital +powers than in America, where the atmosphere is so stimulating to the +brain and the digestion, or in England, where the depressing effects of +the climate must be counteracted by stimulants. Go to any _table +d'hote_ in the season, and you will at once know all the English who +are new comers by their bottle of ale or claret or sherry or brandy; +for the Englishman assimilates with difficulty, and unwillingly puts +off his home-habits. The fresh American will always be recognized by +the morning-dinner, which he calls a breakfast. + +If you wish to keep your health in Italy, follow the example of the +Italians. Eat a third less than you are accustomed to at home. Do not +drink habitually of brandy, porter, ale, or even Marsala, but confine +yourselves to the lighter wines of the country or of France. Do not +walk much in the sun; "only Englishmen and dogs" do that, as the +proverb goes; and especially take heed not to expose yourself, when +warm, to any sudden changes of temperature. If you have heated yourself +with walking in the sun, be careful not to go at once, and especially +towards nightfall, into the lower and shaded streets, which have begun +to gather the damps, and which are kept cool by the high, thick walls +of the houses. Remember that the difference of temperature is very +great between the narrow, shaded streets and the high, sunny Pincio. If +you have the misfortune to be of the male sex, and especially if you +suffer under the sorrow of the first great Caesar in being bald, buy +yourself a little skullcap, (it is as good as his laurels for the +purpose,) and put it on your head whenever you enter the churches and +cold galleries. Almost every fever here is the result of suddenly +checked transpiration of the skin; and if you will take the precaution +to cool yourself before entering churches and galleries, and not to +expose yourself while warm to sudden changes of temperature, you may +live twenty years in Rome without a fever. Do not stand in draughts of +cold air, and shut your windows when you go to bed. There is nothing an +Italian fears like a current of air, and with reason. He will never sit +between two doors or two windows. If he has walked to see you and is in +the least warm, pray him to keep his hat on until he is cool, if you +would be courteous to him. You will find that he will always use the +same _gentilezza_ to you. The reason why you should shut your windows +at night is very simple. The night-air is invariably damp and cold, +contrasting greatly with the warmth of the day, and it is then that the +miasma from the Campagna drifts into the city. And oh, my American +friends! repress your national love for hot rooms and great fires, and +do not make an oven of your _salon_. Bake yourselves, kiln-dry +yourselves, if you choose, in your furnaced houses at home, but, if you +value your health, "reform that altogether" in Italy. Increase your +clothing and suppress your fires, and you will find yourselves better +in head and in pocket. With your great fires you will always be cold +and always have colds; for the houses are not tight, and you only +create great draughts thereby. You will not persuade an Italian to sit +near them;--"_Scusa, Signore_" he will say, "_mi fa male; se non gli +dispiace, mi metto in questo cantone_,"--and with your permission he +takes the farthest corner away from the fire. Seven winters in Rome +have convinced me of the correctness of their rule. Of course, you do +not believe me or them; but it would be better for you, if you +did,--and for me, too, when I come to visit you. + +But I must beg pardon for all this advice; and as my business is not to +write a medical thesis here, let me return to pleasanter things. + +Scarcely does the sun drop behind St. Peter's on the first day of May, +before bonfires begin to blaze from all the country towns on the +mountain-sides, showing like great beacons. This is a custom founded in +great antiquity, and common to the North and South. The first of May is +the Festival of the Holy Apostles in Italy; but in Germany, and still +farther north, in Sweden and Norway, it is _Walpurgisnacht_,--when +goblins, witches, hags, and devils hold high holiday, mounting on their +brooms for the Brocken. And it was on this night that Mephistopheles +carried Faust on his wondrous ride, and showed him the spectre of +Margaret with the red line round her throat. Miss Bremer, in her "Life +in Dalecarlia," gives the following account of the origin of this +custom:--"It is so old," she says, "that there is no perfect certainty +either of its origin or signification. It is, however, believed that it +derives its origin from a heathen sacrificatory festival; and there is +ground for the acceptation that children were sacrificed alive at this +very feast,--and this, in fact, in order to expel or reconcile the evil +spirits, of whom the people believed, that, partly flying, partly +riding, they commenced their passages over fields and woods at the +beginning of spring, and which are to this day called enchanters, +witches, nymphs, and so forth. It is also believed that about this time +the spirits of the earth came forth from out of the bosom of the earth +and the heart of the mountains in order to seek intercourse with the +children of men. Fires were frequently kindled upon the sepulchral +hills, and at these, sacrifices were offered, chiefly to the good +powers, namely, to those who provide for a fruitful year. At present I +should scarcely think there is an individual who believes in such +superstitious stuff. But they still, as in days of yore, kindle fires +upon the mountains on this night, and still look upon it as a bad omen, +if any common or ugly-formed creature, whether beast or man, makes its +appearance at the fire." + +In the Neapolitan towns great fires are built on this festival, around +which the people dance, jumping through the flames, and flinging +themselves about in every wild and fantastic attitude. It is probably a +relic of some old sacrificatory festival to Maia, who has given her +name to this month,--the custom still remaining after its significance +is gone. + +The month of May is the culmination of the spring and the season of +seasons at Rome. No wonder that foreigners who have come when winter +sets in and take wing before April shows her sky sometimes growl at the +weather, and ask if this is the beautiful Italian clime. They have +simply selected the rainy season for their visit; and one cannot expect +to have sun the whole year through, without intermission. Where will +they find more sun in the same season? where will they find milder and +softer air? Days even in the middle of winter, and sometimes weeks, +descend as it were from heaven to fill the soul with delight; and a +lovely day in Rome is lovelier than under any other sky on earth. But +just when foreigners go away in crowds, the weather is settling into +the perfection of spring, and then it is that Rome is most charming. +The rains are over, the sun is a daily blessing, all Nature is bursting +into leaf and flower, and one may spend days on the Campagna without +fear of colds and fever. Stay in Rome during May, if you wish to feel +its beauty. + +The best rule for a traveller who desires to enjoy the charms of every +clime would be to go to the North in the winter and to the South in the +spring and summer. Cold is the speciality of the North, and all its +sports and gayeties take thence their tone. The houses are built to +shut out the demon of Frost, and protect one from his assaults of ice +and snow. Let him howl about your windows and scrawl his wonderful +landscapes on your panes and pile his fantastic wreaths outside, while +you draw round the blazing hearth and enjoy the artificial heat and +warm in the social converse that he provokes. Your punch is all the +better for his threats; by contrast you enjoy the more. Or brave him +outside in a flying sledge, careering with jangling bells over white +wastes of snow, while the stars, as you go, fly through the naked trees +that are glittering with ice-jewels, and your blood tingles with +excitement, and your breath is blown like a white incense to the skies. +That is the real North. How tame he will look to you, when you go back +in August and find a few hard apples, a few tough plums, and some sour +little things which are apologies for grapes! He looks sneaky enough +then, with his make-believe summer, and all his furs off. No, then is +the time for the South. All is simmering outside, and the locust saws +and shrills till he seems to heat the air. You stay in the house at +noon, and know what a virtue there is in thick walls which keep out the +fierce heats, in gaping windows and doors that will not shut because +you need the ventilation. You will not now complain of the stone and +brick floors that you cursed all winter long, and on which you now +sprinkle water to keep the air cool in your rooms. The blunders and +stupidities of winter are all over. The breezy _loggia_ is no longer a +joke. You are glad enough to sit there and drink your wine and look +over the landscape. Manuccia brings in a great basket of grapes that +are grapes, which the wasp envies you as you eat, and comes to share. +And here are luscious figs bursting with seedy sweetness, and apricots +rusted in the sun, and velvety peaches that break into juice in your +mouth, and great black-seeded _cocomeri_. Nature empties her cornucopia +of fruits and flowers and vegetables all over your table. Luxuriously +you enjoy them and fan yourself and take your _siesta_, with full +appreciation of your _dolce far niente_. When the sun begins to slope +westward, if you are in the country, you wander through the green lanes +festooned with vines and pluck the grapes as you go; or, if you are in +the city, you saunter the evening long through the streets, where all +the world are strolling, and take your _granito_ of ice or sherbet, and +talk over the things of the day and the time, and pass as you go home +groups of singers and serenaders with guitars, flutes, and +violins,--serenade, perhaps, sometimes, yourself; and all the time the +great planets and stars palpitate in the near heavens, and the soft air +full of fragrance blows against your cheek. And you can really say, +This is Italy! For it is not what you do, so much as what you feel, +that makes Italy. + +But pray remember, when you go there, that in the South every +arrangement is made for the nine hot months, and not for the three cold +and rainy ones you choose to spend there, and perhaps your views may be +somewhat modified in respect of this "miserable people," who, you say, +"have no idea of comfort,"--meaning, of course, English comfort. +Perhaps, I say; for it is in the nature of travellers to come to sudden +conclusions upon slight premises, to maintain with obstinacy +preconceived notions, and to quarrel with all national traits except +their own. And being English, unless you have a friend in India who has +made you aware that cane-bottom chairs are India-English, you will be +pretty sure to believe that there is no comfort without carpets and +coal; or being an American, you will be apt to undervalue a gallery of +pictures with only a three-ply carpet on the floor, and to "calculate," +that, if they could see your house in Washington Street, they would +feel rather ashamed. However, there is a great deal of human nature in +mankind, wherever you go,--except in Paris, perhaps, where Nature is +rather inhuman and artificial. And when I instance the Englishman and +American as making false judgments, let me not be misunderstood as +supposing them the only nations in that category. No, no! did not my +Parisian acquaintance the other day assure me very gravely, after +lamenting the absurdity of the Italians' not speaking French instead of +their own language,--"But, Sir, what is this Italian? nothing but bad +French!"--and did not another of that same polished nation, in +describing his travels to Naples, say, in answer to the question, +whether he had seen the grand old temples of Paestum,--"Ah, yes, I have +seen Paestum; 'tis a detestable country!--like the Campagna of Rome"? I +am perfectly aware that there are differences of opinion. + +Let me, then, beg you to remain in Rome during the mouth of May, if +you can possibly make your arrangements to do so. + +May is the month of the Madonna, and on every _festa_-day you will see +at the corners of the streets a little improvised shrine, or it may be +only a festooned print of the Madonna hung against the walls of some +house or against the back of a chair, and tended by two or three +children, who hold out to you a plate, as you pass, and beg for +charity, sometimes, I confess, in the most pertinacious way,--the money +thus raised to be expended in oil for the lamps before the Madonna +shrines in the streets. The monasteries of nuns are also busy with +processions and celebrations in honor of "the Mother of God," which are +carried on pleasantly within their precincts and seen only of female +friends. Sometimes you will meet a procession of ladies outside the +gates following a cross on foot, while their carriages come after in a +long file. These are societies which are making the pilgrimage of the +Seven Basilicas outside the Walls. They set out early in the morning, +stopping in each basilica for a half-hour to say their prayers, and +return to Rome at Ave Maria. + +Life, too, is altogether changed now. All the windows are wide open, +and there is at least one head and shoulders leaning out at every +house. And the poorer families are all out on their door-steps, working +and chatting together, while their children run about them in the +streets, sprawling, playing, and fighting. Many a beautiful theme for +the artist is now to be found in these careless and characteristic +groups; and curly-headed Saint Johns may be seen in every street, half +naked, with great black eyes and rounded arms and legs. It is this +which makes Rome so admirable a residence for an artist. All things are +easy and careless in the out-of-doors life of the common people,--all +poses unsought, all groupings accidental, all action unaffected and +unconscious. One meets Nature at every turn,--not braced up in prim +forms, not conscious in manners, not made up into the fashionable or +the proper, but impulsive, free, and simple. With the whole street +looking on, they are as unconscious and natural as if they were where +no eye could see them,--ay, and more natural, too, than it is possible +for some people to be, even in the privacy of their solitary rooms. +They sing at the top of their lungs as they sit on their door-steps at +their work, and often shout from house to house across the street a +long conversation, and sometimes even read letters from upper windows +to their friends below in the street. The men and women who cry their +fruits, vegetables, and wares up and down the city, laden with baskets +or panniers, and often accompanied by a donkey, stop to chat with group +after group, or get into animated debates about prices, or exercise +their wits and lungs at once in repartee in a very amusing way. +Everybody is in dishabille in the morning, but towards twilight the +girls put on their better dresses, and comb their glossy raven hair, +heaping it up in great solid braids, and, hanging two long golden +ear-rings in their ears and _collane_ round their full necks, come +forth conquering and to conquer, and saunter bare-headed up and down +the streets, or lounge about the doorways or piazzas in groups, ready +to give back to any jeerer as good as he sends. You see them marching +along sometimes in a broad platoon of five or six, all their brows as +straight as if they had been ruled, and their great dark eyes flashing +out under them, ready in a moment for a laugh or a frown. What stalwart +creatures they are! What shoulders, bosoms, and backs they have! what a +chance for the lungs under those stout _busti_! and what finished and +elegant heads! They are certainly cast in a large mould, with nothing +belittled or meagre about them, either in feature or figure. + +Early in the morning you will see streaming through the streets or +gathered together in picturesque groups, some standing, some couching +on the pavement, herds of long-haired goats, brown and white and black, +which have been driven, or rather which have followed their shepherd, +into the city to be milked. The majestical, long-bearded, patriarchal +rams shake their bells and parade solemnly round,--while the silken +females clatter their little hoofs as they run from the hand of the +milker when he has filled his can. The shepherd is kept pretty busy, +too, milking at everybody's door; and before the fashionable world is +up at nine, the milk is gone and the goats are off. + +You may know that it is May by the orange and lemon stands, which are +erected in almost every piazza. These are little booths covered with +canvas, and fantastically adorned with lemons and oranges intermixed, +which, piled into pyramids and disposed about everywhere, have a very +gay effect. They are generally placed near a fountain, the water of +which is conducted through a _canna_ into the centre of the booth, and +there, finding its own level again, makes a little spilling fountain +from which the _bibite_ are diluted. Here for a _baiocco_ one buys +lemonade or orangeade and all sorts of curious little drinks or +_bibite_, with a feeble taste of anisette or some other herb to take +off the mawkishness of the water,--or for a half-_baiocco_ one may have +the lemonade without sugar, and in this way it is usually drunk. On all +_festa_-days, little portable tables are carried round the streets, +hung to the neck of the _limonaro_, and set down at convenient spots, +or whenever a customer presents himself, and the cries of "_Acqua +fresca,--limonaro, limonaro,--chi vuol bere?_" are heard on all sides; +and I can assure you, that, after standing on tiptoe for an hour in the +heat and straining your neck and head to get sight of some Church +procession, you are glad enough to go to the extravagance of even a +lemonade with sugar; and smacking your lips, you bless the institution +of the _limonaro_ as one which must have been early instituted by the +Good Samaritan. Listen to his own description of himself in one of the +popular _canzonetti_ sung about the streets by wandering musicians to +the accompaniment of a violin and guitar:-- + + "Ma per altro son uomo ingegnoso, + Non possiedo, ma sono padrone; + Vendo l' acqua con spirto e limone + Finche dura d' estate il calor. + + "Ho an capello di paglia,--ma bello! + Un zinale di sopra fino; + Chi mi osserva nel mio tavolino, + Gli vien sete, se sete non ha. + + "Spaccio spirti, siroppi, acquavite + Fo 'ranciate di nuova invenzione; + Voi vedete quante persone + Chiedon acqua,--e rispondo,--Son qua!" + +The _limonaro_ is the exponent, the algebraic power, of the Church +processions which abound this month; and he is as faithful to them as +Boswell to Johnson;--wherever they appear, he is there to console and +refresh. Nor is his office a sinecure now; and let us hope that he has +his small profits, as well as the Church,--though they spell theirs +differently. + +The great procession of the year takes place this month on Corpus +Domini, and is well worth seeing, as being the very finest and most +characteristic of all the Church festivals. It was instituted in honor +of the famous miracle at Bolsena, when the wafer dripped blood, and is, +therefore, in commemoration of one of the cardinal doctrines of the +Roman Church, Transubstantiation, and one of its most theological +miracles. The Papal procession takes place in the morning, in the +piazza of Saint Peter's; and if you would be sure of it, you must be on +the spot as soon as eight o'clock at the latest. The whole circle of +the piazza itself is covered with an awning, festooned gayly with +garlands of box, under which the procession passes; and the ground is +covered with yellow sand, over which box and bay are strewn. The +celebration commences with morning mass in the basilica, and that over, +the procession issues from one door, and, making the whole circuit of +the piazza, returns into the church. First come the _Seminaristi_, or +scholars and attendants of the various hospitals and charity-schools, +such as San Michele and Santo Spirito,--all in white. Then follow the +brown-cowled, long-bearded Franciscans, the white Carmelites, and the +black Benedictines, bearing lighted candles and chanting hoarsely as +they go. You may see pass before you now all the members of these +different conventual orders that there are in Rome, and have an +admirable opportunity to study their physiognomies in mass. If you are +a convert to Romanism, you will perhaps find in their bald beads and +shaven crowns and bearded faces a noble expression of reverence and +humility; but, suffering as I do under the misfortune of being a +heretic, I could but remark on their heads an enormous development of +the two organs of reverence and firmness, and a singular deficiency in +the upper forehead, while there was an almost universal enlargement of +the lower jaw and of the base of the brain. Being, unfortunately, a +friend of Phrenology, as well as a heretic, I drew no very auspicious +augury from these developments; and looking into their faces, the +physiognomical traits were narrow-mindedness, bigotry, or cunning. The +Benedictine heads showed more intellect and will; the Franciscans more +dulness and good-nature. + +But while I am criticizing them, they are passing by, and a picturesque +set of fellows they are. Much as I dislike the conventual creed, I +should be sorry to see the costume disappear. Directly on the heels of +their poverty come the three splendid triple crowns of the Pope, +glittering with gorgeous jewels, and borne in triumph on silken +embroidered cushions, and preceded by the court jeweller. After them +follow the chapters, canons, and choirs of the seven basilicas, +chanting in lofty altos and solid basses and clear ringing tenors from +their old Church books, each basilica bearing a typical tent of colored +stripes and a wooden campanile and a bell which is constantly rung. +Next come the canons of the churches and the _monsignori_, in splendid +dresses and rich capes of beautiful lace falling below their waists; +the bishops clad in cloth of silver with mitres on their heads; the +cardinals brilliant in gold embroidery and gleaming in the sun; and at +last the Pope himself, borne on a platform splendid with silver and +gold, with a rich canopy over his head. Beneath this he kneels, or +rather, seems to kneel; for, though his splendid draperies and train +are skilfully arranged so as to present this semblance, being drawn +behind him over two blocks which are so placed as to represent his +heels, yet in fact he is seated on a sunken bench or chair, as any +careful eye can plainly see. However, kneeling or sitting, just as you +will, there he is, before an altar, holding up the _ostia_, which is +the _corpus Domini_, "the body of God," and surrounded by officers of +the Swiss guards in glittering armor, chamberlains in their beautiful +black and Spanish dresses with ruffs and swords, attendants in scarlet +and purple costumes, and the _guardia nobile_ in their red dress +uniforms. Nothing could be more striking than this group. It is the +very type of the Church,--pompous, rich, splendid, imposing. After them +follow the dragoons mounted,--first a company on black horses, then +another on bays, and then a third on grays; foot-soldiers with flashing +bayonets bring up the rear, and the procession is over. As the last +soldiers enter the church, there is a stir among the gilt equipages of +the cardinals which line one side of the piazza,--the horses toss their +scarlet plumes, the liveried servants sway as the carriages lumber on, +and you may spend a half-hour hunting out your own humble vehicle, if +you have one, or throng homeward on foot with the crowd through the +Borgo and over the bridge of Sant' Angelo. + +This grand procession strikes the note of all the others, and in the +afternoon each parish brings out its banners, arrays itself in its +choicest dresses, and with pomp and music bears the _ostia_ through the +streets, the crowd kneeling before it, and the priests chanting. During +the next _ottava_ or eight days, all the processions take place in +honor of this festival; and when the week has passed, everything ends +with the Papal procession in Saint Peter's piazza, when, without music, +and with uncovered heads, the Pope, cardinals, _monsignori_, canons, +and the rest of the priests and officials, make the round of the +piazza, bearing great Church banners. + +One of the most striking of their celebrations took place this year at +the church of San Rocco in the Ripetta, when the church was made +splendid with lighted candles and gold bands, and a preacher held forth +to a crowded audience in the afternoon. At Ave Maria there was a great +procession, with banners, music, and torches, and all the evening the +people sauntered to and fro in crowds before the church, where a +platform was erected and draped with old tapestries, from which a band +played constantly. Do not believe, my dear Presbyterian friend, that +these spectacles fail deeply to affect the common mind. So long as +human nature remains the same, this splendor and pomp of processions, +these lighted torches and ornamented churches, this triumphant music +and glad holiday of religion will attract more than your plain +conventicles, your ugly meeting-houses, and your compromise with the +bass-viol. For my own part, I do not believe that music and painting +and all the other arts really belong to the Devil, or that God gave him +joy and beauty to deceive with, and kept only the ugly, sour, and sad +for himself. We are always better when we are happy; and we are about +as sure of being good when we are happy, as of being happy when we are +good. Cheerfulness and happiness are, in my humble opinion, duties and +habits to be cultivated; but, if you don't think so, I certainly would +not deny you the privilege of being wretched: don't let us quarrel +about it. + +Rather let us turn to the Artists' Festival, which takes place in this +month, and is one of the great attractions of the season. Formerly, +this festival took place at Cerbara, an ancient Etruscan town on the +Campagna, of which only certain subterranean caves remain. But during +the revolutionary days which followed the disasters of 1848, it was +suspended for two or three years by the interdict of the Papal +government, and when it was again instituted, the place of meeting was +changed to Fidenae, the site of another Etruscan town, with similar +subterranean excavations, which were made the head-quarters of the +festival. But the new railway to Bologna having been laid out directly +over this ground, the artists have been again driven away, and this +year the _festa_ was held, for the first time, in the grove of Egeria, +one of the most beautiful spots on the whole Campagna,--and here it is +to be hoped it will have an abiding rest. + +This festival was instituted by the German artists, and, though the +artists of all nations now join in it, the Germans still remain its +special patrons and directors. Early in the morning, the artists +rendezvous at an appointed _osteria_ outside the walls, dressed in +every sort of grotesque and ludicrous costume which can be imagined. +All the old dresses which can be rummaged out of the studios or +theatres, or pieced together from masking wardrobes, are now in +requisition. Indians and Chinese, ancient warriors and mediaeval +heroes, militia-men and Punches, generals in top-boots and pigtails, +doctors in gigantic wigs and small-clothes, Falstaffs and justices +"with fair round belly with good capon lined," magnificent foolscaps, +wooden swords with terrible inscriptions, gigantic chapeaus with plumes +made of vegetables, in a word, every imaginable absurdity is to be +seen. Arrived at the place of rendezvous, they all breakfast, and then +the line of march is arranged. A great wooden cart, adorned with quaint +devices, garlanded with laurel and bay, bears the president and +committee. This is drawn by great white oxen, who are decorated with +wreaths and flowers and gay trappings, and from it floats the noble +banner of Cerbara or Fidenae. After this follows a strange and motley +train,--some mounted on donkeys, some on horses, and some afoot,--and +the line of march is taken up for the grove of Egeria. What mad jests +and wild fun now take place it is impossible to describe; suffice it to +say, that all are right glad of a little rest when they reach their +destination. + +Now begin to stream out from the city hundreds of carriages,--for all +the world will be abroad to-day to see,--and soon the green slopes are +swarming with gay crowds. Some bring with them a hamper of provisions +and wine, and, spreading them on the grass, lunch and dine when and +where they will; but those who would dine with the artists must have +the order of the _mezzo baiocco_ hanging to their buttonhole, which is +distributed previously in Rome to all the artists who purchase tickets. +Some few there are who also bear upon their breasts the nobler medal of +_troppo merito_, gained on previous days, and those are looked upon +with due reverence. + +But before dinner or lunch there is a high ceremony to take place,--the +great feature of the day. It is the mock-heroic play. This year it was +the meeting of Numa with the nymph Egeria at the grotto; and thither +went the festive procession; and the priest, befilletted and draped in +white, burned upon the altar as a sacrifice a great toy sheep, whose +offence "smelt to heaven"; and then from the niches suddenly appeared +Numa, a gallant youth in spectacles, and Egeria, a Spanish artist with +white dress and fillet, who made vows over the smoking sheep, and then +were escorted back to the sacred grove with festal music by a joyous, +turbulent crowd. + +Last year, however, at Fidenae, it was better. We had a travesty of the +taking of Troy, which was eminently ludicrous, and which deserves a +better description than I can give. Troy was a space inclosed within +paper barriers, about breast-high, painted "to present a wall," and +within these were the Trojans, clad in red, and all wearing gigantic +paper helmets. There was old Priam, in spectacles, with his crown and +robes,--Laocooen, in white, with a white wool beard and wig,--Ulysses, +in a long, yellow beard and mantle,--and Aeneas, with a bald head, in a +blue, long-tailed coat, and tall dickey, looking like the traditional +Englishman in the circus who comes to hire the horse. The Grecians were +encamped at a short distance. All had round, basket-work shields,--some +with their names painted on them in great letters, and some with an odd +device, such as a cat or pig. There were Ulysses, Agamemnon, Ajax, +Nestor, Patroclus, Diomedes, Achilles, "all honorable men." The drama +commenced with the issuing of Paris and Helen from the walls of +Troy,--he in a tall, black French hat, girdled with a gilt crown, and +she in a white dress, with a great wig hanging round her face in a +profusion of carrotty curls. Queer figures enough they were, as they +stepped along together, caricaturing love in a pantomime, he making +terrible demonstrations of his ardent passion, and she finally falling +on his neck in rapture. This over, they seated themselves near by two +large pasteboard rocks, he sitting on his shield and taking out his +flute to play to her, while she brought forth her knitting and ogled +him as he played. While they were thus engaged, came creeping up with +the stage stride of a double step, and dragging one foot behind him, +Menelaus, whom Thersites had, meantime, been taunting, by pointing at +him two great ox-horns. He walked all round the lovers, pantomiming +rage and jealousy in the accredited ballet style, and then, suddenly +approaching, crushed poor Paris's great black hat down over his eyes. +Both, very much frightened, then took to their heels and rushed into +the city, while Menelaus, after shaking Paris's shield, in defiance, at +the walls, retired to the Grecian camp. Then came the preparations for +battle. The Trojans leaned over their paper battlements, with their +fingers to their noses, twiddling them in scorn, while the Greeks shook +their fists back at them. The battle now commenced on the +"ringing-plains of Troy," and was eminently absurd. Paris, in hat and +pantaloons, (_a la mode de Paris_,) soon showed the white feather, and +incontinently fled. Everybody hit nowhere, fiercely striking the ground +or the shields, and always carefully avoiding, as on the stage, to hit +in the right place. At last, however, Patroclus was killed, whereupon +the battle was suspended, and a grand _tableau_ of surprise and horror +took place, from which at last they recovered, and the Greeks prepared +to carry him off on their shoulders. Then terrible to behold was the +grief of Achilles. Homer himself would have wept to see him. He flung +himself on the body, and shrieked, and tore his hair, and violently +shook the corpse, which, under such demonstrations, now and then kicked +up. Finally, he rises and challenges Hector to single combat, and out +comes the valiant Trojan, and a duel ensues with wooden axes. Such +blows and counter blows were never seen, only they never hit, but often +whirled the warrior who dealt them completely round; they tumbled over +their own blows, panted with feigned rage, lost their robes and great +pasteboard helmets, and were even more absurd than Richmond and Richard +ever were on the country boards at a fifth-rate theatre. But Hector is +at last slain and borne away, and a ludicrous lay figure is laid out to +represent him, with bunged-up eyes and a general flabbiness of body and +want of features, charming to behold. On their necks the Trojans bear +him to their walls, and with a sudden jerk pitch him over them head +first, and he tumbles, in a heap, into the city. Then Ulysses harangues +the Greeks. He has brought out a _quarteruola_ barrel of wine, which, +with most expressive pantomime, he shows to be the wooden horse that +must be carried into Troy. His proposition is joyfully accepted, and, +accompanied by all, he rolls the cask up to the walls, and, flourishing +a tin cup in one hand, invites the Trojans to partake. At first there +is confusion in the city, and fingers are twiddled over the walls, but +after a time all go out and drink, and become ludicrously drunk, and +stagger about, embracing each other in the most maudlin style. Even +Helen herself comes out, gets tipsy with the rest, and dances about +like the most disreputable of Maenades. A great scena, however, takes +place as they are about to drink. Laocooen, got up in white wool, +appears, and violently endeavors to dissuade them, but in vain. In the +midst of his harangue, a long string of blown up sausage-skins is +dragged in for the serpent, and suddenly cast about his neck. His sons +and he then form a group, the sausage-snake is twined about them,--only +the old story is reversed, and he bites the serpent instead of the +serpent biting him,--and all die in agony, travestying the ancient +group. + +All, being now drunk, go in, and Ulysses with them. A quantity of straw +is kindled, the smoke rises, the Greeks approach and dash in the paper +walls with clubs, and all is confusion. Then Aeneas, in his blue +long-tailed circus-coat, broad white hat, and tall shirt-collar, +carries off old Anchises on his shoulders with a cigar in his mouth, +and bears him to a painted section of a vessel, which is rocked to and +fro by hand, as if violently agitated by the waves. Aeneas and Anchises +enter the boat, or rather stand behind it so as to conceal their legs, +and off it sets, rocked to and fro constantly,--Aeolus and Tramontana +following behind, with bellows to blow up a wind, and Fair Weather, +with his name written on big back, accompanying them. The violent +motion, however, soon makes Aeneas sick, and as he leans over the side +in a helpless and melancholy manner, and almost gives up the ghost, as +well as more material things, the crowd burst into laughter. However, +at last they reach two painted rocks, and found Latium, and a general +rejoicing takes place.--The donkey who was to have ended all by +dragging the body of Hector round the walls came too late, and this +part of the programme did not take place. + +So much of the entertainment over, preparations are made for dinner. In +the grove of Egeria the plates are spread in circles, while all the +company sing part-songs and dance. At last all is ready, the signal is +given, and the feast takes place after the most rustic manner. Great +barrels of wine covered with green branches stand at one side, from +which flagons are filled and passed round, and the good appetites soon +make direful gaps in the beef and mighty plates of lettuce. After this, +and a little sauntering about for digestion's sake, come the afternoon +sports. And there are donkey races, and tilting at a ring, and +foot-races, and running in sacks. Nothing can be more picturesque than +the scene, with its motley masqueraders, its crowds of spectators +seated along the slopes, its little tents here and there, its races in +the valley, and, above all, the glorious mountains looking down from +the distance. Not till the golden light slopes over the Campagna, +gilding the skeletons of aqueducts, and drawing a delicate veil of +beauty over the mountains, can we tear ourselves away, and rattle back +in our carriage to Rome. + +The wealthy Roman families, who have villas in the immediate vicinity +of Rome, now leave the city to spend a month in them and breathe the +fresh air of spring. Many and many a tradesman who is well to do in the +world has a little _vigna_ outside the gates, where he raises +vegetables and grapes and other fruits; and every _festa_-day you will +be sure to find him and his family out in his little _villetta_, +wandering about the grounds or sitting beneath his arbors, smoking and +chatting with his children around him. His friends who have no villas +of their own here visit him, and often there is a considerable company +thus collected, who, if one may judge from their cheerful countenances +and much laughter, enjoy themselves mightily. Knock at any of these +villa-gates, and, if you happen to have the acquaintance of the owner, +or are evidently a stranger of respectability, you will be received +with much hospitality, invited to partake of the fruit and wine, and +overwhelmed with thanks for your _gentilezza_ when you take your leave; +for the Italians are a most good-natured and social people, and nothing +pleases them better than a stranger who breaks the common round of +topics by accounts of his own land. Everything new is to them +wonderful, just as it is to a child. They are credulous of everything +you tell them about America, which is to them in some measure what it +was to the English in the days of Raleigh, Drake, and Hawkins, and say +"_Per Bacco!_" to every new statement. And they are so magnificently +ignorant, that you have _carte blanche_ for your stories. Never did I +know any one staggered by anything I chose to say, but once. I was +walking with my respectable old _padrone_, Nisi, about his little +garden one day, when an ambition to know something about America +inflamed his breast. + +"Are there any mountains?" he asked. + +I told him "Yes," and, with a chuckle of delight, he cried,-- + +"_Per Bacco!_ And have you any cities?" + +"Yes, a few little ones,"--for I thought I would sing small, contrary +to the general "'Ercles vein" of my countrymen. He was evidently +pleased that they were small, and, swelling with natural pride, said,-- + +"Large as Rome, of course, they could not be"; then, after a moment, he +added, interrogatively, "And rivers, too,--have you any rivers?" + +"A few," I answered. + +"But not as large as our Tiber," he replied,--feeling assured, that, if +the cities were smaller than Rome, as a necessary consequence, the +rivers that flowed by them must be in the same category. + +The bait now offered was too tempting. I measured my respectable and +somewhat obese friend carefully with my eye, for a moment, and then +hurled this terrible fact at him:-- + +"We have some rivers three thousand miles long." + +The effect was awful. He stood and stared at me, as if petrified, for a +moment. Then the blood rushed into his face, and, turning on his heel, +he took off his hat, said suddenly, "_Buona sera_," and carried my fact +and his opinions together up into his private room. I am afraid that +Don Pietro decided, on consideration, that I had been taking +unwarrantable liberties with him, and exceeding all proper bounds, in +my attempt to impose on his good-nature. From that time forward he +asked me no more questions about America. + +And here, by the way, I am reminded of an incident, which, though not +exactly pertinent, may find here a parenthetical place, merely as +illustrating some points of Italian character. One fact and two names +relating to America they know universally,--Columbus and his discovery +of America, and Washington. + +"_Si, Signore_," said a respectable person some time since, as he was +driving me to see a carriage which he wished to sell me, and therefore +desired to be particularly polite to me and my nation,--"a great man, +your Vashintoni! but I was sorry to hear, the other day, that his +father had died in London." + +"His father dead, and in London?" I stammered, completely confounded at +this extraordinary news, and fearing lest I had been too stupid in +misunderstanding him. + +"Yes," he said, "it is too true that his father Vellintoni is dead. I +read it in the _Diario di Roma_." + +But better than this was the ingenious argument of a _Frate_, whom I +met on board a steamer in going from Leghorn to Genoa, and who, having +pumped out the fact that I was an American, immediately began to +"improve" it in a discourse on Columbus. So he informed me that +Columbus was an Italian, and that he had discovered America, and was a +remarkable man; to all of which I readily assented, as being true, if +not new. But now a severe abstract question began to tax my friend's +powers. He said, "But how could he ever have imagined that the +continent of America was there? That's the question. It is +extraordinary indeed!" And so he sat cogitating, and saying, at +intervals, "_Curioso! Straordinario!_" At last "a light broke in upon +his brain." Some little bird whispered the secret. His face lightened, +and, looking at me, he said, "Perhaps he may have read that it was +there in some old book, and so went to see if it were or no." Vainly I +endeavored to show him that this view would deprive Columbus of his +greatest distinction. He answered invariably, "But without having read +it, how could he ever have known it?"--thus putting the earth upon the +tortoise and leaving the tortoise to account for his own support. + +Imagine that I have told you these stories sitting under the vine and +fig-tree of some _villetta_, while Angiolina has gone to call the +_padrone_, who will only be too glad to see you. But, _ecco!_ at last +our _padrone_ comes. No, it is not the _padrone_, it is the +_vignarualo_, who takes care of his grapes and garden, and who +recognizes us as friends of the _padrone_, and tells us that we are +ourselves _padroni_ of the whole place, and offers us all sorts of +fruits. + +One old custom, which existed in Rome some fifteen years ago, has now +passed away with other good old things. It was the celebration of the +_Fravolata_ or Strawberry-Feast, when men in gala-dress at the height +of the strawberry-season went in procession through the streets, +carrying on their heads enormous wooden platters heaped with this +delicious fruit, accompanied by girls in costume, who, beating their +_tamburelli_, danced along at their sides and sung the praises of the +strawberry. After threading the streets of the city, they passed +singing out of the gates, and at different places on the Campagna spent +the day in festive sports and had an out-door dinner and dance. + +One of these festivals still exists, however, in the picturesque town +of Genzano, which lies above the old crater now filled with the still +waters of Lake Nemi, and is called the _Infiorata di Genzano_, "The +Flower-Festival of Genzano." It takes place on the eighth day of the +Corpus Domini, and receives its name from the popular custom of +spreading flowers upon the pavements of the streets so as to represent +heraldic devices, figures, arabesques, and all sorts of ornamental +designs. The people are all dressed in their effective costumes,--the +girls in _busti_ and silken skirts, with all their corals and jewels +on, and the men with white stockings on their legs, their velvet +jackets dropping over one shoulder, and flowers and rosettes in their +conical hats. The town is then very gay, the bells clang, the incense +steams from the censer in the church, where the organ peals and mass is +said, and a brilliant procession marches over the strewn flower-mosaic, +with music and crucifixes and Church-banners. Hundreds of strangers, +too, are there to look on; and on the Cesarini Piazza and under the +shadow of the long avenues of ilexes that lead to the tower are +hundreds of handsome girls, with their snowy _tovaglie_ peaked over +their heads. The rub and thrum of _tamburelli_ and the clicking of +castanets are heard, too, as twilight comes on, and the _salterello_ is +danced by many a group. This is the national Roman dance, and is named +from the little jumping step which characterizes it. Any number of +couples dance it, though the dance is perfect with two. Some of the +movements are very graceful and piquant, and particularly that where +one of the dancers kneels and whirls her arms on high, clicking her +castanets, while the other circles her round and round, striking his +hands together, and approaching nearer and nearer, till he is ready to +give her a kiss, which she refuses: of course it is the old story of +every national dance,--love and repulse, love and repulse, until the +maiden yields. As one couple panting and rosy retires, another fresh +one takes its place, while the bystanders play on the accordion the +whirling, circling, never-ending tune of the Tarantella, which would +"put a spirit of youth in everything." + +If you are tired of the festival, roam up a few paces out of the crowd, +and you stand upon the brink of Lake Nemi. Over opposite, and crowning +the height where the little town of Nemi perches, frowns the old feudal +castle of the Colonna, with its tall, round tower, where many a +princely family has dwelt and many an unprincely act has been done. +There, in turn, have dwelt the Colonna, Borgia, Piccolomini, Cenci, +Frangipani, and Braschi, and there the descendants of the last-named +family still pass a few weeks in the summer.[1] Below you, silent and +silvery, lies the lake itself,--and rising around it, like a green +bowl, tower its richly wooded banks, covered with gigantic oaks, +ilexes, and chestnuts. This was the ancient grove dedicated to Diana, +which extended to L'Ariccia; and here are still to be seen the vestiges +of an ancient villa built by Julius Caesar. Here, too, if you trust +some of the antiquaries, once stood the temple of Diana Nemorensis,[2] +where human sacrifices were offered, and whose chief-priest, called +_Rex Nemorensis_, obtained his office by slaying his predecessor, and +reigned over these groves by force of his personal arm. Times have, +indeed, changed since the priesthood was thus won and baptized by +blood; and as you stand there, and look, on the one side, at the site +of this ancient temple, which some of the gigantic chestnut-trees may +almost have seen in their youth, and, on the other side, at the +campanile of the Catholic church at Genzano, with its flower-strewn +pavements, you may have as sharp a contrast between the past and the +present as can easily be found. + +[Footnote 1: On the Genzano side stands the castellated villa of the +Cesarini Sforza, looking peacefully across the lake at the rival tower, +which in the old baronial days it used to challenge,--and in its +garden-pond you may see stately white swans oaring their way with rosy +feet along.] + +[Footnote 2: The better opinion of late seems to be that it was on the +slopes of the Val d'Ariccia. But "who shall decide, when doctors +disagree?"] + + + + +THRENODIA. + + +ADDRESSED TO ALFRED TENNYSON, P.L., IN RESPONSE TO VERSES OF HIS "ON A +LATE EVENT IN ENGLAND." + + I heard you In your English home,-- +I read you by my little brook, + Thousands of miles from British foam, +Hid in my dear New England nook: +But heard you with a sullen look; + But read you with a gloomy brow; +And thus unto my Muse I spoke:-- + Who is there to write history now? + + Hallam is dead! and Prescott gone! +And Irving sleeps at Sunnyside! + And now that Lord has wandered on, +Whose laurels must with theirs abide: +I greatly mourned the man who died + First on this dismal roll of death,-- +And him, of all observers eyed, + My townsman here, who spent his breath + + In telling of the things of Spain, +And doing friendly things to friends, + Prescott, well known beyond the main +And past the Pillars, to earth's ends: +Both had my tears: but England sends + Another word across the seas, +Might rouse the dying from his bed: + Oh, bear it gently, ocean-breeze! +That bitter word,--Thy friend is dead! + + Macaulay dead, who made to live +Past kingdoms, with his vivid brain! + Who could such warmth to shadows give, +By the mere magic of his pen, +That Charles and England rose again! + Well sleeps he 'mid the Abbey's dust: +And, Laureate! thy funereal verse + Shall have such echo as it must +From hearts just wrung at Irving's hearse. + + These are two names to mark the year +As one of memorable woe, + Two men to the two nations dear +Laid in one fatal winter low! +About the streets the mourners go; + But I within my chamber rest, +Or walk the room with measured tread, + Murmuring, with head upon my breast, +My God! and is Macaulay dead? + + + + +GENERAL MIRANDA'S EXPEDITION. + + +In November, 1805, a good-looking foreigner, gentlemanlike in dress +and in manner, and apparently fifty years of age, arrived in New York +from England, and took lodgings at Mrs. Avery's, State Street. He +called himself George Martin; but this incognito was intended only for +the vulgar. Some of the principal citizens of New York, who recollected +his first visit to this country twenty years before, knew him as Don +Francisco de Miranda of Caracas, one of the most distinguished +adventurers of that revolutionary era,--a favorite of the Empress of +Russia, a friend of Mr. Pitt, and second in command under Dumouriez in +the Belgian campaign of 1793. To these gentlemen he avowed that for +many years he had meditated the independence of the Spanish-American +Colonies, and meant to make an attempt to carry out his plans. On +Evacuation Day, a New York festival, which is now nearly worn out, they +invited him to a Corporation dinner, as a foreign officer of rank, and +toasted him, wishing him the same success in South America that we had +had here. He then went to Washington, under the name of Molini. There, +as everywhere, he was received by the best society as General Miranda. +The President and the Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, granted him +several private interviews. In January he returned to New York,--and on +the 2d of February departed thence mysteriously in the Leander, a ship +belonging to Mr. Samuel G. Ogden, merchant. + +While the Leander lay at anchor off Staten Island, a gentleman notified +the Naval Officer of the Port, that large quantities of arms and +ammunition had been taken on board of her in boats, at night. He was +informed in return, that the Leander was cleared for Jacquemel, and +that no law existed to prevent her from sailing. No other attempt was +made to detain her; but a few weeks later, rumors affecting the +character of the ship broke out in a more decided form. It was +generally believed at the Tontine Coffee-House that the Leander had +been fitted out by Miranda to attack the Spanish possessions in the +West India Islands or on the Main. And yet the New York journals took +no notice of her until the 21st of February, nineteen days after she +sailed. In the mean time the Marquis Yrujo, backed by the French +Ambassador, had made a formal complaint to Government, and had caused +the insertion in the "Philadelphia Gazette" of a series of +interrogatories to Mr. Madison, which indirectly accused the +Administration of encouraging Miranda's preparations, or at least of +conniving at the expedition. This perverse Marquis, who gave Mr. +Jefferson a taste of the annoyance which Genet, Adet, and Fauchet had +inflicted upon the previous administrations, was clamorous and +persisting. The authorities in Washington thought it proper to order +the arrest of Mr. Ogden, and of Colonel William Smith, son-in-law of +John Adams and Surveyor of the Port of New York, under the Act of 1794. +The prisoners were taken before Judge Tallmadge of the United States +District Court. They were refused counsel, and were forced by threats +of imprisonment to submit to a searching examination. They were then +held to bail, both as principals and witnesses, in the sum of twenty +thousand dollars. Soon after, the President removed Colonel Smith from +his office. + +Such a waste of editorial raw-material appears very singular to +newspaper-readers of the present day, accustomed as they are to see in +print everything that has happened or that might have happened; but we +must recollect that our grandfathers found the excitement necessary to +civilized man in party politics, national and local. This game they +played with a fierce eagerness which is now limited to a small class of +inferior men. + +To the violence and personal spitefulness of their newspaper articles +we have fortunately nothing comparable, even in the speeches of +Honorable Members on Helper and John Brown. The "_Tu quoque_" and the +"_Vos damnamini_" were their favorite logical processes, and "Fool" and +"Liar" the simple and conclusive arguments with which they established +a principle. Not that these ancients suffered at all from a lack of +stirring news. Bonaparte's wonderful campaigns, (Austerlitz had just +been heard of in New York,) the outrages on our sailors by English +cruisers, our merchantmen plundered by French and Spanish privateers, +the irritating behavior of the Dons in Louisiana, kept them abundantly +supplied with this staff of mental life. But they did not care much for +news in the abstract as news, unless they could work it up into +political ammunition and discharge it at each other's heads. We must +not forget, too, that newspaper-editing, the "California of the +spiritually vagabond," as Carlyle calls it, was a recent discovery, and +that the rich mine was but surface-worked. "Our own Reporter" was, like +Milton's original lion, only half unearthed; and deep hidden from +mortal eyes as yet lay the sensation-items-man, who has made the +last-dying-speech-and-confession style of literature the principal +element of our daily press. + +At last the Federal editors gave tongue. It was high time; the town was +in an uproar. They perceived that Miranda might become a useful ally +against Mr. T. Jefferson. His expedition came opportunely, as the +Mammoth Cheese and Black Sally were beginning to grow stale. Mr. Lang +opened the cry in the "New York Gazette" by asserting the complicity of +Government, on the authority of a "gentleman of the first +respectability,"--meaning Mr. Rufus King.--Cheetham, of the "Citizen," +barked back at Lang, a would-be "Solomon," "a foul and abominable +slanderer." Mr. King, he could prove, had been examined, and had +nothing to reveal.--Tom Paine wrote to the "Citizen" to mention that he +had known Miranda in New York in 1783 and in Paris in 1793. Mr. +Littlepage of Virginia, Chamberlain to the King of Poland, had then +informed him that the Empress Catharine had given Miranda four thousand +pounds "as a retaining fee," and that Mr. Pitt had also paid him twelve +hundred pounds for his services in the Nootka Sound business.--All the +Federal papers charged the Government with connivance. You knew the +destination of the Leander; you did not prevent her from sailing; you +nourished the offence until it attained maturity, and then, after +permitting the principals to go upon this expedition, you seize upon +the accessories who remain at home. And in how shameful and illegal a +way! You examine them before a single judge, with no counsel to advise +them. You force them to criminate themselves, and to sign their +confessions, by the threat of imprisonment; and you punish Colonel +Smith before you have tried him, by depriving him of his office. Why, +such a proceeding is worse than any "Inquisitorial Tribunal" or +"Star-Chamber Court."--Nonsense! answered the Democrats. Ogden's and +Smith's testimony does not implicate the Government in the least. It +only proves that Smith has been the dupe of Miranda. The President knew +nothing about the matter. If the object of the Leander's outfit was so +generally spoken of, why did it escape the notice of the Marquis Yrujo? +Why did he not demand her seizure before she sailed? This charge +against the Government is a mere Federal trick. Your friends, the +British, are at the bottom of the expedition, and they have artfully +employed Rufus King, a Federal chief, to throw the blame upon the +Executive of the United States. By ascribing to those who administer +the government the atrocities committed by Transatlantic rulers, you +aim a deadly blow at the character of our system; and your conduct, +base in any view we can take of it, is particularly reprehensible in +the delicate state of our relations with Spain. + +Mr. Cadwallader Golden, of counsel for the defendants, made a motion +before Judge Tallmadge for an order to prevent the District Attorney +from using the preliminary evidence taken at the private examinations. +"It was a proceeding," he said, "arbitrary and subversive of the first +principles of law and liberty,"--"which would have disgraced the reign +of Charles and stained the character of Jeffries." The District +Attorney was heard in opposition, and was successful. + +On the 7th of April, the Grand Jury found a bill against Smith, Ogden, +Miranda, and Thomas Lewis, captain of the Leander, for "setting on foot +and beginning with force and arms a certain military enterprise or +expedition, to be carried on from the United States against the +dominions of a foreign prince: to wit, the dominions of the King of +Spain; the said King of Spain then and there being at peace with the +United States." The Grand Jury, as an evidence of their impartiality, +or of the public feeling, also handed the Judge a presentment of +himself, which he put into his pocket, censuring his conduct in the +private examinations, because "unusual, oppressive, and contrary to +law." + +The trial was set down for the 14th of July. Messrs. Ogden and Smith +did not wait so long for a hearing. They laid their case at once before +the public, in two memorials addressed to Congress, complaining +bitterly of the prosecution, not to say persecution, instituted against +them by the authorities in Washington, and of the cruel and oppressive +measures taken by Judge Tallmadge to carry out the mandates of his +superiors. If they had done wrong, they urged, it was innocently. A war +with Spain was imminent. The critical position of the Louisiana +Boundary question, the President's Message of the 6th of December, and +the documents accompanying it, left no doubts on that point. Were they +not right, then, in supposing, that, under these circumstances, the +President would encourage an expedition against the colonies of a +hostile power? As evidence of Mr. Jefferson's knowledge of Miranda's +schemes, they stated that the General had brought with him from England +a letter to "a gentleman of the first consequence in New York," (Mr. +King,) which contained a sketch of his project: this letter was +forwarded to the Secretary of State and laid before the President by +him. Miranda then went to Washington, saw the President and the +Secretary, and wrote to the memorialists that he had fully unfolded his +plans to both. In the course of a long conversation with Mr. Madison, +he asked for pecuniary assistance and for open encouragement, on the +ground that individuals might not be willing to join in the enterprise, +if Government did not approve it,--particularly as a bill was then +before Congress to prohibit the exportation of arms. He also requested +leave of absence for Colonel Smith, who wished to accompany him. Mr. +Madison answered, that the sentiments of the President could not be +doubted, but that the Government of the United States could afford no +assistance of any kind. Private individuals were at liberty to act as +they pleased, provided they did not violate the laws; and New York +merchants would always advance money, if they saw their advantage in +it. As to the bill Miranda had spoken of, it was unlikely that it would +pass,--and, in fact, it did not. It was impossible, Mr. Madison added, +to grant leave of absence to Colonel Smith, although he thought him +better fitted for military employment than for the custom-house. He +closed the interview by recommending the greatest discretion. + +Miranda, continued the memorialists, remained fourteen days in +Washington after this conversation, and returned to New York confident +of the silent approval of Government. Eleven days before the Leander +sailed, he sent a letter to Mr. Madison, inclosing another to Mr. +Jefferson, both of which he read to Ogden and to Smith. He assured Mr. +Madison that he had conformed in every way to the intentions of +Government, and requested him to keep the secret. To Mr. Jefferson he +wrote in a strain more fashionable ten years before than then, but well +adapted to the sentimentality, both scientific and political, of the +"Philosophic President." Here it is:-- + +"I have the honor to send you, inclosed, the 'Natural and Civil History +of Chili,' of which we conversed at Washington,--and in which you will, +perhaps, find more than in those which have been before published on +the same subject, concerning this beautiful country. + +"If ever the happy prediction, which you have pronounced on the future +destiny of our dear Columbia, is to be accomplished in our day, may +Providence grant that it may be under your auspices, and by the +generous efforts of her own children! We shall then, in some sort, +behold the revival of that age, the return of which the Roman bard +invoked in favor of the human race:-- + +"'The last great age foretold by sacred rhymes + Renews its finished course; Saturnian times + Roll round again; and mighty years, begun + From this first orb, in radiant circles run.'" + +On Miranda's reports, these letters, and the fact that the Leander had +not been seized, they rested their case, and prayed for the +interference of Congress in their behalf. + +Congress unanimously granted the petitioners leave to withdraw. Such +evidence as this, not only hearsay, but heard from the party most +interested in misrepresenting the Administration, was not entitled to +much consideration. It had, moreover, the additional disadvantage of +proving nothing against the President and Secretary, even if every word +of it were admitted as true. + +Public attention was diverted from the Leander, Captain Lewis, to the +Leander, Captain Whitby. This English frigate was cruising off Sandy +Hook, bringing to inward and outward bound vessels, searching them for +articles contraband of war, and helping herself to able-bodied seamen +who looked like British subjects. All of which was meekly submitted to +in 1806. Mr. Jefferson could not overcome his doubts as to the +constitutionality of a fleet, and the Opposition had the twofold +pleasure of chuckling over the insults offered by John Bull to a +government with French proclivities, and of reproaching the party in +power with its supineness and want of spirit. + +But the accident of the 25th of April brought the American people to a +proper sense of their situation, for the moment. On that day, His +British Majesty's ship Leander fired a round-shot into the sloop +Richard, bound to New York, and killed the man at the helm, John +Pierce. The body was brought to the city and borne through the +principal streets, in the midst of universal excitement, anger, and +cries for vengeance. Black streamers were displayed from the houses; +shops were closed; the newspapers appeared in mourning. A public +funeral was attended by the whole population. Captain Whitby was +indicted for murder, and took care to keep out of the reach of United +States law-officers. This homicide happened just in time for the May +election in New York. Both parties attempted to make use of it. The +Federalists proclaimed that the blood of Pierce was on the head of +Jefferson and his followers. These retorted, that the English pirates +were the friends and comrades of the Federalists. Cheetham had seen the +first lieutenant of the Leander, disguised, in company with eight or +ten of them, some days after the murder!!! And the Democratic +Republicans, as was and is still usual, had a majority at the polls. + +From time to time short paragraphs appeared in the papers, advertising +Miranda's success. "His flag was flying on every fort from Cumana to +Laguayra." "The whole of this fine country may be considered as lost to +Spain." Then came tidings of sadder complexion. He had been beaten off +with the loss of forty men, taken prisoners. The Spaniards had +threatened to hang them as pirates, but they would not dare to do it. +The British had furnished Miranda with forty Spanish prisoners, as +hostages, "to avenge the threatened insult to the feelings of every +friend to the rights of self-government in every part of the world." At +last, news arrived from the Gulf which left Miranda's failure in his +first attempt to land no longer doubtful. This, of course, made the +position of Ogden and Smith more dangerous, and their case more difficult +to manage. + +When the trial of Colonel Smith came on, public interest revived, and +became stronger than before. The court-room was crowded by intelligent +spectators during the whole course of the proceedings, The case was +peculiar, and had almost a dramatic interest. Here was a Government +prosecution against a man well known in the community, for an offence +new to our courts; and the heads of that Government, Jefferson and +Madison, were indirectly on trial at the same time:--"For, if Smith and +Ogden are acquitted," said the Federal papers, "then must the whole +guilt rest on the Administration." Apart from the political interest of +the trial, the eminence of the counsel employed would have commanded an +audience anywhere. Never, since New York has had courts of justice, +have so many distinguished lawyers adorned and dignified her bar as in +the first twenty years of this century. In this case, nearly all of the +leaders were retained: Nathan Sandford, District Attorney, and +Pierrepoint Edwards, for the prosecution; for the defence, Cadwallader +Colden, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Thomas Addis Emmet, Richard Harrison, and +Washington Morton.[*] + +[Footnote *: Judge Patterson, of the United States Court, occupied the +bench with Judge Tallmadge, until ill-health obliged him to withdraw. +He died soon after.] + +Mr. Colden handed the Clerk a list of his witnesses, and requested him +to call their names. Among them were those of Madison, Dearborn, +Gallatin, Granger, and Robert Smith, all members of the Government. He +then read the affidavit of service of subpoenas upon them on the 25th +of May, and, inasmuch as these gentlemen had not obeyed the subpoena, +and as Colonel Smith could not safely proceed to trial without their +testimony, he moved that an attachment issue against them. + +The District Attorney opposed the motion, on the ground that the +testimony of these witnesses could not possibly be of any use to the +defendant. None of them were present in New York when the Leander was +fitted out. And even if it could be shown by these witnesses that the +Administration had approved of this illegal expedition, it would not +help the defendant. This is a country governed by laws, and not by +arbitrary edicts. If Colonel Smith had violated these laws, he had +rendered himself liable to punishment. He could not escape by making +the President a _particeps criminis_. An amusing letter was read from +Madison, Dearborn, and Smith, which stated, "that the President, taking +into view the state of our public affairs, has specially signified to +us that our official duties cannot consistently therewith be at this +juncture dispensed with." They suggested that a commission should issue +for the purpose of taking their respective testimonies. + +Colden insisted that this was an attempt of the Executive to interfere +with the Judiciary, which ought not to be tolerated. Counsel in +criminal cases had always the right to stand face to face with +witnesses. It was outrageous that the President should first approve of +the conduct of Colonel Smith, then order a prosecution against him and +forbid his witnesses to attend the trial. + +The Court refused to grant an attachment. And later in the trial, when +the defence offered Rufus King to prove the President's knowledge and +approbation of the enterprise, the Court decided against the admission +of the evidence. + +The history of the expedition in New York, as shown by the testimony, +was briefly this:--Colonel Smith introduced Miranda to Ogden; and Ogden +agreed to furnish his armed ship Leander, and to load her with the +necessary provisions, stores, arms, and ammunition. He estimated his +expenditure at seventy thousand dollars. Miranda had brought with him +from London a bill of exchange on New York for eight hundred pounds, +which had been paid, and had drawn bills on England and on Trinidad for +seven thousand pounds, which had not been paid. This was all that Ogden +had received. But if the enterprise were successful, he was to be paid +two hundred per cent, advance on the ship and cargo. Smith had engaged +fifteen or twenty officers, without informing them of the object of the +expedition, but expressly stipulating in writing that they would not be +employed against England or France, and giving them a general verbal +assurance that they would speedily make their fortunes. In this he was +sincere, for he took his son from college and sent him with Miranda. +Smith had employed John Fink, a Bowery butcher, to engage men who could +serve on horseback. Fink enlisted twenty-three at fifteen dollars a +month, and fifteen more as a bounty. They were not to be taken out of +the territory of the United States. Some of them were told that the +President was raising a mounted guard; others, that they were to guard +the mail from Washington to New Orleans. One of Fink's papers was shown +on the trial, indorsed, "Muster-Roll for the President's Guard." Smith +had furnished the bounty-money, but it did not appear that he had +authorized these misrepresentations of Fink, who developed a talent in +this business which forty years later would have made his fortune as an +emigrant-runner. Abundant proofs of the purchase of military clothing, +arms, powder, shot, and cannon were produced. + +The Counsel for Colonel Smith, unable to get the connivance of the +Administration before the Jury in the shape of evidence, coolly assumed +it as established, and urged it in defence of their client. They used +his memorial to Congress as their brief, enlarged upon the arbitrary +conduct of the Judge in the examinations and upon the tyrannical +interference of the President with their witnesses. As Mr. Emmet +cleverly and classically remarked, quoting from Tacitus's description +of the funeral of Junia, "Perhaps their very absence rendered them more +decided witnesses in our favor." They also maintained that the Act of +1794, under which the prisoner was indicted, did not prohibit an +enterprise of this character. Even if it did, no proof existed that +this expedition was organized in New York. On the contrary, it was +known that Miranda had gone hence to Jacquemel, and had made his +preparations there, in a port out of our jurisdiction. + +This point made, they boldly went a step farther, and declared that the +United States were actually at war with Spain. The affair of the +Kempers, and of Flanagan in Louisiana, the obstruction of the Mobile +Kiver, the depredations upon our commerce by Spanish privateers, were +sufficient proof of a state of war. We had a right to meet force by +force. The President must have been of this opinion, else he could not +have violated his trust by authorizing this expedition. + +The case for the defence, considered in a logical point of view, was +desperate; but no case is desperate before a Jury; and when Mr. Colden, +Mr. Hoffman, and Mr. Emmet had each in his own peculiar mode of +eloquence appealed to the Jury to protect their client, already +punished by removal from his place, without a trial or even a hearing, +for an offence committed with, the sanction of his superior +officers,--when they compared this State prosecution to the attempts +made by despotic European governments to crush innocent men by the +machinery of law, and asserted that it was instituted solely to gratify +the malice of the King of Spain, a bitter enemy to the United +States,--and when they enlarged upon the grandeur of an undertaking to +give liberty to the down-trodden victims of Colonial tyranny, comparing +Miranda and his friends to our own Revolutionary heroes, there could be +but little doubt of the verdict. But there was an uneasy feeling after +the District Attorney had closed. He demolished with ease the arguments +of the other side, for not one of them had sufficient strength to stand +alone. Smith's perpetual excuse, that he had been led astray by the +belief of connivance in Washington, was preposterous. If he had been +anxious to know the sentiments of Government on the subject, he might +at any time within six days have ascertained whether Miranda told him +truth or not. He spoke of the cruelty and reckless folly of all such +attempts upon a neighboring people; asked the Jury how they would like +to see an armed force landed upon our shores to take part with one or +the other of the great political parties; and closed with a few strong +words, as true at this day as then:--"If you acquit the defendant, you +say to the world that the United States have renounced the law of +nations,--that they permit their citizens not only to violate their own +laws with impunity, but to invade the people of other countries with +hostile force in a time of peace, as avarice, ambition, or the thought +of plunder may dictate. Such a decision would justify the acts of the +pirate on the ocean, and would sink our national character to the +barbarism of savage tribes." + +The Jury were out two hours, and brought in a verdict of not guilty, +which gave great satisfaction to Federal editors. A few days afterward, +Mr. Ogden was acquitted.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Jefferson, after the expiration of his second term, +wrote to Don Valentino de Fornonda as follows:-- + +"Your predecessor [Yrujo] wished it to be believed that we were in +unjustifiable cooeperation in Miranda's expedition. + +"I solemnly and on my personal truth and honor declare to you that this +was entirely without foundation, and that there was neither cooeperation +nor connivance on our part. He informed us he was about to attempt the +liberation of his native country from bondage, and intimated a hope of +our aid, or connivance at least. He was at once informed, that, though +we had great cause of complaint against Spain, and even of war, yet, +whenever we should think proper to act as her enemy, it should be +openly and aboveboard, and that our hostility should never be exercised +by such petty means. We had no suspicion that he expected to engage men +here, but merely to purchase military stores. Against this there was no +law, nor, consequently, any authority for us to interpose. On the other +hand, we deemed it improper to betray his voluntary communication to +the agents of Spain. Although his measures were many days in +preparation at New York, we never had the least intimation or suspicion +of his engaging men in his enterprise until he was gone; and I presume +that the secrecy of his proceedings kept them equally unknown to the +Marquis Yrujo and to the Spanish Consul at New York, since neither of +them gave us any information of the enlistment of men until it was too +late for any measures taken at Washington to prevent their departure."] + +This is a brief account of the first filibuster-trial in the United +States. Other heroes of this profession, compared with whom Smith and +Ogden were spotless, have since come before our courts only to be +turned loose upon the world again. No other result is to be +anticipated. It is an established principle with our fellow-citizens, +that no man is happy, or ought to be, who lives under any other system +of government than our own. Let a lawyer pronounce the magic formula, +"Liberty to the oppressed," or "Free institutions to the victims of +despotism," and, _presto!_--rascality is metamorphosed into merit. +After all, it makes such a difference, when it is only our neighbor's +ox that is gored! + +Here closed the first act of the expedition. Colonel Smith lost his +office, and Mr. Ogden stopped payment. The passengers by the Leander +fared worse. There were two hundred men on board: one hundred and +twenty belonged to the ship; the others had been engaged by Smith and +his agent Fink as officers, dragoons, printers, and armorers. With the +exception of two or three, none of them had seen their commander or +knew their destination. The officers, all gentlemen "of crooked +fortunes," supposed that they were sailing to enlarge the area of +freedom somewhere in America; but what particular region of the Spanish +dominions was to be subjected to this wholesome treatment they neither +knew nor cared, provided they could improve their own financial +condition. Both officers and privates were for the most part +serviceable, steady men, worthy of a more efficient leader. + +On the 12th of February, they were overhauled and searched by H.B.M. +ship Cleopatra. Nineteen men with American protections were carried off +in the frigate's boat, and twelve native Americans taken out of prizes +sent back to replace them. The Leander's papers were examined and +pronounced unsatisfactory. Miranda was obliged to go on board the +Cleopatra, where he had a long private conversation with the captain. +He returned with full liberty to proceed, and with a written pass to +prevent detention or search by British cruisers. This adventure was +made to give an air of respectability to the enterprise; and Miranda +hinted to his suite that the English captain had promised to join him +with his frigate. A day or two later, the Leander took other airs upon +herself. Meeting a small Spanish schooner, laden with logwood, off the +Haytian coast, Lewis fired into her, and ordered the captain on board +with his papers, for the mere pleasure of exercising power. The +Spaniard, as soon as he got back to his own craft, made the best of his +way home and gave the first alarm. + +On the 18th of February, they cast anchor at Jacquemel. Lewis went +immediately to Port au-Prince, to engage the Emperor, a ship commanded +by his brother, to join the expedition. Miranda remained behind to +organize his followers. He at last announced to them that he intended +to land near Caracas; the whole country would rise at his name; his +brave Americans would form the nucleus and the heart of a great army; +there was no Spanish force in the province to resist him. In a general +order, "Parole, America; Countersign, Liberty," he assigned to his +officers their rank in the Columbian army, distributing them into the +Engineers, Artillery, Dragoons, Riflemen, and Foot. Another general +order, "Parole, Warren; Countersign, Bunker's Hill," fixed the uniforms +of the different corps,--to be distinguished by blue, yellow, or green +facings. All hands were set to work upon the crowded deck. Printers +struck off proclamations and blank commissions in the name of "Don +Francisco de Miranda, Commander-in-Chief of the Columbian Army"; +carpenters made pike-handles; armorers repaired the arms bought in New +York; (they had cost little, and were worth less;) the regimental +tailor and his disciples stitched the gay facings upon the new +uniforms; files of awkward fellows were put through the manual exercise +by an old drill-sergeant; and the young gentlemen officers read +diligently in treatises on war, or listened to the discourses of their +general upon the noble art. In the midst of this stir of preparation, +Lewis returned unsuccessful, without the ship Emperor; but Miranda +seemed in no hurry to depart. He continued his lectures and his +drilling until the 28th of March. At last he hoisted the new Columbian +flag,--a tricolor, blue, yellow, and red,--fired a grand salute, and +stood gallantly out of the harbor, where he had wasted six precious +weeks. + +Captain Lewis had chartered at Port-au-Prince the Bee, a small, unarmed +schooner, and had bought the Bacchus, a vessel of the same class, last +from Laguayra, whose captain and men disappeared mysteriously after +their arrival at Jacquemel. Some of the Leander's hands volunteered for +the schooners, to get out of the crowded ship; others were forced on +board, to make up a crew. The little fleet steered for Bonair, but, +through the ignorance of their pilot, or of their captain, found +themselves, after a ten-days' cruise, seventy miles to leeward, off the +Gulf of Venezuela. The Leander was a dull sailer; and, with the wind +and current against her, it took them four days to beat up to the +Island of Aruba, and seven more to reach Bonair. On the evening of the +27th of April, they were lying to off Puerto Cabello, preparing to +land, and sure of success, when they made out two Spanish +_guardacostas_ close in shore, beating up to windward. Miranda thought +them unworthy of attention, and gave the order to stand in. But the +pilot mistook the landmarks, owing to the darkness, and missed the +point agreed upon for landing. The Bacchus was sent in to reconnoitre +and did not return, although signals of recall were repeated throughout +the night. About midnight signals were noticed passing between the fort +at Puerto Cabello and the _guardacostas_; Captain Lewis beat to +quarters, and kept his men at their guns until morning. At daybreak the +Bacchus was seen close in shore, carrying a press of sail and closely +pursued by the Spanish vessels. The Leander bore down with a flowing +sheet upon the enemy, fired a few ineffective shot, and then, for some +reason best known to her captain, or to Miranda, hauled on to the wind, +and sailed away, leaving the schooners to take care of themselves. The +_guardacostas_ soon took possession of both, and carried their prizes, +with sixty prisoners, into Puerto Cabello,[1] before the eyes of their +astonished and indignant comrades, who could not understand such a want +of courage or conduct on the part of their chief. + +[Footnote 1: The unfortunate men taken in the schooners were tried at +Puerto Cabello for piracy. Ten officers were hanged, their heads cut +off and stuck upon poles, and six of them sent to Caracas, two to +Laguayra, and two set up at Puerto Cabello. The other prisoners were +sentenced to the chain-gang. The execution took place on the 21st of +July, the day before Smith was acquitted in New York.] + +After this disaster, the Leander sailed for Bonair for water. Miranda +still assumed a confident tone, and called a council of war to +deliberate whether they should attempt a landing at Coro. The council +decided, that, in view of the loss they had sustained, it would be +advisable to make for Trinidad in search of reinforcements. With wind +and tide against them, and a slow ship, the voyage was long. They were +reduced to their last barrel of bread, when they fell in with the +English sloop-of-war Lily, Captain Campbell, who was looking for +Miranda, and who sent supplies of all kinds on board. On the 6th of +June, they ran into Bridgetown, Barbadoes. Admiral Cochrane, who +commanded on that station, gave Miranda every assistance in his power, +and offered to put some of his smaller vessels under his orders, upon +condition that all goods imported into the new state of Columbia in +British bottoms should be assessed ten per cent, lower than the +products of any other nation, except the United States. Miranda signed +a formal agreement to this effect, and sailed for Trinidad, accompanied +by H.B.M. ships Lily and Express, and the Trimmer, a transport +schooner. Captain Lewis, whose repeated quarrels with Miranda had +affected the discipline of the force, resigned at Barbadoes. He was +succeeded by Captain Johnson, a daring fellow, who risked and lost life +and property in this expedition. + +The Governor of Trinidad, like all the English of the Gulf, was well +disposed to aid in an attack on the Spanish Provinces. Eighty +volunteers of all nations, most of them worthless fellows and +candidates for a commission, joined the fleet at this place. Miranda +was once more in high spirits. His army amounted to four hundred men, +and he had secured the cooperation of the English. Success seemed +certain. He issued a new proclamation to his followers, headed "To +Victory and Wealth," and set sail, accompanied by seven small British +war-vessels and three transports. + +On the 2d of August, the fleet anchored within nine miles of La Vela de +Coro. The next day two hundred and ninety men were landed in the boats +of the squadron. They were all "Mirandanians," the English furnishing +only the means of transportation and the necessary supplies. As the +boats approached the shore, they were fired upon from the bushes which +lined the beach. The Columbians jumped into the water and charged; the +Spaniards retreated to a fort near the shore. This was carried, sword +in hand,--the Spaniards leaping from the walls and flying in all +directions. Miranda then formed his party, and marched to the town, a +quarter of a mile distant, which was evacuated by the Spaniards with +such precipitation that they left their cannon loaded. The inhabitants +had fled, as well as the military, carrying off all their movable +property. The Columbian colors were hoisted, flags of truce sent in all +directions, the printed proclamations distributed about the neighboring +country; but in vain; nobody appeared. + +The same evening the Liberators marched twelve miles in a northwesterly +direction to Coro. They arrived an hour before dawn, and found the town +silent and deserted. Dividing themselves into two parties, they entered +cautiously on opposite sides, for fear of an ambuscade,--but, +unfortunately, when the detachments met in the Grand Plaza, they +mistook each other, in the dusk of the morning, for the enemy, and +fired. Miranda's most efficient officer fell, shot through both thighs. +One man was killed, and seven others badly wounded. Not a soul was +found in the place, except those who were too old or too ill to move, +and the occupants of the prison. The jailer presented himself, +surrendered his keys, and informed the General that the Governor had +forced the citizens to leave their homes. Miranda remained in the +deserted town for five days, endeavoring, by the most alluring +proclamations, to bring the inhabitants back. But it was useless. Not a +man presented himself. He then lost heart, and, instead of advancing +into the country, ordered a retreat to La Vela, and reembarked on the +19th. + +Those he left behind in the Leander had been still more unfortunate. +Captain Johnson had gone in the boats to a river three or four miles to +the eastward, for water, and, while filling his casks, was set upon by +a party of Spanish soldiers. He was killed, fighting bravely, with +fifteen of his men. The remainder escaped with difficulty. + +The discomfited invaders sailed for the Island of Aruba, where their +English allies, pretty well satisfied that nothing could be done with +this expedition, left them. Miranda landed his men and took formal +possession of the island. He sent an ambassador to the Governor of the +neighboring island of Curacoa, requesting him to surrender. This +request was declined. He was equally unsuccessful in a mission to +Jamaica, begging for assistance from Admiral Dacres. Dacres refused, on +the ground that he had no orders from his Government. + +Miranda remained at Aruba, drilling, issuing proclamations, and holding +courts martial, until the want of provisions brought the enterprise to +an end. An English ship-of-war, which touched at the island, offered +him a safe means of escape. On the 29th of October, after a passage of +twenty-five days, the Liberators arrived at Trinidad, and disbanded in +disgrace. The blue and yellow uniforms they had worn with pride, as +"Columbians," on their last visit, were hastily laid aside to escape +the scoff of the rabble, who jeered them as adventurers and +merry-andrews. Miranda kept out of sight until he could get the +opportunity of a passage to England. All his followers who could find +means to quit the island made their way home as best they could. To +conclude the business, the Leander was sold by order of the courts, and +the few poor fellows who had remained by her received a small share of +the proceeds. Nobody else was paid the smallest fraction of the sums +the General had so liberally promised. + +That a commander, safely landed with three hundred fighting men, in +possession of Coro, whose peninsular situation might have afforded him +an inexpugnable position, master of the sea, and backed by an English +fleet, should have retreated, without effecting anything, from a +country ripe for rebellion since the conspiracy of 1797, can be +explained only in one way: he must have been ignorant of the real +feelings of the people, and totally unfit to lead such an expedition. +Miranda had what we may call a pretty talent for war. He had studied +the principles of the art, and had seen some service. Excited by the +splendid career of Washington, he, like a certain distinguished +Frenchman, determined to imitate him and become the liberator of his +country. When the Giant at a show bends the iron bar, it seems so easy +that every strong man in the crowd thinks he can do as much, until he +tries. It needs a Giant of the first class to handle a people in +revolution. Miranda was not made of that kind of stuff. He was weak and +inefficient, fond of mystery and pomp, easily affected by flattery, +loving dearly to hear himself talk, and unable to control his temper. +His incessant quarrels with Captain Lewis were one cause of the loss of +the schooners off Puerto Cabello. A want of quickness and energy was +felt in all his operations. Delays are proverbially dangerous, but in a +_coup de main_ fatal. The time wasted by him at Jacquemel and at Aruba +was employed by the Spaniards in making preparations for defence. They +had few troops, and did not dare to trust the natives with arms, but +they succeeded in persuading them that Miranda and his men were pagans +and pirates, whose triumph would be ten times more insufferable than +the rule of the mother country. + +If Miranda was incompetent to carry out a liberating expedition, he had +wonderful success in talking it up. For twenty years he had carried +this project about with him in America and in Europe. It was elaborated +to perfection in every part, and there were answers prepared to every +objection. The new government was to be modelled upon the English +Constitution,--an hereditary chief, to be called Inca,--a senate, +nominated by the chief, composed of nobles, but not hereditary,--and a +chamber elected by suffrage, limited by a property qualification. He +had collected all the statistics of population and of trade, to show +what commercial advantages the world might expect from a free South +American government. And, "rising upon a wind of prophecy," he already +saw in the future a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama, and the +Nicaragua route opened. He had laid these plans before Catharine of +Russia, who gave him money to help them on. Mr. Pitt listened, promised +him assistance in return for commercial privileges, and kept him in pay +for years. The French Revolutionists were eager to furnish him with an +army and a fleet. Rufus King, American Ambassador at London, sent word +of the scheme to Hamilton and Knox, who both approved of it. Miranda +seems to have made the same impression upon everybody. His extensive +travels and acquaintance with distinguished men, his knowledge of +facts, dates, and figures, his retentive and ready memory, his +wonderful cleverness in persuading his hearers, are spoken of in the +same terms by all. Dr. Rush wrote to a friend, that Miranda had dined +with him, and had talked about European politics as if he had been "in +the inside of all the kings and princes." He might have been a second +Count de St. Germain, if he had lived in the reign of Louis XIV., +instead of in an era when men had abandoned the philosopher's stone, +and were seeking in politics for a new _magnum opus_, Constitutions, as +the certain means of perfecting the human species. + +Everybody was mistaken in him. Although he talked "like an angel," in +action he was worthless. If he had never undertaken to carry out his +plans, he might have left an excellent reputation, and have remained in +South American memory as the possible Father of his Country: _Capax +imperii, nisi imperasset_. A short sketch of his career may be +interesting, before we dismiss him again to the oblivion from which we +have evoked him for this month. + +Miranda entered the Spanish army in America at the age of seventeen, +and was advanced to be Colonel, a grade seldom or never before reached +by a Creole. He left the service before the close of the Revolutionary +War, travelled in the United States, and was admitted to the society of +Washington and of the leading men of the day. Here, his attainments, +quickness, and insatiable curiosity attracted attention. He knew the +topography and strategy of every battle fought during the war better +than our officers who had been on the field, and soon made himself +familiar with parties, and even with family connections in this +country. His constant topic was the independence of South America. +After the peace of 1783, Miranda went to England: Colonel Smith was +then Secretary of John Adams, the American Minister, and the +acquaintance between them began in London, which ended so disastrously +twenty years later in New York. Leaving England, he travelled over +Europe. At Cherson, he attracted the notice of Prince Potemkin, who +presented him to the Empress at Kiew. In 1790, when the dispute about +Nootka Sound[*] threatened to produce a war between Great Britain and +Spain, he reappeared in London, and proposed to Mr. Pitt his scheme for +revolutionizing the American Colonies. Pitt at once engaged his +services, but Spain yielded, and the project could not be carried out. +Miranda crossed to France, accepted a command in the Republican army, +and served, with credit, in the Netherlands, under Dumouriez, until the +Battle of Neerwinden. In November, 1792, the French rulers conceived +the idea of revolutionizing Spain, both in Europe and in America. +Brissot suggested Miranda as the fittest person for this purpose. He +was to take twelve thousand troops of the line from St. Domingo, +enlist, in addition, ten or fifteen thousand "_braves mulatres_," and +make a descent, with this force, upon the Main. "_Le nom de Miranda_," +wrote Brissot to Dumouriez, "_lui vaudra une armee; et ses talens, son +courage, son genie, tout nous repond du succes_." Monge, Gensonne, +Claviere, Petion, were pleased with the plan, but Miranda started +difficulties. The French system was too democratic for his taste, and +the pressure of affairs in Europe soon turned the attention of Brissot +and his friends in another direction. + +[Footnote *: In May, 1789, the Spanish sloop-of-war Princesa seized +four English vessels engaged in a trade with the natives of Vancouver's +Island, and took them into a Mexican port as prizes, on the ground that +they had violated the Spanish Colonial laws. The English government +denied the claim of Spain to those distant regions, and insisted upon +ample satisfaction. The King of Spain was obliged to submit to avoid +war, but the question of territory was left open.] + +After the disastrous affair of Neerwinden, Miranda was accused of +misconduct, arrested, and sent to Paris for trial, but was acquitted by +the _Tribunal Revolutionnaire_, and conducted home in triumph. He was +again imprisoned for _incivisme_, during the Reign of Terror, and did +not recover his liberty until the general jail-delivery which followed +the death of Robespierre. He was seized for the third time in 1797, by +the Directory, as an adherent of the Pichegru faction, and banished +from France. + +In January, 1798, Mr. Pitt again sent for Miranda, and a new plan was +arranged for the emancipation of South America. On this occasion, the +cooeperation of the United States was confidently relied upon. Both Pitt +and our own rulers foresaw that Spain must inevitably fall a prey to +France, and that the whole of her American possessions would probably +share her fate. Our relations with France were in so critical a +condition, that we were making preparations for defence; and it was, of +course, of the highest importance to our safety, that the Floridas and +Louisiana should not fall into the hands of a powerful enemy. It was +proposed, consequently, to form a commercial and defensive alliance +between England, the United States, and South America. We were to get +the Floridas and Louisiana to the Mississippi, and in return to furnish +a land-force of ten thousand men. Great Britain would provide the +fleet, in consideration of certain important advantages in trade. +Miranda kept his friends in the United States fully advised of the +progress of affairs. Hamilton and Knox were in favor of the project, +provided war were declared. Our provisional army might then have played +a brilliant part. But there was no war. President Adams refused to +listen to Miranda's communications, and patched up our difficulties +with France. Nothing was done by the English. + +In 1801 Lord Sidmouth revived Miranda's hopes, but the Peace of Amiens +put a stop to the preparations. In 1804 Mr. Pitt was again at the head +of affairs, and renewed his intercourse with Miranda. Orders were given +to prepare ships and to enrol men, when the hopes of the third +coalition again suspended the execution of the project. + +It was after this last blow from Fortune that Miranda came to New York +and fitted out the expedition we have undertaken to describe. His +disastrous failure seemed neither to destroy his hopes, nor to shake +the confidence of his English friends in his pretensions. When he +returned to England from Trinidad, he found ministers prepared to +embark with energy in the South American scheme. This time a fleet and +an army were really assembled at Cork, and Sir Arthur Wellesley was to +command them,--when the Spanish Revolution broke out, altered at once +the face of affairs in Europe, and turned Sir Arthur and his army +toward Portugal, to begin that brilliant series of campaigns which +drove the French out of the Peninsula. + +Few men fix their minds pertinaciously upon an object, and adhere to +the pursuit through life, without at least a partial attainment of it. +Miranda, the victim of so many bitter disappointments, at last found +himself for a few months in the position he had so often dreamed of. +When the news of the fall of Seville, and of the dispersion of the +Junta who governed in the name of Ferdinand VII., reached South +America, open rebellion broke out at Caracas. King Joseph Bonaparte had +sent over a proclamation, imploring his trusty and well-beloved South +Americans to come to his paternal arms,--or, if they would not do that, +at least to set up a government for themselves, and not take part with +Ferdinand and England. His emissaries were hunted down and hanged, +wherever caught. Revolutionary Juntas were established all over the +country. On the 19th of April, 1810, the American Confederation of +Venezuela, in Congress assembled, undertook to rule in the name of +Ferdinand VII., but in reality as an independent government. Miranda +was called to the command of the native army. On the 5th of July, 1811, +the Congress published their Declaration of Independence, and a +Constitution, both of them remarkable state-papers. In point of +liberality of sentiment and elegance of style they will bear comparison +with our own celebrated documents of '76 and '87. Indeed, in all these +Spanish political plays, the plot has been good, the text admirable, +but the actors so poor as to spoil the piece. So it fell out in +Venezuela. At first the Patriots were successful; Miranda defeated the +Royalists and took Valencia. The principal towns fell into the hands of +the insurgents. Then, came the terrible earthquake of 1812, which not +only shattered the resources of the Patriots, but was skilfully used by +the Church as a proof that Providence had taken sides against the +rebels. Monteverde, the Spanish general, recaptured Valencia. Congress +placed the dictatorship with unlimited power in Miranda's hands, but he +was not the man for desperate situations. On the 6th of July, the +Royalists took Puerto Cabello; Caracas fell on the 28th; and Miranda, +betrayed by his own party into the hands of the Spaniards, was sent a +prisoner to Cadiz in October. Simon Bolivar and others, men of +different mettle, regained all that had been lost, and cut loose the +Colonies from Spain. From California to Cape Horn the inestimable +system of self-government was established. According to the theory, the +South Americans should have been prosperous and happy; but, +unfortunately, the result has been murder, robbery, and general ruin. +The burden of taking care of one's self, which the North American had +the strength to bear, has crushed the poor half-caste Spaniard. There +are persons who assert that a political regimen which agrees so well +with us must therefore be good for all others. It may be instructive to +such believers in system to compare Humboldt's narrative of the +cultivation shown by the great Colonial Universities of Mexico, Quito, +and Lima, of the pleasing Creole society that entertained him, and the +peaceful quiet and security he noticed throughout country, with the +relations of modern travellers or newspaper-correspondents who visit +those semi-barbarous regions. + +Don Francisco de Miranda did not live to hear of the freedom of his +"Columbia." Before the close of the year 1812 he died in prison, at +Cadiz. Thus perished the most gentlemanlike of filibusters, since the +days when Jason sailed in the Argo to extend the blessing of Greek +institutions over Colchis and to appropriate the Golden Fleece. + + * * * * * + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE MORNING AFTER. + + +Colonel Sprowle's family arose late the next morning. The fatigues and +excitements of the evening and the preparation for it were followed by +a natural collapse, of which somnolence was a leading symptom. The sun +shone into the window at a pretty well opened angle when the Colonel +first found himself sufficiently awake to address his yet slumbering +spouse. + +"Sally!" said the Colonel, in a voice that was a little husky,--for he +had finished off the evening with an extra glass or two of "Madary," +and had a somewhat rusty and headachy sense of renewed existence, on +greeting the rather advanced dawn,--"Sally!" + +"Take care o' them custard-cups! There they go!" + +Poor Mrs. Sprowle was fighting the party over in her dream; and as the +visionary custard-cups crashed down through one lobe of her brain into +another, she gave a start as if an inch of lightning from a quart +Leyden jar had jumped into one of her knuckles with its sudden and +lively _poonk_! + +"Sally!" said the Colonel,--"wake up, wake up! What 'r' y' dreamin' +abaout?" + +Mrs. Sprowle raised herself, by a sort of spasm, _sur son seant_, as +they say in France,--up on end, as we have it in New England. She +looked first to the left, then to the right, then straight before her, +apparently without seeing anything, and at last slowly settled down, +with her two eyes, blank of any particular meaning, directed upon the +Colonel. + +"What time is't?" she said. + +"Ten o'clock. What 'y' been dreamin' abaout? Y' giv a jump like a +hoppergrass. Wake up, wake up! Th' party's over, and y' been asleep all +the mornin'. The party's over, I tell ye! Wake up!" + +"Over!" said Mrs. Sprowle, who began to define her position at +last,--"over! I should think 'twas time 'twas over! It's lasted a +hundud year. I've been workin' for that party longer 'n Methuselah's +lifetime, sence I been asleep. The pies wouldn' bake, and the blo'monge +wouldn' set, and the ice-cream wouldn' freeze, and all the folks kep' +comin' 'n' comin' 'n' comin',--everybody I ever knew in all my +life,--some of 'em's been dead this twenty year 'n' more,--'n' nothin' +for 'em to eat nor drink. The fire wouldn' burn to cook anything, all +we could do. We blowed with the belluses, 'n' we stuffed in paper 'n' +pitch-pine kindlin's, but nothin' could make that fire burn; 'n' all +the time the folks kep' comin', as if they'd never stop,--'n' nothin' +for 'em but empty dishes, 'n' all the borrowed chaney slippin' round on +the waiters 'n' chippin' 'n' crackin'. I wouldn' go through what I been +through t'-night for all th' money in th' Bank,--I do believe it's +harder t' have a party than t'"---- + +Mrs. Sprowle stated the case strongly. + +The Colonel said he didn't know how that might be. She was a better +judge than he was. It was bother enough, anyhow, and he was glad that +it was over. After this, the worthy pair commenced preparations for +rejoining the waking world, and in due time proceeded down-stairs. + +Everybody was late that morning, and nothing had got put to rights. The +house looked as if a small army had been quartered in it over night. +The tables were of course in huge disorder, after the protracted +assault they had undergone. There had been a great battle evidently, +and it had gone against the provisions. Some points had been stormed, +and all their defences annihilated, but here and there were centres of +resistance which had held out against all attacks,--large rounds of +beef, and solid loaves of cake, against which the inexperienced had +wasted their energies in the enthusiasm of youth or uninformed +maturity, while the longer-headed guests were making discoveries of +"shell-oysters" and "patridges" and similar delicacies. + +The breakfast was naturally of a somewhat fragmentary character. A +chicken that had lost his legs in the service of the preceding campaign +was once more put on duty. A great ham stuck with cloves, as Saint +Sebastian was with arrows, was again offered for martyrdom. It would +have been a pleasant sight for a medical man of a speculative turn to +have seen the prospect before the Colonel's family of the next week's +breakfasts, dinners, and suppers. The trail that one of these great +rural parties leaves after it is one of its most formidable +considerations. Every door-handle in the house is suggestive of +sweetmeats for the next week, at least. The most unnatural articles of +diet displace the frugal but nutritious food of unconvulsed periods of +existence. If there is a walking infant about the house, it will +certainly have a more or less fatal fit from overmuch of some +indigestible delicacy. Before the week is out, everybody will be tired +to death of sugary forms of nourishment and long to see the last of the +remnants of the festival. + +The family had not yet arrived at this condition. On the contrary, the +first inspection of the tables suggested the prospect of days of +unstinted luxury; and the younger portion of the household, especially, +were in a state of great excitement as the account of stock was taken +with reference to future internal investments, Some curious facts came +to light during these researches. + +"Where's all the oranges gone to?" said Mrs. Sprowle. "I expected +there'd be ever so many of 'em left. I didn't see many of the folks +eatin' oranges. Where's the skins of 'em? There ought to be six dozen +orange-skins round on the plates, and there a'n't one dozen. And all +the small cakes, too, and all the sugar things that was stuck on the +big cakes.--Has anybody counted the spoons? Some of 'em got swallered, +perhaps. I hope they was plated ones, if they did!" + +The failure of the morning's orange-crop and the deficit in other +expected residual delicacies were not very difficult to account for. In +many of the two-story Rockland families, and in those favored +households of the neighboring villages whose members had been invited +to the great party, there was a very general excitement among the +younger people on the morning after the great event. "Did y' bring home +somethin' from the party? What is it? What is it? Is it frut-cake? Is +it nuts and oranges and apples? Give me some! Give _me_ some!" Such a +concert of treble voices uttering accents like these had not been heard +since the great Temperance Festival with the celebrated "colation" in +the open air under the trees of the Parnassian Grove,--as the place was +christened by the young ladies of the Institute. The cry of the +children was not in vain. From the pockets of demure fathers, from the +bags of sharp-eyed spinsters, from the folded handkerchiefs of +light-fingered sisters, from the tall hats of sly-winking brothers, +there was a resurrection of the missing oranges and cakes and +sugar-things in many a rejoicing family-circle, enough to astonish the +most hardened "caterer" that ever contracted to feed a thousand people +under canvas. + +The tender recollection of those dear little ones whom extreme youth or +other pressing considerations detain from scenes of festivity--a trait +of affection by no means uncommon among our thoughtful people +--dignifies those social meetings where it is manifested, and +sheds a ray of sunshine on our common nature. It is "an oasis in the +desert,"--to use the striking expression of the last year's +"Valedictorian" of the Apollinean Institute. In the midst of so much +that is purely selfish, it is delightful to meet such disinterested +care for others. When a large family of children are expecting a +parent's return from an entertainment, it will often require great +exertions on his part to provide himself so as to meet their reasonable +expectations. A few rules are worth remembering by all who attend +anniversary dinners in Faneuil Hall or elsewhere. Thus: Lobsters' claws +are always acceptable to children of all ages. Oranges and apples are +to be taken _one at a time_, until the coat-pockets begin to become +inconveniently heavy. Cakes are injured by sitting upon them; it is, +therefore, well to carry a stout tin box of a size to hold as many +pieces as there are children in the domestic circle. A very pleasant +amusement, at the close of one of these banquets, is grabbing for the +flowers with which the table is embellished. These will please the +ladies at home very greatly, and, if the children are at the same time +abundantly supplied with fruits, nuts, cakes, and any little ornamental +articles of confectionery which are of a nature to be unostentatiously +removed, the kind-hearted parent will make a whole household happy, +without any additional expense beyond the outlay for his ticket. + +There were fragmentary delicacies enough left, of one kind and another, +at any rate, to make all the Colonel's family uncomfortable for the +next week. It bid fair to take as long to get rid of the remains of the +great party as it had taken to make ready for it. + +In the mean time Mr. Bernard had been dreaming, as young men dream, of +gliding shapes with bright eyes and burning cheeks, strangely blended +with red planets and hissing meteors, and, shining over all, the white, +unwandering star of the North, girt with its tethered constellations. + +After breakfast he walked into the parlor, where he found Miss Darley. +She was alone, and, holding a school-book in her hand, was at work with +one of the morning's lessons. She hardly noticed him as he entered, +being very busy with her book,--and he paused a moment before speaking, +and looked at her with a kind of reverence. It would not have been +strictly true to call her beautiful. For years,--since her earliest +womanhood,--those slender hands had taken the bread which repaid the +toil of heart and brain from the coarse palms that offered it in the +world's rude market. It was not for herself alone that she had bartered +away the life of her youth, that she had breathed the hot air of +school-rooms, that she had forced her intelligence to posture before +her will, as the exigencies of her place required,--waking to mental +labor,--sleeping to dream of problems,--rolling up the stone of +education for an endless twelvemonth's term, to find it at the bottom +of the hill again when another year called her to its renewed +duties,--schooling her temper in unending inward and outward conflicts, +until neither dulness nor obstinacy nor ingratitude nor insolence could +reach her serene self-possession. Not for herself alone. Poorly as her +prodigal labors were repaid in proportion to the waste of life they +cost, her value was too well established to leave her without what, +under other circumstances, would have been a more than sufficient +compensation. But there were others who looked to her in their need, +and so the modest fountain which might have been filled to its brim was +continually drained through silent-flowing, hidden sluices. + +Out of such a life, inherited from a race which had lived in conditions +not unlike her own, _beauty_, in the common sense of the term, could +hardly find leisure to develop and shape itself. For it must be +remembered, that symmetry and elegance of features and figure, like +perfectly formed crystals in the mineral world, are reached only by +insuring a certain necessary repose to individuals and to generations. +Human beauty is an agricultural product in the country, growing up in +men and women as in corn and cattle, where the soil is good. It is a +luxury almost monopolized by the rich in cities, bred under glass like +their forced pine-apples and peaches. Both in city and country, the +evolution of the physical harmonics which make music to our eyes +requires a combination of favorable circumstances, of which +alternations of unburdened tranquillity with intervals of varied +excitement of mind and body are among the most important. Where +sufficient excitement is wanting, as often happens in the country, the +features, however rich in red and white, get heavy, and the movements +sluggish; where excitement is furnished in excess, as is frequently +the case in cities, the contours and colors are impoverished, and the +nerves begin to make their existence known to the consciousness, as the +face very soon informs us. + +Helen Darley could not, in the nature of things, have possessed the +kind of beauty which pleases the common taste. Her eye was calm, +sad-looking, her features very still, except when her pleasant smile +changed them for a moment, all her outlines were delicate, her voice +was very gentle, but somewhat subdued by years of thoughtful labor, and +on her smooth forehead one little hinted line whispered already that +Care was beginning to mark the trace which Time sooner or later would +make a furrow. She could not be a beauty; if she had been, it would +have been much harder for many persons to be interested in her. For, +although in the abstract we all love beauty, and although, if we were +sent naked souls into some ultramundane warehouse of soul-less bodies +and told to select one to our liking, we should each choose a handsome +one, and never think of the consequences,--it is quite certain that +beauty carries an atmosphere of repulsion as well as of attraction with +it, alike in both sexes. We may be well assured that there are many +persons who no more think of specializing their love of the other sex +upon one endowed with signal beauty, than they think of wanting great +diamonds or thousand-dollar horses. No man or woman can appropriate +beauty without paying for it,--in endowments, in fortune, in position, +in self-surrender, or other valuable stock; and there are a great many +who are too poor, too ordinary, too humble, too busy, too proud, to pay +any of these prices for it. So the unbeautiful get many more lovers +than the beauties; only, as there are more of them, their lovers are +spread thinner and do not make so much show. + +The young master stood looking at Helen Darley with a kind of tender +admiration. She was such a picture of the martyr by the slow social +combustive process, that it almost seemed to him he could see a pale +lambent aureole round her head. + +"I did not see you at the great party last evening," he said, +presently. + +She looked up and answered, "No. I have not much taste for such large +companies. Besides, I do not feel as if my time belonged to me after it +has been paid for. There is always something to do, some lesson or +exercise,--and it so happened, I was very busy last night with the new +problems in geometry. I hope you had a good time." + +"Very. Two or three of our girls were there. Rosa Milburn. What a +beauty she is! I wonder what she feeds on! Wine and musk and chloroform +and coals of fire, I believe; I didn't think there was such color and +flavor in a woman outside the tropics." + +Miss Darley smiled rather faintly; the imagery was not just to her +taste: _femineity_ often finds it very hard to accept the fact of +_muliebrity_. + +"Was"----? + +She stopped short; but her question had asked itself. + +"Elsie there? She was, for an hour or so. She looked frightfully +handsome. I meant to have spoken to her, but she slipped away before I +knew it." + +"I thought she meant to go to the party," said Miss Darley. "Did she +look at you?" + +"She did. Why?" + +"And you did not speak to her?" + +"No. I should have spoken to her, but she was gone when I looked for +her. A strange creature! Isn't there an odd sort of fascination about +her? You have not explained all the mystery about the girl. What does +she come to this school for? She seems to do pretty much as she likes +about studying." + +Miss Darley answered in very low tones. "It was a fancy of hers to +come, and they let her have her way. I don't know what there is about +her, except that she seems to take my life out of me when she looks at +me. I don't like to ask other people about our girls. She says very +little to anybody, and studies, or makes believe study, almost what she +likes. I don't know what she is," (Miss Darley laid her hand, +trembling, on the young master's sleeve,) "but I can tell when she is +in the room without seeing or hearing her. Oh, Mr. Langdon, I am weak +and nervous, and no doubt foolish,--but--if there were women now, as +in the days of our Saviour, possessed of devils, I should think there +was something not human looking out of Elsie Venner's eyes!" + +The poor girl's breast rose and fell tumultuously as she spoke, and her +voice labored, as if some obstruction were rising in her throat. + +A scene might possibly have come of it, but the door opened. Mr. Silas +Peckham. Miss Darley got away as soon as she well could. + +"Why did not Miss Darley go to the party last evening?" said Mr. +Bernard. + +"Well, the fact is," answered Mr. Silas Peckham, "Miss Darley, she's +pootty much took up with the school. She's an industris young +woman,--yis, she _is_ industris,--but perhaps she a'n't quite so spry a +worker as some. Maybe, considerin' she's paid for her time, she isn't +fur out o' the way in occoopyin' herself evenin's,--that is, if so be +she a'n't smart enough to finish up all her work in the daytime. +Edoocation is the great business of the Institoot. Amoosements are +objec's of a secondary natur', accordin' to my v'oo." [The unspellable +pronunciation of this word is the touchstone of New England +Brahminism.] + +Mr. Bernard drew a deep breath, his thin nostrils dilating, as if the +air did not rush in fast enough to cool his blood, while Silas Peckham +was speaking. The Head of the Apollinean Institute delivered himself of +these judicious sentiments in that peculiar acid, penetrating tone, +wadded with a nasal twang, which not rarely becomes hereditary after +three or four generations raised upon east winds, salt fish, and large, +white-bellied, pickled cucumbers. He spoke deliberately, as if weighing +his words well, so that, during his few remarks, Mr. Bernard had time +for a mental accompaniment with variations, accented by certain bodily +changes, which escaped Mr. Peckham's observation. First there was a +feeling of disgust and shame at hearing Helen Darley spoken of like a +dumb working animal. That sent the blood up into his cheeks. Then the +slur upon her probable want of force--_her_ incapacity, who made the +character of the school and left this man to pocket its profits--sent a +thrill of the old Wentworth fire through him, so that his muscles +hardened, his hands closed, and he took the measure of Mr. Silas +Peckham, to see if his head would strike the wall in case he went over +backwards all of a sudden. This would not do, of course, and so the +thrill passed off and the muscles softened again. Then came that state +of tenderness in the heart, overlying wrath in the stomach, in which +the eyes grow moist like a woman's, and there is also a great +boiling-up of objectionable terms out of the deep-water vocabulary, so +that Prudence and Propriety and all the other pious Ps have to jump +upon the lid of speech to keep them from boiling _over_ into fierce +articulation. All this was internal, chiefly, and of course not +recognized by Mr. Silas Peckham. The idea, that any full-grown, +sensible man should have any other notion than that of getting the most +work for the least money out of his assistants, had never suggested +itself to him. + +Mr. Bernard had gone through this paroxysm, and cooled down, in the +period while Mr. Peckham was uttering these words in his thin, shallow +whine, twanging up into the frontal sinuses. What was the use of losing +his temper and throwing away his place, and so, among the consequences +which would necessarily follow, leaving the poor lady-teacher without a +friend to stand by her ready to lay his hand on the grand-inquisitor +before the windlass of his rack had taken one turn too many? + +"No doubt, Mr. Peckham," he said, in a grave, calm voice, "there is a +great deal of work to be done in the school; but perhaps we can +distribute the duties a little more evenly after a time. I shall look +over the girls' themes myself, after this week. Perhaps there will be +some other parts of her labor that I can take on myself. We can arrange +a new programme of studies and recitations." + +"We can do that," said Mr. Silas Peckham. "But I don't propose +mater'lly alterin' Miss Darley's dooties. I don't think she works to +hurt herself. Some of the Trustees have proposed interdoosin' new +branches of study, and I expect you will be pootty much occoopied with +the dooties that belong to your place. On the Sabbath you will be able +to attend divine service three times, which is expected of our +teachers. I shall continoo myself to give Sabbath Scriptur'-readin's to +the young ladies. That is a solemn dooty I can't make up my mind to +commit to other people. My teachers enjoy the Lord's day as a day of +rest. In it they do no manner of work,--except in cases of necessity or +mercy, such as fillin' out diplomas, or when we git crowded jest at the +end of a term, or when there is an extry number of poopils, or other +Providential call to dispense with the ordinance." + +Mr. Bernard had a fine glow in his cheeks by this time,--doubtless +kindled by the thought of the kind consideration Mr. Peckham showed for +his subordinates in allowing them the between-meeting-time on Sundays +except for some special reason. But the morning was wearing away; so he +went to the school-room, taking leave very properly of his respected +principal, who soon took his hat and departed. + +Mr. Peckham visited certain "stores" or shops, where he made inquiries +after various articles in the provision-line, and effected a purchase +or two. Two or three barrels of potatoes, which had sprouted in a +promising way, he secured at a bargain. A side of feminine beef was +also obtained at a low figure. He was entirely satisfied with a couple +of barrels of flour, which, being invoiced "slightly damaged", were to +be had at a reasonable price. + +After this, Silas Peckham felt in good spirits. He had done a pretty +stroke of business. It came into his head whether he might not follow +it up with a still more brilliant speculation. So he turned his steps +in the direction of Colonel Sprowle's. + +It was now eleven o'clock, and the battlefield of last evening was as +we left it. Mr. Peckham's visit was unexpected, perhaps not very well +timed, but the Colonel received him civilly. + +"Beautifully lighted,--these rooms last night!" said Mr. Peckham. +"Winter-strained?" + +The Colonel nodded. + +"How much do you pay for your winter-strained?" + +The Colonel told him the price. + +"Very hahnsome supper,--very hahnsome! Nothin' ever seen like it in +Rockland. Must have been a great heap of things left over." + +The compliment was not ungrateful, and the Colonel acknowledged it by +smiling and saying, "I should think the' was a trifle! Come and look." + +When Silas Peckham saw how many delicacies had survived the evening's +conflict, his commercial spirit rose at once to the point of a +proposal. + +"Colonel Sprowle," said he, "there's meat and cakes and pies and +pickles enough on that table to spread a hahnsome colation. If you'd +like to trade reasonable, I think perhaps I should be willin' to take +'em off your hands. There's been a talk about our havin' a celebration +in the Parnassian Grove, and I think I could work in what your folks +don't want and make myself whole by chargin' a small sum for tickets. +Broken meats, of course, a'n't of the same valoo as fresh provisions; +so I think you might be willin' to trade reasonable." + +Mr. Peckham paused and rested on his proposal. It would not, perhaps, +have been very extraordinary, if Colonel Sprowle had entertained the +proposition. There is no telling beforehand how such things will strike +people. It didn't happen to strike the Colonel favorably. He had a +little red-blooded manhood in him. + +"Sell you them things to make a colation out of?" the Colonel replied. +"Walk up to that table, Mr. Peckham, and help yourself! Fill your +pockets, Mr. Peckham! Fetch a basket, and our hired folks shall fill it +full for ye! Send a cart, if y' like, 'n' carry off them leavin's to +make a celebration for your pupils with! Only let me tell ye this:--as +sure's my name's Hezekiah Spraowle, you'll be known through the taown +'n' through the caounty, from that day forrard, as the Principal of the +Broken-Victuals Institoot!" + +Even provincial human-nature sometimes has a touch of sublimity about +it. Mr. Silas Peckham had gone a little deeper than he meant, and come +upon the "hard pan," as the well-diggers call it, of the Colonel's +character, before he thought of it. A militia-colonel standing on his +sentiments is not to be despised. That was shown pretty well in New +England two or three generations ago. There were a good many plain +officers that talked about their "rigiment" and their "caounty" who +knew very well how to say "Make ready!" "Take aim!" "Fire!"--in the +face of a line of grenadiers with bullets in their guns and bayonets on +them. And though a rustic uniform is not always unexceptionable in its +cut and trimmings, yet there was many an ill-made coat in those old +times that was good enough to be shown to the enemy's front rank, too +often to be left on the field with a round hole in its left lapel that +matched another going right through the brave heart of the plain +country captain or major or colonel who was buried in it under the +crimson turf. + +Mr. Silas Peckham said little or nothing. His sensibilities were not +acute, but he perceived that he had made a miscalculation. He hoped +that there was no offence,--thought it might have been mutooally +agreeable, conclooded he would give up the idee of a colation, and +backed himself out as if unwilling to expose the less guarded aspect of +his person to the risk of accelerating impulses. + +The Colonel shut the door,--cast his eye on the toe of his right boot, +as if it had had a strong temptation,--looked at his watch, then round +the room, and, going to a cupboard, swallowed a glass of deep-red +brandy and water to compose his feelings. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE DOCTOR ORDERS THE BEST SULKY. + + +(_With a Digression on "Hired Help"_) + +"Abel! Slip Cassia into the new sulky, and fetch her round." + +Abel was Dr. Kittredge's hired man. He was born in New Hampshire, a +queer sort of a State, with fat streaks of soil and population where +they breed giants in mind and body, and lean streaks which export +imperfectly nourished young men with promising but neglected appetites, +who may be found in great numbers in all the large towns, or could be +until of late years, when they have been half driven out of their +favorite basement-stories by foreigners, and half coaxed away from them +by California. New Hampshire is in more than one sense the Switzerland +of New England. The "Granite State" being naturally enough deficient in +pudding-stone, its children are apt to wander southward in search of +that deposit,--in the unpetrified condition. + +Abel Stebbins was a good specimen of that extraordinary hybrid or mule +between democracy and chrysocracy, a native-born New-England +serving-man. The Old World has nothing at all like him. He is at once +an emperor and a subordinate. In one hand he holds one five-millionth +part (be the same more or less) of the power that sways the destinies +of the Great Republic. His other hand is in your boot, which he is +about to polish. It is impossible to turn a fellow-citizen whose vote +may make his master--say, rather, employer--Governor or President, or +who may be one or both himself, into a flunky. That article must be +imported ready-made from other centres of civilization. When a +New-Englander has lost his self-respect as a citizen and as a man, he +is demoralized, and cannot be trusted with the money to pay for a +dinner. + +It may be supposed, therefore, that this fractional emperor, this +continent-shaper, finds his position awkward when he goes into service, +and that his employer is apt to find it still more embarrassing. It is +always under protest that the hired man does his duty. Every act of +service is subject to the drawback, "I am as good as you are." This is +so common, at least, as almost to be the rule, and partly accounts for +the rapid disappearance of the indigenous "domestic" from the basements +above mentioned. Paleontologists will by-and-by be examining the floors +of our kitchens for tracks of the extinct native species of +serving-man. The female of the same race is fast dying out; indeed, the +time is not far distant when all the varieties of young _woman_ will +have vanished from New England, as the dodo has perished in the +Mauritius. The young _lady_ is all that we shall have left, and the mop +and duster of the last Almira or Loizy will be stared at by generations +of Bridgets and Noras as that famous head and foot of the lost bird are +stared at in the Ashmolean Museum. + +Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man, took the true American view of his +difficult position. He sold his time to the Doctor, and, having sold +it, he took care to fulfil his half of the bargain. The Doctor, on his +part, treated him, not like a gentleman, because one does not order a +gentleman to bring up his horse or run his errands, but he treated him +like a man. Every order was given in courteous terms. His reasonable +privileges were respected as much as if they had been guarantied under +hand and seal. The Doctor lent him books from his own library, and gave +him all friendly counsel, as if he were a son or a younger brother. + +Abel had Revolutionary blood in his veins, and though he saw fit to +"hire out," he could never stand the word "servant," or consider +himself the inferior one of the two high contracting parties. When he +came to live with the Doctor, he made up his mind he would dismiss the +old gentleman, if he did not behave according to his notions of +propriety. But he soon found that the Doctor was one of the right sort, +and so determined to keep him. The Doctor soon found, on his side, that +he had a trustworthy, intelligent fellow, who would be invaluable to +him, if he only let him have his own way of doing what was to be done. + +The Doctor's hired man had not the manners of a French valet. He was +grave and taciturn for the most part, he never bowed and rarely smiled, +but was always at work in the daytime and always reading in the +evening. He was hostler, and did all the housework that a man could +properly do, would go to the door or "tend table," bought the +provisions for the family,--in short, did almost everything for them +but get their clothing. There was no office in a perfectly appointed +household, from that of steward down to that of stable-boy, which he +did not cheerfully assume. His round of work not consuming all his +energies, he must needs cultivate the Doctor's garden, which he kept in +one perpetual bloom, from the blowing of the first crocus to the fading +of the last dahlia. + +This garden was Abel's poem. Its half-dozen beds were so many cantos. +Nature crowded them for him with imagery such as no Laureate could copy +in the cold mosaic of language. The rhythm of alternating dawn and +sunset, the strophe and antistrophe still perceptible through all the +sudden shifts of our dithyrambic seasons and echoed in corresponding +floral harmonies, made melody in the soul of Abel, the plain serving- +man. It softened his whole otherwise rigid aspect. He worshipped God +according to the strict way of his fathers; but a florist's Puritanism +is always colored by the petals of his flowers,--and Nature never shows +him a black corolla. + +Perhaps he may have little or nothing to do in this narrative; but as +there must be some who confound the New-England _hired man_, +native-born, with the _servant_ of foreign birth, and as there is the +difference of two continents and two civilizations between them, it did +not seem fair to let Abel bring round the Doctor's mare and sulky +without touching his features in half-shadow into our background. + +The Doctor's mare, Cassia, was so called by her master from her +cinnamon color, cassia being one of the professional names for that +spice or drug. She was of the shade we call sorrel, or, as an +Englishman would perhaps say, chestnut,--a genuine "Morgan" mare, with +a low forehand, as is common in this breed, but with strong quarters +and flat hocks, well ribbed up, with a good eye and a pair of lively +ears,--a first-rate doctor's beast,--would stand until her harness +dropped off her back at the door of a tedious case, and trot over hill +and dale thirty miles in three hours, if there was a child in the next +county with a bean in its windpipe and the Doctor gave her a hint of +the fact. Cassia was not large, but she had a good deal of action, and +was the Doctor's show-horse. There were two other animals in his +stable: Quassia or Quashy, the black horse, and Caustic, the old bay, +with whom he jogged round the village. + +"A long ride to-day?" said Abel, as he brought up the equipage. + +"Just out of the village,--that's all.--There's a kink in her +mane,--pull it out, will you?" + +"Goin' to visit some of the great folks," Abel said to himself. "Wonder +who it is."--Then to the Doctor,--"Anybody get sick at Sprowles's? They +say Deacon Soper had a fit, after eatin' some o' their frozen +victuals." + +The Doctor smiled. He guessed the Deacon would do well enough. He was +only going to ride over to the Dudley mansion-house. + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE DOCTOR CALLS ON ELSIE VENNER. + + +If that primitive physician, CHIRON, M.D., appears as a Centaur, as we +look at him through the lapse of thirty centuries, the modern +country-doctor, if he could be seen about thirty miles off, could not +be distinguished from a wheel-animalcule. He _inhabits_ a +wheel-carriage. He thinks of stationary dwellings as Long Tom Coffin +did of land in general; a house may be well enough for incidental +purposes, but for a "stiddy" residence give him a "kerridge." If he is +classified in the Linnaean scale, he must be set down thus: Genus +_Homo_; Species _Rotifer infusorius_,--the wheel-animal of infusions. + +The Dudley mansion was not a mile from the Doctor's; but it never +occurred to him to think of walking to see any of his patients' +families, if he had any professional object in his visit. Whenever the +narrow sulky turned in at a gate, the rustic who was digging potatoes, +or hoeing corn, or swishing through the grass with his scythe in +wave-like crescents, or stepping short behind a loaded wheel-barrow, +or trudging lazily by the side of the swinging, loose-throated, +short-legged oxen, rocking along the road as if they had just been +landed after a three-months' voyage,--the toiling native, whatever he +was doing, stopped and looked up at the house the doctor was visiting. + +"Somebody sick over there t' Haynes's. Guess th' old man's ailin' +ag'in. Winder's haaef-way open in the chamber,--shouldn't wonder 'f he +was dead and laid aout. Docterin' a'n't no use, when y' see the winders +open like that. Wahl, money a'n't much to speak of to th' old man naow! +He don't want but _tew cents_,--and old Widah Peake, she knows what he +wants them for!" + +Or again,-- + +"Measles raound pootty thick. Briggs's folks's' buried two children +with 'em laaest week. Th' old Doctor, he'd h' ker'd 'em threugh. Struck +in 'n' p'dooeed mot'f cation,--so they say." + +This is only meant as a sample of the kind of way they used to think or +talk, when the narrow sulky turned in at the gate of some house where +there was a visit to be made. + +Oh, that narrow sulky! What hopes, what fears, what comfort, what +anguish, what despair, in the roll of its coming or its parting wheels! +In the spring, when the old people get the coughs which give them a few +shakes and their lives drop in pieces like the ashes of a burned thread +which have kept the threadlike shape until they were stirred,--in the +hot summer noons, when the strong man comes in from the fields, like +the son of the Shunamite, crying, "My head, my head,"--in the dying +autumn days, when youth and maiden lie fever-stricken in many a +household, still-faced, dull-eyed, dark-flushed, dry-lipped, +low-muttering in their daylight dreams, their fingers moving singly +like those of slumbering harpers,--in the dead winter, when the white +plague of the North has caged its wasted victims, shuddering as they +think of the frozen soil which must be quarried like rock to receive +them, if their perpetual convalescence should happen to be interfered +with by any untoward accident,--at every season, the narrow sulky +rolled round freighted with unmeasured burdens of joy and woe. + +The Doctor drove along the southern foot of The Mountain. The "Dudley +mansion" was near the eastern edge of this declivity, where it rose +steepest, with baldest cliffs and densest patches of over-hanging wood. +It seemed almost too steep to climb, but a practised eye could see from +a distance the zigzag lines of the sheep-paths which scaled it like +miniature Alpine roads. A few hundred feet up The Mountain's side was a +dark, deep dell, unwooded, save for a few spindling, crazy--looking +hackmatacks or native larches, with pallid green tufts sticking out +fantastically all over them. It shelved so deeply, that, while the +hemlock-tassels were swinging on the trees around its border, all would +be still at its springy bottom, save that perhaps a single fern would +wave slowly backward and forward like a sabre, with a twist as of a +feathered oar,--and this, when not a breath could be felt, and every +other stem and blade were motionless. There was an old story of one +having perished here in the winter of '86, and his body having been +found in the spring,--whence its common name of "Dead-Man's Hollow." +Higher up there were huge cliffs with chasms, and, it was thought, +concealed caves, where in old times they said that Tories lay +hid,--some hinted not without occasional aid and comfort from the +Dudleys then living in the mansion-house. Still higher and farther west +lay the accursed ledge,--shunned by all, unless it were now and then a +daring youth, or a wandering naturalist who ventured to its edge in the +hope of securing some infantile _Crotalus durissus_, who had not yet +cut his poison-teeth. + +Long, long ago, in old Colonial times, the Honorable Thomas Dudley, +Esquire, a man of note and name and great resources, allied by descent +to the family of "Tom Dudley," as the early Governor is sometimes +irreverently called by our most venerable, but still youthful +antiquary,--and to the other public Dudleys, of course,--of all of whom +he made small account, as being himself an English gentleman, with +little taste for the splendors of provincial office,--early in the last +century, Thomas Dudley had built this mansion. For several generations +it had been dwelt in by descendants of the same name, but soon after +the Revolution it passed by marriage into the hands of the Venners, by +whom it had ever since been held and tenanted. + +As the Doctor turned an angle in the road, all at once the stately old +house rose before him. It was a skilfully managed effect, as it well +might be, for it was no vulgar English architect who had planned the +mansion and arranged its position and approach. The old house rose +before the Doctor crowning a terraced garden, flanked at the left by a +double avenue of tall elms. The flower-beds were edged with box, which +diffused around it that dreamy balsamic odor, full of ante-natal +reminiscences of a lost Paradise, dimly fragrant as might be the +bdellium of ancient Havilah, the land compassed by the river Pison that +went out of Eden. The garden was somewhat neglected, but not in +disgrace,--and in the time of tulips and hyacinths, of roses, of +"snowballs," of honeysuckles, of lilacs, of syringas, it was rich with +blossoms. + +From the front-windows of the mansion the eye reached a far blue +mountain-summit,--no rounded heap, such as often shuts in a +village-landscape, but a sharp peak, clean-angled as Ascutney from the +Dartmouth green. A wide gap through miles of woods had opened this +distant view, and showed more, perhaps, than all the labors of the +architect and the landscape-gardener the large style of the early +Dudleys. + +The great stone chimney of the mansion-house was the centre from which +all the artificial features of the scene appeared to flow. The roofs, +the gables, the dormer-windows, the porches, the clustered offices in +the rear, all seemed to crowd about the great chimney. To this central +pillar the paths all converged. The single poplar behind the +house,--Nature is jealous of proud chimneys, and always loves to put a +poplar near one, so that it may fling a leaf or two down its black +throat every autumn,--the one tall poplar behind the house seemed to +nod and whisper to the grave square column, the elms to sway their +branches towards it. And when the blue smoke rose from its summit, it +seemed to be wafted away to join the azure haze which hung around the +peak in the far distance, so that both should bathe in a common +atmosphere. + +Behind the house were clumps of lilacs with a century's growth upon +them, and looking more like trees than like shrubs. Shaded by a group +of these was the ancient well, of huge circuit, and with a low arch +opening out of its wall about ten feet below the surface,--whether the +door of a crypt for the concealment of treasure, or of a subterranean +passage, or merely of a vault for keeping provisions cool in hot +weather, opinions differed. + +On looking at the house, it was plain that it was built with Old-World +notions of strength and durability, and, so far as might be, with +Old-World materials. The hinges of the doors stretched out like arms, +instead of like hands, as we make them. The bolts were massive enough +for a donjon-keep. The small window-panes were actually inclosed in the +wood of the sashes, instead of being stuck to them with putty, as in +our modern windows. The broad staircase was of easy ascent, and was +guarded by quaintly turned and twisted balusters. The ceilings of the +two rooms of state were moulded with medallion-portraits and rustic +figures, such as may have been seen by many readers in the famous old +Philipse house,--Washington's headquarters,--in the town of Yonkers. +The fireplaces, worthy of the wide-throated central chimney, were +bordered by pictured tiles, some of them with Scripture stories, some +with Watteau-like figures,--tall damsels in slim waists and with spread +enough of skirt for a modern ballroom, with bowing, reclining, or +musical swains of what everybody calls the "conventional" sort,--that +is, the swain adapted to genteel society rather than to a literal +sheep-compelling existence. + +The house was furnished, soon after it was completed, with many heavy +articles made in London from a rare wood just then come into fashion, +not so rare now, and commonly known as mahogany. Time had turned it +very dark, and the stately bedsteads and tall cabinets and claw-footed +chairs and tables were in keeping with the sober dignity of the ancient +mansion. The old "hangings" were yet preserved in the chambers, faded, +but still showing their rich patterns,--properly entitled to their +name, for they were literally hung upon flat wooden frames like +trellis-work, which again were secured to the naked partitions. +There were portraits of different date on the walls of the various +apartments, old painted coats-of-arms, bevel-edged mirrors, and in one +sleeping-room a glass case of wax-work flowers and spangly symbols, +with a legend signifying that E.M. (supposed to be Elizabeth Mascarene) +wished not to be "forgot" + + "When I am dead and lay'd in dust + And all my bones are"---- + +Poor E.M.! Poor everybody that sighs for earthly remembrance in a +planet with a core of fire and a crust of fossils! + +Such was the Dudley mansion-house,--for it kept its ancient name in +spite of the change in the line of descent. Its spacious apartments +looked dreary and desolate; for here Dudley Venner and his daughter +dwelt by themselves, with such servants only as their quiet mode of +life required. He almost lived in his library, the western room on the +ground-floor. Its window looked upon a small plat of green, in the +midst of which was a single grave marked by a plain marble slab. Except +this room, and the chamber where he slept, and the servants' wing, the +rest of the house was all Elsie's. She was always a restless, wandering +child from her early years, and would have her little bed moved from +one chamber to another,--flitting round as the fancy took her. +Sometimes she would drag a mat and a pillow into one of the great empty +rooms, and, wrapping herself in a shawl, coil up and go to sleep in a +corner. Nothing frightened her; the "haunted" chamber, with the torn +hangings that flapped like wings when there was air stirring, was one +of her favorite retreats. + +She had been a very hard creature to manage. Her father could +influence, but not govern her. Old Sophy, born of a slave mother in the +house, could do more with her than anybody, knowing her by long +instinctive study. The other servants were afraid of her. Her father +had sent for governesses, but none of them ever stayed long. She made +them nervous; one of them had a strange fit of sickness; not one of +them ever came back to the house to see her. A young Spanish woman who +taught her dancing succeeded best with her, for she had a passion for +that exercise, and had mastered some of the most difficult dances. + +Long before this period, she had manifested some most extraordinary +singularities of taste or instinct. The extreme sensitiveness of her +father on this point prevented any allusion to them; but there were +stories floating round, some of them even getting into the +papers,--without her name, of course,--which were of a kind to excite +intense curiosity, if not more anxious feelings. This thing was +certain, that at the age of twelve she was missed one night, and was +found sleeping in the open air under a tree, like a wild creature. Very +often she would wander off by day, always without a companion, bringing +home with her a nest, a flower, or even a more questionable trophy of +her ramble, such as showed that there was no place where she was afraid +to venture. Once in a while she had stayed out over night, in which +case the alarm was spread, and men went in search of her, but never +successfully,--so that some said she hid herself in trees, and others +that she had found one of the old Tory caves. + +Some, of course, said she was a crazy girl, and ought to be sent to an +Asylum. But old Dr. Kittredge had shaken his head, and told them to +bear with her, and let her have her way as much as they could, but +watch her, as far as possible, without making her suspicious of them. +He visited her now and then, under the pretext of seeing her father on +business, or of only making a friendly call. + + * * * * * + +The Doctor fastened his horse outside the gate, and walked up the +garden-alley. He stopped suddenly with a start. A strange sound had +jarred upon his ear. It was a sharp prolonged rattle, continuous, but +rising and falling as if in rhythmical cadence. He moved softly towards +the open window from which the sound seemed to proceed. + +Elsie was alone in the room, dancing one of those wild Moorish +fandangos, such as a _matador_ hot from the _Plaza de Toros_ of Seville +or Madrid might love to lie and gaze at. She was a figure to look upon +in silence. The dancing frenzy must have seized upon her while she was +dressing; for she was in her bodice, bare-armed, her hair floating +unbound far below the waist of her barred or banded skirt. She had +caught up her castanets, and rattled them as she danced with a kind of +passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace, +her diamond eyes glittering, her round arms wreathing and unwinding, +alive and vibrant to the tips of the slender fingers. Some passion +seemed to exhaust itself in this dancing paroxysm; for all at once she +reeled from the middle of the floor, and flung herself, as it were in a +careless coil, upon a great tiger's-skin which was spread out in one corner +of the apartment. + +The old Doctor stood motionless, looking at her as she lay panting on +the tawny, black-lined robe of the dead monster, which stretched out +beneath her, its rude flattened outline recalling the Terror of the +Jungle as he crouched for his fatal spring. In a few moments her head +drooped upon her arm, and her glittering eyes closed,--she was +sleeping. He stood looking at her still, steadily, thoughtfully, +tenderly. Presently he lifted his hand to his forehead, as if recalling +some fading remembrance of other years. + +"Poor Catalina!" + +This was all he said. He shook his head,--implying that his visit would +be in vain to-day,--returned to his sulky, and rode away, as if in a +dream. + + * * * * * + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. + + +The romance of "The Marble Faun" will be widely welcomed, not only for +its intrinsic merits, but because it is a sign that its writer, after a +silence of seven or eight years, has determined to resume his place in +the ranks of authorship. In his preface he tells us, that in each of +his previous publications he had unconsciously one person in his eye, +whom he styles his "gentle reader." He meant it "for that one congenial +friend, more comprehensive of his purposes, more appreciative of his. +success, more indulgent of his short-comings, and, in all respects, +closer and kinder than a brother,--that all-sympathizing critic, in +short, whom an author never actually meets, but to whom he implicitly +makes his appeal, whenever he is conscious of having done his best." He +believes that this reader did once exist for him, and duly received the +scrolls he flung "upon whatever wind was blowing, in the faith that +they would find him out." "But," he questions, "is he extant now? In +these many years since he last heard from me, may he not have deemed +his earthly task accomplished, and have withdrawn to the paradise of +gentle readers, wherever it may be, to the enjoyments of which his +kindly charity on my behalf must surely have entitled him?" As we feel +assured that Hawthorne's reputation has been steadily growing with the +lapse of time, he has no cause to fear that the longevity of his gentle +reader will not equal his own. As long as he writes, there will be +readers enough to admire and appreciate. + +The publication of this new romance seems to offer us a fitting +occasion to attempt some description of the peculiarities of the genius +of which it is the latest offspring, and to hazard some judgments on +its predecessors. It is more than twenty-five years since Hawthorne +began that remarkable series of stories and essays which are now +collected in the volumes of "Twice-Told Tales," "The Snow Image and +other Tales," and "Mosses from an Old Manse." From the first he was +recognized by such readers as he chanced to find as a man of genius, +yet for a long time he enjoyed, in his own words, the distinction of +being "the obscurest man of letters in America." His readers were +"gentle" rather than enthusiastic; their fine delight in his creations +was a private perception of subtile excellences of thought and style, +too refined and self-satisfying to be contagious; and the public was +untouched, whilst the "gentle" reader was full of placid enjoyment. +Indeed, we fear that this kind of reader is something of an +Epicurean,--receives a new genius as a private blessing, sent by a +benign Providence to quicken a new life in his somewhat jaded sense of +intellectual pleasure; and after having received a fresh sensation, he +is apt to be serenely indifferent whether the creator of it starve +bodily or pine mentally from the lack of a cordial human shout of +recognition. + +There would appear, on a slight view of the matter, no reason for the +little notice which Hawthorne's early productions received. The +subjects were mostly drawn from the traditions and written records of +New England, and gave the "beautiful strangeness" of imagination to +objects, incidents, and characters which were familiar facts in the +popular mind. The style, while it had a purity, sweetness, and grace +which satisfied the most fastidious and exacting taste, had, at the +same time, more than the simplicity and clearness of an ordinary +school-book. But though the subjects and the style were thus popular, +there was something in the shaping and informing spirit which failed to +awaken interest, or awakened interest without exciting delight. +Misanthropy, when it has its source in passion,--when it is fierce, +bitter, fiery, and scornful,--when it vigorously echoes the aggressive +discontent of the world, and furiously tramples on the institutions and +the men luckily rather than rightfully in the ascendant,--this is +always popular; but a misanthropy which springs from insight,--a +misanthropy which is lounging, languid, sad, and depressing,--a +misanthropy which remorselessly looks through cursing misanthropes and +chirping men of the world with the same sure, detecting glance of +reason,--a misanthropy which has no fanaticism, and which casts the +same ominous doubt on subjectively morbid as on subjectively moral +action,--a misanthropy which has no respect for impulses, but has a +terrible perception of spiritual laws,--this is a misanthropy which can +expect no wide recognition; and it would be vain to deny that traces of +this kind of misanthropy are to be found in Hawthorne's earlier, and +are not altogether absent from his later works. He had spiritual +insight, but it did not penetrate to the sources of spiritual joy; and +his deepest glimpses of truth were calculated rather to sadden than to +inspire. A blandly cynical distrust of human nature was the result of +his most piercing glances into the human soul. He had humor, and +sometimes humor of a delicious kind; but this sunshine of the soul was +but sunshine breaking through or lighting up a sombre and ominous +cloud. There was also observable in his earlier stories a lack of vigor, +as if the power of his nature had been impaired by the very +process--which gave depth and excursiveness to his mental vision. +Throughout, the impression is conveyed of a shy recluse, alternately +bashful in disposition and bold in thought, gifted with original and +various capacities, but capacities which seemed to have developed +themselves in the shade, without sufficient energy of will or desire to +force them, except fitfully, into the sunlight. Shakspeare calls +moonlight the sunlight _sick_; and it is in some such moonlight of the +mind that the genius of Hawthorne found its first expression. A mild +melancholy, sometimes deepening into gloom, sometimes brightened into a +"humorous sadness," characterized his early creations. Like his own +Hepzibah Pyncheon, he appeared "to be walking in a dream"; or rather, +the life and reality assumed by his emotions "made all outward +occurrences unsubstantial, like the teasing phantasms of an unconscious +slumber." Though dealing largely in description, and with the most +accurate perceptions of outward objects, he still, to use again his own +words, gives the impression of a man "chiefly accustomed to look +inward, and to whom external matters are of little value or import, +unless they bear relation to something within his own mind." But that +"something within his own mind" was often an unpleasant something, +perhaps a ghastly occult perception of deformity and sin in what +appeared outwardly fair and good; so that the reader felt a secret +dissatisfaction with the disposition which directed the genius, even in +the homage he awarded to the genius itself. As psychological portraits +of morbid natures, his delineations of character might have given a +purely intellectual satisfaction; but there was audible, to the +delicate ear, a faint and muffled growl of personal discontent, which +showed they were not mere exercises of penetrating imaginative +analysis, but had in them the morbid vitality of a despondent mood. + +Yet, after admitting these peculiarities, nobody who is now drawn to +the "Twice-Told Tales," from his interest in the later romances of +Hawthorne, can fail to wonder a little at the limited number of readers +they attracted on their original publication. For many of these stories +are at once a representation of early New-England life and a criticism +on it. They have much of the deepest truth of history in them. "The +Legends of the Province House," "The Gray Champion," "The Gentle Boy," +"The Minister's Black Veil," "Endicott and the Red Cross," not to +mention others, contain important matter which cannot be found in +Bancroft or Grahame. They exhibit the inward struggles of New-England +men and women with some of the darkest problems of existence, and have +more vital import to thoughtful minds than the records of Indian or +Revolutionary warfare. In the "Prophetic Pictures," "Fancy's Show-Box," +"The Great Carbuncle," "The Haunted Mind," and "Edward Fane's +Rose-Bud," there are flashes of moral insight, which light up, for the +moment, the darkest recesses of the individual mind; and few sermons +reach to the depth of thought and sentiment from which these seemingly +airy sketches draw their sombre life. It is common, for instance, for +religious moralists to insist on the great spiritual truth, that wicked +thoughts and impulses, which circumstances prevent from passing into +wicked acts, are still deeds in the sight of God; but the living truth +subsides into a dead truism, as enforced by commonplace preachers. In +"Fancy's Show-Box," Hawthorne seizes the prolific idea; and the +respectable merchant and respected church-member, in the still hour of +his own meditation, convicts himself of being a liar, cheat, thief, +seducer, and murderer, as he casts his glance over the mental events +which form his spiritual biography. Interspersed with serious histories +and moralities like these, are others which embody the sweet and +playful, though still thoughtful and slightly saturnine action of +Hawthorne's mind,--like "The Seven Vagabonds," "Snow-Flakes," "The +Lily's Quest," "Mr. Higgenbotham's Catastrophe," "Little Annie's +Ramble," "Sights from a Steeple," "Sunday at Home," and "A Rill from +the Town-Pump." + +The "Mosses from an Old Manse" are intellectually and artistically an +advance from the "Twice-Told Tales." The twenty-three stories and +essays which make up the volumes are almost perfect of their kind. Each +is complete in itself, and many might be expanded into long romances by +the simple method of developing the possibilities of their shadowy +types of character into appropriate incidents. In description, +narration, allegory, humor, reason, fancy, subtilty, inventiveness, +they exceed the best productions of Addison; but they want Addison's +sensuous contentment and sweet and kindly spirit. Though the author +denies that he has exhibited his own individual attributes in these +"Mosses," though he professes not to be "one of those supremely +hospitable people who serve up their own hearts delicately fried, with +brain-sauce, as a titbit for their beloved public,"--yet it is none the +less apparent that he has diffused through each tale and sketch the +life of the mental mood to which it owed its existence, and that one +individuality pervades and colors the whole collection. The defect of +the serious stories is, that character is introduced, not as thinking, +but as the illustration of thought. The persons are ghostly, with a sad +lack of flesh and blood. They are phantasmal symbols of a reflective +and imaginative analysis of human passions and aspirations. The +dialogue, especially, is bookish, as though the personages knew their +speech was to be printed, and were careful of the collocation and +rhythm of their words. The author throughout is evidently more +interested in his large, wide, deep, indolently serene, and lazily sure +and critical view of the conflict of ideas and passions, than he is +with the individuals who embody them. He shows moral insight without +moral earnestness. He cannot contract his mind to the patient +delineation of a moral individual, but attempts to use individuals in +order to express the last results of patient moral perception. Young +Goodman Brown and Roger Malvin are not persons; they are the mere, +loose, personal expression of subtile thinking. "The Celestial +Railroad," "The Procession of Life," "Earth's Holocaust," "The Bosom +Serpent," indicate thought of a character equally deep, delicate, and +comprehensive, but the characters are ghosts of men rather than +substantial individualities. In the "Mosses from an Old Manse," we are +really studying the phenomena of human nature, while, for the time, we +beguile ourselves into the belief that we are following the fortunes of +individual natures. + +Up to this time the writings of Hawthorne conveyed the impression of a +genius in which insight so dominated over impulse, that it was rather +mentally and morally curious than mentally and morally impassioned. The +quality evidently wanting to its full expression was intensity. In the +romance of "The Scarlet Letter" he first made his genius efficient by +penetrating it with passion. This book forced itself into attention by +its inherent power; and the author's name, previously known only to a +limited circle of readers, suddenly became a familiar word in the +mouths of the great reading public of America and England. It may be +said, that it "captivated" nobody, but took everybody captive. Its +power could neither be denied nor resisted. There were growls of +disapprobation from novel-readers, that Hester Prynne and the Rev. Mr. +Dimmesdale were subjected to cruel punishments unknown to the +jurisprudence of fiction,--that the author was an inquisitor who put +his victims on the rack,--and that neither amusement nor delight +resulted from seeing the contortions and hearing the groans of these +martyrs of sin; but the fact was no less plain that Hawthorne had for +once compelled the most superficial lovers of romance to submit +themselves to the magic of his genius. The readers of Dickens voted +him, with three times three, to the presidency of their republic of +letters; the readers of Hawthorne were caught by a _coup d'etat_, and +fretfully submitted to a despot whom they could not depose. + +The success of "The Scarlet Letter" is an example of the advantage +which an author gains by the simple concentration of his powers on one +absorbing subject. In the "Twice-Told Tales" and the "Mosses from an +Old Manse" Hawthorne had exhibited a wider range of sight and insight +than in "The Scarlet Letter." Indeed, in the little sketch of "Endicott +and the Red Cross," written twenty years before, he had included in a +few sentences the whole matter which he afterwards treated in his +famous story. In describing the various inhabitants of an early +New-England town, as far as they were representative, he touches +incidentally on a "young woman, with no mean share of beauty, whose +doom it was to wear the letter A on the breast of her gown, in the eyes +of all the world and her own children. And even her own children knew +what that initial signified. Sporting with her infamy, the lost and +desperate creature had embroidered the fatal token in scarlet cloth, +with golden thread and the nicest art of needle-work; so that the +capital A might have been thought to mean Admirable, or anything, +rather than Adulteress." Here is the germ of the whole pathos and +terror of "The Scarlet Letter"; but it is hardly noted in the throng of +symbols, equally pertinent, in the few pages of the little sketch from +which we have quoted. + +Two characteristics of Hawthorne's genius stand plainly out, in the +conduct and characterization of the romance of "The Scarlet Letter," +which were less obviously prominent in his previous works. The first +relates to his subordination of external incidents to inward events. +Mr. James's "solitary horseman" does more in one chapter than +Hawthorne's hero in twenty chapters; but then James deals with the arms +of men, while Hawthorne deals with their souls. Hawthorne relies almost +entirely for the interest of his story on what is felt and done within +the minds of his characters. Even his most picturesque descriptions and +narratives are only one-tenth matter to nine-tenths spirit. The results +that follow from one external act of folly or crime are to him enough +for an Iliad of woes. It might be supposed that his whole theory of +Romantic Art was based on these tremendous lines of Wordsworth:-- + + "Action is momentary,-- + The motion of a muscle, this way or that: + Suffering is long, obscure, and infinite." + +The second characteristic of his genius is connected with the first. +With his insight of individual souls he combines a far deeper insight +of the spiritual laws which govern the strangest aberrations of +individual souls. But it seems to us that his mental eye, keen-sighted +and far-sighted as it is, overlooks the merciful modifications of the +austere code whose pitiless action it so clearly discerns. In his long +and patient brooding over the spiritual phenomena of Puritan life, it +is apparent, to the least critical observer, that he has imbibed a deep +personal antipathy to the Puritanic ideal of character; but it is no +less apparent that his intellect and imagination have been strangely +fascinated by the Puritanic idea of justice. His brain has been subtly +infected by the Puritanic perception of Law, without being warmed by +the Puritanic faith in Grace. Individually, he would much prefer to +have been one of his own "Seven Vagabonds" rather than one of the +austerest preachers of the primitive church of New England; but the +austerest preacher of the primitive church of New England would have +been more tender and considerate to a real Mr. Dimmesdale and a real +Hester Prynne than this modern romancer has been to their typical +representatives in the world of imagination. Throughout "The Scarlet +Letter" we seem to be following the guidance of an author who is +personally good-natured, but intellectually and morally relentless. + +"The House of the Seven Gables," Hawthorne's next work, while it has +less concentration of passion and tension of mind than "The Scarlet +Letter," includes a wider range of observation, reflection, and +character; and the morality, dreadful as fate, which hung like a black +cloud over the personages of the previous story, is exhibited in more +relief. Although the book has no imaginative creation equal to little +Pearl, it still contains numerous examples of characterization at once +delicate and deep. Clifford, especially, is a study in psychology, as +well as a marvellously subtile delineation of enfeebled manhood. The +general idea of the story is this,--"that the wrong-doing of one +generation lives into the successive ones, and, divesting itself of +every temporary advantage, becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief"; +and the mode in which this idea is carried out shows great force, +fertility, and refinement of mind. A weird fancy, sporting with the +facts detected by a keen observation, gives to every gable of the Seven +Gables, every room in the House, every burdock growing rankly before +the door, a symbolic significance. The queer mansion is +haunted,--haunted with thoughts which every moment are liable to take +ghostly shape. All the Pyncheons who have resided in it appear to have +infected the very timbers and walls with the spiritual essence of their +lives, and each seems ready to pass from a memory into a presence. The +stern theory of the author regarding the hereditary transmission of +family qualities, and the visiting of the sins of the fathers on the +heads of their children, almost wins our reluctant assent through the +pertinacity with which the generations of the Pyncheon race are made +not merely to live in the blood and brain of their descendants, but to +cling to their old abiding-place on earth, so that to inhabit the house +is to breathe the Pyncheon soul and assimilate the Pyncheon +individuality. The whole representation, masterly as it is, considered +as an effort of intellectual and imaginative power, would still be +morally bleak, were it not for the sunshine and warmth radiated from +the character of Phoebe. In this delightful creation Hawthorne for once +gives himself up to homely human nature, and has succeeded in +delineating a New-England girl, cheerful, blooming, practical, +affectionate, efficient, full of innocence and happiness, with all the +"handiness" and native sagacity of her class, and so true and close to +Nature that the process by which she is slightly idealized is +completely hidden. + +In this romance there is also more humor than in any of his other +works. It peeps out, even in the most serious passages, in a kind of +demure rebellion against the fanaticism of his remorseless +intelligence. In the description of the Pyncheon poultry, which we +think unexcelled by anything in Dickens for quaintly fanciful humor, +the author seems to indulge in a sort of parody on his own doctrine of +the hereditary transmission of family qualities. At any rate, that +strutting chanticleer, with his two meagre wives and one wizened +chicken, is a sly side fleer at the tragic aspect of the law of +descent. Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon, her shop, and her customers, are so +delightful, that the reader would willingly spare a good deal of +Clifford and Judge Pyncheon and Holgrave, for more details of them and +Phoebe. Uncle Venner, also, the old wood-sawyer, who boasts "that he +has seen a good deal of the world, not only in people's kitchens and +back-yards, but at the street-corners, and on the wharves, and in other +places where his business" called him, and who, on the strength of this +comprehensive experience, feels qualified to give the final decision in +every case which tasks the resources of human wisdom, is a very much +more humane and interesting gentleman than the Judge. Indeed, one +cannot but regret that Hawthorne should be so economical of his +undoubted stores of humor,--and that, in the two romances he has since +written, humor, in the form of character, does not appear at all. + +Before proceeding to the consideration of "The Blithedale Romance," it +is necessary to say a few words on the seeming separation of +Hawthorne's genius from his will. He has none of that ability which +enabled Scott and enables Dickens to force their powers into action, +and to make what was begun in drudgery soon assume the character of +inspiration. Hawthorne cannot thus use his genius; his genius always +uses him. This is so true, that he often succeeds better in what calls +forth his personal antipathies than in what calls forth his personal +sympathies. His life of General Pierce, for instance, is altogether +destitute of life; yet in writing it he must have exerted himself to +the utmost, as his object was to urge the claims of an old and dear +friend to the Presidency of the Republic. The style, of course, is +excellent, as it is impossible for Hawthorne to write bad English, but +the genius of the man has deserted him. General Pierce, whom he loves, +he draws so feebly, that one doubts, while reading the biography, if +such a man exists; Hollingsworth, whom he hates, is so vividly +characterized, that the doubt is, while we read the romance, whether +such a man can possibly be fictitious. + +Midway between such a work as the "Life of General Pierce" and "The +Scarlet Letter" may be placed "The Wonder-Book" and "Tanglewood Tales." +In these Hawthorne's genius distinctly appears, and appears in its most +lovable, though not in its deepest form. These delicious stories, +founded on the mythology of Greece, were written for children, but they +delight men and women as well. Hawthorne never pleases grown people so +much as when he writes with an eye to the enjoyment of little people. + +Now "The Blithedale Romance" is far from being so pleasing a +performance as "Tanglewood Tales," yet it very much better illustrates +the operation, indicates the quality, and expresses the power, of the +author's genius. His great books appear not so much created by him as +through him. They have the character of revelations,--he, the +instrument, being often troubled with the burden they impose on his +mind. His profoundest glances into individual souls are like the +marvels of clairvoyance. It would seem, that, in the production of such +a work as "The Blithedale Romance," his mind had hit accidentally, as +it were, on an idea or fact mysteriously related to some morbid +sentiment in the inmost core of his nature, and connecting itself with +numerous scattered observations of human life, lying unrelated in his +imagination. In a sort of meditative dream, his intellect drifts in the +direction to which the subject points, broods patiently over it, looks +at it, looks into it, and at last looks through it to the law by which +it is governed. Gradually, individual beings, definite in spiritual +quality, but shadowy in substantial form, group themselves around this +central conception, and by degrees assume an outward body and +expression corresponding to their internal nature. On the depth and +intensity of the mental mood, the force of the fascination it exerts +over him, and the length of time it holds him captive, depend the +solidity and substance of the individual characterizations. In this way +Miles Coverdale, Hollingsworth, Westervelt, Zenobia, and Priscilla +become real persons to the mind which has called them into being. He +knows every secret and watches every motion of their souls, yet is, in +a measure, independent of them, and pretends to no authority by which +he can alter the destiny which consigns them to misery or happiness. +They drift to their doom by the same law by which they drifted across +the path of his vision. Individually, he abhors Hollingsworth, and +would like to annihilate Westervelt, yet he allows the superb Zenobia +to be their victim; and if his readers object that the effect of the +whole representation is painful, he would doubtless agree with them, +but profess his incapacity honestly to alter a sentence. He professes +to tell the story as it was revealed to him; and the license in which a +romancer might indulge is denied to a biographer of spirits. Show him a +fallacy in his logic of passion and character, point out a false or +defective step in his analysis, and he will gladly alter the whole to +your satisfaction; but four human souls, such as he has described, +being given, their mutual attractions and repulsions will end, he feels +assured, in just such a catastrophe as he has stated. + +Eight years have passed since "The Blithedale Romance" was written, and +during nearly the whole of this period Hawthorne has resided abroad. +"The Marble Faun," which must, on the whole, be considered the greatest +of his works, proves that his genius has widened and deepened in this +interval, without any alteration or modification of its characteristic +merits and characteristic defects. The most obvious excellence of the +work is the vivid truthfulness of its descriptions of Italian life, +manners, and scenery; and, considered merely as a record of a tour in +Italy, it is of great interest and attractiveness. The opinions on Art, +and the special criticisms on the masterpieces of architecture, +sculpture, and painting, also possess a value of their own. The story +might have been told, and the characters fully represented, in +one-third of the space devoted to them, yet description and narration +are so artfully combined that each assists to give interest to the +other. Hawthorne is one of those true observers who concentrate in +observation every power of their minds. He has accurate sight and +piercing insight. When he modifies either the form or the spirit of the +objects he describes, he does it either by viewing them through the +medium of an imagined mind or by obeying associations which they +themselves suggest. We might quote from the descriptive portions of the +work a hundred pages, at least, which would demonstrate how closely +accurate observation is connected with the highest powers of the +intellect and imagination. + +The style of the book is perfect of its kind, and, if Hawthorne had +written nothing else, would entitle him to rank among the great masters +of English composition. Walter Savage Landor is reported to have said +of an author whom he knew in his youth, "My friend wrote excellent +English, a language now obsolete." Had "The Marble Faun" appeared +before he uttered this sarcasm, the wit of the remark would have been +pointless. Hawthorne not only writes English, but the sweetest, +simplest, and clearest English that ever has been made the vehicle of +equal depth, variety, and subtilty of thought and emotion. His mind is +reflected in his style as a face is reflected in a mirror; and the +latter does not give back its image with less appearance of effort than +the former. His excellence consists not so much in using common words +as in making common words express uncommon things. Swift, Addison, +Goldsmith, not to mention others, wrote with as much simplicity; but +the style of neither embodies an individuality so complex, passions so +strange and intense, sentiments so fantastic and preternatural, +thoughts so profound and delicate, and imaginations so remote from the +recognized limits of the ideal, as find an orderly outlet in the pure +English of Hawthorne. He has hardly a word to which Mrs. Trimmer would +primly object, hardly a sentence which would call forth the frosty +anathema of Blair, Hurd, Kames, or Whately, and yet he contrives to +embody in his simple style qualities which would almost excuse the +verbal extravagances of Carlyle. + +In regard to the characterization and plot of "The Marble Faun," there +is room for widely varying opinions. Hilda, Miriam, and Donatello will +be generally received as superior in power and depth to any of +Hawthorne's previous creations of character; Donatello, especially, +must be considered one of the most original and exquisite conceptions +in the whole range of romance; but the story in which they appear will +seem to many an unsolved puzzle, and even the tolerant and +interpretative "gentle reader" will be troubled with the unsatisfactory +conclusion. It is justifiable for a romancer to sting the curiosity of +his readers with a mystery, only on the implied obligation to explain +it at last; but this story begins in mystery only to end in mist. The +suggestive faculty is tormented rather than genially excited, and in +the end is left a prey to doubts. The central idea of the story, the +necessity of sin to convert such a creature as Donatello into a moral +being, is also not happily illustrated in the leading event. When +Donatello kills the wretch who malignantly dogs the steps of Miriam, +all readers think that Donatello committed no sin at all; and the +reason is, that Hawthorne has deprived the persecutor of Miriam of all +human attributes, made him an allegorical representation of one of the +most fiendish forms of unmixed evil, so that we welcome his destruction +with something of the same feeling with which, in following the +allegory of Spenser or Bunyan, we rejoice in the hero's victory over +the Blatant Beast or Giant Despair. Conceding, however, that +Donatello's act was murder, and not "justifiable homicide," we are +still not sure that the author's conception of his nature and of the +change caused in his nature by that act, are carried out with a +felicity corresponding to the original conception. + +In the first volume, and in the early part of the second, the author's +hold on his design is comparatively firm, but it somewhat relaxes as he +proceeds, and in the end it seems almost to escape from his grasp. Few +can be satisfied with the concluding chapters, for the reason that +nothing is really concluded. We are willing to follow the ingenious +processes of Calhoun's deductive logic, because we are sure, that, +however severely they task the faculty of attention, they will lead to +some positive result; but Hawthorne's logic of events leaves us in the +end bewildered in a labyrinth of guesses. The book is, on the whole, +such a great book, that its defects are felt with all the more force. + +In this rapid glance at some of the peculiarities of Hawthorne's +genius, we have not, of course, been able to do full justice to the +special merits of the works we have passed in review; but we trust that +we have said nothing which would convey the impression that we do not +place them among the most remarkable romances produced in an age in +which romance-writing has called forth some of the highest powers of +the human mind. In intellect and imagination, in the faculty of +discerning spirits and detecting laws, we doubt if any living novelist +is his equal; but his genius, in its creative action, has been +heretofore attracted to the dark rather than the bright side of the +interior life of humanity, and the geniality which evidently is in him +has rarely found adequate expression. In the many works which he may +still be expected to write, it is to be hoped that his mind will lose +some of its sadness of tone without losing any of its subtilty and +depth; but, in any event, it would be unjust to deny that he has +already done enough to insure him a commanding position in American +literature as long as American literature has an existence. + + * * * * * + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Le Prime Quattro Edizioni della Divina Commedia Letteralmente +Ristampate per Cura di_ G.G. WARREN LORD VERNON. Londra: Presso Tommaso +e Guglielmo Boone. MDCCCLVIII. 4to. pp. xxvi., 748. + +The zeal with which the study of Dante has been followed by students in +every country of Europe, during the last forty years, is one of the +most illustrative facts of the moral as well as of the intellectual +character of the period. The interest which has attracted men of the +most different tempers and persuasions to this study is not due alone +to the poetic or historic value of his works, however high we may place +them in these respects, but also and especially to the circumstance +that they present a complete and distinct view of the internal life and +spiritual disposition of an age in which the questions which still +chiefly concern men were for the first time positively stated, and +which exhibited in its achievements and its efforts some of the highest +qualities of human nature in a condition of vigor such as they have +never since shown. Dante himself combined a power of imagination beyond +that of any other poet with an intensity and directness of individual +character not less extraordinary. The tendency of modern civilization +is to diminish rather than to strengthen the originality and +independence of individuals. Autocracy and democracy seem to have a +like effect in reducing men to a uniform level of thought and effort. +And thus during a time when these two principles have been brought into +sharp conflict, it is not surprising that the most thoughtful students +should turn to the works of a man who by actual experience, or by force +of imagination, comprehended all the conditions of his own age, and +exhibited in his life and in his writings an individualism of the +noblest sort. The conservative and the reformer, the king and the +radical, the priest and the heretic, the man of affairs and the man of +letters, have taken their seats, side by side, on the scholars' +benches, before the same teacher, and, after listening to his large +discourse, have discussed among themselves the questions in religion, +in philosophy, in morals, politics, or history, which his words +suggested or explained. + +The success which has attended these studies has been in some degree +proportioned to the zeal with which they have been pursued. Dante is +now better understood and more intelligently commented than ever +before. Much remains to be done as regards the clearing up of some +difficult points and the explanation of some dark passages,--and the +obscurity in which Dante intentionally involved some portions of his +writings is such as to leave little hope that their absolute meaning +will ever be satisfactorily established. The history of the study of +the poet, of the comments on his meaning or his text, of the formation +of the commonly received text, and of the translations of the "Divina +Commedia," affords much curious and entertaining matter to the lover of +purely literary and bibliographic narrative, and incidentally +illustrates the general character of each century since his death. As +regards the settlement of the text, no single publication has ever +appeared of equal value to that of the magnificent volume the title of +which stands at the head of this notice. Lord Vernon has been known for +many years as the most munificent fosterer of Dantesque publications. +One after another, precious and costly books upon Dante have appeared, +edited and printed at his expense, showing both a taste and a +liberality as honorable as unusual. + +The first four editions of the "Divina Commedia," of which this volume +is a reprint, are all of excessive rarity. Although each is a document +of the highest importance in determining the text, few of the editors +of the poem have had the means of consulting more than one or two of +them. The volumes are to be found united only in the Library of the +British Museum, and it is but a few years that even that great +collection has included them all. They were printed originally between +1470 and 1480 at Foligno, Jesi, Mantua, and Naples; and their chief +value arises from the fact that they present the various readings of +three, if not four, early and selected manuscripts. The doubt whether +four manuscripts are represented by them is occasioned by the +similarity between the editions of Foligno and Naples, which are of +such a sort (for instance, correspondence in the most unlikely and odd +misprints) as to prove that one must have served as the basis of the +other. But at the same time there are such differences between them as +indicate a separate revision of each, and possibly the consultation by +their editors of different codices. + +Unfortunately, there is no edition of the "Divina Commedia" which can +claim any special authority,--none which has even in a small degree +such authority as belongs to the first folio of Shakspeare's plays. The +text, as now received, rests upon a comparison of manuscripts and early +printed editions; and as affording to scholars the means of an +independent critical judgment upon it, a knowledge of the readings of +these earliest editions is indispensable. But reprints of old books are +proverbially open to error. The reprint of the first folio Shakspeare +is so full of mistakes as to be of comparatively little use. The +character of the Italian language is such that inaccuracies are both +easier and more dangerous than in English. Unless the reprint of the +first four editions were literally correct, it would be of little +value. To secure this correctness, so far as was possible, Lord Vernon +engaged Mr. Panizzi, the chief librarian of the British Museum, to edit +the volume. A more competent editor never lived. Mr. Panizzi is +distinguished not more for his thorough and appreciative acquaintance +with the poetic literature of his country than for the extent and +accuracy of his bibliographical knowledge and the refinement of his +bibliographic skill. There can be no doubt that the reprint is as exact +as the most rigid critic could desire. It is a monument of patience and +of unpretending labor, as well as of typographic beauty,--the work of +the editor having been well seconded by that well-known disciple of +Aldus, Mr. Charles Whittingham. + +Nor is it only in essential variations that these four texts are +important, but also in the illustration which their different spelling +and their varying grammatical forms afford in regard to the language +used by Dante. At the time when these editions appeared, the +orthography of the Italian tongue was not yet established, and its +grammatical inflections not in all cases definitely settled. Printing +had not yet been long enough in use to fix a permanent form upon words. +Moreover, the misprints themselves, which in these early editions are +very numerous, often give hints as to the changes which they may have +induced, or as to the misplacing of letters most likely to occur, and +consequently most likely to lead to unobserved errors of the text. + +The style of the printing in these first editions, and the aid it may +give, or the difficulty it may occasion, are hardly to be understood +without an extract. We open at _Paradiso_, xv. 70. Cacciaguida has just +spoken to his descendant, and then follows, according to the Foligno, +the following passage:-- + + Io mi uolfi abeatrice et quella udio + pria chio parlaffi et arofemi un cenno + che fece crefcer lali aluoler mio + + Poi cominciai con leefftto elfenno + come laprima equalita napparfe + dun pefo per ciafchun di noi fi fenno + + Pero chel fole che nallumo et arfe + colcaldo et conlaluce et fi iguali + che tutte fimiglianze fono fcarfe. + +This looks different enough from the common text, that, for example, of +the Florentine edition of 1844. + + I' mi volsi a Beatrice, e quella udio + Pria ch' io parlassi, ed arrisemi un cenno + Che fece crescer l' ale al voler mio. + + Poi cominciai cosi: L' affetto e il senno, + Come la prima egualita v' apparse, + D' un peso per ciascun di voi si fenno; + + Perocche al Sol, che v' allumo ed arse + Col caldo e con la luce, en si iguali, + Che tutte simiglianze sono scarse. + +"I turned to Beatrice, and she heard before I spoke, and smiled on me a +sign which added wings to my desire. Then I began thus: Love and +wisdom, as soon as the primal Equality has appeared to you, become of +one weight in each one of you; since in that Sun, which illuminates and +warms you with heat and light, they are so equal, that every comparison +falls short." + +The three other ancient texts are each quite as different from the +modern one as that which we have given, nor is the passage one that +affords example of unusual variations. It would have been easy to +select many others varying much more than this, but our object is to +show the general character of these first editions. The second line of +the quotation offers a various reading which is supported by the +_arrossemi_ of the Jesi edition, and the _arossemi_ of that of Naples, +as well as by the text of the comment of Benvenuto da Imola, and some +other early authorities. But even were the weight of evidence in its +favor far greater than it is, it could never be received in place of +the thoroughly Dantesque and exquisite expression, _arrisemi un cenno_, +which is found in the Mantua edition. The _napparse_ and the _noi_ of +the fifth and sixth lines and the _nallumo_ of the seventh are plainly +mistakes of the scribe, puzzled by the somewhat obscure meaning of the +passage. Not one of the four editions before us gives us the right +pronouns, but they are found in the Bartolinian codex, (as well as many +others,) and they are established in the rare Aldine edition of 1502, +the chief source of the modern text. In the eighth line, where we now +read _en si iguali_, the four give us _et_ or _e si iguali_, a reading +from which it is difficult to extract a meaning, unless, with the +Bartolinian, we omit the _che_ in the preceding line, and suppose the +_pero chel_ to stand, not for _perocche al_, but for _perocche +il_,--or, retaining the _che_, read the first words _perocch' e il +Sol_, and take the clause as a parenthesis. The meaning, according to +the first supposition, would be, "Love and wisdom are of one measure in +you, (since the Sun [_sc._ the primal Equality] warmed and enlightened +you,) and so equal that," etc. According to the second supposition, we +should translate, "Since it [the primal Equality] is the sun which," +etc. Benvenuto da Imola gives still a third reading, making the _e si +iguali_ into _ee si iguale_, or, in modern orthography, _e si iguale_; +but, as this spoils the rhyme, it may be left out of account. There +seems to us to be some ground for believing the second reading +suggested above, + + Perocch' e il Sol che v' allumo ed arse + Con caldo e con la luce, e si iguali. + +to be the true one, not only from its correspondence with most of the +early copies, but from the rarity of the use of _en_ by Dante. There is +but one other passage in the poem where it is found (_Purgatory_, xvi. +121). + +Such is an example, taken at random, of the doubts suggested and the +illustration afforded by these editions in the study of the text. Of +course such minute criticism is of interest only to those few who +reckon Dante's words at their true worth. The common reader may be +content with the text as he finds it in common editions, But Dante, +more than any other author, stimulates his student to research as to +his exact words; for no other author has been so choice in his +selection of them. He is not only the greatest modern master of +condensation in style, but he has the deepest insight into the value +and force of separate words, the most delicate sense of appropriateness +in position, and in the highest degree the poetic faculty of selecting +the word most fitting for the thought and most characteristic in +expression. It rarely happens that the place of a word of any +importance is a matter of indifference in his verse, no regard being +had to the rhythm; and every one sufficiently familiar with the +language in which he wrote to be conscious of its indefinable powers +will feel, though he may be unable to point out specifically, a marked +distinction in the quality and combinations of the words in the +different parts of the poem. The description of the entrance to Hell, +in the third canto of the _Inferno_ is, for instance, hardly more +different from the description of the Terrestrial Paradise, +(_Purgatory_, xxviii.,) in scenery and imagery, than it is in the vague +but absolute qualities of language, in its rhythmical and verbal +essence. + +But, leaving these subtilties, let us look at some of the disputed +passages of the poem, upon which the texts before us may give their +evidence. + +In the episode of Francesca da Rimini, Mr. Barlow has recently +attempted to give currency to a various reading long known, but never +accepted, in the line (_Inferno_, v. 102) in which Francesca expresses +her horror at the manner of her death. She says, _il modo ancor m' +offende_, "the manner still offends me." But for _il modo_ Mr. Barlow +would substitute _il mondo_, "the world still offends me,"--that is, as +we suppose, by holding a false opinion of her conduct. Mr. Barlow's +suggestions are always to be received with respect, but we cannot but +think him wrong in proposing this change. The spirits in Hell are not +supposed to be aware of what is passing upon earth; they are +self-convicted, (_Purgatory_, xxvi. 85, 86,) and Francesca being doomed +to eternal woe, the world could not do her wrong by taxing her with +sin; while, further, the shudder at the method of her death, lasting +even in torment, seems to us a far more imaginative conception than the +one proposed in its stead. Our four texts read _elmodo_. + +In the famous simile (_Inferno_, iii. 112-114) in which Dante compares +the spirits falling from the bank of Acheron to the dead leaves +fluttering from a bough in autumn, giving, as Mr. Ruskin says, "the +most perfect image possible of their utter lightness, feebleness, +passiveness, and scattering agony of despair," our common texts have + + infin che il ramo + Rende alla terra tutte le sue spoglie, + +"Until the branch gives to the earth all its spoils"; but the texts of +Jesi and Mantua, as well as those of the Bartolinian and the Aldus, and +many other early authorities, here put the word _Vede_ in place of +_Rende_, giving a variation which for its poetic worth well deserves to +be marked, if not to be introduced into the received text. "Until the +branch sees all its spoils upon the earth" is a personification quite +in Dante's manner. A confirmation of the value of this reading is given +by the fact that Tasso preferred it to the more common one, and in his +treatise on the "Art of Poetry" praises it as full of energy. + +The value of this work of Lord Vernon's to the students of Dante, in +enabling them to secure accuracy in their statements in regard to the +early texts, has been illustrated to us by finding that Blanc, in his +useful and excellent "Vocabolario Dantesco," has not unfrequently +fallen into error through his inability to consult those first +editions. For example, in the line, (_Inferno_, xviii. 43,) _Percio a +figuralo i piedi affissi_, as it is commonly given, or, _Percio a +firgurarlo gli occhi affissi_, as it appears in some editions, Blanc, +who prefers the latter reading, states that _gli occhi_ is found in +_"toutes les anciennes editions."_ But the truth is, that those of +Foligno and Naples read _ipedi_, that of Jesi has _in piedi_, and that +of Mantua _i pie_. The Aldine of 1502 is the earliest edition we have +seen which has _gli occhi_. + +In the episode of Ugolino, (_Inferno,_ xxxiii.,) the verse which has +given rise to more comment, perhaps than any other is that (the 26th) +in which the Count says, according to the usual reading, that the +narrow window in his tower had shown him many moons before he dreamed +his evil dream: _Piu lune gia, quand' i' feci il mal sonno,_ "Many +moons already, when I had my ill slumber." But another reading, found +in a majority of the early MSS. and editions, including those of Jesi +and Mantua gives the variation, _piu lume;_ while the editions of +Foligno and Naples give _lieve_, which, affording no intelligible +meaning, must be regarded as a mere misprint. In spite of the weight +of early authority for _lume_, the reading _lune_ is perhaps to be +preferred, as giving in a word a brief expressive statement of a weary +length of imprisonment,--while _lume_ would only serve to fix the +moment of the dream as having been between the first dawn and the full +day. It is rare that the difference between an _n_ and an _m_ is of +such marked effect. + +In the sixth canto of _Purgatory_, verse 58, Virgil says, "Behold there +a soul which _a posta_ looks toward us." Such at least is the common +reading, and the words _a posta_ are explained as meaning _fixedly._ +But this signification is somewhat forced, _a posta_, or _apposta_, +being more properly used with the meaning of _on purpose_ or +_deliberately_,--and the first four editions supply a reading without +this difficulty, and one which adds a new and significant feature to +the description. They unite in the omission of the letter _a_. The +passage then bears the meaning,--"But behold there a soul which, +_fixed_, or _placed_, alone and all apart, looks toward us." This +reading, beside being supported by the weight of ancient authority, +finds confirmation, in the context, in the terms in which Sordello's +aspect is described: "How lofty and disdainful didst thou stand! how +slow and decorous in the moving of thy eyes!" + +A curious example of the mistakes of the old copies is afforded in the +charming description of the Terrestrial Paradise in the twenty-eighth +canto of the _Purgatory_. Dante says, that the leaves on the trees, +trembling in the soft air, were not so disturbed that the little birds +in their tops ceased from any of their arts,-- + + che gli augelletti per le cime + Lasciasser d' operare ogni lor arte. + +The lines are so plain that a mistake is difficult in them; but, of our +four editions, the Jesi is the only one which gives them correctly. +Foligno and Naples read _angeleti_ for _augelletti_, while Mantua gives +us the astonishing word _intelletti_. Again, in line 98 of the same +canto, all four read, _exaltation dell' acqua_, for the simple and +correct _esalazion dell' acqua_. And in line 131, for _Eunoe si +chiama_, Jesi supplies the curious word _curioce si chiama_. + +These examples of error are not of great importance in themselves, and +are easily corrected, but they serve to illustrate the great frequency +of error in all the early texts of the "Divina Commedia," and the +probability that many errors not so readily discovered may still exist +in the text, making difficulties where none originally existed. They +are of value, furthermore, in the wider range of critical studies, as +illustrating in a striking way the liability to error which existed in +all books so long as they were preserved only by the work of scribes. +Here is a poem which was transmitted in manuscript for only about one +hundred and fifty years, the first four printed editions of which show +differences in almost every line. It is no exaggeration to say that the +variations between the editions of Foligno, Jesi, and Mantua, in +orthography, inflection, and other grammatical and dialectic forms, not +to speak of the less frequent, though still numerous differences in the +words themselves, greatly exceed, throughout the poem, the number of +lines of which it is composed. Yet by a comparison of them one with +another a consistent and generally satisfactory text has been formed. +The bearing of this upon the views to be taken of the condition of the +text of more ancient works, as, for instance, that of the Gospels, is +plain. + +The work before us is so full of matter interesting to the student of +Dante, that we are tempted to go on with further illustrations of it, +though well aware that there are few who have zeal or patience enough +to continue the examination with us. But the number of those in America +who are beginning to read the "Divina Commedia," as something more than +a mere exercise in the Italian language, is increasing, and some of +them, at least, will take pleasure with us in this inquiry concerning +the words, that is, the thoughts of Dante. Why should the minute, but +not fruitless criticism of texts be reserved for the ancient classic +writers? The great poet of the Middle Ages deserves this work at our +hands far more than any of the Latin poets, not excluding even his own +master and guide. + +The eleventh canto of the _Paradiso_ is chiefly occupied with the noble +narrative of the life of St. Francis. Reading it as we do, at such a +distance from the time of the events which it records, and with +feelings that have never been warmed into fervor by the facts or the +legends concerning the Saint, it is hard for us to appreciate at its +full worth the beauty of this canto, and its effect upon those who had +seen and conversed with the first Franciscans. Not a century had yet +passed since the death of St. Francis, and the order which he had +founded kept his memory alive in every part of the Catholic world. A +story which may be true or false, and it matters little which, tells us +that Dante himself in his early manhood had proposed to enter its +ranks. There is no doubt that its vows of poverty and chastity, its +arduous but invigorating rule during its early days, appealed with +strong force to his temperament and his imagination, as promising a +withdrawal from those worldly temptations of which he was conscious, +from that pressure of private and public affairs of which he was +impatient. The contrast between the effects which the life of St. +Francis and that of St. Dominic had upon the poet's mind is shown by +the contrast in tone in which in successive cantos he tells of these +two great pillars of the Church. + +In lines 71 and 72, speaking of Poverty, the bride of the Saint, he +says,-- + + Si che dove Maria rimase giuso, + Ella con Cristo salse in sulia croce: + +"So that whilst Mary remained below, she mounted the cross with +Christ," Such is the common reading. Now in all four of the editions +which are in Lord Vernon's reprint, in Benvenuto da Imola, in the +Bartolinian codex, in the precious codex of Cortona, and in many other +early manuscripts and editions, the word _pianse_ is found in the place +of _salse_; "She lamented upon the cross with Christ." The antithesis, +though less direct, is not less striking, and the phrase seems to us to +become simpler, more natural, and more touching. Yet this reading has +found little favor with recent editors, and one of them goes so far as +to say, "che non solo impoverisce, ma adultera l' idea." + +Passing over other variations, some of them of importance, in this +eleventh canto, we find the last verses standing in most modern +editions,-- + + E vedra il coreggier che argomenta + U' ben s' impingua, se non si vaneggia. + +And the meaning is explained as being,--"And he who is girt with a +leathern cord (_i.e._ the Dominican) will see what is meant by 'Where +well they fatten, if they do not stray.'" But to this there are several +objections. No other example of _coreggier_ thus used is, we believe, +to be found. Moreover, the introduction of a Dominican to learn this +lesson is forced, for it was Dante himself who had had a doubt as to +the meaning of these words, and it was for his instruction that the +discourse in which they were explained was held. We prefer, therefore, +the reading which is found in the editions of Jesi, Foligno, and +Naples, (in part in that of Mantua,) and which is given by many other +ancient texts: _Vedrai_ or _E vedrai il correger che argomenta:_ "Thou +wilt see the reproof which 'Where well they fatten, if they do not +stray,' conveys." This reading has been adopted by Mr. Cayley in his +remarkable translation. + +One more instance of the value of Lord Vernon's work, and we have done. +The 106th, 107th, and 108th verses of the twenty-sixth canto of the +_Paradiso_ are among the most difficult of the poem, and have given +rise to great variety of comment. In the edition of Florence of 1830, +in those of Foscolo, and of Costa, and many others, they stand,-- + + Perch' io la veggio nel verace speglio + Che fa di se pareglie l' altre cose + E nulla face lui di se pareglio. + +And they are explained by Bianchi as meaning, "Because I see it in that +true mirror (i. e. God) which makes other things like to themselves, +(that is, represents them as they are,) while nothing can represent Him +like to Himself." Those who love the quarrels of commentators should +look at the notes in the Variorum editions of Padua or Florence to see +with what amusing asperity they have treated each other's solutions of +the passage. Italian words of abuse have a sonorous quality which gives +grandeur to a skirmish of critics. One is declared by his opponent to +have _ingarbugliato_ the clearest meaning; another _guasta il +sentimento_ and _sproposita in grammatica_; a third brings _falso_ and +_assurdo_ to the charge, and, not satisfied with their force, adds +_blasfemo_; a fourth declares that the third has contrived _capovolgere +la consegitenza_; and so on;--from all which the reader, trying to find +shelter from the pelting of hard words, discovers that the meaning is +not clear even to the most confident of the critics. But, standing +apart from the battle, and looking only at the text, and not at the +bewildered comment, we find in the editions of Foligno, Jesi, and +Naples, and in many other ancient texts, a reading which seems to us +somewhat easier than the one commonly adopted. We copy the lines after +the Foligno:-- + + Per chio laueggio neluerace speglio + che fa dise pareglio alaltre cose + et nulla face lui dise pareglio. + +And we would translate them, "Because I see it in that true mirror who +in Himself affords a likeness to [or of] all other things, while +nothing gives back to Him a likeness of Himself." Here _pareglio_ +corresponds with the Provencal _parelh_ and the later French +_pareil_,--and the Provencal phrase _rendre le parelha_ affords an +example of similar application to that of the word in Dante. + +With us in America, criticism is not rated as it deserves; it is little +followed as a study, and the love for the great masters and poets of +other times and other tongues than our own fails to stimulate the ardor +of students to the thorough examination of their thoughts and words. No +doubt, criticism, as it has too often been pursued, is of small worth, +displaying itself in useless inquiries, and lavishing time and labor +upon insoluble and uninteresting questions. But such is not its true +end. Verbal criticism, rightly viewed, has a dignity which belongs to +few other studies; for it deals with words as the symbols of +thoughts,--with words, which are the most spiritual of the instruments +of human power, the most marvellous of human possessions. It makes +thought accurate, and perception fine. It adds truth to the creations +of imagination by teaching the modes by which they may be best +expressed, and it thus leads to fuller and more appreciative +understanding and enjoyment of the noblest works of the past. There +can, indeed, be no thorough culture without it. + +To restore the balance of our lives, in these days of haste, novelty, +and restlessness, there is a need of a larger infusion into them of +pursuits which have no end of immediate publicity or instant return of +tangible profit,--of pursuits which, while separating us from the +intrusive world around us, should introduce us into the freer, +tranquiller, and more spacious world of noble and everlasting thought. +The greener and lonelier precincts of our minds are now trampled upon +by the hurrying feet of daily events and transient interests. If we +would keep that spiritual region unpolluted, we need to acquaint +ourselves with some other literature than that of newspapers and +magazines, and to entertain as familiars the men long dead, yet living +in their works. As Americans, our birthrights in the past are +imperfect; we are born into the present alone. But he who lives only in +present things lives but half a life, and death comes to him as an +impertinent interruption: by living also in the past we learn to value +the present at its worth, to hold ourselves ready for its end. With +Dante, taking him as a guide and companion in our privater moods, we +may, even in the natural body, pass through the world of spirit. + +It will be a good indication of the improvement in the intellectual +disposition of our people, when the study of Dante becomes more +general. Meanwhile, on the part of his few students in America, we +would offer our thanks to Lord Vernon and to Mr. Panizzi for the aid +which the liberality of the one and the skill and learning of the other +have given to us, and for the honor they have done to the memory of our +common Author and Leader. + +_Notes of Travel and Study in Italy_. By CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. Boston: +Ticknor & Fields. 1860. pp. x., 320. + +There is, perhaps, no country with which we are so intimate as with +Italy,--none of which we are always so willing to hear more. Poets and +prosers have alike compared her to a beautiful woman; and while one +finds nothing but loveliness in her, another shudders at her fatal +fascination. She is the very Witch-Venus of the Middle Ages. Roger +Ascham says, "I was once in _Italy_ myself, but I thank God my abode +there was but nine days; and yet I saw in that little time, in one +city, more liberty to sin than ever I heard tell of in our noble city +of London in nine years." He quotes triumphantly the proverb,--_Inglese +italianato, diavolo incarnato_. A century later, the entertaining +"Richard Lassels, Gent., who Travelled through Italy Five times as +Tutor to several of the _English_ Nobility and Gentry," and who is open +to new engagements in that kind, declares, that, "For the Country +itself, it seemed to me to be _Nature's Darling_, and the _Eldest +Sister_ of all other Countries; carrying away from them all the +greatest blessings and favours, and receiving such gracious looks from +the _Sun_ and _Heaven_, that, if there be any fault in _Italy_, it is, +that her Mother _Nature_ hath cockered her too much, even to make her +become Wanton." Plainly, our Tannhaeuser is but too ready to go back to +the Venus-berg! + +A new book on Italy seems a dangerous experiment. Has not all been told +and told and told again? Is it not one chief charm of the land, that it +is changeless without being Chinese? Did not Abbot Samson, in 1159, +_Scotti habitum induens_, (which must have shown his massive calves to +great advantage.) probably see much the same popular characteristics +that Hawthorne saw seven hundred years later? Shall a man try to be +entertaining after Montaigne, aesthetic after Winckelmann, wise after +Goethe, or trenchant after Forsyth? Can he hope to bring back anything +so useful as the _fork_, which honest Tom Coryate made prize of two +centuries and a half ago, and put into the greasy fingers of Northern +barbarians? Is not the "Descrittione" of Leandro Alberti still a +competent itinerary? And can one hope to pick up a fresh Latin +quotation, when Addison and Eustace have been before him with their +scrap-baskets? + +If there be anything which a person of even moderate accomplishments +may be presumed to know, it is Italy. The only open question left seems +to be, whether Shakespeare were the only man that could write his name +who had never been there. We have read our share of Italian travels, +both in prose and verse, but, as the nicely discriminating Dutchman +found that "too moch brahndee was too moch, but too moch lager-beer was +jost hright," so we are inclined to say that too much Italy is just +what we want. After Des Brosses, we are ready for Henri Beyle, and +Ampere, and Hillard, and About, and Gallenga, and Julia Kavanagh; +"Corinne" only makes us hungry for George Sand. That no one can tell us +anything new is as undeniable as the compensating fact that no one can +tell us anything too old. + +There are two kinds of travellers,--those who tell us what they went to +see, and those who tell us what they saw. The latter class are the only +ones whose journals are worth the sifting; and the value of their eyes +depends on the amount of individual character they took with them, and +of the previous culture that had sharpened and tutored the faculty of +observation. In our conscious age the frankness and naivete of the +elder voyagers is impossible, and we are weary of those humorous +confidences on the subject of fleas with which we are favored by some +modern travellers, whose motto should be (slightly altered) from +Horace,--_Flea-bit, et toto cantabitur orbe._ A naturalist +self-sacrificing enough may have this experience more cheaply at home. + +The book before us is the record of a second residence in Italy, of +about two years. This in itself is an advantage; since a renewed +experience, after an interval of absence and distraction, enables us to +distinguish what had merely interested us by its strangeness from what +is permanently worthy of study and remembrance. In a second visit we +know at least what we do _not_ wish to see, and our first impressions +have so defined themselves that they afford us a safer standard of +comparison. To most travellers Italy is a land of pure vacation, a +lotus-eating region, "in which it seemeth always afternoon." But Mr. +Norton, whose book shows bow well his time had been employed at home, +could not but spend it to good purpose abroad. The word "study" has a +right to its place on his title-page, and his volume is worthy of a +student. He shows himself to be one who, like Wordsworth, "does not +much or oft delight in personal talk"; there is no gossip between the +covers of his book, no impertinent self-obtrusion. Familiar with what +has been written about Italy by others, he has known how to avoid the +trite highways, and by going back to what was old has found topics that +are really fresh and delightful. The Italy of the ancient Romans is a +foreign country to us, and must always continue so; but the Italy of +the Middle Ages is nearer, not so much in time, as because there is no +impassable rift of religious faith, and consequently of ideas and +motives, between us and it. Far enough away in the centuries to be +picturesque, it is near enough in the sympathy of belief and thought to +be thoroughly intelligible. The chapter on the Brotherhood of the +Misericordia at Florence is remarkably interesting, and the coincidence +which Mr. Norton points out in a note between the circumstances which +led to its foundation and those in which a somewhat similar society +originated in California so lately as 1859 is not only curious, but +pleasant, as showing that there is a natural piety proper to man in all +ages alike. In his account of the building of the Cathedral of Orvieto, +and his notices of Rome as it was when Dante and Petrarch saw it, Mr. +Norton has struck a rich vein, which we hope he will find time to work +more thoroughly hereafter. By the essential fairness of his mind, his +patience in investigation, and his sympathy with what is noble in +character and morally influential in events, he seems to us peculiarly +fitted for that middle ground occupied by the historical essayist, to +whom literature is something cooerdinate with politics, and who finds a +great book more eventful than a small battle. + +But if, as a scholar and lover of Art, Mr. Norton naturally turns to +the past, he does not fail to tell us whatever he finds worth knowing +in the present. His tone of mind and habitual subjects of thought may +be inferred from the character of the topics that interest him. The +glimpses he gives us of the actual condition of the people of Italy, as +indicated by their practical conception of the religious dogmas of +their Church, by the quality of the cheap literature that is popular +among them, of the tracts provided for their spiritual aliment by +ecclesiastical authority, and of the caricatures produced in 1848-9, +(as in his notice of "Don Pirlone,") are of special value, and show that +he knows where to look for signs of what lies beneath the surface. His +appreciation of the beautiful in Art has not been cultivated at the +expense of his interest in the moral, political, and physical +well-being of man. His touching sketch of the life of Letterato, the +founder of Ragged Schools, shows that moral loveliness attracts his +sympathy as much when embodied in a life of obscure usefulness as when +it gleams in the saints and angels of Fra Angelico. A conscientious +Protestant, he exposes the corruptions of the Established Church in +Italy, not as an anti-Romanist, but because he sees that they are +practically operative in the social and political degradation of the +people. What good there is never escapes his attention, and we learn +from him much that is new and interesting concerning public charities +and private efforts for the elevation of the lower orders. The miles of +statuary in the Vatican do not weary him so much that he cannot at +night make the round of evening schools for the poor. + +We have not read a pleasanter or more instructive book of Italian +travel than this. Mr. Norton's range of interest is so wide that we are +refreshed with continual variety of topic; and his style is pure, +clear, and chaste, without any sacrifice of warmth or richness. It is +always especially agreeable to us to encounter an American who is a +scholar in the true sense of the word, in which sense it is never +dissociated from gentleman. When, as in the present instance, +scholarship is united with a deep and active interest in whatever +concerns the practical well-being of men, we have one of the best +results of our modern civilization. We are no lovers of dilettantism, +but we see in these scholarly tastes and habits which do not seclude a +man from the duties of real life and useful citizenship the only +safeguard against the evils which the rapid heaping-up of wealth is +sure to bring with it. + +We do not always agree with Mr. Norton in his estimate of the +comparative merit of different artists. We think he sometimes makes Mr. +Ruskin's mistake of attributing to positive religious sentiment what is +rather to be ascribed to the negative influence of circumstances and +date. We cannot help thinking that the mere arrangement of their +figures by such painters as Cima da Conegliano and Francesco Francia, +the architectural regularity of their disposition, the sculpturesque +dignity of their attitudes, and the consequent impression of +simplicity and repose which they convey, have much to do with the +religious effect they produce on the mind, as contrasted with the more +dramatic and picturesque conceptions of later artists. When we look at +John Bellino's "Gods come down to taste the Fruits of the Earth," we +cannot think him essentially a more religious man than his great pupil +who painted that truly divine countenance of Christ in "The +Tribute-Money." At the same time we go along with Mr. Norton heartily, +where, in the concluding pages of his book, with equal learning and +eloquence, he points out the causes and traces the progress of the +moral and artistic decline which came over Italy in the sixteenth +century, and whose effect made the seventeenth almost a desert. This is +one of the most striking passages in the volume, and the lesson of it +is brought home to us with a force and fervor worthy of the theme. It +also affords a good type of the quiet vigor of thought and the high +moral purpose which are characteristic of the author. + + +1. _An American Dictionary of the English Language,_ etc., etc. By +NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D. Revised and enlarged by CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH, +Professor in Yale College. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam. 1859. +pp. ccxxxvi., 1512. + +2. _A Dictionary of the English Language._ By JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, LL. +D. Boston: Hickling, Swan, & Brewer. 1860. pp. lxviii,, 1786. + +Since the famous Battle of the Books in St. James's Library, no +literary controversy has been more sharply waged than that between the +adherents of the rival Dictionaries of Doctors Worcester and Webster. +The attack was begun thirty years ago, by Dr. Webster's publishers, +when Dr. Worcester's "Comprehensive Dictionary" first appeared in +print. On the publication of his "Universal and Critical Dictionary," +in 1846, it was renewed, and, not to speak of occasional skirmishes +during the interval, the appearance of Dr. Worcester's enlarged and +finished work brought matters to the crisis of a pitched battle. + +From this long conflict Dr. Worcester has unquestionably come off +victorious. Dr. Webster seemed to assume that he had a kind of monopoly +in the English language, and that whoever ventured to compile a +dictionary was guilty of infringing his patent-right. He drew up a list +of words, and triumphantly asked Dr. Worcester where he had found them, +unless in his two quartos of 1828. Dr. Worcester replied by showing +that most of the words were to be found in previous English +dictionaries, and added, with sly humor, that he freely acknowledged +Dr. Webster's exclusive property in the word "bridegoom," and others +like it, which would be sought for vainly in any volumes but his own. +Dr. Webster's attack was as unfair as the result of it was unfortunate +for himself. + +We have several reasons, which seem to us sufficient, for preferring +Dr. Worcester's Dictionary; but we are not, on that account, disposed +to underrate the remarkable merits of its rival. Dr. Webster was a man +of vigorous mind, and endowed with a genuine faculty of independent +thinking. He has hardly received justice at the hands of his +countrymen, a large portion of whom have too hastily taken a few +obstinate whimsies as the measure of his powers. Utterly fanciful as +are many of his etymologies, we should be false to our duty as critics, +if we did not acknowledge that Dr. Webster possessed in very large +measure the chief qualities which go to the making of a great +philologist. The very tendency to theorize, which led him to adopt +those oddities of spelling by which he may be said to be chiefly known, +united as it was to an understanding of uncommon breadth and clearness, +would under more favorable auspices have given him a very eminent place +among the philosophic students of language. His great mistake was in +attempting to force his peculiar notions upon the world in his +Dictionary, instead of confining them to his Preface, or putting them +forward tentatively in a separate treatise. The importance which he +attached to these trifles ought to have given him a hint that others +might be as obstinate on the other side, and that the prejudices of +taste have much tougher roots than those of opinion. We are inclined to +think that many of the changes proposed by Dr. Webster will be adopted +in the course of time. But it is a matter of little consequence, and +the progress of such reforms is slow. Already two hundred years ago, +James Howel (the author of Charles Lamb's favorite "Epistolae +Ho-Elianae") advocated similar reforms, and, as far as the printers +would let him, carried them out in practice. "The printer hath not bin +so careful as he should have bin," he complains. He especially condemns +the superfluous letters in many of our words, choosing to write _don_, +_com_, and _som_, rather than _done_, _come_, and _some_. "Moreover," +he says, "those words that have the Latin for their original, the +author prefers that orthography rather than the French, whereby divers +letters are spar'd: as _Physic, Logic, Afric_, not _Physique, Logique, +Afrique; favor, honor, labor_, not _favour, honour, labour_, and very +many more; as also he omits the Dutch _k_ in most words; here you shall +read _peeple_, not _pe-ople_, _tresure_, not _tre-asure_, _toung_, not +_ton-gue_, &c.; _Parlement_, not _Parliament_; _busines, witnes, +sicknes_, not _businesse, witnesse, sicknesse_; _star, war, far_, not +_starre, warre, farre_; and multitudes of such words, wherein the two +last letters may well be spar'd. Here you shall also read _pity, piety, +witty_, not _piti-e, pieti-e, witti-e_, as strangers at first sight +pronounce them, and abundance of such like words." + +Howel gives a weak reason for making the changes he proposes, namely, +that the language will thereby be simplified to foreigners. He hints at +the true one when he says that "we do not speak as we write." Dr. +Webster also, speaking of certain words ending in _our_, says, "What +motive could induce them to write these words, and _errour, honour, +favour, inferiour_, &c., in this manner, following neither the Latin +nor the French, I cannot conceive." Had Dr. Webster's knowledge of the +written English language been as great as it undoubtedly was of its +linguistic relations, he would have seen that the _spelling_ followed +the _accent_. The third verse of the Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" +would have satisfied him:-- + + "And bathed every root in such licour"; + +and a little farther on,-- + + "Or swinken with his houdes and laboure." + +In this respect the spelling of our older writers, where it can be +depended on, and especially of reformers like Howel, is of value, as +throwing some light on the question, how long the Norman pronunciation +lingered in England. Warner, for instance, in his "Albion's England," +spells _creator_ and _creature_ as they are spelt now, but gives the +French accent to both; and we are inclined to think that the charge of +speaking "right Chaucer," brought against the courtiers of Queen +Elizabeth, referred rather to accent than diction. + +The very title of Dr. Webster's Dictionary indicates a radical +misapprehension as to the nature and office of such a work. He calls +the result of his labors an "_American_ Dictionary of the English +Language," as if provincialism were a merit. He evidently thought that +the business of a lexicographer was to _regulate_, not to _record_. +Sometimes also his zeal as an etymologist misled him, as in his famous +attempt to make the word _bridegroom_ more conformable to its supposed +Anglo-Saxon root and its modern Teutonic congeners. It never occurred +to him that we were still as far as ever from the goal, and that it +would be quite as inconvenient to explain that the termination _goom_ +was a derivation from the Anglo-Saxon _guma_ as that it was a +corruption of it; the point to be gained being, after all, that we +should be able to find out the meaning of the English word +_bridegroom_, having no pressing need of _guma_ for conversational +purposes. We have spoken of this word only because we have heard it +brought up against Dr. Webster as often as anything else, and because +the disproportionate antipathy produced by this and a few similar +oddities shows, that, the primary object of all writing being the clear +conveyance of meaning, and not only so, but its conveyance in the most +winning way, a writer blunders who wilfully estranges the reader's eye +or jars upon its habitual associations, and that a lexicographer +blunders still more desperately, who, upon system, teaches to offend in +that kind. And it is amusing in respect to this very word _bridegoom_, +that the whimsey is not Dr. Webster's own, but that the bee was put +into his bonnet by Horne Tooke. + +Webster in these matters was a bit of a Hotspur. He thought to deal +with language as the vehement Percy would have done with the Trent. The +smug and silver stream was to be allowed no more wilful windings, but +to run + + "In a new channel fair and evenly." + +He found an equally hot-headed Glendower, wherever there was an +educated man, ready with the answer,-- + + "Not wind? it shall; it must; you see it + doth." + +"You see _it doth_" is an argument whose force no theorist ever takes +into his reckoning. + +We said that the title "American Dictionary of the English Language" +was an absurdity. Fancy a "Cuban Dictionary of the Spanish Language." +It would be of value only to the comparative philologist, curious in +the changes of meaning, pronunciation, and the like, which +circumstances are always bringing about in languages subjected to new +conditions of life and climate. But we must not forget to say +that the title chosen by Dr. Webster conveyed also a meaning +creditable to his spirit and judgment. He always stoutly maintained the +right of English as spoken in America to all the privileges of a living +language. In opposition to the purists who would have clasped the +language forever within the covers of Johnson, he insisted on the +necessity of coining new words or adapting old ones to express new +things and new relations. It is many years since we read his "Remarks" +(if that was the title) on Pickering's "Vocabulary," and in answer to +the rather supercilious criticisms on himself in the "Anthology"; but +the impression left on our mind by that pamphlet is one of great +respect for the good sense, acuteness, and courage of its author. And +of his Dictionary it may safely be said, that, with all its mistakes, +no work of the kind had then appeared so learned and so comprehensive. +It may be doubted if any living language possessed at that time a +dictionary, or one, at least, the work of a single man, in all respects +its equal. + +But etymologies are not the most important part of a good working +dictionary, the intention of which is not to inform readers and writers +what a word may have meant before the Dispersion, but what it means +now. The pedigree of an adjective or substantive is of little +consequence to ninety-nine men in a hundred, and the writers who have +wielded our mother-tongue with the greatest mastery have been men who +knew what words had most meaning to their neighbors and acquaintances, +and did not stay their pens to ask what ideas the radicals of those +words may possibly have conveyed to the mind of a bricklayer going up +from Padanaram to seek work on the Tower of Babel. A thoroughly good +etymological dictionary of English is yet to seek; and even if we +should ever get one, it will be for students, and not for the laity. +Nor is it the primary object of a common dictionary to trace the +history of the language. Of great interest and importance to scholars, +it is of comparatively little to Smith and Brown and their children at +the public school. It is a work apart, which we hope to see +accomplished by the London Philological Society in a manner worthy of +comparison with what has been partly done for German by the brothers +Grimm,--alas that the illustrious duality should have been broken by +death! A lexicon of that kind should be an index to all the more +eminent books in the language; but we do not hold this to be the office +of a dictionary for daily reference. A dictionary that should embrace +every unusual word, every new compound, every metaphorical turn of +meaning, to be found in our great writers, would be a compendium of the +genius of our authors rather than of our language; and a lexicographer +who rakes the books of second and third-rate men for out-of-the-way +phrases is doing us no favor. A dictionary is not a drag-net to bring +up for us the broken pots and dead kittens, the sewerage of speech, as +well as its living fishes. Nor do we think it a fair test of such a +work, that one should seek in it for every odd word that may have +tickled his fancy in a favorite author. Like most middle-aged readers, +we have our specially private volumes. One of these--but we will not +betray the secret of our loves--contains some rare words, such as the +Gallicism _mistresse-piece_, and the delightful hybrid _pundonnore_ for +trifling points-of-honor; yet we by no means complain that we can find +neither of them in Worcester, and only the former (with a ludicrously +mistaken definition) in Webster. + +A conclusive reason with us for preferring Dr. Worcester's Dictionary +is, that its author has properly understood his functions, and has +aimed to give us a true view of English as it is, and not as he himself +may have wished it should be or thought it ought to he. Its etymologies +are sufficient for the ordinary reader,--sometimes superfluously full, +as where the same word is given over and over again in cognate +languages. We do not see the use, under the word PLAIN, of taking up +room with a list like the following: "L. _planus;_ It. _piano;_ Sp. +_piano;_ Fr. _plain._" Not content with this, Dr. Worcester gives it +once more under PLAN: "L. _planus_, flat; It. _piano_, a plan; Sp. +_piano;_ Fr. _plan._--Dut., Ger., Dan., and Sw. _plan._" Even yet we +have not done with it, for under PLANE we find "L. _planus;_ It. +_piano;_ Sp._plano_, Fr. _plan._" One would think this rather a Polyglot +Lexicon than an English Dictionary. It seems to us that no Romanic +derivative of the Latin root should he given, unless to show that the +word has come into English by that channel. And so of the Teutonic +languages. If we have Danish, Swedish, German, and Dutch, why not +Scotch, Icelandic, Frisic, Swiss, and every other conceivable dialectic +variety? + +Another fault of superfluousness we find in the number of compounded +words, where the meaning is obvious,--such, for instance, as are formed +with the adverb out, which the genius of the language permits without +limit in the case of verbs. Dr. Worcester gives us, among many +others,-- + +"OUT-BABBLE, _v. a._ To surpass in Idle prattle; to exceed in babbling. +_Milton._" + +"OUT-BELLOW, _v. a._ To bellow more or louder than; to exceed or +surpass in bellowing. _Bp. Hall._" + +"OUT-BLEAT, _v. a._ To bleat more than; to exceed in bleating. _Bp. +Hall_." + +"OUT-BRAG, _v. a._ To surpass in bragging. _Shak._" + +"OUT-BRIBE, _v, a._ To exceed in bribing. _Blair._" + +"OUT-BURN, _v. a._ To exceed in burning. _Young._" [The definition here +is hardly complete; since the word means also to burn longer than.] + +"OUT-CANT, _v. a._ To surpass in canting. _Pope._" + +"OUT-CHEAT, _v. a._ To surpass in cheating." + +"OUT-CURSE, _v. a._ To surpass in cursing." + +"OUT-DRINK, _v. a._ To exceed in drinking. _Donne._" + +"OUT-FAWN, _v. a._ To excel in fawning. _Hudibras._" + +"OUT-FEAT, _v. a._ To surpass in feats. _Smart._" + +"OUT-FLASH, _v. a._ To surpass in flashing. _Clarke._" + +Similar words occur at frequent intervals through nine columns. Dr. +Webster is equally relentless, (even roping in a few estrays in his +Appendix,) and we hardly know which has out-worded the other. We were +surprised to find in neither the useful and legitimate substantive form +of _outgo_, as the opposite of _income_. This superfluousness (unless +we apply Voltaire's saying, "_Le superflu, chose bien necessaire_" to +dictionaries also) is the result, we suppose, of the rivalry of +publishers, who have done their best to persuade the public that +numerosity is the chief excellence in works of this kind, and that +whoever buys their particular quarto may be sure of an honest +pennyworth and of owning a thousand or two more words than his less +judicious neighbors. In this way a false standard is manufactured, to +which the lexicographer must conform, if he would have a remunerative +sale for his book. He accordingly explores every lane and _impasse_ in +the purlieus of Grub Street, and pounces on a new word as a naturalist +would on a new bug,--the stranger and uglier, the better. We regret +that this kind of rivalry has been forced on Dr. Worcester; but he is +so thorough, patient, and conscientious, that he leaves little behind +him for the gleaner. We confess that the amplitude of his research has +surprised us, highly as we were prepared to rate him in this respect +by our familiarity with his former works. We have subjected his Dictionary +to a pretty severe test. From the time of its publication we have made +a point of seeking in it every unusual word, old or new, that we met with +in our reading. We have been disappointed in hardly a single instance, and +we are not acquainted with any other dictionary of which we could say as +much. + +An attempt has been made to damage Dr. Worcester's work by a partial +comparison of his definitions with those of Dr. Webster; and here, +again, the assumption has been, that _number_ was of more importance +than concise completeness. In the case of a quarto dictionary, we +suppose an honest reviewer may confess that he has not read through the +subject of his criticism. We have opened Dr. Webster's volume at +random, and have found some of his definitions as extraordinarily +inaccurate as many of his etymologies. They quite justify a +_double-entendre_ of Daniel Webster's, which we heard him utter many +years ago in court. He had forced such a meaning upon some word in a +paper connected with the case on trial, that the opposing counsel +interrupted him to ask in what dictionary he found the word so defined. +He silenced his questioner instantly with a happy play upon the name +common to himself and the lexicographer: "In _Webster's_ Dictionary, +Sir!" We find in Webster, for example, the following definition of a +word as to whose meaning he could have been set right by any +coasting-skipper that sailed out of New Haven:-- + +"AMID-SHIPS; _in marine language_, the middle of a ship with regard to +her length and breadth." Now, when one ship runs into another at sea +and strikes her _amid-ships_, how is she to contrive to accomplish it +so as to satisfy the requirements of this definition? Or if a sailor is +said to be standing amidships, must he be planted precisely in what he +would probably agree with Dr. Webster in spelling the _center_ of the +main-hatch? Dr. Worcester, quoting Falconer, is of course right. + +We give another of Dr. Webster's definitions, which caught our eye in +looking over his array of words compounded with _out_. "OUTWARD-BOUND; +proceeding from a port or country." Now Dr. Webster does not tell his +readers that the term is exclusively applicable to vessels; and we +should like to know whence a vessel is likely to proceed, unless from a +port,--and where ports are commonly situated, unless in countries? If +an American ship be "proceeding from" the port of Liverpool to some +port in the United States, how soon does she enter on what +lexicographers call "the state of being" homeward-bound? The narrow +limits to which Dr. Webster confines the word would not extend beyond +the jaws of the harbor from which the ship is sailing. Dr. Worcester's +definition is, "OUTWARD-BOUND. (_Naut_.) Bound outward or to foreign +parts. _Crabb_." + +Under the word MORESQUE we find in Webster the following definition: "A +species of painting or carving done after the Moorish manner, +consisting of _grotesque_ pieces and compartments _promiscuously +interspersed_; arabesque. _Gwilt_." (The Italics are our own.) We have +not Mr. Gwilt's Encyclopaedia at hand; but if this be a fair +representation of one of its definitions, it is a very untrustworthy +authority. The last term to be applied to arabesque-work is +_grotesque_, or _promiscuously interspersed_; and the description here +given leaves out the most beautiful kind of arabesque, namely, the +inlaid work of geometrical figures in colored marbles, in which the +Arabs far surpassed the older _opus Alexandrinum_. Nothing could be +less grotesque, less promiscuously interspersed, or more beautiful in +its harmonious variety, than the work of this kind in the famous +_Capella Reale_ at Palermo. + +Dr. Webster defines NIGHT-PIECE as "a piece of painting so colored as +to be supposed seen by candle-light,"--a description which we suspect +would have somewhat puzzled Gherardo della Notte. + +We might give other instances, had we time and space; but our object is +not to depreciate Webster, but only to show that the claim set up for +him of superior exactness in definition is altogether gratuitous. We +have found no inaccuracies comparable with these in Dr. Worcester's +Dictionary, which we tried in precisely the same way, by opening it +here and there at random. Moreover, looking at his work, not +absolutely, but in comparison with Dr. Webster's, (as we are challenged +to do,) we cannot leave out of view that the former is a first edition, +while the latter has had the advantage of repeated revisions. + +Under the word MAGDALEN, we find Webster superior to Worcester. Under +ULAN, we find them both wrong. Dr. Worcester says it means "a species +of militia among the modern Tartars"; and Dr. Webster, "a certain +description of militia among the modern Tartars." In any Polish +dictionary they would have found the word defined as meaning "lancer," +and the Uhlans in the Austrian army can hardly be described as modern +Tartar militia. Both Dictionaries give SLAW, and neither explains it +rightly. The word does not properly belong in an English dictionary, +unless as an American provincialism of very narrow range. As such, it +will be found, properly defined, in Mr. Bartlett's excellent +Vocabulary. Lexicographers who so often cite the Dutch equivalents of +English words should own Dutch dictionaries. Under IMAGINATION, a good +kind of test-word, we find Worcester much superior to Webster, +especially in illustrative citations. + +We have been astonished by some instances of slovenly writing to be +found here and there in Dr. Webster's Dictionary, because he was +capable of writing pure and vigorous English. Under MAGAZINE (and by +the way, Dr. Webster's definition omits altogether the metaphorical +sense of the word) we read that "The first publication of this bind in +England was the _Gentleman's Magazine_, which first appeared in 1731, +under the name of _Sylvanus Urban_, by Edward Cave, and which is still +continued." A reader who knew nothing about the facts would be puzzled +to say what the name of the new periodical really was, whether +_Gentleman's Magazine_ or _Sylvanus Urban_; and a reader who knew +little about English would be led to think that "appeared by" was +equivalent to "was commenced by," unless, indeed, he came to the +conclusion that its apparition took place in the neighborhood of some +cavern known by the name of Edward. + +We have only a word to say as to the _illustrations_, as they are +called, a mistaken profuseness in which disfigures both Dictionaries, +another evil result of bookselling competition. The greater part of +them, especially those in Webster, are fitter for a child's scrap-book +than for a volume intended to go into a student's library. Such +adjuncts seem to us allowable only, if at all, somewhat as they were +introduced by Blunt in his "Glossographia," to make terms of heraldry +more easily comprehensible. They might be admitted to save trouble in +describing geometrical figures, or in explaining certain of the more +frequently occurring terms in architecture and mechanics, but beyond +this they are childish. The publishers of Webster give us all the +coats-of-arms of the States of the American Union, among other equally +impertinent woodcuts. We enter a protest against the whole thing, as an +equally unfair imputation on the taste and the standard of judgment of +intelligent Americans. If we must have illustrations, let them be strictly +so, and not primer-pictures. Both Dictionaries give us the figure of a +crossbow, for instance, as if there could be anywhere a boy of ten years +old who did not know the implement, at least under its other name of +_bow-gun_. Neither cut would give the slightest notion of the thing as +a weapon, nor of the mode in which it was wound up and let off. Dr. +Worcester says that it was intended "for shooting _arrows_," which is not +strictly correct, since the proper name of the missile it discharged +was _bolt_,--something very unlike the shaft used by ordinary bowmen. + +We believe Dr. Worcester's Dictionary to be the most complete and +accurate of any hitherto published. He intrudes no theories of his own +as to pronunciation or orthography, but cites the opinions of the best +authorities, and briefly adds his own where there is occasion. He is no +bigot for the present spelling of certain classes of words, but gives +them, as he should do, in the way they are written by educated men, at +the same time expressing his belief that the drift of the language is +toward a change, wherever he thinks such to be the case. We reprobate, +in the name of literary decency, the methods which have been employed +to give an unfair impression of his work, as if it had been compiled +merely to supplant Webster, and as if the whole matter were a question +of blind partisanship and prejudice. The assigning of such motives as +these, even by implication, to such men, among many others, as Mr. +Marsh and Mr. Bryant, both of whom have expressed themselves in favor +of the new Dictionary, is an insult to American letters. Mr. Marsh, by +the extent of his learning, is probably better qualified than any other +man in America to pronounce judgment in such a case; and Mr. Bryant has +not left it doubtful that he knows what pure and vigorous English is, +whether in verse or prose, or that he could not employ it except to +maintain a well-grounded conviction. + +Apart from more general considerations, there are several reasons which +would induce us to prefer Dr. Worcester's Dictionary. It has the great +advantage, not only that it is constructed on sounder principles, as it +seems to us, but that it is the latest. Stereotyping is an unfortunate +invention, when it tends to perpetuate error or incompleteness, and +already the Appendix of added words in Webster amounts to eighty pages. +For all the words it contains, accordingly, the reader is put to double +pains: he must first search the main body of the work, and then the +supplement. Again, in Worcester, the synonymes are given, each under +its proper head, in the main work; in Webster they form a separate +treatise. One other advantage of Worcester would be conclusive with us, +even were other things equal,--and that is the size of the type, and +the greater clearness of the page, owing to the freshness of the +stereotype-plates. + +We know the inadequacy of such hand-to-mouth criticism as that of a +monthly reviewer must be upon works demanding so minute an examination +as a dictionary deserves. For ourselves, we should wish to own both +Webster and Worcester, but, if we could possess only one, we should +choose the latter. It is a monument to the industry, judgment, and +accuracy of the author, of which he may well be proud. + + +_Elements of Mechanics, for the Use of Colleges, Academies, and High +Schools._ By WILLIAM G. PECK, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia +College. New York: A.S. Barnes & Burr. 1859. + +Text-books on Mechanics are of three sorts. Many teachers, +school-committees, and parents wish to add a taste of Mechanics to the +smatterings of twenty or thirty different subjects which constitute +"liberal education," as understood in American high schools and +colleges. For this purpose it is of the first importance that the +text-book should be brief, for the time to be devoted to it is very +short; secondly, it must divest the subject of every perplexity and +difficulty, that it may be readily understood by all young persons, +though of small capacity and less application. Such a text-book can +contain nothing beyond the statement, without proof, of the more +important principles, illustrated by familiar examples, and simple +explanations of the commonest phenomena of motion, and of the machines +and mechanical forces used in the arts. To a few it seems that more +light comes into a room through two or three broad windows, though they +be all on one side, than through fifty bull's-eyes, scattered on every +wall. But the many prefer bull's-eyes,--fifty narrow, distorted +glimpses in as many directions, rather than a broad, clear view of the +heavens and the earth in one direction. Hence superficial, scanty +text-books on science are the only ones which are popular and salable. + +The thorough study of Mechanics is, or should be, an essential part of +the training of an architect, an engineer, or a machinist; and there +are several text-books, like Weisbach's Mechanics and Engineering, +intended for students preparing for any of these professions, which are +complete mathematical treatises upon the subject. Such text-books are +invaluable; they become standard works, and win for their authors a +well-deserved reputation. + +Professor Peck's book belongs to neither of the two classes of +text-books indicated, but to a class intermediate between the two. It +is at once too good, too difficult a book for general, popular use, and +too incomplete for the purposes of the professional student. As it +assumes that the student is already acquainted with the elements of +Algebra, Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry, and the Calculus, the +successful use of this text-book in the general classes of any academy +or college will be good evidence that the Mathematics are there taught +more thoroughly than is usual in this country. In few American colleges +is the study of the Calculus required of all students. In preparing a +scientific text-book of this sort, originality is neither aimed at nor +required. A judicious selection of materials, correct translation from +the excellent French and German hand-books, with such changes in the +notation as will better adapt it for American use, and a clear, logical +arrangement are the chief merits of such a treatise; and these are +merits which seldom gain much praise, though their absence would expose +the author to censure. The definitions of Professor Peck's book are +exact and concise, every proposition is rigidly demonstrated, and the +illustrations and descriptions are brief, pointed, and intelligible. +Professor Peck says in the Preface, that the book was prepared "to +supply a want felt by the author when engaged in teaching Natural +Philosophy to college classes"; but surely a teacher who prepares a +text-book for his own classes must need a double share of patience and +zeal. Every error which the book contains will be exposed, and the +author will have ample opportunity to repent of all the inaccuracies +which may have crept into his work. Again, the instructor who uses his +own text-book encounters, besides the inevitable monotony of teaching +the same subject year after year, the additional weariness of finding +in the pages of his text-book no mind but his own, which he has read so +often and with so little satisfaction. Even in teaching Mechanics, +there is no exception to the general rule, that two heads are better +than one. + + * * * * * + +_Stories from Famous Ballads_. For Children. By GRACE GREENWOOD, Author +of "History of my Pets," "Merrie England," etc., etc. With +Illustrations by BILLINGS. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. + +All "famous ballads" are so close to Nature in their conceptions, +emotions, incidents, and expressions, that it seems hardly possible to +change their form without losing their soul. The present little volume +proves that they may be turned into prose stories for children, and yet +preserve much of the vitality of their sentiment and the interest of +their narrative. Grace Greenwood, well known for her previous successes +in writing works for the young, has contrived in this, her most +difficult task, to combine simplicity with energy and richness of +diction, and to present the events and characters of the Ballads in the +form best calculated to fill the youthful imagination and kindle the +youthful love of action and adventure. Among the subjects are Patient +Griselda, The King of France's Daughter, Chevy Chase, The Beggar's +Daughter of Bednall Green, Sir Patrick Spens, and Auld Robin Gray. Much +of the author's success in giving prose versions of these, without +making them prosaic, is due to the intense admiration she evidently +feels for the originals. Among American children's books, this volume +deserves a high place. + + * * * * * + +_Mary Staunton; or the Pupils of Marvel Hall_. By the Author of +"Portraits of, my Married Friends." New York: D. Appleton & Co. + +This story has a practical aim, the exposure of the faults of +fashionable boarding-schools. "A good plot, and full of expectation," +as Hotspur said; but the author had not the ability to execute the +design. The satire and denunciation are both weak, and are not relieved +by the introduction of a very silly and threadbare love-story. + + * * * * * + +_Poems_. By the Author of "John Halifax," "A Life for a Life," etc. +Boston: Ticknor & Fields. + +Some of the verses in this little volume are quite pretty, especially +those entitled, "By the Alma River," "The Night before the Mowing," "My +Christian Name," and "My Love Annie." Miss Muloch is not able to take +any high rank as a poetess, and very sensibly does not try. + + * * * * * + +_Title-Hunting_. By E. L. LLEWELLYN, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & +Co. + +This is a miraculously foolish book. Titled villains, impossible +parvenus, abductions, and convents abound in its pages, and all are as +stupid as they are improbable. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Haunted Homestead, and other Nouvellettes. With an Autobiography of +the Author. By Mrs. Emma D.E.N. Southworth, Author of "India," "Lady +of the Isle," etc., etc. Philadelphia. Peterson and Brothers. 12mo. pp. +292. $1.25. + +Adela, the Octoroon. By H. L. Hosmer. Columbus. Follett, Foster, & Co. +12mo. pp. 400. $1.00. + +The Caxtons: A Family Picture. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Hart. +Library Edition. In Two Volumes. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. +pp. 398, 387. $2.00. + +Julian Home: A Tale of College Life. By Frederic W. Farrar, M.A., +Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Author of "Eric; or, Little by +Little." Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. pp. 420. $1.00. + +Bible History: A Text-Book for Seminaries, Schools, and Families. By +Sarah E. Hanna, (formerly Miss Foster,) Principal of the Female +Seminary, Washington, Pa. New York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 290. 76 +cts. + +Elements of Mechanics: For the Use of Colleges, Academies, and High +Schools. By William G. Peck, M. A,, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia +College. New York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 338. $1.50. + +The Human Voice: its Right Management in Speaking, Reading, and +Debating, including the Principles of True Eloquence; together with the +Functions of the Vocal Organs,--the Motion of the Letters of the +Alphabet,--the Cultivation of the Ear,--the Disorders of the Vocal and +Articulating Organs,--Origin and Construction of the English +Language.--Proper Methods of Delivery,--Remedial Effects of Reading and +Speaking, etc. By the Rev. W. W. Cazalet, A. M., Cantab. 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On a Plan entirely New. Designed for the Use +of Universities, Colleges, Academies, Bible Classes, Sabbath Schools, +Families, etc. By the Rev. R.C. Shimeall, a Member of the Presbytery of +New York; Author of an Illuminated Scripture Chart; Dr. Watts's +Scripture History, Enlarged; a Treatise on Prayer; etc. New York. +Barnes & Burr. 4to. pp. 234. $2.00. + +The National Fifth Reader: Containing a Treatise on Elocution; +Exercises in Reading and Declamation; with Biographical Sketches and +Copious Notes. Adapted to the Use of Students in English and American +Literature. By Richard G. Parker, A.M., and J. Madison Watson. New +York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 600. $1.00. + +Popular Music of the Olden Time: A Collection of Ancient Songs, +Ballads, and Dance Tunes, Illustrative of the National Music of +England. With Short Introductions to the Different Reigns, and Notices +of the Airs from Writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. +Also a Short Account of the Minstrels. By W. Chappell, F.S.A. The whole +of the Airs harmonized by G.A. Macfarren. In Two Volumes. London: +Cramer, Beale, & Chappell. New York. Webb & Allen. 8vo. pp. xx., 822. +(Paged as one vol.) $15.75. + +The Material Condition of the People of Massachusetts. By Rev. Theodore +Parker. Reprinted from the Christian Examiner. Boston. Published by the +Fraternity. 16mo. paper, pp. 52. 15 cts. + +Die Teutschen und die Amerikaner. Von K. Heinzen. Boston. Selbstverlag +des Verfassers. 16mo. paper, pp. 69. 25 cts. + +Letters from Switzerland. By Samuel Irenaeus Prime, Author of "Travels +in Europe and the East," etc., etc. New York. Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. +264. $1.00. + +Disquisitions and Notes on the Gospels. Matthew. By John H. Morison. +Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. 12mo. pp. 588. $1.25. + +Chamber's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the +People. Part XII. New York. Appleton & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. 64. 15 cts. + +The Monikins. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Illustrated from Drawings by +F.O.C. Darley. New York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 454. $1.50. + +Life Before Him. A Novel of American Life. New York. Townsend & Co. +12mo. pp. 401. $1.00. + +Against Wind and Tide. By Holme Lee, Author of "Kathie Brande," "Sylvan +Holt's Daughter," etc. New York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 440. $1.00. + +Mrs. Ellis's Housekeeping Made Easy. A Complete Instructor in all +Branches of Cookery and Domestic Economy. Edited by Mrs. Mowatt. New +York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. paper, pp. 120. 25 cts. + +Life's Evening; or, Thoughts for the Aged. By the Author of "Life's +Morning," etc, Boston. Tilton & Co. 16mo. pp. 265. $1.00. + +Wooing and Warring in the Wilderness. By Charles D. Kirk. New York. +Derby & Jackson. 18mo. pp. 288. $1.00. + +The History of Herodotus. A New English Version, edited with Copious +Notes and Appendices, illustrating the History and Geography of +Herodotus, from the most Recent Sources of Information; and embodying +the Chief Results, Historical and Ethnographical, which have been +obtained in the Progress of Cuneiform and Hieroglyphical Discovery. By +George Rawlinson, M.A., late Fellow and Tutor of Exeter College, +Oxford. Assisted by Col. Sir Henry Rawlinson, K.C.B., and Sir J.G. +Wilkinson, F.R.S. In Four Volumes. Vol. III. With Maps and +Illustrations. New York. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. viii., 463. $2.50. + +Cathara Clyde: A Novel. By Inconnu. New York. Scribner. 16mo. PP. 377. +$1.00. + +Napoleon III. in Italy, and other Poems. By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. +New York. Francis & Co. 16mo. pp. 72. 50 cts. + +Say and Seal. By the Author of "Wide, Wide World," and the Author of +"Dollars and Cents." In Two Volumes. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. +16mo, pp. 513, 500. $2.00. + +Walter Ashwood. A Love Story. By Paul Siogvolk, Author of "Schediasms." +New York. Rudd & Carleton. 16mo. pp. 296. $1.00. + +Elementary Anatomy and Physiology, for Colleges, Academies, and other +Schools. By Edward Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., of Amherst College, and +Edward Hitchcock, Jr., M.D., Teacher in Williston Seminary. New York. +Ivison, Phinney, & Co. 12mo. pp. vi., 442. $1.00. + +Fragments from the Study of a Pastor. By Rev. George W. Nichols, A.M. +New York. H.B. Price. 16mo. pp. 252. 75 cts. + +"My Novel"; or, Varieties in English Life. By Pisistratus Caxton. By +Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. Library Edition. In Four Volumes. +Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. pp. 414, 408, 491, 482. $4.00. + +Cousin Maude and Rosamond. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes, Author of "Lena +Rivers," "Meadow Brook," etc. New York. Saxton, Barker, & Co. 12mo. pp. +374. $1.25. + +The Caxtons: A Family Picture. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. +Library Edition. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 505. $1.00. + +Stories of Rainbow and Lucky. By Jacob Abbott. The Three Pines. New +York. Harper & Brothers. 16mo. pp. 190. 50 cts. + +Stories of Inventors and Discoverers in Science and the Useful Arts. A +Book for Old and Young. By John Timbs, F.S.A. With Illustrations. New +York. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9472] +[This file was first posted on October 3, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 5, NO. 31, MAY, 1860 *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS + +VOL. V, MAY, 1860, NO. XXXI + + + + + + +INSTINCT. + + +"Instinct is a great matter," quoth Falstaff, when called upon to find +out a device, a "starting-hole," to hide himself from the open and +apparent shame of having run away from the fight and hacked his sword +like a handsaw with his own dagger. Like a valiant lion, he would not +turn upon the true prince, but ran away upon instinct. Although the +peculiar circumstances of the occasion upon which the subject was +presented to Falstaff's mind were not very favorable to a calm +consideration of it, he was undoubtedly correct in saying that instinct +is a great matter. "If, then, the tree may be known by the fruit," says +Falstaff, "as the fruit by the tree, then, peremptorily I speak it, +there is virtue in that Falstaff"; and it is proper that his authority +should be quoted, even upon a question of metaphysical science. + +That psychological endowment of animals which we denominate instinct +has in every age been a matter full of wonder; and men of thought have +found few more interesting subjects of inquiry. But it is confessed +that little has been satisfactorily made out concerning the nature and +limitations of instinct. In former times the habits and mental +characteristics of those orders of animated being which are inferior to +man were observed with but a careless eye; and it was late before the +phenomena of animal life received a careful and reverent examination. +It is vain to inquire what instinct is, before there has been an +accurate observation of its manifestations. It is only from its outward +manifestations that we can know anything of that marvellous inward +nature which is given to animals. We cannot know anything of the +essential constitution of mind, but can know only its properties. This +is all we know even of matter. "If material existence," says Sir +William Hamilton, "could exhibit ten thousand phenomena, and if we +possessed ten thousand senses to apprehend these ten thousand phenomena +of material existence, of existence absolutely and in itself we should +be then as ignorant as we are at present." But this limitation of human +knowledge has not always been kept in view. Men have been solicitous to +penetrate into the higher mysteries of absolute and essential +existence. But in thus reaching out after the unattainable, we have +often passed by the only knowledge which it was possible for us to +gain. Much vague speculation concerning instinct has arisen from the +attempt to resolve the problem of its ultimate nature; and perhaps much +more might have been made out with certainty about it, if no greater +task had been attempted than to classify the phenomena which it +exhibits and determine the nature of its manifestations. In regard to +instinct, as well as everything else, we must be content with finding +out what it seems to us to be, rather than what it is. Even with this +limitation, the inquiry will prove sufficiently difficult. The +properties of instinct are a little more inscrutable than those of the +human mind, inasmuch as we have our own consciousness to assist us in +this case, while we are left to infer the peculiarities of instinct +from its outward manifestations only. And moreover, the inquiry +involves an understanding of the workings of the human mind; for it is +only when viewed in contrast with the rational endowments of man that +the character of instinct is best known. All other questions connected +with the subject are subordinate to this one of the apparent difference +between instinct and reason. + +Many definitions have been given of instinctive actions. These differ +widely in their extent, and are for the most part quite inadequate. +Some writers have ranged under this term all those customary habits and +actions which are common to all the individuals of a species. According +to this definition, almost every action of animated life is +instinctive. But the general idea of an instinctive action is much more +restricted; it is one that is performed without instruction and prior +to experience,--and not for the immediate gratification of the agent, +but only as the means for the attainment of some ulterior end. To apply +the term instinct to the regular and involuntary movements of the +bodily organs, such as the beating of the heart and the action of the +organs of respiration, is manifestly an extension of the ordinary +acceptation of the term. Organic actions of a similar character are +also performed by plants, and are purely mechanical. "In the lowest and +simplest class of excited movements," says Mueller, "the nervous system +would not appear to be concerned. They result from stimuli directly +applied to the muscles, which immediately excite their contractility; +and they are evidently of the same character with the motions of +plants." Thus, the heart is excited to pulsation by the direct contact +of the blood with the muscle. The hand of a sleeping child closes upon +any object which gently touches the palm. And it is in this way, +doubtless, that the Sea Anemone entraps its prey, or anything else that +may come in contact with its tentacles. But so far are these movements +from indicating of themselves the action of any instinctive principle, +that they are no proof of animality; for a precisely analogous power is +possessed by the sensitive plant known as the Fly-Trap of Venus +(_Dionoea muscipula_): "any insect touching the sensitive hairs on the +surface of its leaf instantly causes the leaf to shut up and enclose +the insect, as in a trap; nor is this all; a mucilaginous secretion +acts like a gastric juice on the captive, digests it, and renders it +assimilable by the plant, which thus feeds on the victim, as the +Actinea feeds on the Annelid or Crustacean it may entrap." In the +animal organization a large class of reflex actions are excited, not by +a direct influence, but indirectly by the agency of the nerves and +spinal cord. Such actions are essentially independent of the brain; for +they occur in animals which have no brain, and in those whose brain has +been removed. However marvellous these functions of organic life may +be, there is nothing in them at all resembling that agency properly +called instinct, which may be said to take the place in the inferior +tribes of reason in man. To refer these operations to the same source +as the wonderful instinct that guides the bird in its long migratory +flight, or in the construction of its nest, would be to make the bird a +curiously constructed machine which is operated by impressions from +without upon its sentient nerves. + +Those actions have sometimes been called instinctive which arise from +the appetites and passions; and they have been referred to instinct, +doubtless, because they have one characteristic of instinct,--that they +are not acquired by experience or instruction. "But they differ," says +Professor Bowen, "at least in one important respect from those +instincts of the lower animals which are usually contrasted with human +reason. The objects towards which they are directed are prized for +their own sake; they are sought as _ends_; while instinct teaches +brutes to do many things which are needed only as means for the +attainment of some ulterior purpose." When the butterfly extracts the +nectar from the flowers which she loves most, she meets a want of her +physical nature which demands satisfaction at the moment; but when, in +opposition to her appetite, she proceeds to the flowerless shrub to +deposit her eggs upon the leaves best suited to support her +unthought-of progeny, she is not influenced by any desire for the +immediate gratification of her senses, but is led to the act by some +dim impulse, in order that an ultimate object may be provided for to +which she has no reference at the time. We are surprised to find it +declared, in the very interesting "Psychological Inquiries" of Sir B.C. +Brodie, that the desire for food is the simplest form of an instinct, +and that such an instinct goes far towards explaining others which are +more complicated. It is true that the appetites and passions of animals +have an ultimate object, but they are impelled to action by a desire +for immediate gratification only; but when we speak of an instinct, we +mean something more than a mere want or desire,--we have chiefly in +view the end beyond the blind instrumentality by which it is reached. + +When we watch the movements of a young bee, as it first goes forth from +its waxen cradle, we are forced to recognize an influence at work which +is unlike reason, and which is neither appetite nor any mechanical +principle of organic life. Rising upon the comb, and holding steadily +with its tiny feet, with admirable adroitness the young bee smooths its +wings for its first flight, and rubs its body with its fore legs and +antennae; then walking along the comb to the mouth of the hive, it +mounts into the air, flies forth into the fields, alights upon the +proper flowers, extracts their juices, collects their pollen, and, +kneading it into little balls, deposits them in the sacks upon its +feet; and then returning to its hive, it delivers up the honey and the +wax and the bread which it has gathered and elaborated. In the hive it +works the wax with its paws and feelers into an hexagonal cell with a +rhomboidal bottom, the three plates of which form such angles with each +other as require the least wax and space in the construction of the +cell. All these complex operations the bee performs as adroitly, on the +first morning of its life, as the most experienced workman in the hive. +The tyro gatherer sought the flowery fields upon untried wings, and +returned to its home from this first expedition with unerring flight by +the most direct course through the trackless air. + +This is one instance of that great class of actions which are allowed +on all hands to be strictly instinctive. In the fact, that the occult +faculties which urge the bee to make honey and construct geometrical +cells are in complete development when it first emerges from its cell, +we recognize one of the most striking characteristics of instinct,--its +existence prior to all experience or instruction. The insect tribes +furnish us with many instances in which the young being never sees its +parents, and therefore all possibility of its profiting from their +instructions or of its imitating their actions is cut off. The solitary +wasp, for example, is accustomed to construct a tunnelled nest in which +she deposits her eggs and then brings a number of living caterpillars +and places them in a hole which she has made above each egg; being very +careful to furnish just caterpillars enough to maintain the young worm +from the time of its exclusion from the egg till it can provide for +itself, and to place them so as to be readily accessible the moment +food is required. But what is most curious of all is the fact that the +wasp does not deposit the caterpillars unhurt, for thus they would +disturb or perhaps destroy the young; nor does she sting them to death, +for thus they would soon be in no state of proper preservation; but, as +if understanding these contingencies, she inflicts a disabling wound. +Yet the wasp does not feed upon caterpillars herself, nor has she ever +seen a wasp provide them for her future offspring. She has never seen a +worm such as will spring from her egg, nor can she know that her egg +will produce a worm; and besides, she herself will be dead long before +the unknown worm can be in existence. Therefore she works blindly; +without knowing that her work is to subserve any useful purpose, she +works to a purpose both definite and important; and her acts are +uniform with those of all solitary wasps that have lived before her or +that will live after her; so that we are compelled to refer these +untaught actions to some constant impulse connected with the special +organization of the wasp,--an innate tact, uniform throughout the +species, of which we, not possessing anything of the kind, can form +only a poor conception, but which we call instinct. + +There have been some philosophers, however, who have exercised their +ingenuity in tracing so-called instinctive actions to the operation of +experience. The celebrated Doctor Erasmus Darwin gave, as an +illustration of this view, his opinion that the young of animals know +how to swallow from their experience of swallowing _in utero_. Without +going into any refutation of this position, we would only remark, in +passing, that the act of swallowing is not an instinctive action at +all, but a purely mechanical one. Would not Doctor Darwin have rejoiced +greatly, if he could have brought to the support of his theory the +observation of our own great naturalist, Agassiz, who, knowing the +savage snap of one of the large, full-grown Testudinata, is said to +have asserted, that, under the microscope, he has seen the juvenile +turtle snapping precociously _in embryo_? + +But not only is instinct prior to all experience, it is even superior +to it, and often leads animals to disregard it,--the spontaneous +impulse which Nature has given them being their best guide. The +carrier-pigeon or the bird of passage, taken a long distance from home +by a circuitous route, trusting to this "pilot-sense," flies back in a +straight course; and the hound takes the shortest way home through +fields where he has never previously set foot. + +The existence of instinct prior to all experience or instruction, and +its perfection in the beginning, render cultivation and improvement not +only unnecessary, but impossible. As it is with the individual, so it +is with the race. One generation of the irrational tribes does not +improve upon the preceding or educate its successor. The web which you +watched the spider weaving in your open window last summer, carefully +measuring off each radius of her wheel and each circular mesh by one of +her legs, was just such a web as the spider wove of old when she was +pronounced to be "little upon the earth, yet exceeding wise." + +This incapacity for education is what so widely separates instinct from +the rational powers of man. Man gathers knowledge and transmits it from +generation to generation. He is not born with a ready skill, but with a +capacity for it. His mind is formed destitute of all connate knowledge, +that it may acquire the knowledge of all things. "Man's imperfection at +his nativity is his perfection; while the perfection of brutes at their +nativity is their imperfection." No rational being has ever arrived at +such perfection that he cannot still improve; he can travel on from one +attainment to another in a perpetual progress of improvement. He is, +moreover, free to choose his own path of action; while the being of +instinct is governed by a power which is not subject to his will, and +which confines him to a narrow path which he cannot leave. But +instinct, within its narrow limits, in many cases quite transcends +reason in its achievements. + + "Man's attainments in his own concerns, + Matched with the expertness of the brutes in theirs, + Are ofttimes vanquished and thrown far behind." + +Perhaps man has never made a structure as perfect in all its +adaptations as the honeycomb. Yet when Virgil spoke of the belief that +bees have a portion of the mind divine, nothing was known of the +wonderful mathematical properties of this beautiful fabric; and the +demonstration of them which has been made within the present century is +beyond the comprehension of far the larger part of mankind. If the bee +comprehended the problem which it has been working out for these many +ages before man was able to solve it, would its intellectual powers be +inferior to his in degree, if they were the same in kind? The +water-spider weaves for herself a cocoon, makes it impervious to water, +and fastens it by loose threads to the leaves of plants growing at the +bottom of a still pool. She carries down air in a bag made for this +purpose, till the water is expelled from the cell through the opening +below. The spider lived quite dry in her little air-chamber beneath the +water ages before the diving-bell was invented; but that she understood +anything of the doctrines of space and gravity, no one would venture to +assert. + +It has been the belief of some philosophers, and poets as well, that +man has taken the hint for some of the arts he now practises from the +brute creation. Democritus represents him as having derived the arts of +weaving and sewing from the spider, and the art of building of tempered +clay from the swallow; and we also read in Pliny's "Natural History," +that the nest of the swallow suggested to Toxius, the son of Coelus, +the invention of mortar. According to Lucretius, men learned music from +the song of birds, and Pope describes them as learning from the mole to +plough, from the nautilus to sail, and from bees and ants to form a +political community. Perhaps we were behind the beaver in felling +timber, in leading dams across rivers, and in building cabin +villages,--behind the wasp in making paper, and behind the squirrel and +spider in crossing streams upon rafts. So, if man had needed any +example of war and violence and wrong, he had only to go to the +ant-hill and see the red ants invade the camps of the black and bear +off their little negro prisoners into slavery. + +Whatever truth there may be in these ideas, it is at least conceivable +that man may have profited from the example of these animals. He has +copied from patterns set by Nature in tree and leaf and flower and +plant; he has formed the Gothic arch and column from the trunks and +interlacing boughs of the lofty avenue, the Corinthian capital from the +acanthus foliage embracing a basket, and classic urns and vases from +flowers. But no one could describe one species of the brute world as +having derived a similar lesson from another, and much less from trees +and plants. No species of animals has learnt anything new even from +man, except within the narrow sphere of domestication. + +It is only in particulars that instinct appears superior to reason in +the works it achieves. When an animal is taken, ever so little, out of +the ordinary circumstances in which its instincts act, it is apt to +behave very foolishly. If a woodpecker's egg is hatched by a bird which +builds an open nest upon the branches of a tree, when the young bird is +grown large enough to shuffle about in the nest, induced by its +instinct to suppose that its nest is in a hole walled round on all +sides by the tree, with a long, narrow entrance down from above, it +does not see that it has been inducted into the open nest of another +bird, and is sure to tumble out. The bee and the ant, in a few +particulars, show wonderful sagacity; but remove them from the narrow +compass of their instincts, and all their wisdom is at an end. That +animals are so wise in a few things and so wanting in wisdom in all +others shows that they are endowed with a mental principle essentially +of a different nature from that of the human race. "They do many things +even better than ourselves," says Descartes; "but this does not prove +them to be endowed with reason, for this would prove them to have more +reason than we have, and that they should excel us in all other things +also"; for reason can act not only in one direction, but in all. + +But it will be said that instinct is not invariable,--that it often +displays a capacity of accommodating itself, like reason, to +circumstances, and is therefore a principle the same in kind with +it,--or else that the animal has something of the rational faculty +superadded to the instinctive. But does the animal make these +variations in its conduct from a true perception of their meaning and +purpose? + +It is very natural for us to ascribe to reason those actions of other +animals which would be ascribable to reason, if performed by man. "If," +says Keller, (an old German writer,) "the fly be enabled to choose the +place which suits her best for the deposition of her eggs, (as, for +instance, in my sugar-basin, in which I placed a quantity of decaying +wheat,) she takes a correct survey of every part and selects that in +which she believes her ova will be the best preserved and her young +ones well cared for." The fly, in this instance, apparently exercises +an intelligent choice; but does any one doubt that the selection she +makes is determined wholly by a blind, uncalculating instinct? The +beaver selects a site for his dam at a place where the depth, width, +and rapidity of the stream are most fit. There is a tree upon the bank, +and food and materials for his work in the vicinity. If a man should +attempt to build a beaver's dam, he would abstractly consider all these +elements of fitness. The outward manifestations of the quality of +abstraction are equally observable in either case. But we must not +hastily conclude, because the beaver in one instance acts in a manner +apparently reasonable, that he has any reason of his own; for, when we +come to study the habits of this animal, we find that he displays all +the characteristics of the instinctive principle. If animals are +endowed with instincts which apparently act so much like reason in the +ordinary course of their operations, we should not at once conclude +that there is any need of endowing them with a modicum of reason to +account for their deviations from this course, which do not outwardly +resemble the acts of reason any more strongly. And besides, it is said, +that, if we refer the variations to an intelligent principle, we must +refer the ordinary conduct to the same principle. To use an old +illustration,--if a bird is reasonable and intelligent, when, on +perceiving the swollen waters of the stream approach her half-finished +nest, she builds higher up the bank, she was intelligent while making +her first nest, and was always intelligent; for how otherwise, it is +asked, could she know when to lay down instinct and take up reason? + +Instinct aims at certain definite ends; but these ends cannot always be +reached by the same means, especially when places and circumstances are +not the same. Accommodation is necessary, or it could not always +produce the effects for which it is intended. Would the instinct of the +spider be complete, if, after it has guided her to spin a web so neat +and trim and regular, it did not also lead her to repair her broken +snare, when the cords have been sundered by the struggles of some +powerful captive? But this pliancy of the spider's instinct is no more +remarkable than the contingent operation of the instincts of many +species of animals. "It is remarkable," says Kirby, "that many of the +insects which are occasionally observed to emigrate are not usually +social animals, but seem to congregate, like swallows, merely for the +purpose of emigration." When certain rare emergencies occur, which +render it necessary for the insects to migrate, a contingent instinct +develops itself, and renders an unsocial species gregarious. + +It is probable that most of our domesticated species, exhibiting as +they do in that condition attainments foreign to their natural habits +and faculties in a wild state, were endowed with provisional instincts +with a view to their association with man. But generally the docility +of animals does not extend to attainments which are radically different +from their habits and faculties in a wild state. Casual acquirements, +which have no relation to their exigencies in their natural condition, +never become hereditary, and are not, therefore, instinctive. A young +pointer-dog, which has never been in the fields before, will not only +point at a covey of partridges, but will remain motionless, like a +well-trained dog. The fact that the sagacity of the pointer is +hereditary shows that it is the development of an instinctive +propensity; for simple knowledge is not transmitted by blood from one +generation to another. We have heard of a pig that pointed game, and of +another that was learned in letters; but we ascertain in every such +instance that their foreign acquirements do not reappear in their +progeny, but end with the pupils of the time being. The pig's +peculiarity of pointing did not arise from the development of a +provisional instinct, because it does not become hereditary; but the +same act in the pointer-dog is instinctive,--for, when once brought out +by associating with man, it has remained with the breed, being a part +of the animal's nature, which existed in embryo till it was developed +by a companionship with man, for whose use this faculty was alone +intended. + +Although the animals which especially display these exceptional or +contingent instincts are those which are fitted for the use and comfort +of man and may be domesticated, it is doubtless true that many other +species are in some degree provided with them, and that they thus have +a plasticity in their nature which enables them to exercise, under +particular circumstances, unlooked-for attention, foresight, and +caution. And besides, it is only in analogy with the laws of the +physical world that instinct should admit of a slightly diversified +application. + +It is to be noticed in this connection that many animals are gifted +with a wonderful sensibility of the senses,--the action of which is +sometimes mistaken not only for the action of instinct, but for that of +reason also. The acuteness of the sense of smell in the dog, which +enables him to trace the steps of his master for miles through crowded +streets by the infinitesimal odor which his footsteps left upon the +pavement, is quite beyond our conception. Equally incomprehensible to +us are the keenness of sight and wide range of vision of the eagle, +which enable him to discover the rabbit nipping the clover amid the +thick grass at a distance at which a like object would be to us +altogether imperceptible. The chameleon is enabled to seize the little +insects upon which it feeds by darting forth its wonderfully +constructed tongue with such rapidity and with such delicacy of +perception that "wonder-loving sages" have told us that it feeds upon +the air. + +It has been the belief of some observers that some animals have senses +by which they are enabled to take cognizance of things which are not +revealed directly to our senses. It is easy enough to conceive of +beings endowed with a more perfect perception of the external world, +both in its condition and the number of objects it presents, than we +have, by means of other organs of outward perception. Voltaire, in one +of his philosophical romances, represents an inhabitant of one of the +planets of the Dog-Star as inquiring of the Secretary of the Academy of +Sciences in the planet of Saturn, at which he had recently arrived in a +journey through the heavens, how many senses the men of his globe had; +and when the Academician answered, that they had seventy-two, and were +every day complaining of the smallness of the number, he of the +Dog-Star replied, that in his globe they had very near one thousand +senses, and yet with all these they felt continually a sort of listless +inquietude and vague desire which told them how very imperfect they +were. But we shall not travel so far as this for our illustrations. We +have all seen in the fields and about our houses birds and insects +which seem to take cognizance of the electric state of the atmosphere; +and we have learnt to feel quite sure, when, early in the morning of a +summer's day, we see fresh piles of sand around the holes of the ants, +that a storm is approaching, although the sky may as yet be cloudless +and the air perfectly serene. In like manner birds perceive the +approach of rain, and are all busy oiling and smoothing their feathers +in preparation for it; and then, before the clouds break away, they +come out from their retreats and joyfully hail the return of fair +weather. So, by some analogous sense, the birds of passage are informed +of the approach of winter and the return of spring. + +It is doubtless true that in some animals the senses are immediately +connected with instincts which assist and extend their operation. +Metaphysicians and physiologists are agreed that the perception of +distance is an acquired knowledge. The sense of sight by itself +principally makes us conversant with extension only. The painting upon +the retina of the eye presents all external things with flat surfaces +and at the same distance. Before we can have any correct ideas of +distance, we must be able to compare the result of the sense of sight +with the result of the sense of feeling. By experience we in time come +to judge something of distance by the size of the image which an object +makes upon the retina, but more by our acquired knowledge of the form +and color of external things. It is true that the eyes of many animals +are constructed like those of man; but they do not learn to judge of +distance by the same slow process. It is known from experiment that +some animals have a perfect conception of distance at the moment of +their birth; and the young of the greater part of animals possess some +instinctive perception of this kind. "A flycatcher, for example, just +come out of its shell, has been seen to peck at an insect with an aim +as perfect as if it had been all its life engaged in learning the art." +And so when the hen takes her chickens out into the field for the first +time to feed, they seem to perceive very distinctly the relative +distance of all objects about them, and will run by the straightest +course when she calls them to pick up the little grains which she +points out to them. Without this instinctive power of determining the +relative distance and figure of objects, the young of most animals +would perish before their sense of sight could be perfected, as ours +is, by experience. + +We have now noticed the chief characteristics of instinct: its +existence prior to all experience or instruction; its incapacity of +improvement, except within the narrow sphere of domestication; its +limitation to a few objects, and the certainty of its action within +these limits; the distinctness and permanence of its character for each +species; and its constant hereditary nature. In regard to the +uniformity of instinct throughout each species, it may be further +remarked, that this seems to be very constantly preserved in the lowest +divisions of the animal kingdom. Among the Articulates, also, instinct +appears almost unvarying; and it is in this department among the insect +tribes that the most striking manifestations of instinct are to be met +with. When we arrive among the higher orders of the Vertebrates, we +find in some species that each individual is capable of some +modification of its actions, according to the particular circumstances +in which it finds itself placed. But throughout the long series of +animals, from the polype to man, there is instinctive action more or +less in amount in every species, with, perhaps, the exception of man +alone. The variety of that endowment, which is adapted to definite +objects, means, and results, in each particular one of the five hundred +thousand species estimated to be now living, may well call forth our +admiration and astonishment at the magnitude and extent of the +prospective contrivance of the Creator. How various the relations of +all these animals to each other and to the inanimate world about them! +and yet how admirable the adjustments of that immaterial principle +which regulates their lives, so as to secure the well-being of each and +the symmetry of the general plan! + +There has been much diversity of opinion as to the existence of +instincts in the human species,--some making the whole mind of man +nothing but a bundle of instincts, and others wholly denying him any +endowment of this nature, while others still have given him a complex +mental nature, and have, moreover, declared that intellect and instinct +in him are so interwoven that it is impossible to tell where the one +begins and the other ends. But we believe, with the author of "Ancient +Metaphysics," that in Nature, however intimately things are blended +together and run into each other like different shades of the same +color, the species of things are absolutely distinct, and that there +are certain fixed boundaries which separate them, however difficult it +may be for us to find them out. In regard to intelligence and instinct, +the two principles seem to us to be not more distinctly and widely +separated in their nature than in the provinces of their operation. + +Sir Henry Holland, who believes that intelligence and instinct are +blended in man, admits that instincts, properly so called, form the +_minimum_ in relation to reason, and are difficult of definition from +their connection with his higher mental functions, but that, wherever +we can truly distinguish them, they are the same in principle and +manner of operation as those of other animals. He makes one +distinction, however, between the instincts of man and those of lower +animals,--that in the former they have more of individual character, +are far less numerous and definite in relation to the physical +conditions of life, and more various and extensive in regard to his +moral nature. But, on the other hand, Sir B.C. Brodie seems to be of +opinion that the majority of instincts belonging to man resemble those +of the inferior animals, inasmuch as they relate to the preservation of +the individual and the continuation of the species; and that when man +first began to exist, and for some generations afterwards, the range of +his instincts was much more extensive than it is at the present time. +When authorities so eminent as these differ so widely upon the +question, to what human instincts relate, we see at least that it is +very difficult to define and distinguish these instincts, and we may be +led to doubt their existence at all. Of that marvellous endowment which +guides the bee to fabricate its cells according to laws of the most +rigid mathematical exactness, and guides the swallow in its long flight +to its winter home, we agree with Professor Bowen, that there is no +trace whatever in human nature. The actions of man which have been +loosely described as instinctive belong for the most part to those +classes of actions which we have already shown to be in no proper sense +of the word instinctive, that is, those concerned in the appetites and +in the functions of organic life. There are also numerous automatic and +habitual actions which are liable to be mistaken for instincts. Some +have included in the category of instincts those intuitive perceptions +and primary beliefs which are a part of our constitution, and are the +foundation of all our knowledge. But these propensities of thought and +feeling are of a higher nature than mere instincts; they are immutable +laws of the human mind, which time and physical changes cannot reach: +they do not seem to depend upon the physical organization, but to be +inherent in the soul itself. If these are instincts, then, why are not +all the ways in which the mind exerts itself instincts also, and reason +itself an instinct? + +There is hardly any human action, feeling, or belief, which has not +been ranged under the term instinct. Hunger and thirst have been called +instincts; so have the faculty of speech, the use of the right hand in +preference to the left, the love of society, the desire to possess +property, the desire to avoid danger and prolong life, and the belief +in supernatural agencies, upon which is engrafted the religious +sentiment. We cannot, in this paper, attempt to analyze these and many +other similar examples which have been given as illustrations of +instinct in treatises of high repute, and show that they do not at all +come within that class of actions which we contrast with reason. In +regard to those actions of early infancy which have often been adduced +as illustrations of instinct, the physiologists of the present day are +agreed that they are as mechanical as the act of breathing. To place +these upon the same level with the complex and wonderful operations of +the bee, the ant, and the beaver, is to admit that the instincts of the +latter are merely reflex actions following impressions on the nerves of +sense. + +On the other hand, whether the animals inferior to man ever exercise +any conscious process of reasoning is a question which has often been +discussed, and upon which there is no general agreement. Instances of +the remarkable sagacity of some domesticated animals are often adduced +as proofs of reasoning on their part. Some of these wonderful feats may +be traced to the unconscious faculty of imitation, which even in man +often appears as a blind propensity, although he exercises an active +and rational imitation as well. Sometimes the mere association of +ideas, or the perception by animals that one thing is accompanied by +another or that one event follows another, is mistaken for that higher +principle which in man judges, reflects, and understands causes and +effects. When the dog sees his master take down his gun, his +blandishments show that he anticipates a renewal of the pleasures of +the chase. He does not reflect upon past pleasures; but, seeing the gun +in his master's hand, a confused idea of the feelings that were +associated with the gun in times past is called up. So the ox and the +horse learn to associate certain movements with the voice and gesture +of man. And so a fish, about the most stupid of all animals, comes to a +certain spot at a certain signal to be fed. These combinations are +quite elementary. This is quite another thing from that reciprocal +action of ideas on each other by which man perceives the relations of +things, understands the laws of cause and effect, and not only forms +judgments of the past, but draws conclusions which are laws for the +future. We find in the brute no power of attending to and arranging its +thoughts,--no power of calling up the past at will and reflecting upon +it. The animal has the faculty of memory, and, when this is awakened, +the object remembered may be accompanied by a train or attendance of +accessory notions which have been connected with the object in the +animal's past experience. But it never seems to be able to exercise the +purely voluntary act of recollection. It is not capable of comparing +one thing with another, so far as we can judge. If the animal could +exercise any true act of comparison, there would be no limit to the +exercise of it, and the animal would be an intelligent being; for the +result of a simple act of comparison is judgment, and reasoning is only +a double act of comparison. We have the authority of Sir William +Hamilton for saying that the highest function of mind is nothing higher +than comparison. Hence comes thought,--hence, the power of discovering +truth,--and hence, the mind's highest dignity, in being able to ascend +unassisted to the knowledge of a God. Those who hold that the minds of +the inferior animals are essentially of the same nature with that of +the human race, and differ only in degree, should reflect that the +distinguishing attribute of the human mind does not admit of degrees. +The faculty of comparison, in all its various applications, must be +either wholly denied or else wholly attributed. Hence, Pope is not +philosophical, when he applies the epithet "half-reasoning" to the +elephant. "As reasoning," says Coleridge, "consists wholly in a man's +power of seeing whether any two ideas which happen to be in his mind +are or are not in contradiction with each other, it follows of +necessity, not only that all men have reason, but that every individual +has it in the same degree." We gather also from the same acute writer +that in the simple determination, "black is not white," all the powers +are implied that distinguish man from other animals. If, then, the +brute reasoned at all, he would be a rational being, and would improve +and gain knowledge by experience; and, moreover, he would be a moral +agent, accountable for his conduct. "Would not the brute," asks an able +writer in the "Zooelogical Journal," "take a survey of his lower powers, +and would he not, as man does, either rightly use or pervert them, at +his pleasure?" + +It has been suggested by some one, that, by the law of merciful +adaptation, which extends throughout the universe, thought would not be +imprisoned and pent up forever in an intelligence wanting the power of +expression. But it is also to be noticed that the want of an articulate +language or a system of general signs puts it out of the power of +animals to perform a single act of reasoning. The use of language to +communicate wants and feelings is not peculiar to "word-dividing men," +though enjoyed by them in a much higher degree than by other animals. +Doubtless every species of social animals has some kind of language, +however imperfect it may be. "We never watch the busy workers of the +ant-hill," says Acheta Domestics, (the author of "Episodes of +Insect-Life,") "stopping as they encounter and laying their heads +together, without being pretty certain that they are saying to each +other something quite as significant as 'Fine day.'" And when the +morning wakes the choral song of the birds, they seem to be telling +each other of their happiness. But though animals have a language +appropriate to the expression of their sensations and emotions, they +have no words, "those shadows of the soul, those living sounds." Words +are symbols of thoughts, and may be considered as a revelation of the +human mind. It is this use of language as an instrument of thought, as +a system of general signs, which, according to Bishop Whately, +distinguishes the language of man from that of the brute; and the same +eminent authority declares that without such a system of general signs +the reasoning process could not be conducted. + +It is true, that we often see in the inferior animals manifestations of +deductions of intellect similar to those of the human mind,--only that +they are not made by the animals themselves, but for them and above +their conscious perception. "When a bee," says Dr. Reid, "makes its +combs so geometrically, the geometry is not in the bee, but in that +great Geometrician who made the bee, and made all things in number, +weight, and measure." Since the animal is not conscious of the +intelligence and design which are manifested in its instincts, which it +obeys and works out, the conscious life of the individual must be +wholly a life within the senses. The senses alone can give the animal +only an empirical knowledge of the world of its observation. The senses +may register and report facts, but they can never arrive at an +understanding of necessary truths; the source of this kind of knowledge +is the rational mind, which has an active disposition to draw out these +infallible laws and eternal truths from its own bosom. The main +tendency of the rational mind is not towards mere phenomena, but their +scientific explanation. It seeks to trace effects, as presented to us +by the senses, back to the causes which produced them; or contemplating +things wholly metaphysical, it seeks to follow out the laws which it +has itself discovered, till they have gone through a thousand probable +contingencies and lost themselves in numberless results. It is on +account of this capacity and tendency of the human mind to look through +fact to law, through individuals to classes, through effects to causes, +through phenomena to general principles, that the late Dr. Burnap was +led to declare, in a very interesting course of lectures which he +delivered before the Lowell Institute a few years since, that he +considered the first characteristic difference between the highest +species of animals and the lowest race of man to be a capacity of +science. But is not the whole edifice of human science built upon the +simple faculty of comparison? + +This is the ultimate analysis of all the highest manifestations of the +human mind, whether of judgment, or reason, or intellect, or common +sense, or the power of generalization, or the capacity of science. We +have already quoted Hamilton to this effect, and we, moreover, have his +authority for saying that the faculty of discovering truth, by a +comparison of the notions we have obtained by observation and +experience, is the attribute by which man is distinguished as a +creature higher than the animals. We might also cite Leibnitz to the +effect that men differ from animals in being capable of the formation +of necessary judgments, and hence capable of demonstrative sciences. + +But notwithstanding it seems so apparent that what is customarily +called reason is the distinguishing endowment which makes man the +"paragon of animals," we very often meet with attempts to set up some +other distinction. We cannot here go into an examination of these +various theories, or even allude to them specially. We will, however, +briefly refer to a view which was recently advanced in one of our +leading periodicals, inasmuch as it makes prominent a distinction which +we wish to notice, although it seems to us to be only subordinate to +the distinguishing attribute of the human mind which we have already +pointed out. It is said that self-consciousness is what makes the great +difference between man and other animals; that the latter do not +separate themselves consciously from the world in which they exist; and +that, though they have emotions, impulses, pains, and pleasures, every +change of feeling in them takes at once the form of an outward change +either in place or position. It is not intended, however, to be said +that they have no conscious perception of external things. We cannot +possibly conceive of an animal without this condition of consciousness. +A consciousness of an outward world is an essential quality of the +animal soul; this distinguishes the very lowest form of animal life +from the vegetable world; and hence it cannot possibly be, as has been +suggested by some, that there are any animate beings which have no +endowments superior to those which belong to plants. The plant is not +conscious of an outward world, when it sends out its roots to obtain +the nourishment which is fitting for itself; but the polype, which is +fixed with hundreds of its kind on the same coral-stock, and is able +only to move its mouth and tentacles, is aware of the presence of the +little craw-fish upon which it feeds, and throws out its lasso-cells +and catches it. The world of which the polype has any perception is not +a very large one. The outer world of a bird is vastly greater; and man +knows a world without, which is immeasurably large beyond that of which +any other animal is conscious, because both his physical organs and his +mental faculties bring him into far the most diversified and intimate +relations with all created things. He sees in every flower of the +garden and every beast of the field, in the air and in the sea, in the +earth beneath his feet and in the starry heavens above him, countless +meanings which are hidden to all the living world besides. To him there +is a world which has existed and a world that will exist. "Man," says +Protagoras, "is the measure of the universe." But he has a greater +dignity in being able to apprehend the world of thought within. "Whilst +I study to find how I am a microcosm or little world," says Sir Thomas +Browne, "I find myself something more than the great." Man can make +himself an object to himself and gain the deepest insight into the +workings of his own mind. This internal perception seems never to be +developed in other animals. We have already observed that they have no +thought of their own. The intelligence and design which they often +manifest in their actions are not the workings of their own minds. The +intelligence and design belong to Him who impressed the thought upon +the animal's mind and unceasingly sustains it in action. They +themselves are not conscious of any thought, but only of "certain dim +imperious influences" which urge them on. They are conscious of +feelings and desires and impulses. We could not conceive of the +existence of these affections in animals without their having an +immediate knowledge of them. Even "the function of voluntary motion," +says Hamilton, "which is a function of the animal soul in the +Peripatetic doctrine, ought not, as is generally done, to be excluded +from the phenomena of consciousness and mind." The conscious life of +the irrational tribes seems, then, to be a life almost wholly within +the senses. They have nothing of that higher conscious personality +which belongs to man and is an attribute of a free intellect. + +A general statement of the points made out in the foregoing inquiry +will more clearly show our conception of the nature and limitations of +instinct. First, we limited the word instinct so as to exclude all +those automatic and mechanical actions concerned in the simple +functions of organic life,--as also to exclude the operations of the +passions and appetites, since these seek no other end than their own +gratification. Then it was shown that instinct exists prior to all +experience or memory; that it comes to an instant or speedy perfection, +and is not capable of any improvement or cultivation; that its objects +are precise and limited; that within its proper sphere it often appears +as the highest wisdom, but beyond this is only foolishness; that it +uses complex and laborious means to provide for the future, without any +prescience of it; that it performs important and rational operations +which the animal neither intends nor knows anything about; that it is +permanent for each species, and is transmitted as an hereditary gift of +Nature; and that the few variations in its action result from the +development of provisional faculties, or from blind imitation. We were +led to conclude that instinct is not a free and conscious possession of +the animal itself. We found some points of resemblance between +intelligence in man and instinct in other animals,--but at the same +time points of dissimilarity, such as to make the two principles appear +radically unlike. + +This brief summary presents nearly all that we can satisfactorily make +out respecting instinct; and at the same time it shows how much is +still wanting to a complete solution of all the questions which it +involves. And then there are higher mysteries connected with the +subject, which we do not attempt to penetrate,--mysteries in regard to +the creation and the maintenance of instinctive action: whether it be +the result of particular external conditions acting on the organization +of animals, or whether, as Sir Isaac Newton thought, the Deity himself +is virtually the active and present moving principle in them;--and +mysteries, too, about the future of the brute world: whether, as +Southey wrote, + + "There is another world +For all that live and move,--a better world." + +If we ever find a path which seems about to lead us up to these +mysteries, it speedily closes against us, and leaves us without any +rational hope of attaining their solution. + + + + +MY OWN STORY. + + +"Oh, tell her, brief is life, but love is long." + +"What have I got that you would like to have? Your letters are tied up +and directed to you. Mother will give them to you, when she finds them +in my desk. I could execute my last will myself, if it were not for +giving her additional pain. I will leave everything for her to do +except this: take these letters, and when I am dead, give them to +Frank. There is not a reproach in them, and they are full of wit; but +he won't laugh, when he reads them again. Choose now, what will you +have of mine?" + +"Well," I said, "give me the gold pen-holder that Redmond sent you +after he went away." + +Laura rose up in her bed, and seized me by my shoulder, and shook me, +crying between her teeth, "You love him! you love him!" Then she fell +back on her pillow. "Oh, if he were here now! He went, I say, to marry +the woman he was engaged to before he saw you. He was nearly mad, +though, when he went. The night mother gave them their last party, when +you wore your black lace dress, and had pink roses in your hair, +somehow I hardly knew you that night. I was in the little parlor, +looking at the flowers on the mantelpiece, when Redmond came into the +room, and, rushing up to me, bent down and whispered, 'Did you see her +go? I shall see her no more; she is walking on the beach with Maurice.' +He sighed so loud that I felt embarrassed; for I was afraid that Harry +Lothrop, who was laughing and talking in a corner with two or three +men, would hear him; but he was not aware that they were there. I did +not know what to do, unless I ridiculed him. 'Follow them,' I said. +'Step on her flounces, and Maurice will have a chance to humiliate you +with some of his cutting, exquisite politeness.' He never answered a +word, and I would not look at him, but presently I understood that +there were tears falling. Oh, you need not look towards me with such +longing; he does not cry for you now. They seemed to bring him to his +senses. He stamped his foot; but the carpet was thick; it only made a +thud. Then he buttoned his coat, giving himself a violent twist as he +did it, and looked at me with such a haughty composure, that, if I had +been you, I should have trembled in my shoes. He walked across the room +toward the group of men.--'Ah, Harry,' he said, 'where is Maurice?' +'Don't you know?' they all cried out; 'he has gone as Miss Denham's +escort?' 'By Jove!' said Harry Lothrop,--'Miss Denham was as handsome +as Cleopatra, to-night. Little Maurice is now singing to her. Did he +take his guitar under his arm? It was here; for I saw a green bag near +his hat, when we came in to-night.' Just then we heard the twang of a +guitar under the window, and Redmond, in spite of himself, could not +help a grimace.--Is it not a droll world?" said Laura, after a pause; +"things come about so contrariwise." + +She laughed such a shrill laugh, that I shuddered to hear it, and I +fell a-crying. "But," she continued, "I am going, I trust, where a key +will be given me for this cipher." + +Tears came into her eyes, and an expression of gentleness filled her +face. + +"It is strange," she said, "when I know that I must die, that I should +be so moved by earthly passions and so interested in earthly +speculations. My heart supplicates God for peace and patience, and at +the same moment my thoughts float away in dreams of the past. I shall +soon be wiser; I am convinced of that. The doctrine of compensation +extends beyond this world; if it be not so, why should I die at twenty, +with all this mysterious suffering of soul? You must not wonder over +me, when I am gone, and ask yourself, 'Why did she live?' Believe that +I shall know why I lived, and let it suffice you and encourage you to +go on bravely. Live and make your powers felt. Your nature is affluent, +and you may yet learn how to be happy." + +She sighed softly, and turned her face to the wall, and moved her +fingers as sick people do. She waited for me to cease weeping: my tears +rained over my face so that I could neither see nor speak. + +After I had become calmer, she moved toward me again and took my hand: +her own trembled. + +"It is for the last time, Margaret. My good, skilful father gives me no +medicine now. My sisters have come home; they sit about the house like +mourners, with idle hands, and do not speak with each other. It is +terrible, but it will soon be over." + +She pulled at my hand for me to rise. I staggered up, and met her eyes. +Mine were dry now. + +"Do not come here again. It will be enough for my family to look at my +coffin. I feel better to think you will be spared the pain." + +I nodded. + +"Good-bye!" + +A sob broke in her throat. + +"Margaret,"--she spoke like a little child,--"I am going to heaven." + +I kissed her, but I was blind and dumb. I lifted her half out of the +bed. She clasped her frail arms round me, and hid her face in my bosom. + +"Oh, I love you!" she said. + +Her heart gave such a violent plunge, that I felt it, and laid her back +quickly. She waved her hand to me with a determined smile. I reached +the door, still looking at her, crossed the dark threshold, and passed +out of the house. The bold sunshine smote my face, and the insolent +wind played about me. The whole earth was as brilliant and joyous as if +it had never been furrowed by graves. + +Laura lived some days after my interview with her. She sent me no +message, and I did not go to see her. From the garret-windows of our +house, which was half a mile distant from Laura's, I could see the +windows of the room where she was lying. Three tall poplar-trees +intervened in the landscape. I thought they stood motionless so that +they might not intercept my view while I watched the house of death. +One morning I saw that the blinds had been thrown back and the windows +opened. I knew then that Laura was dead. + +The day after the funeral I gave Frank his letters, his miniature, and +the locket which held a ring of his hair. + +"Is there a fire?" he asked, when I gave them to him; "I want to burn +these things." + +I went to another room with him. + +"I'll leave everything here to-day; and may I never see this cursed +place again! Did she die, do you know, because I held her promise that +she would be my wife?" + +He threw the papers into the grate, and crowded them down with his +boot, and watched them till the last blackened flake disappeared. He +then took from his neck a hair chain, and threw that into the fire +also. + +"It is all done now," he said. + +He shook my hand with a firm grasp and left me. + +A month later Laura's mother sent me a package containing two bundles +of letters. It startled me to see that the direction was dated before +she was taken ill:--"To be given to Margaret in case of my death. +June 5th, 1848." They were my letters, and those which she had +received from Harry Lothrop. On this envelop was written, "Put these +into the black box he gave you." The gold pen-holder came into my hands +also. _Departure_ was engraved on the handle, and Laura's initials were +cut in an emerald in its top. The black box was an ebony, gold-plated +toy, which Harry Lothrop had given me at the same time Redmond gave +Laura the pen-holder. It was when they went away, after a whole +summer's visit in our little town, the year before. I locked the +letters in the black box, and, + + "Whether from reason or from impulse only," + +I know not, but I was prompted to write a line to Harry Lothrop. "Do +not," I said, "write Laura any more letters. Those you have already +written to her are in my keeping, for she is dead. Was it not a +pleasant summer we passed together? The second autumn is already at +hand: time flies the same, whether we are dull or gay. For all this +period what remains except the poor harvest of a few letters?" + +I received in answer an incoherent and agitated letter. What was the +matter with Laura? he asked. He had not heard from her for months. Had +any rupture occurred between her and her friend Frank? Did I suppose +she was ever unhappy? He was shocked at the news, and said he must come +and learn the particulars of the event. He thanked me for my note, and +begged me to believe how sincere was his friendship for my poor friend. + +"Redmond," he continued, "is, for the present, attached to the engineer +corps to which I belong, and he has offered to take charge of my +business while I am a day or two absent. He is in my room at this +moment, holding your note in his hand, and appears painfully +disturbed." + +It was now a little past the time of year when Redmond and Harry +Lothrop had left us,--early autumn. After their departure, Laura and I +had been sentimental enough to talk over the events of their visit. +Recalling these associations, we created an illusion of pleasure which +of course could not last. Harry Lothrop wrote to Laura, but the +correspondence declined and died. As time passed on, we talked less and +less of our visitors, and finally ceased to speak of them. Neither of +us knew or suspected the other of any deep or lasting feeling toward +the two friends. Laura knew Redmond better than I did; at least, she +saw him oftener; in fact, she knew both in a different way. They had +visited her alone; while I had met them almost entirely in society. I +never found so much time to spare as she seemed to have; for everybody +liked her, and everybody sought her. As often as we had talked over our +acquaintance, she was wary of speaking of Redmond. Her last +conversation with me revealed her thoughts, and awakened feelings which +I thought I had buffeted down. The tone of Harry Lothrop's note +perplexed me, and I found myself drifting back into an old state of +mind I had reason to dread. + +As I said, the autumn had come round. Its quiet days, its sombre +nights, filled my soul with melancholy. The lonesome moan of the sea +and the waiting stillness of the woods were just the same a year ago; +but Laura was dead, and Nature grieved me. Yet none of us are in one +mood long, and at this very time there were intervals when I found +something delicious in life, either in myself or the atmosphere. + + "Moreover, something is or seems + That touches me with mystic gleams." + +A golden morning, a starry night, the azure round of the sky, the +undulating horizon of sea, the blue haze which rose and fell over the +distant hills, the freshness of youth, the power of beauty,--all gave +me deep voluptuous dreams. + +I can afford to confess that I possessed beauty; for half my faults and +miseries arose from the fact of my being beautiful. I was not vain, but +as conscious of my beauty as I was of that of a flower, and sometimes +it intoxicated me. For, in spite of the comforting novels of the Jane +Eyre school, it is hardly possible to set an undue value upon beauty; +it defies ennui. + +As I expected, Harry Lothrop came to see me. The sad remembrance of +Laura's death prevented any ceremony between us; we met as old +acquaintances, of course, although we had never conversed together half +an hour without interruption. I began with the theme of Laura's illness +and death, and the relation which she had held toward me. All at once I +discovered, without evidence, that he was indifferent to what I was +saying; but I talked on mechanically, and like a phantasm the truth +came to my mind. The real man was there,--not the one I had carelessly +looked at and known through Laura. + +I became silent. + +He twisted his fingers in the fringe of my scarf, which had fallen off, +and I watched them. + +"Why," I abruptly asked, "have I not known you before?" + +He let go the fringe, and folded his hands, and in a dreamy voice +replied,-- + +"Redmond admires you." + +"What a pity!" I said. "And you,--you admire me, or yourself, just now; +which?" + +He flushed slightly, but continued with a bland voice, which irritated +and interested me. + +"All that time I was so near you, and you scarcely saw me; what a +chance I had to study you! Your friend was intelligent and sympathetic, +so we struck a league of friendship: I could dare so much with her, +because I knew that she was engaged to marry Mr. Ballard. I own that I +have been troubled about her since I went away. How odd it is that I am +here alone with you in this room! how many times I have wished it! I +liked you best here; and while absent, the remembrance of it has been +inseparable from the remembrance of you,--a picture within a picture. I +know all that the room contains,--the white vases, and the wire +baskets, with pots of Egyptian lilies and damask roses, the books bound +in green and gold, the engravings of nymphs and fauns, the crimson bars +in the carpet, the flowers on the cushions, and, best of all, the +arched window and its low seat. But I had promised myself never to see +you: it was all I could do for Laura. She is dead, and I am here." + +I rose and walked to the window, and looked out on the misty sea, and +felt strangely. + +"Another lover," I thought,--"and Redmond's friend, and Laura's. But it +all belongs to the comedy we play." + +He came to where I stood. + +"I know you so well," he said,--"your pride, your self-control, even +your foibles: but they attract one, too. You did not escape heart-whole +from Redmond's influence. He is not married yet, but he will be; he is +a chivalrous fellow. It was a desperate matter between you two,--a +hand-to-hand struggle. It is over with you both, I believe: you are +something alike. Now may I offer you my friendship? If I love you, let +me say so. Do not resist me. I appeal to the spirit of coquetry which +tempted you before you saw me to-night. You are dressed to please me." + +I was thinking what I should say, when he skilfully turned the +conversation into an ordinary channel. He shook off his dreamy manner, +and talked with his old vivacity. I was charmed a little; an +association added to the charm, I fancy. It was late at night when he +took his leave. He had arranged it all; for a man brought his carriage +to the door and drove him to the next town, where he had procured it to +come over from the railway. + +When I was shut in my room for the night, rage took possession of me. I +tore off my dress, twisted my hair with vehemence, and hurried to bed +and tried to go to sleep, but could not, of course. As when we press +our eyelids together for meditation or sleep, violet rings and changing +rays of light flash and fade before the darkened eyeballs, so in the +dark unrest of my mind the past flashed up, and this is what I saw:-- + +The county ball, where Laura and I first met Redmond, Harry Lothrop, +and Maurice. We were struggling through the crowd of girls at the +dressing-room door, to rejoin Frank, who was waiting for us. As we +passed out, satisfied with the mutual inspection of our dresses of +white silk, which were trimmed with bunches of rose-geranium, we saw a +group of strangers close by us, buttoning their gloves, looking at +their boots, and comparing looks. Laura pushed her fan against my arm; +we looked at each other, and made signs behind Frank, and were caught +in the act, not only by him, but by a tall gentleman in the group which +she had signalled me to notice. + +The shadow of a smile was travelling over his face as I caught his eye, +but he turned away so suddenly that I had no opportunity for +embarrassment. An usher gave us a place near the band, at the head of +the hall. + +"Do not be reckless, Laura," I said,--"at least till the music gives +you an excuse." + +"You are obliged to me, you know," she answered, "for directing your +attention to such attractive prey. Being in bonds myself, I can only +use my eyes for you: don't be ungrateful." + +The band struck up a crashing polka, and she and Frank whirled away, +with a hundred others. I found a seat and amused myself by contrasting +the imperturbable countenances of the musicians with those of the +dancers. The perfumes the women wore floated by me. These odors, the +rhythmic motion of the dancers, and the hard, energetic music +exhilarated me. The music ended, and the crowd began to buzz. The loud, +inarticulate speech of a brilliant crowd is like good wine. As my +acquaintances gathered about me, I began to feel its electricity, and +grew blithe and vivacious. Presently I saw one of the ushers speaking +to Frank, who went down the hall with him. + +"Oh, my prophetic soul!" said Laura, "they are coming." + +Frank came back with the three, and introduced them. Redmond asked me +for the first quadrille, and Harry Lothrop engaged Laura. Frank said to +me behind his handkerchief,--"It's _en regle_; I know where they came +from; their fathers are brave, and their mothers are virtuous." + +The quadrille had not commenced, so I talked with several persons near; +but I felt a constraint, for I knew I was closely observed by the +stranger, who was entirely quiet. Curiosity made me impatient for the +dance to begin; and when we took our places, I was cool enough to +examine him. Tall, slender, and swarthy, with a delicate moustache over +a pair of thin scarlet lips, penetrating eyes, and a tranquil air. My +antipodes in looks, for I was short and fair; my hair was straight and +black like his, but my eyes were blue, and my mouth wide and full. + +"What an unnaturally pleasant thing a ball-room is!" he said,--"before +the dust rises and the lights flare, I mean. But nobody ever leaves +early; as the freshness vanishes, the extravagance deepens. Did you +ever notice how much faster the musicians play as it grows late? When +we open the windows, the fresh breath of the night increases the +delirium within. I have seen the quietest women toss their faded +bouquets out of the windows without a thought of making a comparison +between the flowers and themselves." + +"My poor geraniums!" I said,--"what eloquence!" + +He laughed, and answered,-- + +"My friend Maurice yonder would have said it twice as well." + +We were in the promenade then, and stopped where the said Maurice was +fanning himself against the wall. + +"May I venture to ask you for a waltz, Miss Denham? it is the next +dance on the card," said Maurice;--"but of course you are engaged." + +I gave him my card, and he began to mark it, when Redmond took it, and +placed his own initials against the dance after supper, and the last +one on the list. He left me then, and I saw him a moment after talking +with Laura. + +We passed a gay night. When Laura and I equipped for our ten miles' +ride, it was four in the morning. Redmond helped Frank to pack us in +the carriage, and we rewarded him with a knot of faded leaves. + +"This late event," said Laura, with a ministerial air, after we had +started, "was a providential one. You, my dear Frank, were at liberty +to pursue your favorite pastime of whist, in some remote apartment, +without being conscience-torn respecting me. I have danced very well +without you, thanks to the strangers. And you, Margaret, have had an +unusual opportunity of displaying your latent forces. Three such +different men! But let us drive fast. I am in want of the cup of tea +which mother will have waiting for me." + +We arrived first at my door. As I was going up the steps, Laura broke +the silence; for neither of us had spoken since her remarks. + +"By the way, they are coming here to stay awhile. They are anxious for +some deep-sea fishing. They'll have it, I think." + +I heard Frank's laugh of delight at Laura's wit, as the carriage drove +off. + +It was our last ball that season. + +It was late in the spring; and when Redmond came with his two friends +and settled at the hotel in our town, it was early summer. When I saw +them again, they came with Laura and Frank to pay me a visit. Laura was +already acquainted with them, and asked me if I did not perceive her +superiority in the fact. + +"Let us arrange," said Harry Lothrop, "some systematic plan of +amusement by sea and land. I have a pair of horses, Maurice owns a +guitar, and Redmond's boat will be here in a few days. Jones, our +landlord, has two horses that are tolerable under the saddle. Let us +ride, sail, and be serenaded. The Lake House, Jones again, is eight +miles distant. This is Monday; shall we go there on horse-back +Wednesday?" + +Laura looked mournfully at Frank, who replied to her look,-- + +"You must go; I cannot; I shall go back to business to-morrow." + +I glanced at Redmond; he was contemplating a portrait of myself at the +age of fourteen. + +"Shall we go?" Laura asked him. + +"Nothing, thank you," he answered. + +We all laughed, and Harry Lothrop said,-- + +"Redmond, my boy, how fond you are of pictures!" + +Redmond, with an unmoved face, said,-- + +"Don't be absurd about my absent-mindedness. What were you saying?" + +And he turned to me. + +"Do you like our plan," I asked, "of going to the Lake House? There is +a deep pond, a fine wood, a bridge,--perch, pickerel,--a one-story inn +with a veranda,--ham and eggs, stewed quince, elderberry wine,--and a +romantic road to ride over." + +"I like it." + +Frank opened a discussion on fishing; Laura and I withdrew, and went to +the window-seat. + +"I am light-hearted," I said. + +"It is my duty to be melancholy," she replied; "but I shall not mope +after Frank has gone." + +"'After them the deluge,'" said I. "How long will they stay?" + +"Till they are bored, I fancy." + +"Oh, they are going; we must leave our recess." + +Frank and she remained; the others bid us good-night. + +"I shall not come again till Christmas," he said. "These college-chaps +will amuse you and make the time pass; they are young,--quite suitable +companions for you girls. _Vive la bagatelle!_" + +He sighed, and, drawing Laura's arm in his, rose to go. She groaned +loudly, and he nipped her ears. + +"Good-bye, Margaret; let Laura take care of you. There is a deal of +wisdom in her." + +We shook hands, Laura moaning all the while, and they went home. + +Frank and Laura had been engaged three years. He was about thirty, and +was still too poor to marry. + +Wednesday proved pleasant. We had an early dinner, and our cavalcade +started from Laura's. I rode my small bay horse Folly, a gift from my +absentee brother. His coat was sleeker than satin; his ears moved +perpetually, and his wide nostrils were always in a quiver. He was not +entirely safe, for now and then he jumped unexpectedly; but I had +ridden him a year without accident, and felt enough acquainted with him +not to be afraid. + +Redmond eyed him. + +"You are a bold rider," he said. + +"No," I answered,--"a careful one. Look at the bit, and my whip, too. I +cut his hind legs when he jumps. Observe that I do not wear a long +skirt. I can slip off the saddle, if need be, without danger." + +"That's all very well; but his eyes are vicious; he will serve you a +trick some day." + +"When he does, I'll sell him for a cart-horse." + +Laura and Redmond rode Jones's horses. Harry Lothrop was mounted on his +horse Black, a superb, thick-maned creature, with a cluster of white +stars on one of his shoulders. Maurice rode a wall-eyed pony. Our +friends Dickenson and Jack Parker drove two young ladies in a +carriage,--all the saddle-horses our town could boast of being in use. +We were in high spirits, and rode fast. I was occupied in watching +Folly, who had not been out for several days. At last, tired of tugging +at his mouth, I gave him rein, and he flew along. I tucked the edge of +my skirt under the saddle-flap, slanted forward, and held the bridle +with both hands close to his head. A long sandy reach of road lay +before me. I enjoyed Folly's fierce trotting; but, as I expected, the +good horse Black was on my track, while the rest of the party were far +behind. He soon overtook me. Folly snorted when he heard Black's step. +We pulled up, and the two horses began to sidle and prance, and throw +up their heads so that we could not indulge in a bit of conversation. + +"Brute!" said Harry Lothrop,--"if I were sure of getting on again, I +would dismount and thrash you awfully." + +"Remember Pickwick," I said; "don't do it." + +I had hardly spoken, when the strap of his cap broke, and it fell from +his head to the ground. I laughed, and so did he. + +"I can hold your horse while you dismount for it." + +I stopped Folly, and he forced Black near enough for me to seize the +rein and twist it round my hand; when I had done so, Folly turned his +head, and was tempted to take Black's mane in his teeth; Black felt it, +reared, and came down with his nose in my lap. I could not loose my +hands, which confused me, but I saw Harry Lothrop making a great leap. +Both horses were running now, and he was lying across the saddle, +trying to free my hand. It was over in an instant. He got his seat, and +the horses were checked. + +"Good God!" he said, "your fingers are crushed." + +He pulled off my glove, and turned pale when he saw my purple hand. + +"It is nothing," I said. + +But I was miserably fatigued, and prayed that the Lake House might come +in sight. We were near the wood, which extended to it, and I was +wondering if we should ever reach it, when he said,-- + +"You must dismount, and rest under the first tree. We will wait there +for the rest of the party to come up." + +I did so. Numerous were the inquiries, when they reached us. Laura, +when she heard the story, declared she now believed in Ellen Pickering. +Redmond gave me a searching look, and asked me if the one-story inn had +good beds. + +"I can take a nap, if necessary," I answered, "in one of Mrs. Sampson's +rush-bottomed chairs on the veranda. The croak of the frogs in the pond +and the buzz of the bluebottles shall be my lullaby." + +"No matter how, if you will rest," he said, and assisted me to remount. + +We rode quietly together the rest of the way. After arriving, we girls +went by ourselves into one of Mrs. Sampson's sloping chambers, where +there was a low bedstead, and a thick feather-bed covered with a +patchwork-quilt of the "Job's Trouble" pattern, a small, dim +looking-glass surmounted by a bunch of "sparrow-grass," and an +unpainted floor ornamented with home-made rugs which were embroidered +with pink flower-pots containing worsted rose-bushes, the stalks, +leaves, and flowers all in bright yellow. We hung up our riding-skirts +on ancient wooden pegs, for we had worn others underneath them suitable +for walking, and then tilted the wooden chairs at a comfortable angle +against the wall, put our feet on the rounds, and felt at peace with +all mankind. + +"Alas!" I said, "it is too early for currant-pies." + +"I saw," said one of the girls, "Mrs. Sampson poking the oven, and a +smell of pies was in the air." + +"Let us go into the kitchen," exclaimed Laura. + +The proposal was agreeable; so we went, and found Mrs. Sampson making +plum-cake. + +"The pies are green-gooseberry-pies," whispered Laura,--"very good, +too." + +"Miss Denham," shrieked Mrs. Sampson, "you haven't done growing +yet.--How's your mother and your grandmother?--Have you had a revival +in your church?--I heard of the young men down to Jones's,--our +minister's wife knows their fathers,--first-rate men, she says.--I +thought you would be here with them.--'Sampson,' I said this morning, as +soon as I dressed, 'do pick some gooseberries. I'll have before sundown +twenty pies in this house.' There they are,--six gooseberry, six +custard, and, though it's late for them, six mince, and two awful great +pigeon pies. It's poor trash, I expect; I'm afraid you can't eat it; +but it is as good as anybody's, I suppose." + +We told her we should devour it all, but must first catch some fish; +and we joined the gentlemen on the veranda. A boat was ready for us. +Laura, however, refused to go in it. It was too small; it was wet; she +wanted to walk on the bridge; she could watch us from that; she wanted +some flowers, too. Like many who are not afraid of the ocean, she held +ponds and lakes in abhorrence, and fear kept her from going with us. +Harry Lothrop offered to stay with her, and take lines to fish from the +bridge. She assented, and, after we pushed off, they strolled away. + +The lake was as smooth and white as silver beneath the afternoon sun +and a windless sky; it was bordered with a mound of green bushes, +beyond which stretched deep pine woods. There was no shade, and we soon +grew weary. Jack Parker caught all the fish, which flopped about our +feet. A little way down, where the lake narrowed, we saw Laura and +Harry Lothrop hanging over the bridge. + +"They must be interested in conversation," I thought; "he has not +lifted his line out of the water once." + +Redmond, too, looked over that way often, and at last said,-- + +"We will row up to the bridge, and walk back to the house, if you, +Maurice, will take the boat to the little pier again." + +"Oh, yes," said Maurice. + +We came to the bridge, and Laura reached out her hand to me. + +"Why, dear!" she exclaimed, "you have burnt your face. Why did you," +turning to Redmond, "paddle about so long in the hot sun?" + +Her words were light enough, but the tone of her voice was savage. +Redmond looked surprised; he waved his hand deprecatingly, but said +nothing. We went up toward the house, but Laura lingered behind, and +did not come in till we were ready to go to supper. + +It was past sundown when we rose from the ruins of Mrs. Sampson's pies. +We voted not to start for home till the evening was advanced, so that +we might enjoy the gloom of the pine wood. We sat on the veranda and +heard the sounds of approaching night. The atmosphere was like powdered +gold. Swallows fluttered in the air, delaying to drop into their nests, +and chirped their evening song. We heard the plunge of the little +turtles in the lake, and the noisy crows as they flew home over the +distant tree-tops. They grew dark, and the sky deepened slowly into a +soft gray. A gentle wind arose, and wafted us the sighs of the pines +and their resinous odors. I was happy, but Laura was unaccountably +silent. + +"What is it, Laura?" I asked, in a whisper. + +"Nothing, Margaret,--only it seems to me that we mortals are always +riding or fishing, eating or drinking, and that we never get to living. +To tell you the truth, the pies were too sour. Come, we must go," she +said aloud. + +Redmond himself brought Folly from the stable. + +"We will ride home together," he said. "My calm nag will suit yours +better than Black. Why does your hand tremble?" + +He saw my shaking hands, as I took the rein; the fact was, my wrists +were nearly broken. + +"Nothing shall happen to-night, I assure you," he continued, while he +tightened Folly's girth. + +He contrived to be busy till all the party had disappeared down a turn +of the road. As he was mounting his horse, Mrs. Sampson, who was on the +steps, whispered to me,-- + +"He's a beautiful young man, now!" + +He heard her; he had the ear of a wild animal; he took off his hat to +Mrs. Sampson, and we rode slowly away. + +As soon as we were in the wood, Redmond tied the bridles of the horses +together with his handkerchief. It was so dark that my sight could not +separate him from his horse. They moved beside me, a vague, black +shape. The horses' feet fell without noise in the cool, moist sand. If +our companions were near us, we could not see them, and we did not hear +them. Horses generally keep an even pace, when travelling at +night,--subdued by the darkness, perhaps,--and Folly went along without +swaying an inch. I dropped the rein on his neck, and took hold of the +pommel. My hand fell on Redmond's. Before I could take it away, he had +clasped it, and touched it with his lips. The movement was so sudden +that I half lost my balance, but the horses stepped evenly together. He +threw his arm round me, and recoiled from me as if he had received a +blow. + +"Take up your rein," he said, with a strange voice,--"quick!--we must +ride fast out of this." + +I made no reply, for I was trying to untie the handkerchief. The knot +was too firm. + +"No, no," he said, when he perceived what I was doing, "let it be so." + +"Untie it, Sir!" + +"I will not." + +I put my face down between the horses' necks and bit it apart, and +thrust it into my bosom. + +"Now," I said, "shall we ride fast?" + +He shook his rein, and we rode fiercely,--past our party, who shouted +at us,--through the wood,--over the brow of the great hill, from whose +top we saw the dark, motionless sea,--through the long street,--and +through my father's gateway into the stable-yard, where I leaped from +my horse, and, bridle in hand, said, "Good night!" in a loud voice. + +Redmond swung his hat and galloped off. + +Early next morning, Laura sent me a note:-- + +"DEAR MARGARET,--I have an ague, and mean to have it till Sunday night. +The pines did it. Did you bring home any needles? On Monday, mother +will give one of her whist-parties. I shall add a dozen or two of our +set; you will come. + +"P.S. What do you think of Mr. Harry Lothrop? Good young man, eh?" + +I was glad that Laura had shut herself up for a few days; I dreaded to +see her just now. I suffered from an inexplicable feeling of pride and +disappointment, and did not care to have her discover it. Laura, like +myself, sometimes chose to protect herself against neighborly +invasions. We never kept our doors locked in the country; the sending +in of a card was an unknown process there. Our acquaintances walked in +upon us whenever the whim took them, and it now and then happened to be +an inconvenience to us who loved an occasional fit of solitude. I +determined to keep in-doors for a few days also. Whenever I was in an +unquiet mood, I took to industry; so that day I set about arranging my +drawers, making over my ribbons, and turning my room upside down. I +rehung all my pictures, and moved my bottles and boxes. Then I mended +my stockings, and marked my clothes, which was not a necessary piece of +work, as I never left home. I next attacked the parlor,--washed all the +vases, changed the places of the furniture, and distressed my mother +very much. When evening came, I brushed my hair a good deal, and looked +at my hands, and went to bed early. I could not read then, though I +often took books from the shelves, and I would not think. + +Sunday came round. The church-bells made me lonesome. I looked out of +the window many times that day, and, fixing on the sash one of my +father's ship-glasses, swept the sea, and peered at the islands on the +other side of the bay, gazing through their openings, beyond which I +could see the great dim ocean. Mother came home from church, and said +young Maurice was there, and inquired about me. He hoped I did not take +cold; his friend Redmond had been hoarse ever since our ride, and had +passed most of the time in his own room, drumming on the window-pane +and whistling dirges. Mother dropped her acute eyes on me, while she +was telling me this; but I yawned all expression from my face. + +As Monday night drew near, my numbness of feeling began to pass off; +thought came into my brain by plunges. Now I desired; now I hoped. I +dressed myself in black silk, and wore a cape of black Chantilly lace. +I made my hair as glossy as possible, drew it down on my face, and put +round my head a band composed of minute sticks of coral. When all was +done, I took the candle and held it above my head and surveyed myself +in the glass. I was very pale. The pupils of my eyes were dilated, as +if I had received some impression that would not pass away. My lips had +the redness of youth; their color was deepened by my paleness. + +"How handsome I am!" I thought, as I set down the candle. + +When I entered Laura's parlor, she came toward me and said,-- + +"Artful creature! you knew well, this warm night, that every girl of us +would wear a light dress; so you wore a black one. How well you +understand such matters! You are very clever; your real sensibility +adds effect to your cleverness. I see how it is. Come into this corner. +Have you got a fan? Good gracious! black, with gold spangles;--where +_do_ you buy your things? I can tell you now," she continued, "my +conversation on the bridge the other day." + +She hesitated, and asked me if I liked her new muslin. She did look +well in it; it was a white fabric, with red rose-buds scattered over +it. Her delicate face was shadowed by light brown curls. She was +attractive, and I told her so, and she began again:-- + +"Harry Lothrop said, as he was impaling the half of a worm,-- + +"'Redmond is a handsome fellow, is he not?' + +"'He is too awfully thin,' I answered, 'but his eyes are good.' + +"He gave me a crafty side-look, like that of a parrot, when he means to +bite your finger. + +"'Your friend, too,' he added, 'is really one of the most beautiful +girls I ever saw,--a coquette with a heart.' + +"'Let down your line into the water,' I said. + +"He laughed a little laugh. By-the-by, there is an insidious tenacity +about Mr. Harry Lothrop which irritates me; but I like him, for I think +he understands women. I feel at ease with him, when he is not throwing +out his tenacious feelers. Then he said,-- + +"'Redmond is engaged to his cousin. The girl's mother had the charge of +him through his boyhood. He is ardently attached to her,--the mother, I +mean. She is most anxious to call Redmond her son.' + +"'Didn't you have a bite?' I said. + +"'Well, I think the bait is off the hook,' he answered; and then we +were silent and pondered the water. + +"There are some people I must speak to,"--and Laura moved away without +looking at me. + +I opened my fan, but felt chilly. A bustle near me caused me to raise +my eyes; Redmond was speaking to a lady. He was in black, too, and very +pale. He turned toward me and our eyes met. His expression agitated me +so that I unconsciously rose to my feet and warned him off with my fan; +but he seemed rooted to the spot. Laura took care of us both; she came +and stood between us. I saw her look at him so sweetly and so +mournfully, that he understood her in a moment. He shook his head and +walked abruptly into another room. Laura went again from me without +giving me a look. Maurice came up and I made room for him beside me. We +talked of the riding-party, and then of our first meeting at the ball. +He told me that Redmond's boat had arrived, and what a famous boat it +was, and "what jolly sprees we fellows had, cruising about with her." I +asked him about his guitar, and when we might hear him play. He grew +more chatty and began to tell me about his sister, when Redmond and +Harry Lothrop came over to us, which ended his chat. + +The party was like all parties,--dull at first, and brighter as it grew +late. The old ladies played whist in one room, and the younger part of +the company were in another. Champagne was not a prevalent drink in our +village, but it happened that we had some that night. + +"It may be a sinful beverage," said an old lady near me, "but it is +good." + +Redmond opened a bottle for me, we clinked glasses, and drank to an +indefinite, silent wish. + +"One more," he asked, "and let us change glasses." + +Presently a cloud of delicate warmth spread over my brain, and gave me +courage to seek and meet his glance. There must have been an expression +of irresolution in my face, for he looked at me inquiringly, and then +his own face grew very sad. I felt awkward from my intuition of his +opinion of my mood, when he relieved me by saying something about +Shelley,--a copy of whose poems lay on a table near. From Shelley he +went to his boat, and said he hoped to have some pleasant excursions +with Laura and myself. He "would go at once and talk with Laura's +mother about them." I watched him through the door, while he spoke to +her. She was in a low chair, and he leaned his face on one hand close +to hers. I saw that his natural expression was one of tranquillity and +courage. He was not more than twenty-two, but the firmness of the lines +about his mouth belied his youth. + +"He has a wonderful face," I thought, "and just as wonderful a will." + +I felt my own will rise as I looked at him,--a will that should make me +mistress of myself, powerful enough to contend with, and resist, or +turn to advantage any controlling fate which might come near me. + +"Do you feel like singing?" Harry Lothrop inquired. "Do you know +Byron's song, 'One struggle more and I am free'?" + +"Oh, yes!" I replied,--"it is set to music which suits my voice. I will +sing it." + +Laura had been playing polkas with great spirit. Since the Champagne, +the old ladies had closed their games of whist for talking, and, as it +was nearly time to go, the company was gay. There was laughing and +talking when I began, but silence soon after, for the wine made my +voice husky and effective. I sang as if deeply moved. + +"Lord!" I heard Maurice say to Laura, as I rose from the piano, "what a +girl! she's really tragic." + +I caught Harry Lothrop's eye, as I passed through the door to go +up-stairs; it was burning; I felt as if a hot coal had dropped on me. +Maurice ran into the hall and sprang upon the stair-railing to ask me +if he might be my escort home. That night he serenaded me. He was a +good-hearted, cheerful creature; conceited, as small men are apt to +be,--conceit answering for size with them,--but pleasantly so, and I +learned to like him as much as Redmond did. + +The summer days were passing. We had all sorts of parties,--parties in +houses and out-of-doors; we rode and sailed and walked. Laura walked +and talked much with Harry Lothrop. We did not often see each other +alone, but, when we met, were more serious and affectionate with each +other. We did not speak, except in a general way, of Redmond and Harry +Lothrop. I did not avoid Redmond, nor did I seek him. We had many a +serious conversation in public, as well as many a gay one; but I had +never met him alone since the night we rode through the pines. + +He went away for a fortnight. On the day of his return he came to see +me. He looked so glad, when I entered the room, that I could not help +feeling a wild thrill. I went up to him, but said nothing. He held out +both his hands. I retreated. An angry feeling rushed into my heart. + +"No," I said, "Whose hand did you hold last?" + +He turned deadly pale. + +"That of the woman I am going to marry." + +I smiled to hide the trembling of my lips, and offered my hand to him; +_but he waved it away_, and fell back on his chair, hurriedly drawing +his handkerchief across his face. I saw that he was very faint, and +stood against the door, waiting for him to recover. + +"More than I have played the woman and the fool before you." + +"Yes." + +"I thought so. You seem experienced." + +"I am." + +"Forgive me," he said, gently; "being only a man, I think you can. Good +God!" he exclaimed, "what an infernal self-possession you show!" + +"Redmond, is it not time to end this? The summer has been a long +one,--has it not?--long enough for me to have learned what it is to +live. Our positions are reversed since we have become acquainted. I am +for the first time forgetting self, and you for the first time remember +self. Redmond, you are a noble man. You have a steadfast soul. Do not +be shaken. I am not like you; I am not simple or single-hearted. But I +imitate you. Now come, I beg you will go." + +"Certainly, I will. I have little to say." + +August had nearly gone when Maurice told me they were about to leave. +Laura said we must prepare for retrospection and the fall sewing. + +"Well," I said, "the future looks gloomy, and I must have some new +dresses." + +Maurice came to see me one morning in a state of excitement to say we +were all going to Bird Island to spend the day, dine at the +light-house, and sail home by moonlight. Fifteen of the party were +going down by the sloop Sapphire, and Redmond had begged him to ask if +Laura and I would go in his boat. + +"Do go," said Maurice; "it will be our last excursion together; next +week we are off. I am broken-hearted about it. I shall never be so +happy again. I have actually whimpered once or twice. You should hear +Redmond whistle nowadays. Harry pulls his moustache and laughs his oily +laughs, but he is sorry to go, and kicks his clothes about awfully. By +the way, he is going down in the sloop because Miss Fairfax is +going,--he says,--that tall young lady with crinkled hair;--he hates +her, and hopes to see her sick. May I come for you in the morning, by +ten o'clock? Redmond will be waiting on the wharf." + +"Tell Redmond," I answered, "that I will go; and will you ask Harry +Lothrop not to engage himself for all the reels to Miss Fairfax?" + +He promised to fulfil my message, and went off in high spirits. I +wondered, as I saw him going down the walk, why it was that I felt so +much more natural and friendly with him than with either of his +friends. I often talked confidentially to him; he knew how I loved my +mother, and how I admired my father, and I told him all about my +brother's business. He also knew what I liked best to eat and to wear. +In return, he confided his family secrets to me. I knew his tastes and +wishes. There was no common ground where I met Redmond and Harry +Lothrop. There were too many topics between Redmond and myself to be +avoided, for us to venture upon private or familiar conversation. Harry +Lothrop was an accomplished, fastidious man of the world, I dreaded +boring him, and so I said little. He was several years older than +Redmond, and possessed more knowledge of men, women, and books. Redmond +had no acquirements, he knew enough by nature, and I never saw a person +with more fascination of manner and voice. + +The evening before the sailing-party, I had a melancholy fit. I was +restless, and after dark I put a shawl over my head and went out to +walk. I went up a lonesome road, beyond our house. On one side I heard +the water washing against the shore with regularity, as if it were +breathing. On the other side were meadows, where there were cows +crunching the grass. A mile farther was a low wood of oaks, through +which ran a path. I determined to walk through that. The darkness and a +sharp breeze which blew against me from limitless space made me feel as +if I were the only human creature the elements could find to contend +with, I turned down the little path into the deeper darkness of the +wood, sat down on a heap of dead leaves, and began to cry. + +"Mine is a miserable pride," was my thought,--"that of arming myself +with beauty and talent and going through the world conquering! Girls +are ignorant, till they are disappointed. The only knowledge men +proffer us is the knowledge of the heart; it becomes us to profit by +it. Redmond will marry that girl. He must, and shall. I will empty the +dust and ashes of my heart as soon as the fire goes down: that is, I +think so; but I know that I do not know myself. I have two +natures,--one that acts, and one that is acted upon,--and I cannot +always separate the one from the other." + +Something darkened the opening into the path. Two persons passed in +slowly. I perceived the odor of violets, and felt that one of them must +be Laura. Waiting till they passed beyond me, I rose and went home. + +The next morning was cloudy, and the sea was rough with a high wind; +but we were old sailors, and decided to go on our excursion. The sloop +and Redmond's boat left the wharf at the same time. We expected to be +several hours beating down to Bird Island, for the wind was ahead. +Laura and I, muffled in cloaks, were placed on the thwarts and +neglected; for Redmond and Maurice were busy with the boat. Laura was +silent, and looked ill. Redmond sat at the helm, and kept the boat up +to the wind, which drove the hissing spray over us. The sloop hugged +the shore, and did not feel the blast as we did. I slid along my seat +to be near Redmond. He saw me coming, and put out his hand and drew me +towards him, looking so kindly at me that I was melted. Trying to get +at my handkerchief, which was in my dress-pocket, my cloak flew open, +the wind caught it, and, as I rose to draw it closer, I nearly fell +overboard. Redmond gave a spring to catch me, and the boat lost her +headway. The sail flapped with a loud bang. Maurice swore, and we +chopped about in the short sea. + +"It is your destiny to have a scene, wherever you are," said Laura. "If +I did not feel desperate, I should be frightened. But these green, +crawling waves are so opaque, if we fall in, we shall not see ourselves +drown." + +"Courage! the boat is under way," Maurice cried out; "we are nearly +there." + +And rounding a little point, we saw the light-house at last. The sloop +anchored a quarter of a mile from the shore, the water being shoal, and +Redmond took off her party by instalments. + +"What the deuse was the matter with you at one time?" asked Jack +Parker. "We saw you were having a sort of convulsion. Our cap'n said +you were bold chaps to be trifling with such a top-heavy boat." + +"Miss Denham," said Redmond, "thought she could steer the boat as well +as I could, and so the boat lost headway." + +Harry Lothrop gave Redmond one of his soft smiles, and a vexed look +passed over Redmond's face when he saw it. + +We had to scramble over a low range of rocks to get to the shore. +Redmond anchored his boat by one of them. Bird Island was a famous +place for parties. It was a mile in extent. Not a creature was on it +except the light-house keeper, his wife, and daughter. The gulls made +their nests in its rocky borders; their shrill cries, the incessant +dashing of the waves on the ledges, and the creaking of the lantern in +the stone tower were all the sounds the family heard, except when they +were invaded by some noisy party like ours. They were glad to see us. +The light-house keeper went into the world only when it was necessary +to buy stores, or when his wife and daughter wanted to pay a visit to +the mainland. + +The house was of stone, one story high, with thick walls. The small, +deep-set windows and the low ceilings gave the rooms the air of a +prison; but there was also an air of security about them: for, in +looking from the narrow windows, one felt that the house was a +steadfast ship in the circle of the turbulent sea, whose waves from +every point seemed advancing towards it. A pale, coarse grass grew in +the sand of the island. It was too feeble to resist the acrid breath of +the ocean, so it shuddered perpetually, and bent landward, as if +invoking the protection of its stepmother, the solid earth. + +"It is perfect," said Redmond to me; "I have been looking for this spot +all my life; I am ready to swear that I will never leave it." + +We were sitting in a window, facing each other. He looked out toward +the west, and presently was lost in thought. He folded his arms tightly +across his breast, and his eyes were a hundred miles away. The sound of +a fiddle in the long alley which led from the house to the tower broke +his reverie. + +"We shall be uproarious before we leave," I said; "we always are, when +we come here." + +The fun had already set in. Some of the girls had pinned up their +dresses, and borrowed aprons from the light-house keeper's wife, and +with scorched faces were helping her to make chowder and fry +fish. Others were arranging the table, assisted by the young men, who +put the dishes in the wrong places. Others were singing in the best +room. One or two had brought novels along, and were reading them in +corners. It was all merry and pleasant, but I felt quiet. Redmond +entered into the spirit of the scene. I had never seen him so gay. He +chatted with all the girls, interfering or helping, as the case might +be. Maurice brought his guitar, and had a group about him at the foot +of the tower-stairs. He sung loud, but his voice seemed to +fluctuate;--now it rang through the tower, now it was half overpowered +by the roar of the sea. His poetical temperament led him to choose +songs in harmony with the place, not to suit the company,--melancholy +words set to wild, fitful chords, which rose and died away according to +the skill of the player. I had gone near him, for his singing had +attracted me. + +"You are inspired," I said. + +He nodded. + +"You never sung so before." + +"I feel old to-day," he answered, and he swept his hands across all the +strings; "my ditties are done." + +After dinner Laura asked me to go out with her. We slipped away unseen, +and went to the beach, and seated ourselves on a great rock whose outer +side was lapped by the water. The sun had broken through the clouds, +but shone luridly, giving the sea a leaden tint. The wind was going +down. We had not been there long, when Redmond joined us. He asked us +to go round the island in his boat. Laura declined, and said she would +sit on the rock while we went, if I chose to go. I did choose to go, +and he brought the boat to the rock. He hoisted the sail half up the +mast, and we sailed close to the shore. It rose gradually along the +east side of the island, and terminated in a bold ledge which curved +into the sea. We ran inside the curve, where the water was nearly +smooth. Redmond lowered the sail and the boat drifted toward the ledge +slowly. A tongue of land, covered with pale sedge, was on the left +side. Above the ledge, at the right, we could see the tower of the +light-house. Redmond tied down the helm, and, throwing himself beside +me, leaned his head on his hand, and looked at me a long time without +speaking. I listened to the water, which plashed faintly against the +bows. He covered his face with his hands. I looked out seaward over the +tongue of land; my heart quaked, like the grass which grew upon it. At +last he rose, and I saw that he was crying,--the tears rained fast. + +"My soul is dying," he said, in a stifled voice; "I am not more than +mortal,--I cannot endure it." + +I pointed toward the open sea, which loomed so vague in the distance. + +"The future is like that,--is it not? Courage! we must drift through +it; we shall find something." + +He stamped his foot on the deck. + +"Women always talk so; but men are different. If there is a veil before +us, we must tear it away,--not sit muffled in its folds, and speculate +on what is behind it. Rise." + +I obeyed him. He held me firmly. We were face to face. + +"Look at me." + +I did. His eyes were blazing. + +"Do you love me?" + +"No." + +He placed me on the bench, hoisted the sail, untied the helm, and we +were soon ploughing round to the spot where we had left Laura; but she +was gone. On the rock where she was, perched a solitary gull, which +flew away with a scream as we approached. + +That day was the last that I saw Redmond alone. He was at the party at +Laura's house which took place the night before they left. We did not +bid each other adieu. + +After the three friends had gone, they sent us gifts of remembrance. +Redmond's keepsake was a white fan with forget-me-nots painted on it. +To Laura he sent the pen-holder, which was now mine. + +We missed them, and should have felt their loss, had no deep feeling +been involved; for they gave an impetus to our dull country life, and +the whole summer had been one of excitement and pleasure. We settled by +degrees into our old habits. At Christmas, Frank came. He looked +worried and older. He had heard something of Laura's intimacy with +Harry Lothrop, and was troubled about it, I know: but I believe Laura +was silent on the matter. She was quiet and affectionate toward him +during his visit, and he went back consoled. + +The winter passed. Spring came and went, and we were deep into the +summer when Laura was taken ill. She had had a little cough, which no +one except her mother noticed. Her spirits fell, and she failed fast. +When I saw her last, she had been ill some weeks, and had never felt +strong enough to talk as much as she did in that interview. She nerved +herself to make the effort, and as she bade me farewell, bade farewell +to life also. And now it was all over with her! + + * * * * * + +I fell asleep at length, and woke late. It seemed as if a year had +dropped out of the procession of Time. My heart was still beating with +the emotion which stirred it when Redmond and I were together last. +Recollection had stung me to the quick. A terrible longing urged me to +go and find him. The feeling I had when we were in the boat, face to +face, thrilled my fibres again. I saw his gleaming eyes; I could have +rushed through the air to meet him. But, alas! exaltation of feeling +lasts only a moment; it drops us where it finds us. If it were not so, +how easy to be a hero! The dull reaction of the present, like a slow +avalanche, crushed and ground me into nothingness. + +"Something must happen at last," I thought, "to amuse me, and make time +endurable." + +What can a woman do, when she knows that an epoch of feeling is rounded +off, finished, dead? Go back to her story-books, her dress-making, her +worsted-work? Shall she attempt to rise to mediocrity on the piano or +in drawing, distribute tracts, become secretary of a Dorcas society? or +shall she turn her mind to the matter of cultivating another lover at +once? Few of us women have courage enough to shoulder out the corpses +of what men leave in our hearts. We keep them there, and conceal the +ruins in which they lie. We grow cunning and artful in our tricks, the +longer we practise them. But how we palpitate and shrink and shudder, +when we are alone in the dark! + +After Redmond departed, I had locked up my feelings and thrown the key +away. The death of Laura, and the awakening of my recollections, caused +by the appearance of Harry Lothrop, wrenched the door open. Hitherto I +had acted with the bravery of a girl; I must now behave with the +resolution of a woman. I looked into my heart closely. No skeleton was +there, but the image of a living man,--_Redmond_. + +"I love him," I confessed. "To be his wife and the mother of his +children is the only lot I ever care to choose. He is noble, handsome, +and loyal. But I cannot belong to him, nor can he ever be mine. + + "'Of love that never found his earthly close + What sequel?' + +"What did he do with the remembrance of me? He scattered it, perhaps, +with the ashes of the first cigar he smoked after he went from +me,--made a mound of it, maybe, in honor of Duty. I am as ignorant of +him as if he no longer existed; so this image must be torn away. I will +not burn the lamp of life before it, but will build up the niche where +it stands into a solid wall." + +The ideal happiness of love is so sweet and powerful, that, for a +while, adverse influences only exalt the imagination. When Laura told +me of Redmond's engagement, it did but change my dream of what might be +into what might have been. It was a mirage which continued while he was +present and faded with his departure. Then my heart was locked in the +depths of will, till circumstance brought it a power of revenge. I +think now, if we had spoken freely and truly to each other, I should +have suffered less when I saw his friend. We feel better when the +funeral of our dearest friend is over and we have returned to the +house. There is to be no more preparation, no waiting; the windows may +be opened, and the doors set wide; the very dreariness and desolation +force our attention towards the living. + +"Something will come," I thought; and I determined not to have any more +reveries. "Mr. Harry Lothrop is a pleasant riddle; I shall see him +soon, or he will write." + +It occurred to me then that I had some letters of his already in my +possession,--those he had written to Laura. I found the ebony box, and, +taking from it the sealed package, unfolded the letters one by one, +reading them according to their dates. There was a note among them for +me, from Laura. + +"When you read these letters, Margaret," it said, "you will see that I +must have studied the writer of them in vain. You know now that he made +me unhappy; not that I was in love with him much, but he stirred depths +of feeling which I had no knowledge of, and which between Frank, my +betrothed husband, and myself had no existence. But '_le roi s'amuse._' +Perhaps a strong passion will master this man; but I shall never know. +Will you?" + +I laid the letters back in their place, and felt no very strong desire +to learn anything more of the writer. I did not know then how little +trouble it would be,--my share of making the acquaintance. + +It was not many weeks before Mr. Lothrop came again, and rather +ostentatiously, so that everybody knew of his visit to me. But he saw +none of the friends he had made during his stay the year before. I +happened to see him coming, and went to the door to meet him. Almost +his first words were,-- + +"Maurice is dead. He went to Florida,--took the fever,--which killed +him, of course. He died only a week after--after Laura. Poor fellow! +did he interest you much? I believe he was in love with you, too; but +musical people are never desperate, except when they play a false +note." + +"Yes," I answered; "I was fond of him. His conceit did not trouble me, +and he never fatigued me; he had nothing to conceal. He was a +commonplace man; one liked him, when with him,--and when away, one had +no thought about him." + +"I alone am left you," said my visitor, putting his hat on a chair, and +slowly pulling off his gloves, finger by finger. + +He had slender, white hands, like a woman's, and they were always in +motion. After he had thrown his gloves into his hat, he put his finger +against his cheek, leaned his elbow on the arm of his chair, crossed +his legs, and looked at me with a cunning self-possession. I glanced at +his feet; they were small and well-booted. I looked into his face; it +was not a handsome one; but he had magnetic eyes, of a lightish blue, +and a clever, loose mouth. It is impossible to describe him,--just as +impossible as it is for a man who was born a boor to attain the bearing +of a gentleman; any attempt at it would prove a bungling matter, when +compared with the original. He felt my scrutiny, and knew, too, that I +had never looked at him till then. + +"Do you sing nowadays?" he asked, tapping with his fingers the keys of +the piano behind him. + +"Psalms." + +"They suit you admirably; but I perceive you attend to your dress +still. How effective those velvet bands are! You look older than you +did two years ago." + +"Two years are enough to age a woman." + +"Yes, if she is miserable. Can you be unhappy?" he asked, rising, and +taking a seat beside me. + +There was a tone of sympathy in his voice which made me shudder, I knew +not why. It was neither aversion nor liking; but I dreaded to be thrown +into any tumult of feeling. I realized afterward more fully that it is +next to impossible for a passionate woman to receive the sincere +addresses of a manly man without feeling some fluctuation of soul. +Ignorant spectators call her a coquette for this. Happily, there are +teachers among our own sex, women of cold temperaments, able to +vindicate themselves from the imputation. They spare themselves great +waste of heart and some generous emotion,--also remorse and +self-accusations regarding the want of propriety, and the other +ingredients which go to make up a white-muslin heroine. + +Harry Lothrop saw that my cheek was burning, and made a movement toward +me. I tossed my head back, and moved down the sofa; he did not follow +me, but smiled and mused in his old way. + +And so it went on,--not once, but many times. He wrote me quiet, +persuasive, eloquent letters. By degrees I learned his own history and +that of his family, his prospects and his intentions. He was rich. I +knew well what position I should have, if I were his wife. My beauty +would be splendidly set. I was well enough off, but not rich enough to +harmonize all things according to my taste. I was proud, and he was +refined; if we were married, what better promise of delicacy could be +given than that of pride in a woman, refinement in a man? He brought me +flowers or books, when he came. The flowers were not delicate and +inodorous, but magnificent and deep-scented; and the material of the +books was stalwart and vigorous. I read his favorite authors with him. +He was the first person who ever made any appeal to my intellect. In +short, he was educating me for a purpose. + +Once he offered me a diamond cross. I refused it, and he never asked me +to accept any gift again. His visits were not frequent, and they were +short. However great the distance he accomplished to reach me, he staid +only an evening, and then returned. He came and went at night. In time +I grew to look upon our connection as an established thing. He made me +understand that he loved me, and that he only waited for me to return +it; but he did not say so. + +I lived an idle life, inhaling the perfume of the flowers he gave me, +devouring old literature, the taste for which he had created, and +reading and answering his letters. To be sure, other duties were +fulfilled, I was an affectionate child to my parents, and a proper +acquaintance for my friends. I never lost any sleep now, nor was I +troubled with dreams. I lived in the outward; all my restless activity, +that constant questioning of the heavens and the earth, had ceased +entirely. Five years had passed since I first saw Redmond. I was now +twenty-four. The Fates grew tired of the monotony of my life, I +suppose, for about this time it changed. + +My oldest brother, a bachelor, lived in New York. He asked me to spend +the winter with him; he lived in a quiet hotel, had a suite of rooms, +and could make me comfortable, he said. He had just asked somebody to +marry him, and that somebody wished to make my acquaintance. I was glad +to go. My heart gave a bound at the prospect of change; I was still +young enough to dream of the impossible, when any chance offered itself +to my imagination; so I accepted my brother's invitation with some +elation. + +I had been in New York a month. One day I was out with my future +sister, on a shopping raid; with our hands full of little paper +parcels, we stopped to look into Goupil's window. There was always a +rim of crowd there, so I paid no attention to the jostles we received. +We were looking at an engraving of Ary Scheffer's Francoise de Rimini. +"Not the worst hell," muttered a voice behind me, which I knew. I +started, and pulled Leonora's arm; she turned round, and the fringe of +her cloak-sleeve caught a button on the overcoat of one of the +gentlemen standing together. It was Redmond; the other was his +"ancient," Harry Lothrop. Leonora was arrested; I stood still, of +course. Redmond had not seen my face, for I turned it from him; and his +head was bent down to the task of disengaging his button. + + "'Each only as God wills + Can work; God's puppets, best and worst, + Are we; there is no last nor first,'" + +I thought, and turned my head. He instinctively took off his hat, and +then planted it back on his head firmly, and looked over to Harry +Lothrop, to whom I gave my hand. He knew me before I saw him, I am +convinced; but his dramatic sense kept him silent,--perhaps a deeper +feeling. There was an expression of pain in his face, which impelled me +to take his arm. + +"Let us move on, Leonora," I said; "these are some summer friends of +mine," and I introduced them to her. + +My chief feeling was embarrassment, which was shared by all the party; +for Leonora felt that there was something unusual in the meeting. The +door of the hotel seemed to come round at last, and as we were going +in, Harry Lothrop asked me if he might see me the next morning. + +"Do come," I answered aloud. + +We all bowed, and they disappeared. + +"What an elegant Indian your tall friend is!" said Leonora. + +"Yes,--of the Camanche tribe." + +"But he would look better hanging from his horse's mane than he does in +a long coat." + +"He is spoiled by civilization and white parents. But, Leonora, stay +and dine with me, in my own room. John will not come home till it is +time for the opera. You know we are going. You must make me splendid; +you can torture me into style, I know." + +She consented, provided I would send a note to her mother, explaining +that it was my invitation, and not her old John's, as she irreverently +called him. I did so, and she was delighted to stay. + +"This is fast," she said; "can't we have Champagne and black coffee?" + +She fell to rummaging John's closets, and brought out a dusty, +Chinese-looking affair, which she put on for a dressing-gown. She found +some Chinese straw shoes, and tucked her little feet into them, and +then braided her hair in a long tail, and declared she was ready for +dinner. Her gayety was refreshing, and I did not wonder at John's +admiration. My spirits rose, too, and I astonished Leonora at the table +with my chat; she had never seen me except when quiet. I fell into one +of those unselfish, unasking moods which are the glory of youth: I felt +that the pure heaven of love was in the depths of my being; my soul +shone like a star in its atmosphere; my heart throbbed, and I cried +softly to it,--"Live! live! he is here!" I still chatted with Leonora +and made her laugh, and the child for the first time thoroughly liked +me. We were finishing our dessert, when we heard John's knock. We +allowed him to come in for a moment, and gave him some almonds, which, +he leisurely cracked and ate. + +"Somehow, Margaret," he said, "you remind me of those women who enjoy +the Indian festival of the funeral pile. I have seen the thing done; +you have something of the sort in your mind; be sure to immolate +yourself handsomely. Women are the deuse." + +"Finish your almonds, John," I said, "and go away; we must dress." + +He put his hand on my arm, and whispered,-- + +"Smother that light in your eyes, my girl; it is dangerous. And you +have lived under your mother's eye all your life! You see what I have +done,"--indicating Leonora with his eyebrows,--"taken a baby on my +hands." + +"John, John!" I inwardly ejaculated, "you are an idiot." + +"She shall never suffer what you suffer; she shall have the benefit of +the experience which other women have given me." + +"Very likely," I answered; "I know we often serve you as pioneers +merely." + +He gave a sad nod, and I closed the door upon him. + +"Put these pins into my hair, Leonora, and tell me, how do you like my +new dress?" + +"Paris!" she cried. + +It was a dove-colored silk with a black velvet stripe through it. I +showed her a shawl which John had given me,--a pale-yellow gauzy fabric +with a gold-thread border,--and told her to make me up. She produced +quite a marvellous effect; for this baby understood the art of dress to +perfection. She made my hair into a loose mass, rolling it away from my +face; yet it was firmly fastened. Then she shook out the shawl, and +wrapped me in it, so that my head seemed to be emerging from a +pale-tinted cloud. John said I looked outlandish, but Leonora thought +otherwise. She begged him for some Indian perfume, and he found an +aromatic powder, which she sprinkled inside my gloves and over my shawl. + +We found the opera-house crowded. Our seats were near the stage. John +sat behind us, so that he might slip out into the lobby occasionally; +for the opera was a bore to him. The second act was over; John had left +his seat; I was opening and shutting my fan mechanically, half lost in +thought, when Leonora, who had been looking at the house with her +lorgnette, turned and said,-- + +"Is not that your friend of this morning, on the other side, in the +second row, leaning against the third pillar? There is a +queenish-looking old lady with him. He hasn't spoken to her for a long +time, and she continually looks up at him." + +I took her glass, and discovered Redmond. He looked back at me through +another; I made a slight motion with my handkerchief; he dropped his +glass into the lap of the lady next him and darted out, and in a moment +he was behind me in John's seat. + +"Who is with you?" he asked. + +"Brother," I answered. + +"You intoxicate me with some strange perfume; don't fan it this way." + +I quietly passed the fan to Leonora, who now looked back and spoke to +him. He talked with her a moment, and then she discreetly resumed her +lorgnette. + +"What happened for two years after I left B.? The last year I know +something of." + +"Breakfast, dinner, and tea; the ebb and flow of the tide; and the days +of the week." + +"Nothing more?" And his voice came nearer. + +"A few trifles." + +"They are under lock and key, I suppose?" + +"We do not carry relics about with us." + +"There is the conductor; I must go. Turn your face toward me more." + +I obeyed him, and our eyes met. His searching gaze made me shiver. + +"I have been married," he said, and his eyes were unflinching, "and my +wife is dead." + +All the lights went down, I thought; I struck out my arm to find +Leonora, who caught it and pressed it down. + +"I must get out," I said; and I walked up the alley to the door without +stumbling. + +I knew that I was fainting or dying; as I had never fainted, I did not +know which. Redmond carried me through the cloak-room and put me on a +sofa. + +"I never can speak to him again," I thought, and then I lost sight of +them all. + +A terribly sharp pain through my heart roused me, and I was in a +violent chill. They had thrown water over my face; my hair was matted, +and the water was dripping from it on my naked shoulders. The gloves +had been ripped from my hands, and Leonora was wringing my +handkerchief. + +"The heat made you faint, dear," she said. + +John was walking up and down the room with a phlegmatic countenance, +but he was fuming. + +"My new dress is ruined, John," I said. + +"Hang the dress! How do you feel now?" + +"It is drowned; and I feel better; shall we go home?" + +He went out to order the carriage, and Leonora whispered to me that she +had forgotten Redmond's name. + +"No matter," I answered. I could not have spoken it then. + +When John came, Leonora beckoned to Redmond to introduce himself. John +shook hands with him, gave him an intent look, and told us the carriage +was ready. Redmond followed us, and took leave of us at the +carriage-door. + +Leonora begged me to stay at her house; I refused, for I wished to be +alone. John deposited her with her mother, and we drove home. He gave +me one of his infallible medicines, and told me not to get up in the +morning. But when morning came, I remembered Harry Lothrop was coming, +and made myself ready for him. As human nature is not quite perfect, I +felt unhappy about him, and rather fond of him, and thought he +possessed some admirable qualities. I never could read the old poets +any more without a pang, unless he were with me, directing my eye along +their pages with his long white finger! I never should smell tuberoses +again without feeling faint, unless they were his gift! + +By the time he came I was in a state of romantic regret, and in that +state many a woman has answered, "Yes!" He asked me abruptly if I +thought it would be folly in him to ask me to marry him. The question +turned the tide. + +"No," I answered,--"not folly; for I have thought many times in the +last two years, that I should marry you, if you said I must. But now I +believe that it is not best. You have pursued me patiently; your +self-love made the conquest of me a necessary pleasure. That was well +enough for me; for you made me feel all the while, that, if I loved +you, you were worth possessing. And you are. I like you. But my feeling +for you did not prevent my fainting away at the opera-house last night, +when Redmond told me that his wife was dead." + +"So," he said, "the long-smothered fire has broken out again! Chance +does not befriend me. He saw you last night, and yielded. He said +yesterday he should not tell you. He asked me about you after we left +you, and wished to know if I had seen you much for the last year. I +offered him your last letter to read,--am I not generous?--but he +refused it. + +"'When I see her,' he asked, 'am I at liberty to say what I choose?' + +"On that I could have said, 'No.' Redmond and I have not seen each +other since the period of my first visit to you. He has been nursing +his wife in the mean time, taking journeys with her, and trying all +sorts of cures; and now he seems tied to his aunt and mother-in-law. He +was merely passing through the city with her, and this morning they +have gone again.--Well," after a pause, "there is no need of words +between us. I have in my possession a part of you. Beautiful women are +like flowers which open their leaves wide enough for their perfume to +attract wandering bees; the perfume is wasted, though the honey may be +hid." + +"Alas, what a lesson this man is giving me!" I thought. + +"Farewell, then," he said. He bit his lips, and his clenched hands +trembled; but he mastered his emotion. "You must think of me." + +"And see you, too," I answered. "Everything comes round again, if we +live long enough. Dramatic unities are never preserved in life; if they +were, how poetical would all these things be! But Time whirls us round, +showing us our many-sided feelings as carelessly as a child rattles the +bits of glass in his kaleidoscope." + +"So be it!" he replied. "Adieu!" + +That afternoon I staid at home, and put John's room in order, and +cleaned the dust from his Indian idols, and was extremely busy till he +came in. Then I kissed his whiskers, and told him all my sins, and +cried once or twice during my confession. He petted me a good deal, and +made me eat twice as much dinner as I wanted; he said it was good for +me, and I obeyed him, for I felt uncommonly meek that day. + +Soon after, Redmond sent me a long letter. He said he had been, from a +boy, under an obligation to his aunt, the mother of his wife. It was a +common story, and he would not trouble me with it. He was married soon +after Harry Lothrop's first visit to me, at the time they had received +the news of Laura's death. How much he had thought of Laura afterward, +while he was watching the fading away of his pale blossom! His aunt had +been ill since the death of her daughter, restless, and discontented +with every change. He hoped she was now settled among some old friends +with whom she might find consolation. In conclusion, he wrote,--"My +aunt noticed our hasty exit from the opera-house that night, when I was +brute enough to nearly kill you. I told her that I loved you. She now +feels, after a struggle, that she must let me go. 'Old women have no +rights,' she said to me yesterday. Margaret, may I come, and never leave +you again?" + +My answer may be guessed, for one day he arrived. It was the dusk of a +cheery winter day, the time when home wears so bright a look to those +who seek it. It was an hour before dinner, and I was waiting for John +to come in. The amber evening sky gleamed before the windows, and the +fire made a red core of light in the room. John's sandal-wood boxes +gave out strange odors in the heat, and the pattern of the Persian rug +was just visible. A servant came to the door with a card. I held it to +the grate, and the fire lit up his name. + +"Show him up-stairs," I said. + +I stood in the doorway, and heard his step on every stair. When he +came, I took him by the hand, and drew him into the room. He was +speechless. + +"Oh, Redmond, I love you! How long you were away!" + +He kneeled by me, and put my arms round his neck, and we kissed each +other with the first, best kiss of passion. + +John came in, and I reached out my hand to him and said, "This is my +husband." + +"That's comfortable," he answered. "Won't you stay to dinner?" + +"Oh, yes," replied Redmond; "this is my hotel." + +"I see," said John. + +But after dinner they had a long talk together. John sent me to my +room, and I was glad to go. I walked up and down, crying, I must say, +most of the time, asking forgiveness of myself for my faults, and +remembering Laura and Maurice,--and then thinking Redmond was mine, +with a contraction of the heart which threatened to stifle me. + +John took us up to Leonora's that evening; he said he wanted to see if +Puss would be tantalized with the sight of such a beautiful romantic +couple just from fairy-land, who were now prepared "to live in peace." + +We were married the next day in a church in a by-street. John was the +only witness, and flourished a large silk handkerchief, so that it had +the effect of a triumphal banner. Redmond put the ring on the wrong +finger,--a mistake which the minister kindly rectified. All I had new +for the occasion was a pair of gloves. + +One morning after my marriage, when Redmond and John were smoking +together, I was turning over some boxes, for I was packing to go home +on a visit to our mother. I called Redmond to leave his pipe and come +to me. + +"You have not seen any of my property. Look, here it is:-- + +"One bitten handkerchief. + +"A fan never used. + +"A gold pen-holder. + +"A draggled shawl." + +"Margaret," he said, taking my chin in his hand and bringing his eyes +close to mine, "I am wild with happiness." + +"Your pipe has gone out," we heard John say. + + * * * * * + +THE PLAYMATE. + + + The pines were dark on Ramoth hill, + Their song was soft and low; + The blossoms in the sweet May wind + Were falling like the snow. + + The blossoms drifted at our feet, + The orchard birds sang clear; + The sweetest and the saddest day + It seemed of all the year. + + For, more to me than birds or flowers, + My playmate left her home, + And took with her the laughing spring, + The music and the bloom. + + She kissed the lips of kith and kin, + She laid her hand in mine: + What more could ask the bashful boy + Who fed her father's kine? + + She left us in the bloom of May: + The constant years told o'er + Their seasons with as sweet May morns. + But she came back no more. + + I walk, with noiseless feet, the round + Of uneventful years; + Still o'er and o'er I sow the spring + And reap the autumn ears. + + She lives where all the golden year + Her summer roses blow; + The dusky children of the sun + Before her come and go. + + There haply with her jewelled hands + She smooths her silken gown,-- + No more the homespun lap wherein + I shook the walnuts down. + + The wild grapes wait us by the brook, + The brown nuts on the hill, + And still the May-day flowers make sweet + The woods of Follymill. + + The lilies blossom in the pond, + The bird builds in the tree, + The dark pines sing on Ramoth hill + The slow song of the sea. + + I wonder if she thinks of them, + And how the old time seems,-- + If ever the pines of Ramoth wood + Are sounding in her dreams. + + I see her face, I hear her voice: + Does she remember mine? + And what to her is now the boy + Who fed her father's kine? + + What cares she that the orioles build + For other eyes than ours,-- + That other hands with nuts are filled, + And other laps with flowers? + + O playmate in the golden time! + Our mossy seat is green, + Its fringing violets blossom yet, + The old trees o'er it lean. + + The winds so sweet with birch and fern + A sweeter memory blow; + And there in spring the veeries sing + The song of long ago. + + And still the pines of Ramoth wood + Are moaning like the sea,-- + The moaning of the sea of change + Between myself and thee! + + + + +THE MAROONS OF SURINAM. + + +When that eccentric individual, Captain John Gabriel Stedman, resigned +his commission in the English navy, took the oath of abjuration, and +was appointed ensign in the Scots brigade employed for two centuries by +Holland, he little knew that "their High Mightinesses the States of the +United Provinces" would send him out, within a year, to the forests of +Guiana, to subdue rebel negroes. He never imagined that the year 1773 +would behold him beneath the rainy season in a tropical country, wading +through marshes and splashing through lakes, exploring with his feet +for submerged paths, commanding impracticable troops and commanded by +an insufferable colonel, feeding on gree-gree worms and fed upon by +mosquitoes, howled at by jaguars, hissed at by serpents, and shot at by +those exceedingly unattainable gentlemen, "still longed for, never seen," +the Maroons of Surinam. + +Yet, as our young ensign sailed up the Surinam river, the world of +tropic beauty came upon him with enchantment. Dark, moist verdure was +close around him, rippling waters below; the tall trees of the jungle +and the low mangroves beneath were all hung with long vines and lianas, +a maze of cordage, like a fleet at anchor; odd monkeys travelled +ceaselessly up and down these airy paths, in armies, bearing their +young, like knapsacks, on their backs; macaws and humming-birds, winged +jewels, flew from tree to tree. As they neared Paramaribo, the river +became a smooth canal among luxuriant plantations, the air was perfumed +music, redolent of orange-blossoms and echoing with the songs of birds +and the sweet plash of oars; gay barges came forth to meet them; "while +groups of naked boys and girls were promiscuously playing and +flouncing, like so many tritons and mermaids, in the water." And when +the troops disembarked,--five hundred fine young men, the oldest not +thirty, all arrayed in new uniforms and bearing orange-flowers in their +caps, a bridal wreath for beautiful Guiana,--it is no wonder that the +Creole ladies were in ecstasy, and the boyish recruits little foresaw +the day, when, reduced to a few dozens, barefooted and ragged as +filibusters, their last survivors would gladly reembark from a country +beside which even Holland looked dry and even Scotland comfortable. + +For over all that earthly paradise there brooded not alone its terrible +malaria, its days of fever and its nights of deadly chill, but the +worse shadows of oppression and of sin, which neither day nor night +could banish. The first object which met Stedman's eye, as he stepped +on shore, was the figure of a young girl stripped to receive two +hundred lashes, and chained to a hundred-pound-weight. And the few +first days gave a glimpse into a state of society worthy of this +exhibition,--men without mercy, women without modesty, the black man a +slave to the white man's passions, and the white man a slave to his +own. The present West Indian society in its worst forms is probably a +mere dilution of the utter profligacy of those days. Greek or Roman +decline produced nothing more debilitating or destructive than the +ordinary life of a Surinam planter, and his one virtue of hospitality +only led to more unbridled excesses and completed the work of vice. No +wonder that Stedman himself, who, with all his peculiarities, was +essentially simple and manly, soon became disgusted, and made haste to +get into the woods and cultivate the society of the Maroons. + +The rebels against whom this expedition was sent were not the original +Maroons of Surinam, but a later generation. The originals had long +since established their independence, and their leaders were +flourishing their honorary silver-mounted canes in the streets of +Paramaribo. Fugitive negroes had begun to establish themselves in the +woods from the time when the colony was finally ceded by the English to +the Dutch, in 1674. The first open outbreak occurred in 1726, when the +plantations on the Seramica river revolted; it was found impossible to +subdue them, and the government very imprudently resolved to make an +example of eleven captives, and thus terrify the rest of the rebels. +They were tortured to death, eight of the eleven being women; this +drove the others to madness, and plantation after plantation was +visited with fire and sword. After a long conflict, their chief, Adoe, +was induced to make a treaty, in 1749. The rebels promised to keep the +peace, and in turn were promised freedom, money, tools, clothes, and, +finally, arms and ammunition. + +But no permanent peace was ever made upon a barrel of gunpowder as a +basis, and of course an explosion followed this one. The colonists +naturally evaded the last item of the bargain, and the rebels, +receiving the gifts and remarking the omission of the part of Hamlet, +asked contemptuously if the Europeans expected negroes to subsist on +combs and looking-glasses? New hostilities at once began; a new body of +slaves on the Ouca river revolted; the colonial government was changed +in consequence, and fresh troops shipped from Holland; and after four +different embassies had been sent into the woods, the rebels began to +listen to reason. The black generals, Captain Araby and Captain Boston, +agreed upon a truce for a year, during which the colonial government +might decide for peace or war, the Maroons declaring themselves +indifferent. Finally the government chose peace, delivered ammunition, +and made a treaty, in 1761; the white and black plenipotentiaries +exchanged English oaths and then negro oaths, each tasting a drop of +the other's blood during the latter ceremony, amid a volley of +remarkable incantations from the black _gadoman_ or priest. After some +final skirmishes, in which the rebels almost always triumphed, the +treaty was at length accepted by all the various villages of Maroons. +Had they known that at this very time five thousand slaves in Berbice +were just rising against their masters and were looking to them for +assistance, the result might have been different; but this fact had not +reached them, nor had the rumors of insurrection in Brazil, among negro +and Indian slaves. They consented, therefore, to the peace. "They write +from Surinam," says the "Annual Register" for January 23, 1761, "that +the Dutch governor, finding himself unable to subdue the rebel negroes +of that country by force, hath wisely followed the example of Governor +Trelawney at Jamaica, and concluded an amicable treaty with them; in +consequence of which, all the negroes of the woods are acknowledged to +be free, and all that is past is buried in oblivion." So ended a war of +thirty-six years, and in Stedman's day the original three thousand Ouca +and Seramica Maroons had multiplied (almost incredibly) to fifteen +thousand. + +But for the slaves not sharing in this revolt it was not so +easy to "bury the whole past in oblivion." The Maroons had told +some very plain truths to the white ambassadors, and had frankly +advised them, if they wished for peace, to mend their own +manners and treat their slaves humanely. But the planters learned +nothing by experience,--and indeed, the terrible narrations of Stedman +were confirmed by those of Alexander, so lately as 1831. Of course, +therefore, in a colony comprising eighty thousand blacks to four +thousand whites, other revolts were stimulated by the success of this +one. They reached their highest point in 1772, when an insurrection on +the Cottica river, led by a negro named Baron, almost gave the +finishing blow to the colony; the only adequate protection being found +in a body of slaves liberated expressly for that purpose,--a dangerous +and humiliating precedent. "We have been obliged to set three or four +hundred of our stoutest negroes free to defend us," says an honest +letter from Surinam in the "Annual Register" for September 5, 1772. +Fortunately for the safety of the planters, Baron presumed too much +upon his numbers, and injudiciously built a camp too near the +sea-coast, in a marshy fastness, from which he was finally ejected by +twelve hundred Dutch troops, though the chief work was done, Stedman +thinks, by the "black rangers" or liberated slaves. Checked by this +defeat, he again drew back into the forests, resuming his guerrilla +warfare against the plantations. Nothing could dislodge him; +bloodhounds were proposed, but the moisture of the country made them +useless; and thus matters stood when Stedman came sailing, amid +orange-blossoms and music, up the winding Surinam. + +Our young officer went into the woods in the condition of Falstaff, +"heinously unprovided." Coming from the unbounded luxury of the +plantations, he found himself entering "the most horrid and +impenetrable forests, where no kind of refreshment was to be had,"--he +being provisioned only with salt pork and peas. After a wail of sorrow +for this inhuman neglect, he bursts into a gush of gratitude for the +private generosity which relieved his wants at the last moment by the +following list of supplies:--"24 bottles best claret, 12 ditto Madeira, +12 ditto porter, 12 ditto cider, 12 ditto rum, 2 large loaves white +sugar, 2 gallons brandy, 6 bottles muscadel, 2 gallons lemon-juice, 2 +gallons ground coffee, 2 large Westphalia hams, 2 salted bullocks' +tongues, 1 bottle Durham mustard, 6 dozen spermaceti candles." The hams +and tongues seem, indeed, rather a poor halfpennyworth to this +intolerable deal of sack; but this instance of Surinam privation in +those days may open some glimpse at the colonial standards of comfort. +"From this specimen," moralizes our hero, "the reader will easily +perceive, that, if some of the inhabitants of Surinam show themselves +the disgrace of the creation by their cruelties and brutality, others, +by their social feelings, approve themselves an ornament to the human +species. With this instance of virtue and generosity I therefore +conclude this chapter." + +But the troops soon had to undergo worse troubles than those of the +_commisariat_. The rainy season had just set in. "As for the negroes," +said Mr. Klynhaus, the last planter with whom they parted, "you may +depend on never seeing a soul of them, unless they attack you off +guard; but the climate, the climate, will murder you all." Bringing +with them constitutions already impaired by the fevers and dissipation +of Paramaribo, the poor boys began to perish long before they began to +fight. Wading in water all day, hanging their hammocks over water at +night, it seemed a moist existence, even compared with the climate of +England and the soil of Holland. It was "Invent a shovel and be a +magistrate," even more than Andrew Marvell found it in the United +Provinces. In fact, Raynal evidently thinks that nothing but Dutch +experience in hydraulics could ever have cultivated Surinam. + +The two gun-boats which held one division of the expedition were merely +old sugar-barges, roofed over with boards, and looking like coffins. +They were pleasantly named the "Charon" and the "Cerberus," but Stedman +thought that the "Sudden Death" and the "Wilful Murder" would have been +titles more appropriate. The chief duty of the troops consisted in +lying at anchor at the intersections of wooded streams, waiting for +rebels who never came. It was dismal work, and the raw recruits were +full of the same imaginary terrors which have haunted other heroes less +severely tested: the monkeys never rattled the cocoa-nuts against the +trees, but they all heard the axes of Maroon wood-choppers; and when a +sentinel declared, one night, that he had seen a negro go down the +river in a canoe, with his pipe lighted, the whole force was called to +arms--against a firefly. In fact, the insect race brought by far the +most substantial dangers. The rebels eluded the military, but the +chigres, locusts, scorpions, and bush-spiders were ever ready to come +half-way to meet them; likewise serpents and alligators proffered them +the freedom of the forests and exhibited a hospitality almost +excessive. Snakes twenty feet long hung their seductive length from the +trees; jaguars volunteered their society through almost impenetrable +marshes; vampire bats perched by night with lulling endearments upon +their toes. When Stedman describes himself as killing thirty-eight +mosquitoes at one stroke, we must perhaps pardon something to the +spirit of martyrdom. But when we add to these the other woes of his +catalogue,--prickly-heat, ring-worm, putrid-fever, "the growling of +Colonel Fougeaud, dry, sandy savannas, unfordable marshes, burning hot +days, cold and damp nights, heavy rains, and short allowance,"--we can +hardly wonder that three captains died in a month, and that in two +months his detachment of forty-two was reduced to a miserable seven. + +Yet, through all this, Stedman himself kept his health. His theory of +the matter almost recalls the time-honored prescription of "A light +heart and a thin pair of breeches," for he attributes his good +condition to his keeping up his spirits and kicking off his shoes. +Daily bathing in the river had also something to do with it,--and, +indeed, hydropathy (this may not be generally known) was first learned +of the West India Maroons, who did their "packing" in wet clay,--and it +was carried by Dr. Wright to England. But his extraordinary personal +qualities must have contributed most to his preservation. Never did a +"meagre, starved, black, burnt, and ragged tatterdemalion," as he calls +himself, carry about him such a fund of sentiment, philosophy, poetry, +and art. He had a great faculty for sketching, as the engravings in his +volumes, with all their odd peculiarities, show; his deepest woes he +coined always into couplets, and fortified himself against hopeless +despair with Ovid and Valerius Flaccus, Pope's "Homer" and Thomson's +"Seasons." Above all reigned his passion for natural history, a ready +balm for every ill. Here he was never wanting to the occasion, and, to +do justice to Dutch Guiana, the occasion never was wanting to him. Were +his men sickening, the peccaries were always healthy without, and the +cockroaches within the camp; just escaping from a she-jaguar, he +satisfies himself, ere he flees, that the print of her claws on the +sand is precisely the size of a pewter dinner-plate; bitten by a +scorpion, he makes sure of his scientific description in case he should +expire of the bite; is the water undrinkable, there is at least some +rational interest in the number of legs possessed by the centipedes +which preoccupy it. This is the highest triumph of man over his +accidents, when he thus turns his pains to gains, and becomes an +entomologist in the tropics. + +Meanwhile the rebels kept their own course in the forests, and +occasionally descended upon plantations beside the very river on whose +upper waters the useless troops were sickening and dying. Stedman +himself made several campaigns, with long intervals of illness, before +he came any nearer to the enemy than to burn a deserted village or +destroy a rice-field. Sometimes they left the Charon and the Cerberus +moored by grape-vines to the pine-trees, and made expeditions into the +woods single file. Our ensign, true to himself, gives the minutest +schedule of the order of march, and the oddest little diagram of +manikins with cocked hats, and blacker manikins bearing burdens. First, +negroes with bill-hooks to clear the way; then the van-guard; then the +main body, interspersed with negroes bearing boxes of ball-cartridges; +then the rear-guard, with many more negroes, bearing camp-equipage, +provisions, and new rum, surnamed "kill-devil," and appropriately +followed by a sort of palanquin for the disabled. Thus arrayed, they +marched valorously forth into the woods, to some given point; then they +turned, marched back to the boats, then rowed back to camp, and +straightaway went into the hospital. Immediately upon this, the coast +being clear. Baron and his rebels marched out again and proceeded to +business. + +In the course of years, these Maroons had acquired their own peculiar +tactics. They built stockaded fortresses on marshy islands, accessible +by fords which they alone could traverse. These they defended further +by sharp wooden pins, or crows'-feet, concealed beneath the surface of +the miry ground,--and, latterly, by the more substantial protection of +cannon, which they dragged into the woods, and learned to use. Their +bush-fighting was unique. Having always more men than weapons, they +arranged their warriors in threes,--one to use the musket, another to +take his place, if wounded or slain, and a third to drag away the body. +They had Indian stealthiness and swiftness, with more than Indian +discipline; discharged their fire with some approach to regularity, in +three successive lines, the signals being given by the captain's horn. +They were full of ingenuity: marked their movements for each other by +scattered leaves and blazed trees; ran zigzag, to dodge bullets; gave +wooden guns to their unarmed men, to frighten the plantation negroes on +their guerrilla expeditions; and borrowed the red caps of the black +rangers whom they slew, to bewilder the aim of the others. One of +them, finding himself close to the muzzle of a ranger's gun, threw up +his hand hastily. "What!" he exclaimed, "will you fire on one of your +own party?" "God forbid!" cried the ranger, dropping his piece, and was +instantly shot through the body by the Maroon, who the next instant had +disappeared in the woods. + +These rebels were no saints: their worship was obi-worship; the women +had not far outgrown the plantation standard of chastity, and the men +drank "kill-devil" like their betters. Stedman was struck with the +difference between the meaning of the word "good" in rebellious circles +and in reputable. "It must, however, be observed that what we Europeans +call a good character was by the Africans looked upon as detestable, +especially by those born in the woods, whose only crime consisted in +avenging the wrongs done to their forefathers." But if martial virtues +be virtues, such were theirs. Not a rebel ever turned traitor or +informer, ever flinched in battle or under torture, ever violated a +treaty or even a private promise. But it was their power of endurance +which was especially astounding; Stedman is never weary of paying +tribute to this, or of illustrating it in sickening detail; indeed, the +records of the world show nothing to surpass it; "the lifted axe, the +agonizing wheel" proved powerless to subdue it; with every limb lopped, +every bone broken, the victims yet defied their tormentors, laughed, +sang, and died triumphant. + +Of course, they repaid these atrocities in kind. If they had not, it +would have demonstrated the absurd paradox, that slavery educates +higher virtues than freedom. It bewilders all the relations of human +responsibility, if we expect the insurrectionary slave to commit no +outrages; if slavery have not depraved him, it has done him little +harm. If it be the normal tendency of bondage to produce saints like +Uncle Tom, let us all offer ourselves at auction immediately. It is +Cassy and Dred who are the normal protest of human nature against +systems which degrade it. Accordingly, these poor, ignorant Maroons, +who had seen their brothers and sisters flogged, burned, mutilated, +hanged on iron hooks, broken on the wheel, and had been all the while +solemnly assured that this was paternal government, could only repay +the paternalism in the same fashion, when they had the power. Stedman +saw a negro chained to a red-hot distillery-furnace; he saw disobedient +slaves, in repeated instances, punished by the amputation of a leg, and +sent to boat-service for the rest of their lives; and of course the +rebels borrowed these suggestions. They could bear to watch their +captives expire under the lash, for they had previously watched their +parents. If the government rangers received twenty-five florins for +every rebel right-hand which they brought in, of course they risked +their own right-hands in the pursuit. The difference was, that the one +brutality was that of a mighty state, and the other was only the +retaliation of the victims. And after all, Stedman never ventures to +assert that the imitation equalled the original, or that the Maroons +had inflicted nearly so much as they had suffered. + +The leaders of the rebels, especially, were men who had each his own +story of wrongs to tell. Baron, the most formidable, had been the slave +of a Swedish gentleman, who had taught him to read and write, taken him +to Europe, promised to manumit him on his return,--and then, breaking +his word, sold him to a Jew. Baron refused to work for his new master, +was publicly flogged under the gallows, fled to the woods next day, and +became the terror of the colony. Joli Coeur, his first captain, was +avenging the cruel wrongs of his mother. Bonny, another leader, was +born in the woods, his mother having taken refuge there just +previously, to escape from his father, who was also his master. Cojo, +another, had defended his master against the insurgents until he was +obliged by ill usage to take refuge among them; and he still bore upon +his wrist, when Stedman saw him, a silver band, with the inscription,-- +"True to the Europeans." In dealing with wrongs like these, Mr. Carlyle +would have found the despised negroes quite as ready as himself to take +the total-abstinence pledge against rose-water. + +In his first two months' campaign, Stedman never saw the trace of a +Maroon; in the second, he once came upon their trail; in the third, one +captive was brought in, two surrendered themselves voluntarily, and a +large party was found to have crossed a river within a mile of the +camp, ferrying themselves on palm-trunks, according to their fashion. +Deep swamps and scorching sands,--toiling through briers all day, and +sleeping at night in hammocks suspended over stagnant water, with +weapons supported on sticks crossed beneath,--all this was endured for +two years and a half, before Stedman personally came in sight of the +enemy. + +On August 20th, 1775, the troops found themselves at last in the midst +of the rebel settlements. These villages and forts bore a variety of +expressive names, such as "Hide me, O thou surrounding verdure," "I +shall be taken," "The woods lament for me," "Disturb me, if you dare," +"Take a tasting, if you like it," "Come, try me, if you be men," "God +knows me and none else," "I shall moulder before I shall be taken." +Some were only plantation-grounds with a few huts, and were easily laid +waste; but all were protected more or less by their mere situations. +Quagmires surrounded them, covered by a thin crust of verdure, +sometimes broken through by one man's weight, when the victim sank +hopelessly into the black and bottomless depths below. In other +directions there was a solid bottom, but inconveniently covered by +three or four feet of water, through which the troops waded +breast-deep, holding their muskets high in the air, unable to reload +them when once discharged, and liable to be picked off by rebel scouts, +who ingeniously posted themselves in the tops of palm-trees. + +Through this delectable region Colonel Fougeaud and his followers +slowly advanced, drawing near the fatal shore where Captain Meyland's +detachment had just been defeated, and where their mangled remains +still polluted the beach. Passing this point of danger without attack, +they suddenly met a small party of rebels, each bearing on his back a +beautifully-woven hamper of snow-white rice: these loads they threw +down, and disappeared. Next appeared an armed body from the same +direction, who fired upon them once and swiftly retreated; and in a few +moments the soldiers came upon a large field of standing rice, beyond +which lay, like an amphitheatre, the rebel village. But between the +village and the field had been piled successive defences of logs and +branches, behind which simple redoubts the Maroons lay concealed. A +fight ensued, lasting forty minutes, during which nearly every soldier +and ranger was wounded, but, to their great amazement, not one was +killed. This was an enigma to them until after the skirmish, when the +surgeon found that most of them had been struck, not by bullets, but by +various substitutes, such as pebbles, coat-buttons, and bits of silver +coin, which had penetrated only skin-deep. "We also observed that +several of the poor rebel negroes, who had been shot, had only the +shards of Spa-water cans, instead of flints, which could seldom do +execution; and it was certainly owing to these circumstances that we +came off so well." + +The rebels at length retreated, first setting fire to their village; a +hundred or more lightly built houses, some of them two stories high, +were soon in flames; and as this conflagration occupied the only neck +of land between two impassable morasses, the troops were unable to +follow, and the Maroons had left nothing but rice-fields to be +pillaged. That night the military force was encamped in the woods; +their ammunition was almost gone; so they were ordered to lie flat on +the ground, even in case of attack; they could not so much as build a +fire. Before midnight an attack was made on them, partly with bullets +and partly with words; the Maroons were all around them in the forest, +but their object was a puzzle: they spent most of the night in bandying +compliments with the black rangers, whom they alternately denounced, +ridiculed, and challenged to single combat. At last Fougeaud and +Stedman joined in the conversation, and endeavored to make this +midnight volley of talk the occasion for a treaty. This was received +with inextinguishable laughter, which echoed through the woods like a +concert of screech-owls, ending in a _charivari_ of horns and +hallooing. The Colonel, persisting, offered them "life, liberty, +victuals, drink, and all they wanted"; in return, they ridiculed him +unmercifully: he was a half-starved Frenchman, who had run away from +his own country, and would soon run away from theirs; they profoundly +pitied him and his soldiers; they would scorn to spend powder on such +scarecrows; they would rather feed and clothe them, as being poor white +slaves, hired to be shot at and starved for four-pence a day. But as +for the planters, overseers, and rangers, they should die, every one of +them, and Bonny should be governor of the colony. "After this, they +tinkled their bill-hooks, fired a volley, and gave three cheers; which +being answered by the rangers, the clamor ended, and the rebels +dispersed with the rising sun." + +Very aimless nonsense it certainly appeared. But the next day put a new +aspect on it; for it was found, that, under cover of all this noise, +the Maroons had been busily occupied all night, men, women, and +children, in preparing and filling great hampers of the finest rice, +yams, and cassava, from the adjacent provision-grounds, to be used for +subsistence during their escape, leaving only chaff and refuse for the +hungry soldiers. "This was certainly such a masterly trait of +generalship in a savage people, whom we affected to despise, as would +have done honor to any European commander." + +From this time the Maroons fulfilled their threats. Shooting down +without mercy every black ranger who came within their reach,--one of +these rangers being, in Stedman's estimate, worth six white +soldiers,--they left Colonel Fougeaud and his regulars to die of +starvation and fatigue. The enraged Colonel, "finding himself thus +foiled by a naked negro, swore he would pursue Bonny to the world's +end." But he never got any nearer than to Bonny's kitchen-gardens. He +put the troops on half-allowance, sent back for provisions and +ammunition,--and within ten days changed his mind, and retreated to the +settlements in despair. Soon after, this very body of rebels, under +Bonny's leadership, plundered two plantations in the vicinity, and +nearly captured a powder-magazine, which was, however, successfully +defended by some armed slaves. + +For a year longer these expeditions continued. The troops never gained +a victory, and they lost twenty men for every rebel killed; but they +gradually checked the plunder of plantations, destroyed villages and +planting-grounds, and drove the rebels, for the time at least, into the +deeper recesses of the woods or into the adjacent province of Cayenne. +They had the slight satisfaction of burning Bonny's own house, a +two-story wooden hut, built in the fashion of our frontier +guard-houses. They often took single prisoners,--some child, born and +bred in the woods, and frightened equally by the first sight of a white +man and of a cow,--or some warrior, who, on being threatened with +torture, stretched forth both hands in disdain, and said, with Indian +eloquence,--"These hands have made tigers tremble." As for Stedman, he +still went bare-footed, still quarrelled with his colonel, still +sketched the scenery and described the reptiles, still reared gree-gree +worms for his private kitchen, still quoted good poetry and wrote +execrable, still pitied all the sufferers around him, black, white, and +red, until finally he and his comrades were ordered back to Holland in +1776. + +Among all that wasted regiment of weary and broken-down men, there was +probably no one but Stedman who looked backward with longing as they +sailed down the lovely Surinam. True, he bore all his precious +collections with him,--parrots and butterflies, drawings on the backs +of old letters, and journals kept on bones and cartridges. But he had +left behind him a dearer treasure; for there runs through all his +eccentric narrative a single thread of pure romance, in his love for +his beautiful quadroon wife and his only son. + +Within a month after his arrival in the colony, our susceptible ensign +first saw Joanna, a slave-girl of fifteen, at the house of an intimate +friend. Her extreme beauty and modesty first fascinated him, and then +her piteous narrative,--for she was the daughter of a planter, who had +just gone mad and died in despair from the discovery that he could not +legally emancipate his own children from slavery. Soon after, Stedman +was dangerously ill, was neglected and alone; fruits and cordials were +anonymously sent to him, which proved at last to have come from Joanna, +and she came herself, ere long, and nursed him, grateful for the +visible sympathy he had shown to her. This completed the conquest; the +passionate young Englishman, once recovered, loaded her with presents, +which she refused,--talked of purchasing her and educating her in +Europe, which she also declined, as burdening him too greatly,--and +finally, amid the ridicule of all good society in Paramaribo, +surmounted all legal obstacles and was united to the beautiful girl in +honorable marriage. He provided a cottage for her, where he spent his +furloughs, in perfect happiness, for four years. + +The simple idyl of their loves was unbroken by any stain or +disappointment, and yet always shadowed with the deepest anxiety for +the future. Though treated with the utmost indulgence, she was legally +a slave, and so was the boy of whom she became the mother. Cojo, her +uncle, was a captain among the rebels against whom her husband fought. +And up to the time when Stedman was ordered back to Holland, he was +unable to purchase her freedom, nor could he, until the very last +moment, procure the emancipation of his boy. His perfect delight at +this last triumph, when obtained, elicited some satire from his white +friends. "While the well-thinking few highly applauded my sensibility, +many not only blamed, but publicly derided me for my paternal +affection, which was called a weakness, a whim." "Nearly forty +beautiful boys and girls were left to perpetual slavery by their +parents of my acquaintance, and many of them without being so much as +once inquired after at all." + +But Stedman was a true-hearted fellow, if his sentiment did sometimes +run to rodomontade; he left his Joanna only in the hope that a year or +two in Europe would repair his ruined fortunes, and he could return to +treat himself to the purchase of his own wedded wife. He describes, +with unaffected pathos, their parting scene,--though, indeed, there +were several successive partings,--and closes the description in a +manner worthy of that remarkable combination of enthusiasms which +characterized him. "My melancholy having surpassed all description, I +at last determined to weather one or two painful years in her absence; +and in the afternoon went to dissipate my mind at a Mr. Roux' cabinet +of Indian curiosities; where as my eye chanced to fall on a +rattlesnake, I will, before I leave the colony, describe this dangerous +reptile." + +It was impossible to write the history of the Maroons of Surinam except +through the biography of our Ensign, (at last promoted Captain,) +because nearly all we know of them is through his quaint and +picturesque narrative, with its profuse illustrations by his own hand. +It is not fair, therefore, to end without chronicling his safe arrival +in Holland, on June 3d, 1777. It is a remarkable fact, that, after his +life in the woods, even the Dutch looked slovenly to his eyes. "The +inhabitants, who crowded about us, appeared but a disgusting assemblage +of ill-formed and ill-dressed rabble,--so much had my prejudices been +changed by living among Indians and blacks: their eyes seemed to +resemble those of a pig; their complexions were like the color of foul +linen; they seemed to have no teeth, and to be covered over with rags +and dirt. This prejudice, however, was not against these people only, +but against all Europeans in general, when compared to the sparkling +eyes, ivory teeth, shining skin, and remarkable cleanliness of those I +had left behind me." Yet, in spite of these superior attractions, he +never recrossed the Atlantic; for his Joanna died soon after, and his +promising son, being sent to the father, was educated in England, +became a midshipman in the navy, and was lost at sea. With his elegy, +in which the last depths of bathos are sadly sounded by a mourning +parent,--who is induced to print them only by "the effect they had on +the sympathetic and ingenious Mrs. Cowley,"--the "Narrative of a Five +Years' Expedition" closes. + +The war, which had cost the government forty thousand pounds a year, +was ended, and left both parties essentially as when it began. The +Maroons gradually returned to their old abodes, and, being unmolested +themselves, left others unmolested thenceforward. Originally three +thousand,--in Stedman's time, fifteen thousand,--they were estimated at +seventy thousand by Captain Alexander, who saw Guiana in 1831,--and a +recent American scientific expedition, having visited them in their +homes, reported them as still enjoying their wild freedom, and +multiplying, while the Indians on the same soil decay. The beautiful +forests of Surinam still make the morning gorgeous with their beauty, +and the night deadly with their chill; the stately palm still rears, a +hundred feet in air, its straight gray shaft and its head of verdure; +the mora builds its solid, buttressed trunk, a pedestal for the eagle; +the pine of the tropics holds out its myriad hands with water-cups for +the rain and dews, where all the birds and the monkeys may drink their +fill; the trees are garlanded with epiphytes and convolvuli, and +anchored to the earth by a thousand vines. High among their branches, +the red and yellow mockingbirds still build their hanging nests, +uncouth storks and tree-porcupines cling above, and the spotted deer +and the tapir drink from the sluggish stream below. The night is still +made noisy with a thousand cries of bird and beast; and the stillness +of the sultry noon is broken by the slow tolling of the _campanero_, or +bell-bird, far in the deep, dark woods, like the chime of some lost +convent. And as Nature is unchanged there, so apparently is man; the +Maroons still retain their savage freedom, still shoot their wild game +and trap their fish, still raise their rice and cassava, yams and +plantains,--still make cups from the gourd-tree and hammocks from the +silk-grass plant, wine from the palm-tree's sap, brooms from its +leaves, fishing-lines from its fibres, and salt from its ashes. Their +life does not yield, indeed, the very highest results of spiritual +culture; its mental and moral results may not come up to the level of +civilization, but they rise far above the level of slavery. In the +changes of time, the Maroons may yet elevate themselves into the one, +but they will never relapse into the other. + + + + +CIRCUMSTANCE. + + +She had remained, during all that day, with a sick neighbor,--those +eastern wilds of Maine in that epoch frequently making neighbors and +miles synonymous,--and so busy had she been with care and sympathy that +she did not at first observe the approaching night. But finally the +level rays, reddening the snow, threw their gleam upon the wall, and, +hastily donning cloak and hood, she bade her friends farewell and +sallied forth on her return. Home lay some three miles distant, across +a copse, a meadow, and a piece of woods,--the woods being a fringe on +the skirts of the great forests that stretch far away into the North. +That home was one of a dozen log-houses lying a few furlongs apart from +each other, with their half-cleared demesnes separating them at the +rear from a wilderness untrodden save by stealthy native or deadly +panther tribes. + +She was in a nowise exalted frame of spirit,--on the contrary, rather +depressed by the pain she had witnessed and the fatigue she had +endured; but in certain temperaments such a condition throws open the +mental pores, so to speak, and renders one receptive of every +influence. Through the little copse she walked slowly, with her cloak +folded about her, lingering to imbibe the sense of shelter, the sunset +filtered in purple through the mist of woven spray and twig, the +companionship of growth not sufficiently dense to band against her the +sweet home-feeling of a young and tender wintry wood. It was therefore +just on the edge of the evening that she emerged from the place and +began to cross the meadow-land. At one hand lay the forest to which her +path wound; at the other the evening star hung over a tide of failing +orange that slowly slipped down the earth's broad side to sadden other +hemispheres with sweet regret. Walking rapidly now, and with her eyes +wide-open, she distinctly saw in the air before her what was not there +a moment ago, a winding-sheet,--cold, white, and ghastly, waved by the +likeness of four wan hands,--that rose with a long inflation and fell +in rigid folds, while a voice, shaping itself from the hollowness +above, spectral and melancholy, sighed,--"The Lord have mercy on the +people! The Lord have mercy on the people!" Three times the sheet with +its corpse-covering outline waved beneath the pale hands, and the +voice, awful in its solemn and mysterious depth, sighed, "The Lord have +mercy on the people!" Then all was gone, the place was clear again, the +gray sky was obstructed by no deathly blot; she looked about her, shook +her shoulders decidedly, and, pulling on her hood, went forward once +more. + +She might have been a little frightened by such an apparition, if she +had led a life of less reality than frontier settlers are apt to lead; +but dealing with hard fact does not engender a flimsy habit of mind, +and this woman was too sincere and earnest in her character, and too +happy in her situation, to be thrown by antagonism merely upon +superstitious fancies and chimeras of the second-sight. She did not +even believe herself subject to an hallucination, but smiled simply, a +little vexed that her thought could have framed such a glamour from the +day's occurrences, and not sorry to lift the bough of the warder of the +woods and enter and disappear in their sombre path. If she had been +imaginative, she would have hesitated at her first step into a region +whose dangers were not visionary; but I suppose that the thought of a +little child at home would conquer that propensity in the most +habituated. So, biting a bit of spicy birch, she went along. Now and +then she came to a gap where the trees had been partially felled, and +here she found that the lingering twilight was explained by that +peculiar and perhaps electric film which sometimes sheathes the sky in +diffused light for very many hours before a brilliant aurora. Suddenly, +a swift shadow, like the fabulous flying-dragon, writhed through the +air before her, and she felt herself instantly seized and borne aloft. +It was that wild beast--the most savage and serpentine and subtle and +fearless of our latitudes--known by hunters as the Indian Devil, and he +held her in his clutches on the broad floor of a swinging fir-bough. +His long sharp claws were caught in her clothing, he worried them +sagaciously a little, then, finding that ineffectual to free them, he +commenced licking her bare white arm with his rasping tongue and +pouring over her the wide streams of his hot, fetid breath. So quick +had this flashing action been that the woman had had no time for alarm; +moreover, she was not of the screaming kind; but now, as she felt him +endeavoring to disentangle his claws, and the horrid sense of her fate +smote her, and she saw instinctively the fierce plunge of those +weapons, the long strips of living flesh torn from her bones, the +agony, the quivering disgust, itself a worse agony,--while by her side, +and holding her in his great lithe embrace, the monster crouched, his +white tusks whetting and gnashing, his eyes glaring through all the +darkness like balls of red fire,--a shriek, that rang in every forest +hollow, that startled every winter-housed thing, that stirred and woke +the least needle of the tasselled pines, tore through her lips. A +moment afterward, the beast left the arm, once white, now crimson, and +looked up alertly. + +She did not think at this instant to call upon God. She called upon her +husband. It seemed to her that she had but one friend in the world; +that was he; and again the cry, loud, clear, prolonged, echoed through +the woods. It was not the shriek that disturbed the creature at his +relish; he was not born in the woods to be scared of an owl, you know; +what then? It mast have been the echo, most musical, most resonant, +repeated and yet repeated, dying with long sighs of sweet sound, +vibrated from rock to river and back again from depth to depth of cave +and cliff. Her thought flew after it; she knew, that, even if her +husband heard it, he yet could not reach her in time; she saw that +while the beast listened he would not gnaw,--and this she _felt_ +directly, when the rough, sharp, and multiplied stings of his tongue +retouched her arm. Again her lips opened by instinct, but the sound +that issued thence came by reason. She had heard that music charmed +wild beasts,--just this point between life and death intensified every +faculty,--and when she opened her lips the third time, it was not for +shrieking, but for singing. + +A little thread of melody stole out, a rill of tremulous motion; it was +the cradle-song with which she rocked her baby;--how could she sing +that? And then she remembered the baby sleeping rosily on the long +settee before the fire,--the father cleaning his gun, with one foot on +the green wooden rundle,--the merry light from the chimney dancing out +and through the room, on the rafters of the ceiling with their tassels +of onions and herbs, on the log walls painted with lichens and +festooned with apples, on the king's-arm slung across the shelf with +the old pirate's-cutlass, on the snow-pile of the bed, and on the great +brass clock,--dancing, too, and lingering on the baby, with his fringed +gentian eyes, his chubby fists clenched on the pillow, and his fine +breezy hair fanning with the motion of his father's foot. All this +struck her in one, and made a sob of her breath, and she ceased. + +Immediately the long red tongue was thrust forth again. Before it +touched, a song sprang to her lips, a wild sea-song, such as some +sailor might be singing far out on trackless blue water that night, the +shrouds whistling with frost and the sheets glued in ice,--a song with +the wind in its burden and the spray in its chorus. The monster raised +his head and flared the fiery eyeballs upon her, then fretted the +imprisoned claws a moment and was quiet; only the breath like the vapor +from some hell-pit still swathed her. Her voice, at first faint and +fearful, gradually lost its quaver, grew under her control and subject +to her modulation; it rose on long swells, it fell in subtile cadences, +now and then its tones pealed out like bells from distant belfries on +fresh sonorous mornings. She sung the song through, and, wondering lest +his name of Indian Devil were not his true name, and if he would not +detect her, she repeated it. Once or twice now, indeed, the beast +stirred uneasily, turned, and made the bough sway at his movement. As +she ended, he snapped his jaws together, and tore away the fettered +member, curling it under him with a snarl,--when she burst into the +gayest reel that ever answered a fiddle-bow. How many a time she had +heard her husband play it on the homely fiddle made by himself from +birch and cherry-wood! how many a time she had seen it danced on the +floor of their one room, to the patter of wooden clogs and the rustle +of homespun petticoat! how many a time she had danced it herself!--and +did she not remember once, as they joined clasps for right-hands-round, +how it had lent its gay, bright measure to her life? And here she was +singing it alone, in the forest, at midnight, to a wild beast! As she +sent her voice trilling up and down its quick oscillations between joy +and pain, the creature who grasped her uncurled his paw and scratched +the bark from the bough; she must vary the spell; and her voice spun +leaping along the projecting points of tune of a hornpipe. Still +singing, she felt herself twisted about with a low growl and a lifting +of the red lip from the glittering teeth; she broke the hornpipe's +thread, and commenced unravelling a lighter, livelier thing, an Irish +jig. Up and down and round about her voice flew, the beast threw back +his head so that the diabolical face fronted hers, and the torrent of +his breath prepared her for his feast as the anaconda slimes his prey. +Franticly she darted from tune to tune; his restless movements followed +her. She tired herself with dancing and vivid national airs, growing +feverish and singing spasmodically as she felt her horrid tomb yawning +wider. Touching in this manner all the slogan and keen clan cries, the +beast moved again, but only to lay the disengaged paw across her with +heavy satisfaction. She did not dare to pause; through the clear cold +air, the frosty starlight, she sang. If there were yet any tremor in +the tone, it was not fear,--she had learned the secret of sound at +last; nor could it be chill,--far too high a fervor throbbed her +pulses; it was nothing but the thought of the log-house and of what +might be passing within it. She fancied the baby stirring in his sleep +and moving his pretty lips,--her husband rising and opening the door, +looking out after her, and wondering at her absence. She fancied the +light pouring through the chink and then shut in again with all the +safety and comfort and joy, her husband taking down the fiddle and +playing lightly with his head inclined, playing while she sang, while +she sang for her life to an Indian Devil. Then she knew he was fumbling +for and finding some shining fragment and scoring it down the yellowing +hair, and unconsciously her voice forsook the wild war-tunes and +drifted into the half-gay, half-melancholy Rosin the Bow. + +Suddenly she woke pierced with a pang, and the daggered tooth +penetrating her flesh;--dreaming of safety, she had ceased singing and +lost it. The beast had regained the use of all his limbs, and now, +standing and raising his back, bristling and foaming, with sounds that +would have been like hisses but for their deep and fearful sonority, he +withdrew step by step toward the trunk of the tree, still with his +flaming balls upon her. She was all at once free, on one end of the +bough, twenty feet from the ground. She did not measure the distance, +but rose to drop herself down, careless of any death, so that it were +not this. Instantly, as if he scanned her thoughts, the creature +bounded forward with a yell and caught her again in his dreadful hold. +It might be that he was not greatly famished; for, as she suddenly +flung up her voice again, he settled himself composedly on the bough, +still clasping her with invincible pressure to his rough, ravenous +breast, and listening in a fascination to the sad, strange U-la-lu that +now moaned forth in loud, hollow tones above him. He half closed his +eyes, and sleepily reopened and shut them again. + +What rending pains were close at hand! Death! and what a death! worse +than any other that is to be named! Water, be it cold or warm, that +which buoys up blue ice-fields, or which bathes tropical coasts with +currents of balmy bliss, is yet a gentle conqueror, kisses as it kills, +and draws you down gently through darkening fathoms to its heart. Death +at the sword is the festival of trumpet and bugle and banner, with +glory ringing out around you and distant hearts thrilling through +yours. No gnawing disease can bring such hideous end as this; for that +is a fiend bred of your own flesh, and this--is it a fiend, this living +lump of appetites? What dread comes with the thought of perishing in +flames! but fire, let it leap and hiss never so hotly, is something too +remote, too alien, to inspire us with such loathly horror as a wild +beast; if it have a life, that life is too utterly beyond our +comprehension. Fire is not half ourselves; as it devours, arouses +neither hatred nor disgust; is not to be known by the strength of our +lower natures let loose; does not drip our blood into our faces from +foaming chaps, nor mouth nor snarl above us with vitality. Let us be +ended by fire, and we are ashes, for the winds to bear, the leaves to +cover; let us be ended by wild beasts, and the base, cursed thing howls +with us forever through the forest. All this she felt as she charmed +him, and what force it lent to her song God knows. If her voice should +fail! If the damp and cold should give her any fatal hoarseness! If all +the silent powers of the forest did not conspire to help her! The dark, +hollow night rose indifferently over her; the wide, cold air breathed +rudely past her, lifted her wet hair and blew it down again; the great +boughs swung with a ponderous strength, now and then clashed their iron +lengths together and shook off a sparkle of icy spears or some +long-lain weight of snow from their heavy shadows. The green depths +were utterly cold and silent and stern. These beautiful haunts that all +the summer were hers and rejoiced to share with her their bounty, these +heavens that had yielded their largess, these stems that had thrust +their blossoms into her hands, all these friends of three moons ago +forgot her now and knew her no longer. + +Feeling her desolation, wild, melancholy, forsaken songs rose thereon +from that frightful aerie,--weeping, wailing tunes, that sob among the +people from age to age, and overflow with otherwise unexpressed +sadness,--all rude, mournful ballads,--old tearful strains, that +Shakspeare heard the vagrants sing, and that rise and fall like the +wind and tide,--sailor-songs, to be heard only in lone mid-watches +beneath the moon and stars,--ghastly rhyming romances, such as that +famous one of the "Lady Margaret," when + +"She slipped on her gown of green + A piece below the knee,-- +And 'twas all a long, cold winter's night + A dead corse followed she." + +Still the beast lay with closed eyes, yet never relaxing his grasp. +Once a half-whine of enjoyment escaped him,--he fawned his fearful head +upon her; once he scored her cheek with his tongue: savage caresses +that hurt like wounds. How weary she was! and yet how terribly awake! +How fuller and fuller of dismay grew the knowledge that she was only +prolonging her anguish and playing with death! How appalling the +thought that with her voice ceased her existence! Yet she could not +sing forever; her throat was dry and hard; her very breath was a pain; +her mouth was hotter than any desert-worn pilgrim's;--if she could but +drop upon her burning tongue one atom of the ice that glittered about +her!--but both of her arms were pinioned in the giant's vice. She +remembered the winding-sheet, and for the first time in her life +shivered with spiritual fear. Was it hers? She asked herself, as she +sang, what sins she had committed, what life she had led, to find her +punishment so soon and in these pangs,--and then she sought eagerly for +some reason why her husband was not up and abroad to find her. He +failed her,--her one sole hope in life; and without being aware of it, +her voice forsook the songs of suffering and sorrow for old Covenanting +hymns,--hymns with which her mother had lulled her, which the +class-leader pitched in the chimney-corners,--grand and sweet Methodist +hymns, brimming with melody and with all fantastic involutions of tune +to suit that ecstatic worship,--hymns full of the beauty of holiness, +steadfast, relying, sanctified by the salvation they had lent to those +in worse extremity than hers,--for they had found themselves in the +grasp of hell, while she was but in the jaws of death. Out of this +strange music, peculiar to one character of faith, and than which there +is none more beautiful in its degree nor owning a more potent sway of +sound, her voice soared into the glorified chants of churches. What to +her was death by cold or famine or wild beasts? "Though He slay me, yet +will I trust in Him," she sang. High and clear through the frore fair +night, the level moonbeams splintering in the wood, the scarce glints +of stars in the shadowy roof of branches, these sacred anthems +rose,--rose as a hope from despair, as some snowy spray of flower-bells +from blackest mould. Was she not in God's hands? Did not the world +swing at His will? If this were in His great plan of providence, was it +not best, and should she not accept it? + +"He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth." + +Oh, sublime faith of our fathers, where utter self-sacrifice alone was +true love, the fragrance of whose unrequired subjection was pleasant as +that of golden censers swung in purple-vapored chancels! + +Never ceasing in the rhythm of her thoughts, articulated in music as +they thronged, the memory of her first communion flashed over her. +Again she was in that distant place on that sweet spring morning. Again +the congregation rustled out, and the few remained, and she trembled to +find herself among them. + +How well she remembered the devout, quiet faces; too accustomed to the +sacred feast to glow with their inner joy! how well the snowy linen at +the altar, the silver vessels slowly and silently shifting! and as the +cup approached and passed, how the sense of delicious perfume stole in +and heightened the transport of her prayer, and she had seemed, looking +up through the windows where the sky soared blue in constant freshness, +to feel all heaven's balms dripping from the portals, and to scent the +lilies of eternal peace! Perhaps another would not have felt so much +ecstasy as satisfaction on that occasion; but it is a true, if a later +disciple, who has said, "The Lord bestoweth his blessings there, where +he findeth the vessels empty."--"And does it need the walls of a church +to renew my communion?" she asked. "Does not every moment stand a +temple four-square to God? And in that morning, with its buoyant +sunlight, was I any dearer to the Heart of the World than now?" "My +beloved is mine, and I am his," she sang over and over again, with all +varied inflection and profuse tune. How gently all the winter-wrapt +things bent toward her then! into what relation with her had they +grown! how this common dependence was the spell of their intimacy! how +at one with Nature had she become! how all the night and the silence +and the forest seemed to hold its breath, and to send its soul up to +God in her singing! It was no longer despondency, that singing. It was +neither prayer nor petition. She had left imploring, "How long wilt +thou forget me, O Lord?" "Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of +death!" "For in death there is no remembrance of thee";--with countless +other such fragments of supplication. She cried rather, "Yea, though I +walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: +for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me";--and +lingered, and repeated, and sang again, "I shall be satisfied, when I +awake, with thy likeness." + +Then she thought of the Great Deliverance, when he drew her up out of +many waters, and the flashing old psalm pealed forth triumphantly:-- + +"The Lord descended from above, + and bow'd the heavens hie; +And underneath his feet he cast + the darknesse of the skie. +On cherubs and on cherubins + full royally he road: +And on the wings of all the winds + came flying all abroad." + +She forgot how recently, and with what a strange pity for her own +shapeless form that was to be, she had quaintly sung,-- + +"Oh, lovely appearance of death! + What sight upon earth is so fair? +Not all the gay pageants that breathe + Can with a dead body compare!" + +She remembered instead,--"In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy +right hand there are pleasures forevermore"; and, "God will redeem my +soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me"; "He will +swallow up death in victory." Not once now did she say, "Lord, how long +wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling +from the lions"--for she knew that "the young lions roar after their +prey and seek their meat from God." "O Lord, thou preservest man and +beast!" she said. + +She had no comfort or consolation in this season, such as sustained the +Christian martyrs in the amphitheatre. She was not dying for her faith; +there were no palms in heaven for her to wave; but how many a time had +she declared,--"I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, +than to dwell in the tents of wickedness!" And as the broad rays here +and there broke through the dense covert of shade and lay in rivers of +lustre on crystal sheathing and frozen fretting of trunk and limb and +on the great spaces of refraction, they builded up visibly that house, +the shining city on the hill, and singing, "Beautiful for situation, +the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the North, +the city of the Great King," her vision climbed to that higher picture +where the angel shows the dazzling thing, the holy Jerusalem descending +out of heaven from God, with its splendid battlements and gates of +pearls, and its foundations, the eleventh a jacinth, the twelfth an +amethyst,--with its great white throne, and the rainbow round about it, +in sight like unto an emerald:--"And there shall be no night +there,--for the Lord God giveth them light," she sang. + +What whisper of dawn now rustled through the wilderness? How the night +was passing! And still the beast crouched upon the bough, changing only +the posture of his head, that again he might command her with those +charmed eyes;--half their fire was gone; she could almost have released +herself from his custody; yet, had she stirred, no one knows what +malevolent instinct might have dominated anew. But of that she did not +dream; long ago stripped of any expectation, she was experiencing in +her divine rapture how mystically true it is that "he that dwelleth in +the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the +Almighty." + +Slow clarion cries now wound from the distance as the cocks caught the +intelligence of day and reechoed it faintly from farm to farm,--sleepy +sentinels of night, sounding the foe's invasion, and translating that +dim intuition to ringing notes of warning. Still she chanted on. A +remote crash of brushwood told of some other beast on his depredations, +or some night-belated traveller groping his way through the narrow +path. Still she chanted on. The far, faint echoes of the chanticleers +died into distance,--the crashing of the branches grew nearer. No wild +beast that, but a man's step,--a man's form in the moonlight, stalwart +and strong,--on one arm slept a little child, in the other hand he held +his gun. Still she chanted on. + +Perhaps, when her husband last looked forth, he was half ashamed to +find what a fear he felt for her. He knew she would never leave the +child so long but for some direst need,--and yet he may have laughed at +himself, as he lifted and wrapped it with awkward care, and, loading +his gun and strapping on his horn, opened the door again and closed it +behind him, going out and plunging into the darkness and dangers of the +forest. He was more singularly alarmed than he would have been willing +to acknowledge; as he had sat with his bow hovering over the strings, +he had half believed to hear her voice mingling gayly with the +instrument, till he paused and listened if she were not about to lift +the latch and enter. As he drew nearer the heart of the forest, that +intimation of melody seemed to grow more actual, to take body and +breath, to come and go on long swells and ebbs of the night-breeze, to +increase with tune and words, till a strange, shrill singing grew ever +clearer, and, as he stepped into an open space of moonbeams, far up in +the branches, rocked by the wind, and singing, "How beautiful upon the +mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that +publisheth peace," he saw his wife,--his wife,--but, great God in +heaven! how? Some mad exclamation escaped him, but without diverting +her. The child knew the singing voice, though never heard before in +that unearthly key, and turned toward it through the veiling dreams. +With a celerity almost instantaneous, it lay, in the twinkling of an +eye, on the ground at the father's feet, while his gun was raised to +his shoulder and levelled at the monster covering his wife with shaggy +form and flaming gaze,--his wife so ghastly white, so rigid, so stained +with blood, her eyes so fixedly bent above, and her lips, that had +indurated into the chiselled pallor of marble, parted only with that +flood of solemn song. + +I do not know if it were the mother-instinct that for a moment lowered +her eyes,--those eyes, so lately riveted on heaven, now suddenly seeing +all life-long bliss possible. A thrill of joy pierced and shivered +through her like a weapon, her voice trembled in its course, her glance +lost its steady strength, fever-flushes chased each other over her +face, yet she never once ceased chanting. She was quite aware, that, if +her husband shot now, the ball must pierce her body before reaching any +vital part of the beast,--and yet better that death, by his hand, than +the other. But this her husband also knew, and he remained motionless, +just covering the creature with the sight. He dared not fire, lest some +wound not mortal should break the spell exercised by her voice, and the +beast, enraged with pain, should rend her in atoms; moreover, the light +was too uncertain for his aim. So he waited. Now and then he examined +his gun to see if the damp were injuring its charge, now and then he +wiped the great drops from his forehead. Again the cocks crowed with +the passing hour,--the last time they were heard on that night. +Cheerful home sound then, how full of safety and all comfort and rest +it seemed! what sweet morning incidents of sparkling fire and sunshine, +of gay household bustle, shining dresser, and cooing baby, of steaming +cattle in the yard, and brimming milk-pails at the door! what pleasant +voices! what laughter! what security! and here---- + +Now, as she sang on in the slow, endless, infinite moments, the fervent +vision of God's peace was gone. Just as the grave had lost its sting, +she was snatched back again into the arms of earthly hope. In vain she +tried to sing, "There remaineth a rest for the people of God,"--her +eyes trembled on her husband's, and she could think only of him, and of +the child, and of happiness that yet might be, but with what a dreadful +gulf of doubt between! She shuddered now in the suspense; all calm +forsook her; she was tortured with dissolving heats or frozen with icy +blasts; her face contracted, growing small and pinched; her voice was +hoarse and sharp,--every tone cut like a knife,--the notes became heavy +to lift,--withheld by some hostile pressure,--impossible. One gasp, a +convulsive effort, and there was silence,--she had lost her voice. + +The beast made a sluggish movement,--stretched and fawned like one +awaking,--then, as if he would have yet more of the enchantment, +stirred her slightly with his muzzle. As he did so, a sidelong hint of +the man standing below with the raised gun smote him; he sprung round +furiously, and, seizing his prey, was about to leap into some unknown +airy den of the topmost branches now waving to the slow dawn. The late +moon had rounded through the sky so that her gleam at last fell full +upon the bough with fairy frosting; the wintry morning light did not +yet penetrate the gloom. The woman, suspended in mid-air an instant, +cast only one agonized glance beneath,--but across and through it, ere +the lids could fall, shot a withering sheet of flame,--a rifle-crack, +half heard, was lost in the terrible yell of desperation that bounded +after it and filled her ears with savage echoes, and in the wide arc of +some eternal descent she was falling;--but the beast fell under her. I +think that the moment following must have been too sacred for us, and +perhaps the three have no special interest again till they issue from +the shadows of the wilderness upon the white hills that skirt their +home. The father carries the child hushed again into slumber; the +mother follows with no such feeble step as might be anticipated,--and +as they slowly climb the steep under the clear gray sky and the paling +morning star, she stops to gather a spray of the red-rose berries or a +feathery tuft of dead grasses for the chimney-piece of the log-house, +or a handful of brown ones for the child's play,--and of these quiet, +happy folk you would scarcely dream how lately they had stolen from +under the banner and encampment of the great King Death. The husband +proceeds a step or two in advance; the wife lingers over a singular +foot-print in the snow, stoops and examines it, then looks up with a +hurried word. Her husband stands alone on the hill, his arms folded +across the babe, his gun fallen,--stands defined against the pallid sky +like a bronze. What is there in their home, lying below and yellowing +in the light, to fix him with such a stare? She springs to his side. +There is no home there. The log-house, the barns, the neighboring +farms, the fences, are all blotted out and mingled in one smoking ruin. +Desolation and death were indeed there, and beneficence and life in the +forest. Tomahawk and scalping-knife, descending during that night, had +left behind them only this work of their accomplished hatred and one +subtle foot-print in the snow. + +For the rest,--the world was all before them, where to choose. + + * * * * * + +URANIA. + + +Hast thou forgotten whose thou art? + To what high service consecrate? +I gave thee not a noble heart + To wed with such ignoble fate. + +I found thee where the laurels grow + Around the lonely Delphian shrine; +There, where the sacred fountains flow, + I found thee, and I made thee mine. + +I gave thy soul to agony, + And strange unsatisfied desire, +That thou mightst dearer be to me, + And worthier of thy burning lyre. + +O child, thy fate had made thee God, + To thee such powers divine were given; +The paths of fire thou mightst have trod + Had led thee to the stars of heaven. + +And those who in the early dawn + Of beauty sat and sang of day, +Deep in their twilight shades withdrawn, + Had heard thy coming far away,-- + +With haunting music sweet and strange, + And airs ambrosial blown before, +Vague breathings of the floral change + That glorifies the hills of yore: + +Had felt the joy those only find + Who in their secret souls have known +The mystery of the poet mind + That through all beauty feels its own: + +Had felt the God within them rise + To meet thy radiant soul divine; +Had searched with their prophetic eyes + The midnight luminous of thine. + +So fondly did Urania deem! + So proudly did she prophesy! +Oh, ruin of a noble dream + She thought too glorious to die! + +Nor knew thy passionate songs of yore + Were as a promise unfulfilled,-- +A stately portal set before + The palace thou shall never build! + +For is it come to this, at last? + And thou forever must remain +A godlike statue, formed and cast + In marble attitude of pain,-- + +Proud lips that in their scorn are mute, + And haunting eyes of anguished love, +One hand that grasps a silent lute, + And one convulsed hand above + +That will not strike? Ah, scorn and shame! + Shame for the apostate unforgiven, +Beholding an unconquered fame + In undiscovered fields of heaven! + +For Beauty not by one alone + In her completeness is revealed: +The smiles and tears her face hath shown + To thee from others are concealed. + +Men see not in the midnight sky + All miracles she worketh there: +It is the blindness of the eye + That paints its darkness on the air. + +Two friends who wander by the shore + Look not upon the selfsame seas, +Hearing two voices in the roar, + Because of different memories. + +For him whose love the sea hath drowned, + It moans the music of his wrong; +For him whose life with love is crowned, + It breaks upon the beach in song. + +So dreaming not another's dream, + But still interpreting thine own, +By woodland wild and quiet stream + Thou wanderest in the world alone. + +Then what thou slayest none can save: + Silent and dark oblivion rolls +Over the glory in the grave + Of fierce and suicidal souls. + +From that dark wave no pleading ghost + With pointing hand shall ever rise, +To say,--The world hath treasure lost, + And here the buried treasure lies! + +Beware, and yet beware! my fear + Unfolds a vision in the gloom +Of Beauty borne upon her bier, + And Darkness crouching in the tomb. + +Beware, and yet beware! her end + Is thine; or else, her shadowy hearse +Beside, thy spirit shall descend + The vast sepulchral universe, + +And, with the passion that remains + In desolated hearts, implore +The spectre sitting bound in chains + To yield what he shall not restore:-- + +The mystery whose soul divine + Breathed love, and only love, on thee; +Which better far had not been thine, + Than, having been, to cease to be. + + + + +MARY SOMERVILLE. + + +There have been in every age a few women of genius who have become the +successful rivals of man in the paths which they have severally chosen. +Three instances are of our time. Mrs. Browning is called a poet even by +poets; the artists admit that Rosa Bonheur is a painter; and the +mathematicians accord to Mary Somerville a high rank among themselves. + +"In pure mathematics," said Humboldt, "Mrs. Somerville is strong." Of +no other woman of the age could the remark have been made; and this +would probably be true, were the walks of science as marked by the +feminine footprint as are those of literature. To read mathematical +works is an easy task; the formula can be learned and their meaning +apprehended: to read the most profound of them, with such appreciation +that one stands side by side with the great minds who originated them, +requires a higher order of intellect; and far-reaching indeed is that +which, pondering in the study on a few phenomena known by observation, +develops the theory of worlds, traces back for ages their history, and +sketches the outline of their future destiny. + +Caroline Herschel, the sister of Sir William, was doubtless gifted with +much of the Herschel talent, and, under other circumstances, her mind +might have turned to original research; but she belonged rather to the +last century, and Hanover was not a region favorable to intellectual +efforts in her sex. She lived the life of a simple-hearted, +truth-loving woman; most worthy of the name she bore, she made notes +for her brother, she swept the heavens and found comets for him, she +computed and tabulated his observations; it seems never to have +occurred to her to be other than the patient, helping sister of a truly +great man. + +Mrs. Somerville's life has been more individual. She is the daughter of +Admiral Fairfax, and was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, December 26, +1780, in the house of her uncle, the father of her present husband. + +The home training and the school education of the daughters of Great +Britain are very unlike those of their American sisters. The manners +and customs of the Old World change so slowly, that one can scarcely +assent to a remark made by Sir John Herschel:--"The Englishman sticks +to his old ways, but is not cemented to them." The Englishwoman submits +to authority from her infancy; belonging to the middle class, she does +not expect the higher education of the nobility; a woman, she is not +supposed to desire to enter into the studies of her brothers. A +governess, generally the daughter of a curate, who prefers this +position to that of "companion" to a fine lady, is provided for her in +her early years. If the choice be fortunate and the parents watchful, +the young girl is thoroughly taught in a few branches of what are +commonly considered feminine studies. She learns to read and to speak +French; tutors are employed for music and drawing: every young lady +above the rank of the tradesman's daughter plays well upon the piano; +every one has her portfolio of drawings, in which sketches from Nature +can always be found, and frequently the family portraits. The history +of the country is considered a study suitable for girls; the Englishman +expects that his daughter shall know something of the past, of which he +is so justly proud. + +But the more solid book-learning given to the girls of New England, +even in the public schools, is known only to the daughters of the +higher classes, and among them an instance like that of Lady Jane Grey +could scarcely now be found. As the girls and boys are never taught in +the same schools, no taste is aroused by the example of manly studies. +An English girl is astonished to hear that an American girl passes a +public examination, like her brothers, and with them competes for +prizes; she doubts the truthfulness of some of the representations of +life found in American novels; and so little is the freedom of manners +understood, that the American traveller is frequently asked,--"Can it +really be as Mrs. Stowe represents in America? Does a young lady really +give a party herself?" + +The difference that one would expect is found between the women of +England or Scotland and the women of New England. The young +Englishwoman is tasteful and elegant, mindful of all the proprieties +and graces of social life; she speaks slowly and cautiously, and gives +her opinions with great modesty. These are not at present the +characteristics of the American girl. + +Mary Fairfax passed through the usual routine. At fourteen she had read +the books to be found in her father's house, including the few works +on Navigation which were necessary to him in his profession. She had +thus obtained an idea of the world of science, and it was dull to +return to worsted-work for amusement. The needle, which has been the +fetter of so many women, became, however, in her hand, magnetic, and +pointed her to her destiny. She was in the habit of taking her work +into her brother's study, and listening to his recitations; the +revelations of Geometry were thus opened to her; she listened and +worked for a time, until the desire to know more of this region of form +and law, of harmony and of relations, became too strong to be resisted; +the worsted was thrown aside, and she ventured to ask the tutor to +instruct her. The honest man told her that he was no mathematician: he +could lend her Euclid, but he could do no more. + +The first great step was now taken; Euclid was quickly read; other +books were borrowed from other friends; Bonnycastle's and Euler's +Algebra were obtained, and she exulted in the use of those mystic +symbols, _x, y_, and _z_. Her parents looked on with indifference; so +that the music were not neglected and the governess reported well of +her studies, they felt there was no harm in her amusing herself as she +chose. When the days of the governess were over, the young lady "came +out" in Edinburgh, and mingled much with the best society. This most +picturesque city had long been the resort of the most gifted minds; men +of literature and men of science made the charm of its winter life. +Never was it more the gathering-place of intellect than in the early +part of this century; but there was no room for a woman of genius, and +the young girl's friends advised her to conceal her pursuits. Move as +quietly, however, and as unobtrusively as she might in the brilliant +circle, her genius was not without recognition. There was a word of +encouragement from Professor Playfair. "Persevere in your study," said +he; "it will be a source of happiness to you when all else fails; for +it is the study of truth." She had a champion, too, in the dreaded +critic, Jeffrey. "I am told," said a friend, writing to him, "that the +ladies of Edinburgh are literary, and that one of them sets up as a +blue-stocking and an astronomer." "The lady of whom you speak," replied +Jeffrey, "may wear blue stockings, but her petticoats are so long that +I have never seen them." + +Mrs. Somerville has been twice married. Her first husband, a gentleman +of the name of Greig, regarded her pursuits as her parents had, simply +with indifference. Dr. Somerville, her present husband, has taken the +utmost pains to secure her time for her studies, and has himself +relieved her from many household cares. + +The simplicity of character which belonged to her in early life was not +lost when her reputation became established. The Royal Society, whose +doors do not open at every knock, admitted her to membership, and, by +their order, her bust was sculptured by Chantrey, and now adorns the +hall of the Society in Somerset House. During the sittings for this +purpose, a lady, a friend of the sculptor, him to introduce her to Mrs. +Somerville. Chantrey consented, and made a dinner-party for the +purpose. The two ladies were placed side by side at table, and the +benevolent artist rejoiced to perceive, from the flow of talk, that +they were mutually pleased. The next day, to his astonishment, his +friend called on him in a state of great indignation, believing herself +the victim of a practical joke. "How could you do so?" said she. "You +knew that I did not want to know _that_ Mrs. Somerville; I wanted to +know the astronomer: that lady talked of the theatre, the opera, and +common things." + +The anecdote so often told of Laplace's compliment is literally true. +Mrs. Somerville dined with this great geometer in Paris. "I write +books," said Laplace, "that no one can read. Only two women have ever +read the 'Mecanique Celeste'; both are Scotch women: Mrs. Greig and +yourself." + +Upon the "Mecanique Celeste" Mrs. Somerville's greatest work is +founded. "I simply translated Laplace's work," said she, "from algebra +into common language." That is, she did what very few men and no other +woman could do. It is of this work of Laplace that Bonaparte said, "I +will give to it my first _six months_ of leisure." The student who +reads it by the aid of Dr. Bowditch's notes has little idea of the +difficulties to be met in the original work. Even Dr. Bowditch himself +said, "I never come across one of Laplace's 'Thus it plainly appears,' +without feeling sure that I have got hours of hard study before me, to +fill up the chasm and show _how_ it plainly appears." + +This "translation into common language" was undertaken at the request +of Lord Brougham, who desired a mathematical work suited to the +"Library of Useful Knowledge." The manuscript was submitted to Sir John +Herschel, who expressed himself "delighted with it,--that it was a book +for posterity, but quite above the class for which Lord Brougham's +course was intended." It was published at once, and became the +text-book for the students of Cambridge. + +"The Connection of the Physical Sciences" and the "Physical Geography" +are the later works of Mrs. Somerville. These volumes have probably +been more read in our country than in Europe; for it is a common remark +of the scientific writers of Great Britain, that their "readers are +found in the United States." They contain vast collections of facts in +all branches of Physical Science, connected together by the delicate +web of Mrs. Somerville's own thought, showing an amount and variety of +learning to be compared only to that of Humboldt. + +Provided with an "open sesame" to her heart, in the shape of a letter +from her old friend, Lady Herschel, we sought the acquaintance of Mrs. +Somerville in the spring of 1858. She was at that time residing in +Florence, and, sending the letter and a card to her by the servant, we +awaited the reply in the large Florentine parlor, in the fireplace of +which a wood-fire blazed, suggestive of English comfort,--a suggestion +which in Italy rarely becomes a reality. + +There was the usual delay; then a footstep came slowly through the +outer room, and a very old man, exceedingly tall, with a red silk +handkerchief around his head, entered, and introduced himself as Doctor +Somerville. He is proud of his wife; a pardonable weakness in any man, +especially so in the husband of Mary Somerville. He began at once to +talk of her. "Mrs. Somerville," he said, "was much interested in the +Americans, for she claimed a connection with the family of Washington. +Washington's half-brother, Lawrence, married Anne Fairfax, who was of +the Scotch family of that name. When Mrs. Somerville's father, as +Lieutenant Fairfax, was ordered to America, General Washington wrote to +him as a family relative, and invited him to his house. Lieutenant +Fairfax applied to his commanding officer for leave to accept the +invitation, and it was refused; they never met. Much to the regret of +the Somervilles, the letter of Washington has been lost. The Fairfaxes +of Virginia are of the same family, and occasionally some member of the +American branch visits his Scotch cousins." + +While Doctor Somerville was talking of these things, Mrs. Somerville +came tripping into the room, speaking with the vivacity of a young +person. She was seventy-seven years old, but appeared twenty years +younger. Her face is pleasing, the forehead low and broad, the eyes +blue,--the features so regular, that, as sculptured by Chantrey, in the +bust at Somerset House, they convey the idea of a very handsome woman. +Neither this bust nor the picture of her, however, gives a correct +impression, except in the outline of the head and shoulders. She spoke +with a strong Scotch accent, and was slightly affected by deafness. + +At this time, Mrs. Somerville was re-writing her "Physical Geography." +She said that she worked as well as when she was younger, but was more +quickly fatigued; yet, in order to gain time, she had given up her +afternoon nap, without apparent injury to her health. Her working hours +were in the morning, and she never refused a visitor after noon. For +her first work she said she computed a good deal; and here she stepped +quickly into an adjoining room, and brought out a mass of manuscript +computations made for that work, the mere sight of which would give a +headache to most women. The conversation was rather of the familiar and +chatty order, and marked by great simplicity. She touched upon the +recent discoveries in chemical science,--upon California, its gold and +its consequences, some good from which she thought would be found in +the improvement of seamanship,--on the nebulae, more and more of which +she thought would be resolved, while yet there might exist irresolvable +nebulous matter, such as composed the tails of comets, or the +satellites of the planets, which she thought had other uses than as +their subordinates. Of Doctor Whewell's attempt to prove that our +planet is the only one inhabited she spoke with disapprobation; she +said she believed that the other planets might be inhabited by beings +of a higher order than ourselves. + +On subsequent visits, Mrs. Somerville had much to say of the Americans. +She regretted that she so rarely received scientific articles from +America; the papers of Lieutenant Maury alone reached her. She spoke of +the late Doctor Bowditch with great interest, and said she had had some +correspondence with one of his sons; of Professor Peirce as a great +mathematician; and she was much interested in the successful +photography of the stars by Mr. Whipple. To a traveller, thousands of +miles from home, the mere mention of familiar names is cheering. + +Mrs. Somerville resides in Florence on account of the health of her +husband. A little garden, well-stocked with rose-bushes, which she +shows with great pride to her visitors, furnishes her with a means of +healthy recreation after her severe studies. Her children are a son by +Mr. Greig and two daughters by Doctor Somerville. In early life, Mrs. +Somerville was a fine musician: the daughters have inherited this +talent; and having lived long in Florence, they speak Italian with a +perfect accent. "I speak Italian," said Mrs. Somerville; "but no one +could ever take me for other than a Scotchwoman." + +No one can make the acquaintance of this remarkable woman without +increased admiration for her. The ascent of the steep and rugged path +of science has not unfitted her for the drawing-room circle; the hours +of devotion to close study have not been incompatible with the duties +of the wife and the mother; the mind that has turned to rigid +demonstration has not thereby lost its faith in the truths which +figures will not prove. "I have no doubt," said she, in speaking of the +heavenly bodies, "that in another state of existence we shall know more +about these things." + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + +MAY IN ROME. + + +May has come again,--"the delicate-footed May," her feet hidden in +flowers as she wanders over the Campagna, and the cool breeze of the +Campagna blowing back her loosened hair. She calls to us from the open +fields to leave the wells of damp churches and shadowy streets, and to +come abroad and meet her where the mountains look down from roseate +heights of vanishing snow upon plains of waving grain. The hedges have +put on their best draperies of leaves and flowers, and, girdled in at +their waist by double osier bands, stagger luxuriantly along the road +like a drunken Bacchanal procession, crowned with festive ivy, and +holding aloft their snowy clusters of elder-blossoms like _thyrsi_. +Among their green robes may be seen thousands of beautiful +wild-flowers,--the sweet-scented laurustinus, all sorts of running +vetches and wild sweet-pea, the delicate vases of dewy morning-glories, +clusters of eglantine or sweetbrier roses, fragrant acacia-blossoms +covered with bees and buzzing flies, the gold of glowing gorses, and +scores of purple and yellow flowers, of which I know not the names. On +the gray walls, vines, grass, and the humble class of flowers which go +by the ignoble name of weeds straggle and cluster; and over them, held +down by the green cord of the stalk, balance the bursted balloons of +hundreds of flaming scarlet poppies that seem to have fed on fire. The +undulating swell of the Campagna is here ablaze with them for acres, +and there deepening with growing grain, or snowed over with myriads of +daisies. Music and song, too, are not wanting; hundreds of birds are in +the hedges. The lark, "from his moist cabinet rising," rains down his +trills of incessant song from invisible heights of blue sky; and +whenever one passes the wayside groves, a nightingale is sure to bubble +into song. The oranges, too, are in blossom, perfuming the air; +locust-trees are tasselled with odorous flowers; and over the walls of +the Campagna villa bursts a cascade of vines covered with foamy Banksia +roses. + +The Carnival of the kitchen-gardens is now commencing. Peas are already +an old story, strawberries are abundant, and cherries are beginning to +make their appearance, in these first days of May; old women sell them +at every corner, tied together in tempting bunches, as in "the +cherry-orchard" which Miss Edgeworth has made fairy-land in our +childish memories. Asparagus also has long since come; and artichokes +make their daily appearance on the table, sliced up and fried, or +boiled whole, or coming up roasted and gleaming with butter, with more +outside capes and coats than an ideal English coachman of the olden +times. _Finocchi_, too, are here, tasting like anisette, and good to +mix in the salads. And great beans lie about in piles, the _contadini_ +twisting them out of their thick pods with their thumbs, to eat them +raw. Nay, even the _signoria_ of the noble families do the same, as +they walk through the gardens, and think them such a luxury that they +eat them raw for breakfast. But over and above all other vegetables are +the lettuces, which are one of the great staples of food for the Roman +people, and so crisp, fresh, delicate, and high-flavored, that be who +eats them once will hold Nebuchadnezzar no longer a subject for +compassion, but rather of envy. Drowned in fresh olive-oil and strong +with vinegar, they are a feast for the gods; and even in their natural +state, without condiments, they are by no means to be despised. At the +corners of the streets they lie piled in green heaps, and are sold at a +_baiocco_ for five heads. At noontide, the _contadini_ and laborers +feed upon them without even the condiment of salt, crunching their +white teeth through the crisp, wet leaves, and alternating a bite at a +great wedge of bread; and toward nightfall, one may see carts laden +high up with closely packed masses of them, coming in from the Campagna +for the market. In a word, the _festa_ of the vegetables, at which they +do not eat, but are eaten, and the Carnival of the kitchen-garden have +come. + +But--a thousand, thousand pardons, O mighty Cavolo!--how have I dared +omit thy august name? On my knees, O potentest of vegetables, I crave +forgiveness! I will burn at thy shrine ten waxen candles, in penance, +if thou wilt pardon the sin and shame of my forgetfulness! The smoke of +thy altar-fires, the steam of thy incense, and the odors of thy +sanctity rise from every hypaethral shrine in Rome. Out-doors and +in-doors, wherever the foot wanders, on palatial stairs or in the hut +of poverty, in the convent pottage and the _Lepre_ soup, in the wooden +platter of the beggar and the silver tureen of the prince, thou fillest +our nostrils, thou satisfiest our stomach. Thou hast no false pride; +great as thou art, thou condescendest to be exchanged for a _baiocco_. +Dear enchantress! to thee, and to thy glorious cousin Broccoli, that +tender-hearted, efflorescent nymph, the Egeria of the _osteria con +cucina_, the peerless maid that goes with the steak and accepts +martyrdom without moan, to drive away the demon of Hunger from her +devoted followers,--all honor! Far away, whenever I inhale thy odor, I +shall think of "Roman Joys"; a whiff from thine altar in a foreign land +will bear me back to the Eternal City, "the City of the Soul," the City +of the Cabbage, the home of the Dioscuri, _Cavolo_ and _Broccoli!_ Yes, +as Paris is recalled by the odor of chocolate, and London by the damp +steam of malt, so shall Rome come back when my nostrils are filled with +thy penetrative fragrance! + +Saunter out at any of the city-gates, or lean over the wall at San +Giovanni, (and where will you find a more charming spot?) or look down +from the windows of the Villa Negroni, and your eye will surely fall on +one of the Roman kitchen-gardens, patterned out in even rows and +squares of green. Nothing can be prettier or more tasteful in their +arrangement than these variegated carpets of vegetables. A great +cistern of running water crowns the height of the ground, which is used +for the purposes of irrigation, and towards nightfall the vent is +opened, and you may see the gardeners imbanking the channelled rows to +let the inundation flow through hundreds of little lanes of +intersection and canals between the beds, and then banking them up at +the entrance when a sufficient quantity of water has entered. In this +way they fertilize and refresh the soil, which else would parch under +the continuous sun. And this, indeed, is all the fertilization they +need,--so strong is the soil all over the Campagna. The accretions and +decay of thousands of years have covered it with a loam whose richness +and depth are astonishing. Dig where you will, for ten feet down, and +you do not pass through its wonderfully fertile loam into gravel, and +the slightest labor is repaid a hundred-fold. + +As one looks from the Villa Negroni windows, he cannot fail to be +impressed by the strange changes through which this wonderful city has +passed. The very spot on which Nero, the insane emperor-artist, fiddled +while Rome was burning has now become a vast kitchen-garden, belonging +to Prince Massimo, (himself a descendant, as he claims, of Fabius +Cunctator,) where men no longer, but only lettuces, asparagus, and +artichokes, are ruthlessly cut down. The inundations are not for mock +sea-fights among slaves, but for the peaceful purposes of irrigation. +And though the fiddle of Nero is only traditional, the trumpets of the +French, murdering many an unhappy strain near by, are a most melancholy +fact. In the bottom of the valley, a noble old villa, covered with +frescoes, has been turned into a manufactory of bricks, and the very +Villa Negroni itself is now doomed to be the site of a railway station. +Yet here the princely family of Negroni lived, and the very lady at +whose house Lucrezia Borgia took her famous revenge may once have +sauntered under the walls, which still glow with ripening oranges, to +feed the gold-fish in the fountain, or walked with stately friends +through the long alleys of clipped cypresses, and pic-nicked _alia +Giorgione_ on lawns which are now but kitchen-gardens, dedicated to San +Cavolo. It pleases me, also, descending in memories to a later time, to +look up at the summer-house built above the gateway, and recall the +days when Shelley and Keats came there to visit their friend Severn, +the artist, (for that was his studio,) and look over the same alleys +and gardens, and speak words one would have been so glad to hear,--and, +coming still later down, to recall the hearty words and brave heart of +America's best sculptor and my dear friend, Crawford. + +But to return to the kitchen-gardens. Pretty as they are to the eye, +they are not considered to be wholesome; and no Roman will live in a +house near one of them, especially if it lie on the southern and +western side, so that the Sirocco and the prevalent summer winds blow +over it. The daily irrigation, in itself, would be sufficient to +frighten all Italians away; for they have a deadly fear of all effluvia +arising from decomposing vegetable substances, and suppose, with a good +deal of truth, that, wherever there is water on the earth, there is +decomposition. But this is not the only reason; for the same prejudice +exists in regard to all kinds of gardens, whether irrigated or +not,--and even to groves of trees and clusters of bushes, or vegetation +of any kind, around a house. This is the real reason why, even in their +country villas, their trees are almost always planted at a distance +from the house, so as to expose it to the sun and to give it a free +ventilation; these they do not care for; damp is their determined foe, +and therefore they will not purchase the luxury of shade from trees at +the risk of the damp it is supposed to engender. On the north, however, +gardens are not thought to be so prejudicial as on the south and +west,--as the cold, dry winds come from the former direction. The +malaria, as we call it, though the term is unknown to Romans, is never +so dangerous as after a slight rain, just sufficient to wet the surface +of the earth without deeply penetrating it; for decomposition is then +stimulated, and the miasma arising from the Campagna is blown abroad. +So long as the earth is dry, there is no danger of fever, except at +morning and nightfall, and then simply because of the heavy dews which +the porous and baked earth then inhales and expires. After the autumn +has given a thorough, drenching rain, Rome is healthy and free from +fever. + +Rome has with strangers the reputation of being unhealthy; but this +opinion I cannot think well founded,--to the extent, at least, of the +common belief. The diseases of children there are ordinarily very +light, while in America and England they are terrible. Scarlet and +typhus fevers, those fearful scourges in the North, are known at Rome +only under most mitigated forms. Cholera has shown no virulence there; +and for diseases of the throat and lungs the air alone is almost +curative. The great curse of the place is the intermittent fever, in +which any other illness is apt to end. But this, except in its peculiar +phase of _Perniciosa_, though a very annoying, is by no means a +dangerous disease, and has the additional advantage of a specific +remedy. The Romans themselves of the better class seldom suffer from +it, and I cannot but think that with a little prudence it may be easily +avoided. Those who are most attacked by it are the laborers and +_contadini_ on the Campagna; and how can it be otherwise with them? +They sleep often on the bare ground, or on a little straw under a +_capanna_ just large enough to admit them on all-fours. Their labor is +exhausting, and performed in the sun, and while in a violent +perspiration they are often exposed to sudden draughts and checks. +Their food is poor, their habits careless, and it would require an iron +constitution to resist what they endure. But, despite the life they +lead and their various exposures, they are for the most part a very +strong and sturdy class. This intermittent fever is undoubtedly a far +from pleasant thing; but Americans who are terrified at it in Rome give +it no thought in Philadelphia, where it is more prevalent,--and while +they call Rome unhealthy, live with undisturbed confidence in cities +where scarlet and typhus fevers annually rage. + +It is a curious fact, that the French soldiers, who in 1848 made the +siege of Rome, suffered no inconvenience or injury to their health from +sleeping on the Campagna, and that, despite the prophecies to the +contrary, very few cases of fever appeared, though the siege lasted +during all the summer months. The reason of this is doubtless to be +found in the fact that they were better clothed, better fed, and in +every way more careful of themselves, than the _contadini_. Foreigners, +too, who visit Rome, are very seldom attacked by intermittent fever; +and it may truly be said, that, when they are, it is, for the most +part, their own fault. There is generally the grossest inconsistency +between their theories and their practice. Believing as they do that +the least exposure will induce fever, they expose themselves with +singular recklessness to the very causes of fever. After hurrying +through the streets and getting into a violent perspiration, they +plunge at once into some damp pit-like church or chill gallery, where +the temperature is at least ten degrees lower than the outer air. The +bald-headed, rosy John Bull, steaming with heat, doffs at once the hat +which he wore in the street, and, of course, is astounded, if the +result prove just what it would be anywhere else,--and if he take cold +and get a fever, charges it to the climate, and not to his own +stupidity and recklessness. Beside this, foreigners will always insist +on carrying their home-habits with them wherever they go, and it is +exceedingly difficult to persuade any one that he does not understand +the climate better than the Italians themselves, whom he puts down as a +poor set of timid ignoramuses. However, the longer one lives in Rome, +the more he learns to value the Italian rules of health. There is +probably no people so careful in these matters as the Italians, and +especially the Romans. They understand their own climate, and they have +a special dislike of death. In France and England suicides are very +common; in Italy they are almost unknown. The American recklessness of +life completely astounds the Italian. He enjoys life, studies every +method to preserve it, and considers any one who risks it unnecessarily +as simply a fool. + +What, then, are their rules of life? In the first place, in all their +habits they are very regular. They eat at stated times, and cannot be +persuaded to partake of anything in the intervals. If it be not their +hour for eating, they will refuse the choicest viands, and will sit at +your table fasting, despite every temptation you can offer them. They +are also very abstemious in their diet, and gluttony is the very rarest +of vices. I do not believe there is another nation in Europe that eats +so sparingly. In the morning they take a cup of coffee, generally +without milk, sopping in it some light _brioche_. Later in the day they +take a slight lunch of soup and macaroni, with a glass of wine. This +lasts them until dinner, which begins with a watery soup; after which +the _lesso_ or boiled meat comes on and is eaten with one vegetable, +which is less a dish than a garnish to the meat; then comes a dish of +some vegetable eaten with bread; then, perhaps, a chop, or another dish +of meat, garnished with a vegetable; some light _dolce_ or fruit, and a +cup of black coffee,--the latter for digestion's sake,--finish the +repast. The quantity is very small, however, compared to what is eaten +in England, France, America, or, though last, not least, Germany. Late +in the evening they have a supper. When dinner is taken in the middle +of the day, lunch is omitted. This is the rule of the better classes. +The workmen and middle classes, after their cup of coffee and bit of +bread or _brioche_ in the morning, take nothing until night, except +another cup of coffee and bread,--and their dinner finishes their meals +after their work is done. From my own observation, I should say that an +Italian does not certainly eat more than half as much as a German, or +two-thirds as much as an American. The climate will not allow of +gormandizing, and much less food is required to sustain the vital +powers than in America, where the atmosphere is so stimulating to the +brain and the digestion, or in England, where the depressing effects of +the climate must be counteracted by stimulants. Go to any _table +d'hote_ in the season, and you will at once know all the English who +are new comers by their bottle of ale or claret or sherry or brandy; +for the Englishman assimilates with difficulty, and unwillingly puts +off his home-habits. The fresh American will always be recognized by +the morning-dinner, which he calls a breakfast. + +If you wish to keep your health in Italy, follow the example of the +Italians. Eat a third less than you are accustomed to at home. Do not +drink habitually of brandy, porter, ale, or even Marsala, but confine +yourselves to the lighter wines of the country or of France. Do not +walk much in the sun; "only Englishmen and dogs" do that, as the +proverb goes; and especially take heed not to expose yourself, when +warm, to any sudden changes of temperature. If you have heated yourself +with walking in the sun, be careful not to go at once, and especially +towards nightfall, into the lower and shaded streets, which have begun +to gather the damps, and which are kept cool by the high, thick walls +of the houses. Remember that the difference of temperature is very +great between the narrow, shaded streets and the high, sunny Pincio. If +you have the misfortune to be of the male sex, and especially if you +suffer under the sorrow of the first great Caesar in being bald, buy +yourself a little skullcap, (it is as good as his laurels for the +purpose,) and put it on your head whenever you enter the churches and +cold galleries. Almost every fever here is the result of suddenly +checked transpiration of the skin; and if you will take the precaution +to cool yourself before entering churches and galleries, and not to +expose yourself while warm to sudden changes of temperature, you may +live twenty years in Rome without a fever. Do not stand in draughts of +cold air, and shut your windows when you go to bed. There is nothing an +Italian fears like a current of air, and with reason. He will never sit +between two doors or two windows. If he has walked to see you and is in +the least warm, pray him to keep his hat on until he is cool, if you +would be courteous to him. You will find that he will always use the +same _gentilezza_ to you. The reason why you should shut your windows +at night is very simple. The night-air is invariably damp and cold, +contrasting greatly with the warmth of the day, and it is then that the +miasma from the Campagna drifts into the city. And oh, my American +friends! repress your national love for hot rooms and great fires, and +do not make an oven of your _salon_. Bake yourselves, kiln-dry +yourselves, if you choose, in your furnaced houses at home, but, if you +value your health, "reform that altogether" in Italy. Increase your +clothing and suppress your fires, and you will find yourselves better +in head and in pocket. With your great fires you will always be cold +and always have colds; for the houses are not tight, and you only +create great draughts thereby. You will not persuade an Italian to sit +near them;--"_Scusa, Signore_" he will say, "_mi fa male; se non gli +dispiace, mi metto in questo cantone_,"--and with your permission he +takes the farthest corner away from the fire. Seven winters in Rome +have convinced me of the correctness of their rule. Of course, you do +not believe me or them; but it would be better for you, if you +did,--and for me, too, when I come to visit you. + +But I must beg pardon for all this advice; and as my business is not to +write a medical thesis here, let me return to pleasanter things. + +Scarcely does the sun drop behind St. Peter's on the first day of May, +before bonfires begin to blaze from all the country towns on the +mountain-sides, showing like great beacons. This is a custom founded in +great antiquity, and common to the North and South. The first of May is +the Festival of the Holy Apostles in Italy; but in Germany, and still +farther north, in Sweden and Norway, it is _Walpurgisnacht_,--when +goblins, witches, hags, and devils hold high holiday, mounting on their +brooms for the Brocken. And it was on this night that Mephistopheles +carried Faust on his wondrous ride, and showed him the spectre of +Margaret with the red line round her throat. Miss Bremer, in her "Life +in Dalecarlia," gives the following account of the origin of this +custom:--"It is so old," she says, "that there is no perfect certainty +either of its origin or signification. It is, however, believed that it +derives its origin from a heathen sacrificatory festival; and there is +ground for the acceptation that children were sacrificed alive at this +very feast,--and this, in fact, in order to expel or reconcile the evil +spirits, of whom the people believed, that, partly flying, partly +riding, they commenced their passages over fields and woods at the +beginning of spring, and which are to this day called enchanters, +witches, nymphs, and so forth. It is also believed that about this time +the spirits of the earth came forth from out of the bosom of the earth +and the heart of the mountains in order to seek intercourse with the +children of men. Fires were frequently kindled upon the sepulchral +hills, and at these, sacrifices were offered, chiefly to the good +powers, namely, to those who provide for a fruitful year. At present I +should scarcely think there is an individual who believes in such +superstitious stuff. But they still, as in days of yore, kindle fires +upon the mountains on this night, and still look upon it as a bad omen, +if any common or ugly-formed creature, whether beast or man, makes its +appearance at the fire." + +In the Neapolitan towns great fires are built on this festival, around +which the people dance, jumping through the flames, and flinging +themselves about in every wild and fantastic attitude. It is probably a +relic of some old sacrificatory festival to Maia, who has given her +name to this month,--the custom still remaining after its significance +is gone. + +The month of May is the culmination of the spring and the season of +seasons at Rome. No wonder that foreigners who have come when winter +sets in and take wing before April shows her sky sometimes growl at the +weather, and ask if this is the beautiful Italian clime. They have +simply selected the rainy season for their visit; and one cannot expect +to have sun the whole year through, without intermission. Where will +they find more sun in the same season? where will they find milder and +softer air? Days even in the middle of winter, and sometimes weeks, +descend as it were from heaven to fill the soul with delight; and a +lovely day in Rome is lovelier than under any other sky on earth. But +just when foreigners go away in crowds, the weather is settling into +the perfection of spring, and then it is that Rome is most charming. +The rains are over, the sun is a daily blessing, all Nature is bursting +into leaf and flower, and one may spend days on the Campagna without +fear of colds and fever. Stay in Rome during May, if you wish to feel +its beauty. + +The best rule for a traveller who desires to enjoy the charms of every +clime would be to go to the North in the winter and to the South in the +spring and summer. Cold is the speciality of the North, and all its +sports and gayeties take thence their tone. The houses are built to +shut out the demon of Frost, and protect one from his assaults of ice +and snow. Let him howl about your windows and scrawl his wonderful +landscapes on your panes and pile his fantastic wreaths outside, while +you draw round the blazing hearth and enjoy the artificial heat and +warm in the social converse that he provokes. Your punch is all the +better for his threats; by contrast you enjoy the more. Or brave him +outside in a flying sledge, careering with jangling bells over white +wastes of snow, while the stars, as you go, fly through the naked trees +that are glittering with ice-jewels, and your blood tingles with +excitement, and your breath is blown like a white incense to the skies. +That is the real North. How tame he will look to you, when you go back +in August and find a few hard apples, a few tough plums, and some sour +little things which are apologies for grapes! He looks sneaky enough +then, with his make-believe summer, and all his furs off. No, then is +the time for the South. All is simmering outside, and the locust saws +and shrills till he seems to heat the air. You stay in the house at +noon, and know what a virtue there is in thick walls which keep out the +fierce heats, in gaping windows and doors that will not shut because +you need the ventilation. You will not now complain of the stone and +brick floors that you cursed all winter long, and on which you now +sprinkle water to keep the air cool in your rooms. The blunders and +stupidities of winter are all over. The breezy _loggia_ is no longer a +joke. You are glad enough to sit there and drink your wine and look +over the landscape. Manuccia brings in a great basket of grapes that +are grapes, which the wasp envies you as you eat, and comes to share. +And here are luscious figs bursting with seedy sweetness, and apricots +rusted in the sun, and velvety peaches that break into juice in your +mouth, and great black-seeded _cocomeri_. Nature empties her cornucopia +of fruits and flowers and vegetables all over your table. Luxuriously +you enjoy them and fan yourself and take your _siesta_, with full +appreciation of your _dolce far niente_. When the sun begins to slope +westward, if you are in the country, you wander through the green lanes +festooned with vines and pluck the grapes as you go; or, if you are in +the city, you saunter the evening long through the streets, where all +the world are strolling, and take your _granito_ of ice or sherbet, and +talk over the things of the day and the time, and pass as you go home +groups of singers and serenaders with guitars, flutes, and +violins,--serenade, perhaps, sometimes, yourself; and all the time the +great planets and stars palpitate in the near heavens, and the soft air +full of fragrance blows against your cheek. And you can really say, +This is Italy! For it is not what you do, so much as what you feel, +that makes Italy. + +But pray remember, when you go there, that in the South every +arrangement is made for the nine hot months, and not for the three cold +and rainy ones you choose to spend there, and perhaps your views may be +somewhat modified in respect of this "miserable people," who, you say, +"have no idea of comfort,"--meaning, of course, English comfort. +Perhaps, I say; for it is in the nature of travellers to come to sudden +conclusions upon slight premises, to maintain with obstinacy +preconceived notions, and to quarrel with all national traits except +their own. And being English, unless you have a friend in India who has +made you aware that cane-bottom chairs are India-English, you will be +pretty sure to believe that there is no comfort without carpets and +coal; or being an American, you will be apt to undervalue a gallery of +pictures with only a three-ply carpet on the floor, and to "calculate," +that, if they could see your house in Washington Street, they would +feel rather ashamed. However, there is a great deal of human nature in +mankind, wherever you go,--except in Paris, perhaps, where Nature is +rather inhuman and artificial. And when I instance the Englishman and +American as making false judgments, let me not be misunderstood as +supposing them the only nations in that category. No, no! did not my +Parisian acquaintance the other day assure me very gravely, after +lamenting the absurdity of the Italians' not speaking French instead of +their own language,--"But, Sir, what is this Italian? nothing but bad +French!"--and did not another of that same polished nation, in +describing his travels to Naples, say, in answer to the question, +whether he had seen the grand old temples of Paestum,--"Ah, yes, I have +seen Paestum; 'tis a detestable country!--like the Campagna of Rome"? I +am perfectly aware that there are differences of opinion. + +Let me, then, beg you to remain in Rome during the mouth of May, if +you can possibly make your arrangements to do so. + +May is the month of the Madonna, and on every _festa_-day you will see +at the corners of the streets a little improvised shrine, or it may be +only a festooned print of the Madonna hung against the walls of some +house or against the back of a chair, and tended by two or three +children, who hold out to you a plate, as you pass, and beg for +charity, sometimes, I confess, in the most pertinacious way,--the money +thus raised to be expended in oil for the lamps before the Madonna +shrines in the streets. The monasteries of nuns are also busy with +processions and celebrations in honor of "the Mother of God," which are +carried on pleasantly within their precincts and seen only of female +friends. Sometimes you will meet a procession of ladies outside the +gates following a cross on foot, while their carriages come after in a +long file. These are societies which are making the pilgrimage of the +Seven Basilicas outside the Walls. They set out early in the morning, +stopping in each basilica for a half-hour to say their prayers, and +return to Rome at Ave Maria. + +Life, too, is altogether changed now. All the windows are wide open, +and there is at least one head and shoulders leaning out at every +house. And the poorer families are all out on their door-steps, working +and chatting together, while their children run about them in the +streets, sprawling, playing, and fighting. Many a beautiful theme for +the artist is now to be found in these careless and characteristic +groups; and curly-headed Saint Johns may be seen in every street, half +naked, with great black eyes and rounded arms and legs. It is this +which makes Rome so admirable a residence for an artist. All things are +easy and careless in the out-of-doors life of the common people,--all +poses unsought, all groupings accidental, all action unaffected and +unconscious. One meets Nature at every turn,--not braced up in prim +forms, not conscious in manners, not made up into the fashionable or +the proper, but impulsive, free, and simple. With the whole street +looking on, they are as unconscious and natural as if they were where +no eye could see them,--ay, and more natural, too, than it is possible +for some people to be, even in the privacy of their solitary rooms. +They sing at the top of their lungs as they sit on their door-steps at +their work, and often shout from house to house across the street a +long conversation, and sometimes even read letters from upper windows +to their friends below in the street. The men and women who cry their +fruits, vegetables, and wares up and down the city, laden with baskets +or panniers, and often accompanied by a donkey, stop to chat with group +after group, or get into animated debates about prices, or exercise +their wits and lungs at once in repartee in a very amusing way. +Everybody is in dishabille in the morning, but towards twilight the +girls put on their better dresses, and comb their glossy raven hair, +heaping it up in great solid braids, and, hanging two long golden +ear-rings in their ears and _collane_ round their full necks, come +forth conquering and to conquer, and saunter bare-headed up and down +the streets, or lounge about the doorways or piazzas in groups, ready +to give back to any jeerer as good as he sends. You see them marching +along sometimes in a broad platoon of five or six, all their brows as +straight as if they had been ruled, and their great dark eyes flashing +out under them, ready in a moment for a laugh or a frown. What stalwart +creatures they are! What shoulders, bosoms, and backs they have! what a +chance for the lungs under those stout _busti_! and what finished and +elegant heads! They are certainly cast in a large mould, with nothing +belittled or meagre about them, either in feature or figure. + +Early in the morning you will see streaming through the streets or +gathered together in picturesque groups, some standing, some couching +on the pavement, herds of long-haired goats, brown and white and black, +which have been driven, or rather which have followed their shepherd, +into the city to be milked. The majestical, long-bearded, patriarchal +rams shake their bells and parade solemnly round,--while the silken +females clatter their little hoofs as they run from the hand of the +milker when he has filled his can. The shepherd is kept pretty busy, +too, milking at everybody's door; and before the fashionable world is +up at nine, the milk is gone and the goats are off. + +You may know that it is May by the orange and lemon stands, which are +erected in almost every piazza. These are little booths covered with +canvas, and fantastically adorned with lemons and oranges intermixed, +which, piled into pyramids and disposed about everywhere, have a very +gay effect. They are generally placed near a fountain, the water of +which is conducted through a _canna_ into the centre of the booth, and +there, finding its own level again, makes a little spilling fountain +from which the _bibite_ are diluted. Here for a _baiocco_ one buys +lemonade or orangeade and all sorts of curious little drinks or +_bibite_, with a feeble taste of anisette or some other herb to take +off the mawkishness of the water,--or for a half-_baiocco_ one may have +the lemonade without sugar, and in this way it is usually drunk. On all +_festa_-days, little portable tables are carried round the streets, +hung to the neck of the _limonaro_, and set down at convenient spots, +or whenever a customer presents himself, and the cries of "_Acqua +fresca,--limonaro, limonaro,--chi vuol bere?_" are heard on all sides; +and I can assure you, that, after standing on tiptoe for an hour in the +heat and straining your neck and head to get sight of some Church +procession, you are glad enough to go to the extravagance of even a +lemonade with sugar; and smacking your lips, you bless the institution +of the _limonaro_ as one which must have been early instituted by the +Good Samaritan. Listen to his own description of himself in one of the +popular _canzonetti_ sung about the streets by wandering musicians to +the accompaniment of a violin and guitar:-- + + "Ma per altro son uomo ingegnoso, + Non possiedo, ma sono padrone; + Vendo l' acqua con spirto e limone + Finche dura d' estate il calor. + + "Ho an capello di paglia,--ma bello! + Un zinale di sopra fino; + Chi mi osserva nel mio tavolino, + Gli vien sete, se sete non ha. + + "Spaccio spirti, siroppi, acquavite + Fo 'ranciate di nuova invenzione; + Voi vedete quante persone + Chiedon acqua,--e rispondo,--Son qua!" + +The _limonaro_ is the exponent, the algebraic power, of the Church +processions which abound this month; and he is as faithful to them as +Boswell to Johnson;--wherever they appear, he is there to console and +refresh. Nor is his office a sinecure now; and let us hope that he has +his small profits, as well as the Church,--though they spell theirs +differently. + +The great procession of the year takes place this month on Corpus +Domini, and is well worth seeing, as being the very finest and most +characteristic of all the Church festivals. It was instituted in honor +of the famous miracle at Bolsena, when the wafer dripped blood, and is, +therefore, in commemoration of one of the cardinal doctrines of the +Roman Church, Transubstantiation, and one of its most theological +miracles. The Papal procession takes place in the morning, in the +piazza of Saint Peter's; and if you would be sure of it, you must be on +the spot as soon as eight o'clock at the latest. The whole circle of +the piazza itself is covered with an awning, festooned gayly with +garlands of box, under which the procession passes; and the ground is +covered with yellow sand, over which box and bay are strewn. The +celebration commences with morning mass in the basilica, and that over, +the procession issues from one door, and, making the whole circuit of +the piazza, returns into the church. First come the _Seminaristi_, or +scholars and attendants of the various hospitals and charity-schools, +such as San Michele and Santo Spirito,--all in white. Then follow the +brown-cowled, long-bearded Franciscans, the white Carmelites, and the +black Benedictines, bearing lighted candles and chanting hoarsely as +they go. You may see pass before you now all the members of these +different conventual orders that there are in Rome, and have an +admirable opportunity to study their physiognomies in mass. If you are +a convert to Romanism, you will perhaps find in their bald beads and +shaven crowns and bearded faces a noble expression of reverence and +humility; but, suffering as I do under the misfortune of being a +heretic, I could but remark on their heads an enormous development of +the two organs of reverence and firmness, and a singular deficiency in +the upper forehead, while there was an almost universal enlargement of +the lower jaw and of the base of the brain. Being, unfortunately, a +friend of Phrenology, as well as a heretic, I drew no very auspicious +augury from these developments; and looking into their faces, the +physiognomical traits were narrow-mindedness, bigotry, or cunning. The +Benedictine heads showed more intellect and will; the Franciscans more +dulness and good-nature. + +But while I am criticizing them, they are passing by, and a picturesque +set of fellows they are. Much as I dislike the conventual creed, I +should be sorry to see the costume disappear. Directly on the heels of +their poverty come the three splendid triple crowns of the Pope, +glittering with gorgeous jewels, and borne in triumph on silken +embroidered cushions, and preceded by the court jeweller. After them +follow the chapters, canons, and choirs of the seven basilicas, +chanting in lofty altos and solid basses and clear ringing tenors from +their old Church books, each basilica bearing a typical tent of colored +stripes and a wooden campanile and a bell which is constantly rung. +Next come the canons of the churches and the _monsignori_, in splendid +dresses and rich capes of beautiful lace falling below their waists; +the bishops clad in cloth of silver with mitres on their heads; the +cardinals brilliant in gold embroidery and gleaming in the sun; and at +last the Pope himself, borne on a platform splendid with silver and +gold, with a rich canopy over his head. Beneath this he kneels, or +rather, seems to kneel; for, though his splendid draperies and train +are skilfully arranged so as to present this semblance, being drawn +behind him over two blocks which are so placed as to represent his +heels, yet in fact he is seated on a sunken bench or chair, as any +careful eye can plainly see. However, kneeling or sitting, just as you +will, there he is, before an altar, holding up the _ostia_, which is +the _corpus Domini_, "the body of God," and surrounded by officers of +the Swiss guards in glittering armor, chamberlains in their beautiful +black and Spanish dresses with ruffs and swords, attendants in scarlet +and purple costumes, and the _guardia nobile_ in their red dress +uniforms. Nothing could be more striking than this group. It is the +very type of the Church,--pompous, rich, splendid, imposing. After them +follow the dragoons mounted,--first a company on black horses, then +another on bays, and then a third on grays; foot-soldiers with flashing +bayonets bring up the rear, and the procession is over. As the last +soldiers enter the church, there is a stir among the gilt equipages of +the cardinals which line one side of the piazza,--the horses toss their +scarlet plumes, the liveried servants sway as the carriages lumber on, +and you may spend a half-hour hunting out your own humble vehicle, if +you have one, or throng homeward on foot with the crowd through the +Borgo and over the bridge of Sant' Angelo. + +This grand procession strikes the note of all the others, and in the +afternoon each parish brings out its banners, arrays itself in its +choicest dresses, and with pomp and music bears the _ostia_ through the +streets, the crowd kneeling before it, and the priests chanting. During +the next _ottava_ or eight days, all the processions take place in +honor of this festival; and when the week has passed, everything ends +with the Papal procession in Saint Peter's piazza, when, without music, +and with uncovered heads, the Pope, cardinals, _monsignori_, canons, +and the rest of the priests and officials, make the round of the +piazza, bearing great Church banners. + +One of the most striking of their celebrations took place this year at +the church of San Rocco in the Ripetta, when the church was made +splendid with lighted candles and gold bands, and a preacher held forth +to a crowded audience in the afternoon. At Ave Maria there was a great +procession, with banners, music, and torches, and all the evening the +people sauntered to and fro in crowds before the church, where a +platform was erected and draped with old tapestries, from which a band +played constantly. Do not believe, my dear Presbyterian friend, that +these spectacles fail deeply to affect the common mind. So long as +human nature remains the same, this splendor and pomp of processions, +these lighted torches and ornamented churches, this triumphant music +and glad holiday of religion will attract more than your plain +conventicles, your ugly meeting-houses, and your compromise with the +bass-viol. For my own part, I do not believe that music and painting +and all the other arts really belong to the Devil, or that God gave him +joy and beauty to deceive with, and kept only the ugly, sour, and sad +for himself. We are always better when we are happy; and we are about +as sure of being good when we are happy, as of being happy when we are +good. Cheerfulness and happiness are, in my humble opinion, duties and +habits to be cultivated; but, if you don't think so, I certainly would +not deny you the privilege of being wretched: don't let us quarrel +about it. + +Rather let us turn to the Artists' Festival, which takes place in this +month, and is one of the great attractions of the season. Formerly, +this festival took place at Cerbara, an ancient Etruscan town on the +Campagna, of which only certain subterranean caves remain. But during +the revolutionary days which followed the disasters of 1848, it was +suspended for two or three years by the interdict of the Papal +government, and when it was again instituted, the place of meeting was +changed to Fidenae, the site of another Etruscan town, with similar +subterranean excavations, which were made the head-quarters of the +festival. But the new railway to Bologna having been laid out directly +over this ground, the artists have been again driven away, and this +year the _festa_ was held, for the first time, in the grove of Egeria, +one of the most beautiful spots on the whole Campagna,--and here it is +to be hoped it will have an abiding rest. + +This festival was instituted by the German artists, and, though the +artists of all nations now join in it, the Germans still remain its +special patrons and directors. Early in the morning, the artists +rendezvous at an appointed _osteria_ outside the walls, dressed in +every sort of grotesque and ludicrous costume which can be imagined. +All the old dresses which can be rummaged out of the studios or +theatres, or pieced together from masking wardrobes, are now in +requisition. Indians and Chinese, ancient warriors and mediaeval +heroes, militia-men and Punches, generals in top-boots and pigtails, +doctors in gigantic wigs and small-clothes, Falstaffs and justices +"with fair round belly with good capon lined," magnificent foolscaps, +wooden swords with terrible inscriptions, gigantic chapeaus with plumes +made of vegetables, in a word, every imaginable absurdity is to be +seen. Arrived at the place of rendezvous, they all breakfast, and then +the line of march is arranged. A great wooden cart, adorned with quaint +devices, garlanded with laurel and bay, bears the president and +committee. This is drawn by great white oxen, who are decorated with +wreaths and flowers and gay trappings, and from it floats the noble +banner of Cerbara or Fidenae. After this follows a strange and motley +train,--some mounted on donkeys, some on horses, and some afoot,--and +the line of march is taken up for the grove of Egeria. What mad jests +and wild fun now take place it is impossible to describe; suffice it to +say, that all are right glad of a little rest when they reach their +destination. + +Now begin to stream out from the city hundreds of carriages,--for all +the world will be abroad to-day to see,--and soon the green slopes are +swarming with gay crowds. Some bring with them a hamper of provisions +and wine, and, spreading them on the grass, lunch and dine when and +where they will; but those who would dine with the artists must have +the order of the _mezzo baiocco_ hanging to their buttonhole, which is +distributed previously in Rome to all the artists who purchase tickets. +Some few there are who also bear upon their breasts the nobler medal of +_troppo merito_, gained on previous days, and those are looked upon +with due reverence. + +But before dinner or lunch there is a high ceremony to take place,--the +great feature of the day. It is the mock-heroic play. This year it was +the meeting of Numa with the nymph Egeria at the grotto; and thither +went the festive procession; and the priest, befilletted and draped in +white, burned upon the altar as a sacrifice a great toy sheep, whose +offence "smelt to heaven"; and then from the niches suddenly appeared +Numa, a gallant youth in spectacles, and Egeria, a Spanish artist with +white dress and fillet, who made vows over the smoking sheep, and then +were escorted back to the sacred grove with festal music by a joyous, +turbulent crowd. + +Last year, however, at Fidenae, it was better. We had a travesty of the +taking of Troy, which was eminently ludicrous, and which deserves a +better description than I can give. Troy was a space inclosed within +paper barriers, about breast-high, painted "to present a wall," and +within these were the Trojans, clad in red, and all wearing gigantic +paper helmets. There was old Priam, in spectacles, with his crown and +robes,--Laocooen, in white, with a white wool beard and wig,--Ulysses, +in a long, yellow beard and mantle,--and Aeneas, with a bald head, in a +blue, long-tailed coat, and tall dickey, looking like the traditional +Englishman in the circus who comes to hire the horse. The Grecians were +encamped at a short distance. All had round, basket-work shields,--some +with their names painted on them in great letters, and some with an odd +device, such as a cat or pig. There were Ulysses, Agamemnon, Ajax, +Nestor, Patroclus, Diomedes, Achilles, "all honorable men." The drama +commenced with the issuing of Paris and Helen from the walls of +Troy,--he in a tall, black French hat, girdled with a gilt crown, and +she in a white dress, with a great wig hanging round her face in a +profusion of carrotty curls. Queer figures enough they were, as they +stepped along together, caricaturing love in a pantomime, he making +terrible demonstrations of his ardent passion, and she finally falling +on his neck in rapture. This over, they seated themselves near by two +large pasteboard rocks, he sitting on his shield and taking out his +flute to play to her, while she brought forth her knitting and ogled +him as he played. While they were thus engaged, came creeping up with +the stage stride of a double step, and dragging one foot behind him, +Menelaus, whom Thersites had, meantime, been taunting, by pointing at +him two great ox-horns. He walked all round the lovers, pantomiming +rage and jealousy in the accredited ballet style, and then, suddenly +approaching, crushed poor Paris's great black hat down over his eyes. +Both, very much frightened, then took to their heels and rushed into +the city, while Menelaus, after shaking Paris's shield, in defiance, at +the walls, retired to the Grecian camp. Then came the preparations for +battle. The Trojans leaned over their paper battlements, with their +fingers to their noses, twiddling them in scorn, while the Greeks shook +their fists back at them. The battle now commenced on the +"ringing-plains of Troy," and was eminently absurd. Paris, in hat and +pantaloons, (_a la mode de Paris_,) soon showed the white feather, and +incontinently fled. Everybody hit nowhere, fiercely striking the ground +or the shields, and always carefully avoiding, as on the stage, to hit +in the right place. At last, however, Patroclus was killed, whereupon +the battle was suspended, and a grand _tableau_ of surprise and horror +took place, from which at last they recovered, and the Greeks prepared +to carry him off on their shoulders. Then terrible to behold was the +grief of Achilles. Homer himself would have wept to see him. He flung +himself on the body, and shrieked, and tore his hair, and violently +shook the corpse, which, under such demonstrations, now and then kicked +up. Finally, he rises and challenges Hector to single combat, and out +comes the valiant Trojan, and a duel ensues with wooden axes. Such +blows and counter blows were never seen, only they never hit, but often +whirled the warrior who dealt them completely round; they tumbled over +their own blows, panted with feigned rage, lost their robes and great +pasteboard helmets, and were even more absurd than Richmond and Richard +ever were on the country boards at a fifth-rate theatre. But Hector is +at last slain and borne away, and a ludicrous lay figure is laid out to +represent him, with bunged-up eyes and a general flabbiness of body and +want of features, charming to behold. On their necks the Trojans bear +him to their walls, and with a sudden jerk pitch him over them head +first, and he tumbles, in a heap, into the city. Then Ulysses harangues +the Greeks. He has brought out a _quarteruola_ barrel of wine, which, +with most expressive pantomime, he shows to be the wooden horse that +must be carried into Troy. His proposition is joyfully accepted, and, +accompanied by all, he rolls the cask up to the walls, and, flourishing +a tin cup in one hand, invites the Trojans to partake. At first there +is confusion in the city, and fingers are twiddled over the walls, but +after a time all go out and drink, and become ludicrously drunk, and +stagger about, embracing each other in the most maudlin style. Even +Helen herself comes out, gets tipsy with the rest, and dances about +like the most disreputable of Maenades. A great scena, however, takes +place as they are about to drink. Laocooen, got up in white wool, +appears, and violently endeavors to dissuade them, but in vain. In the +midst of his harangue, a long string of blown up sausage-skins is +dragged in for the serpent, and suddenly cast about his neck. His sons +and he then form a group, the sausage-snake is twined about them,--only +the old story is reversed, and he bites the serpent instead of the +serpent biting him,--and all die in agony, travestying the ancient +group. + +All, being now drunk, go in, and Ulysses with them. A quantity of straw +is kindled, the smoke rises, the Greeks approach and dash in the paper +walls with clubs, and all is confusion. Then Aeneas, in his blue +long-tailed circus-coat, broad white hat, and tall shirt-collar, +carries off old Anchises on his shoulders with a cigar in his mouth, +and bears him to a painted section of a vessel, which is rocked to and +fro by hand, as if violently agitated by the waves. Aeneas and Anchises +enter the boat, or rather stand behind it so as to conceal their legs, +and off it sets, rocked to and fro constantly,--Aeolus and Tramontana +following behind, with bellows to blow up a wind, and Fair Weather, +with his name written on big back, accompanying them. The violent +motion, however, soon makes Aeneas sick, and as he leans over the side +in a helpless and melancholy manner, and almost gives up the ghost, as +well as more material things, the crowd burst into laughter. However, +at last they reach two painted rocks, and found Latium, and a general +rejoicing takes place.--The donkey who was to have ended all by +dragging the body of Hector round the walls came too late, and this +part of the programme did not take place. + +So much of the entertainment over, preparations are made for dinner. In +the grove of Egeria the plates are spread in circles, while all the +company sing part-songs and dance. At last all is ready, the signal is +given, and the feast takes place after the most rustic manner. Great +barrels of wine covered with green branches stand at one side, from +which flagons are filled and passed round, and the good appetites soon +make direful gaps in the beef and mighty plates of lettuce. After this, +and a little sauntering about for digestion's sake, come the afternoon +sports. And there are donkey races, and tilting at a ring, and +foot-races, and running in sacks. Nothing can be more picturesque than +the scene, with its motley masqueraders, its crowds of spectators +seated along the slopes, its little tents here and there, its races in +the valley, and, above all, the glorious mountains looking down from +the distance. Not till the golden light slopes over the Campagna, +gilding the skeletons of aqueducts, and drawing a delicate veil of +beauty over the mountains, can we tear ourselves away, and rattle back +in our carriage to Rome. + +The wealthy Roman families, who have villas in the immediate vicinity +of Rome, now leave the city to spend a month in them and breathe the +fresh air of spring. Many and many a tradesman who is well to do in the +world has a little _vigna_ outside the gates, where he raises +vegetables and grapes and other fruits; and every _festa_-day you will +be sure to find him and his family out in his little _villetta_, +wandering about the grounds or sitting beneath his arbors, smoking and +chatting with his children around him. His friends who have no villas +of their own here visit him, and often there is a considerable company +thus collected, who, if one may judge from their cheerful countenances +and much laughter, enjoy themselves mightily. Knock at any of these +villa-gates, and, if you happen to have the acquaintance of the owner, +or are evidently a stranger of respectability, you will be received +with much hospitality, invited to partake of the fruit and wine, and +overwhelmed with thanks for your _gentilezza_ when you take your leave; +for the Italians are a most good-natured and social people, and nothing +pleases them better than a stranger who breaks the common round of +topics by accounts of his own land. Everything new is to them +wonderful, just as it is to a child. They are credulous of everything +you tell them about America, which is to them in some measure what it +was to the English in the days of Raleigh, Drake, and Hawkins, and say +"_Per Bacco!_" to every new statement. And they are so magnificently +ignorant, that you have _carte blanche_ for your stories. Never did I +know any one staggered by anything I chose to say, but once. I was +walking with my respectable old _padrone_, Nisi, about his little +garden one day, when an ambition to know something about America +inflamed his breast. + +"Are there any mountains?" he asked. + +I told him "Yes," and, with a chuckle of delight, he cried,-- + +"_Per Bacco!_ And have you any cities?" + +"Yes, a few little ones,"--for I thought I would sing small, contrary +to the general "'Ercles vein" of my countrymen. He was evidently +pleased that they were small, and, swelling with natural pride, said,-- + +"Large as Rome, of course, they could not be"; then, after a moment, he +added, interrogatively, "And rivers, too,--have you any rivers?" + +"A few," I answered. + +"But not as large as our Tiber," he replied,--feeling assured, that, if +the cities were smaller than Rome, as a necessary consequence, the +rivers that flowed by them must be in the same category. + +The bait now offered was too tempting. I measured my respectable and +somewhat obese friend carefully with my eye, for a moment, and then +hurled this terrible fact at him:-- + +"We have some rivers three thousand miles long." + +The effect was awful. He stood and stared at me, as if petrified, for a +moment. Then the blood rushed into his face, and, turning on his heel, +he took off his hat, said suddenly, "_Buona sera_," and carried my fact +and his opinions together up into his private room. I am afraid that +Don Pietro decided, on consideration, that I had been taking +unwarrantable liberties with him, and exceeding all proper bounds, in +my attempt to impose on his good-nature. From that time forward he +asked me no more questions about America. + +And here, by the way, I am reminded of an incident, which, though not +exactly pertinent, may find here a parenthetical place, merely as +illustrating some points of Italian character. One fact and two names +relating to America they know universally,--Columbus and his discovery +of America, and Washington. + +"_Si, Signore_," said a respectable person some time since, as he was +driving me to see a carriage which he wished to sell me, and therefore +desired to be particularly polite to me and my nation,--"a great man, +your Vashintoni! but I was sorry to hear, the other day, that his +father had died in London." + +"His father dead, and in London?" I stammered, completely confounded at +this extraordinary news, and fearing lest I had been too stupid in +misunderstanding him. + +"Yes," he said, "it is too true that his father Vellintoni is dead. I +read it in the _Diario di Roma_." + +But better than this was the ingenious argument of a _Frate_, whom I +met on board a steamer in going from Leghorn to Genoa, and who, having +pumped out the fact that I was an American, immediately began to +"improve" it in a discourse on Columbus. So he informed me that +Columbus was an Italian, and that he had discovered America, and was a +remarkable man; to all of which I readily assented, as being true, if +not new. But now a severe abstract question began to tax my friend's +powers. He said, "But how could he ever have imagined that the +continent of America was there? That's the question. It is +extraordinary indeed!" And so he sat cogitating, and saying, at +intervals, "_Curioso! Straordinario!_" At last "a light broke in upon +his brain." Some little bird whispered the secret. His face lightened, +and, looking at me, he said, "Perhaps he may have read that it was +there in some old book, and so went to see if it were or no." Vainly I +endeavored to show him that this view would deprive Columbus of his +greatest distinction. He answered invariably, "But without having read +it, how could he ever have known it?"--thus putting the earth upon the +tortoise and leaving the tortoise to account for his own support. + +Imagine that I have told you these stories sitting under the vine and +fig-tree of some _villetta_, while Angiolina has gone to call the +_padrone_, who will only be too glad to see you. But, _ecco!_ at last +our _padrone_ comes. No, it is not the _padrone_, it is the +_vignarualo_, who takes care of his grapes and garden, and who +recognizes us as friends of the _padrone_, and tells us that we are +ourselves _padroni_ of the whole place, and offers us all sorts of +fruits. + +One old custom, which existed in Rome some fifteen years ago, has now +passed away with other good old things. It was the celebration of the +_Fravolata_ or Strawberry-Feast, when men in gala-dress at the height +of the strawberry-season went in procession through the streets, +carrying on their heads enormous wooden platters heaped with this +delicious fruit, accompanied by girls in costume, who, beating their +_tamburelli_, danced along at their sides and sung the praises of the +strawberry. After threading the streets of the city, they passed +singing out of the gates, and at different places on the Campagna spent +the day in festive sports and had an out-door dinner and dance. + +One of these festivals still exists, however, in the picturesque town +of Genzano, which lies above the old crater now filled with the still +waters of Lake Nemi, and is called the _Infiorata di Genzano_, "The +Flower-Festival of Genzano." It takes place on the eighth day of the +Corpus Domini, and receives its name from the popular custom of +spreading flowers upon the pavements of the streets so as to represent +heraldic devices, figures, arabesques, and all sorts of ornamental +designs. The people are all dressed in their effective costumes,--the +girls in _busti_ and silken skirts, with all their corals and jewels +on, and the men with white stockings on their legs, their velvet +jackets dropping over one shoulder, and flowers and rosettes in their +conical hats. The town is then very gay, the bells clang, the incense +steams from the censer in the church, where the organ peals and mass is +said, and a brilliant procession marches over the strewn flower-mosaic, +with music and crucifixes and Church-banners. Hundreds of strangers, +too, are there to look on; and on the Cesarini Piazza and under the +shadow of the long avenues of ilexes that lead to the tower are +hundreds of handsome girls, with their snowy _tovaglie_ peaked over +their heads. The rub and thrum of _tamburelli_ and the clicking of +castanets are heard, too, as twilight comes on, and the _salterello_ is +danced by many a group. This is the national Roman dance, and is named +from the little jumping step which characterizes it. Any number of +couples dance it, though the dance is perfect with two. Some of the +movements are very graceful and piquant, and particularly that where +one of the dancers kneels and whirls her arms on high, clicking her +castanets, while the other circles her round and round, striking his +hands together, and approaching nearer and nearer, till he is ready to +give her a kiss, which she refuses: of course it is the old story of +every national dance,--love and repulse, love and repulse, until the +maiden yields. As one couple panting and rosy retires, another fresh +one takes its place, while the bystanders play on the accordion the +whirling, circling, never-ending tune of the Tarantella, which would +"put a spirit of youth in everything." + +If you are tired of the festival, roam up a few paces out of the crowd, +and you stand upon the brink of Lake Nemi. Over opposite, and crowning +the height where the little town of Nemi perches, frowns the old feudal +castle of the Colonna, with its tall, round tower, where many a +princely family has dwelt and many an unprincely act has been done. +There, in turn, have dwelt the Colonna, Borgia, Piccolomini, Cenci, +Frangipani, and Braschi, and there the descendants of the last-named +family still pass a few weeks in the summer.[1] Below you, silent and +silvery, lies the lake itself,--and rising around it, like a green +bowl, tower its richly wooded banks, covered with gigantic oaks, +ilexes, and chestnuts. This was the ancient grove dedicated to Diana, +which extended to L'Ariccia; and here are still to be seen the vestiges +of an ancient villa built by Julius Caesar. Here, too, if you trust +some of the antiquaries, once stood the temple of Diana Nemorensis,[2] +where human sacrifices were offered, and whose chief-priest, called +_Rex Nemorensis_, obtained his office by slaying his predecessor, and +reigned over these groves by force of his personal arm. Times have, +indeed, changed since the priesthood was thus won and baptized by +blood; and as you stand there, and look, on the one side, at the site +of this ancient temple, which some of the gigantic chestnut-trees may +almost have seen in their youth, and, on the other side, at the +campanile of the Catholic church at Genzano, with its flower-strewn +pavements, you may have as sharp a contrast between the past and the +present as can easily be found. + +[Footnote 1: On the Genzano side stands the castellated villa of the +Cesarini Sforza, looking peacefully across the lake at the rival tower, +which in the old baronial days it used to challenge,--and in its +garden-pond you may see stately white swans oaring their way with rosy +feet along.] + +[Footnote 2: The better opinion of late seems to be that it was on the +slopes of the Val d'Ariccia. But "who shall decide, when doctors +disagree?"] + + + + +THRENODIA. + + +ADDRESSED TO ALFRED TENNYSON, P.L., IN RESPONSE TO VERSES OF HIS "ON A +LATE EVENT IN ENGLAND." + + I heard you In your English home,-- +I read you by my little brook, + Thousands of miles from British foam, +Hid in my dear New England nook: +But heard you with a sullen look; + But read you with a gloomy brow; +And thus unto my Muse I spoke:-- + Who is there to write history now? + + Hallam is dead! and Prescott gone! +And Irving sleeps at Sunnyside! + And now that Lord has wandered on, +Whose laurels must with theirs abide: +I greatly mourned the man who died + First on this dismal roll of death,-- +And him, of all observers eyed, + My townsman here, who spent his breath + + In telling of the things of Spain, +And doing friendly things to friends, + Prescott, well known beyond the main +And past the Pillars, to earth's ends: +Both had my tears: but England sends + Another word across the seas, +Might rouse the dying from his bed: + Oh, bear it gently, ocean-breeze! +That bitter word,--Thy friend is dead! + + Macaulay dead, who made to live +Past kingdoms, with his vivid brain! + Who could such warmth to shadows give, +By the mere magic of his pen, +That Charles and England rose again! + Well sleeps he 'mid the Abbey's dust: +And, Laureate! thy funereal verse + Shall have such echo as it must +From hearts just wrung at Irving's hearse. + + These are two names to mark the year +As one of memorable woe, + Two men to the two nations dear +Laid in one fatal winter low! +About the streets the mourners go; + But I within my chamber rest, +Or walk the room with measured tread, + Murmuring, with head upon my breast, +My God! and is Macaulay dead? + + + + +GENERAL MIRANDA'S EXPEDITION. + + +In November, 1805, a good-looking foreigner, gentlemanlike in dress +and in manner, and apparently fifty years of age, arrived in New York +from England, and took lodgings at Mrs. Avery's, State Street. He +called himself George Martin; but this incognito was intended only for +the vulgar. Some of the principal citizens of New York, who recollected +his first visit to this country twenty years before, knew him as Don +Francisco de Miranda of Caracas, one of the most distinguished +adventurers of that revolutionary era,--a favorite of the Empress of +Russia, a friend of Mr. Pitt, and second in command under Dumouriez in +the Belgian campaign of 1793. To these gentlemen he avowed that for +many years he had meditated the independence of the Spanish-American +Colonies, and meant to make an attempt to carry out his plans. On +Evacuation Day, a New York festival, which is now nearly worn out, they +invited him to a Corporation dinner, as a foreign officer of rank, and +toasted him, wishing him the same success in South America that we had +had here. He then went to Washington, under the name of Molini. There, +as everywhere, he was received by the best society as General Miranda. +The President and the Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, granted him +several private interviews. In January he returned to New York,--and on +the 2d of February departed thence mysteriously in the Leander, a ship +belonging to Mr. Samuel G. Ogden, merchant. + +While the Leander lay at anchor off Staten Island, a gentleman notified +the Naval Officer of the Port, that large quantities of arms and +ammunition had been taken on board of her in boats, at night. He was +informed in return, that the Leander was cleared for Jacquemel, and +that no law existed to prevent her from sailing. No other attempt was +made to detain her; but a few weeks later, rumors affecting the +character of the ship broke out in a more decided form. It was +generally believed at the Tontine Coffee-House that the Leander had +been fitted out by Miranda to attack the Spanish possessions in the +West India Islands or on the Main. And yet the New York journals took +no notice of her until the 21st of February, nineteen days after she +sailed. In the mean time the Marquis Yrujo, backed by the French +Ambassador, had made a formal complaint to Government, and had caused +the insertion in the "Philadelphia Gazette" of a series of +interrogatories to Mr. Madison, which indirectly accused the +Administration of encouraging Miranda's preparations, or at least of +conniving at the expedition. This perverse Marquis, who gave Mr. +Jefferson a taste of the annoyance which Genet, Adet, and Fauchet had +inflicted upon the previous administrations, was clamorous and +persisting. The authorities in Washington thought it proper to order +the arrest of Mr. Ogden, and of Colonel William Smith, son-in-law of +John Adams and Surveyor of the Port of New York, under the Act of 1794. +The prisoners were taken before Judge Tallmadge of the United States +District Court. They were refused counsel, and were forced by threats +of imprisonment to submit to a searching examination. They were then +held to bail, both as principals and witnesses, in the sum of twenty +thousand dollars. Soon after, the President removed Colonel Smith from +his office. + +Such a waste of editorial raw-material appears very singular to +newspaper-readers of the present day, accustomed as they are to see in +print everything that has happened or that might have happened; but we +must recollect that our grandfathers found the excitement necessary to +civilized man in party politics, national and local. This game they +played with a fierce eagerness which is now limited to a small class of +inferior men. + +To the violence and personal spitefulness of their newspaper articles +we have fortunately nothing comparable, even in the speeches of +Honorable Members on Helper and John Brown. The "_Tu quoque_" and the +"_Vos damnamini_" were their favorite logical processes, and "Fool" and +"Liar" the simple and conclusive arguments with which they established +a principle. Not that these ancients suffered at all from a lack of +stirring news. Bonaparte's wonderful campaigns, (Austerlitz had just +been heard of in New York,) the outrages on our sailors by English +cruisers, our merchantmen plundered by French and Spanish privateers, +the irritating behavior of the Dons in Louisiana, kept them abundantly +supplied with this staff of mental life. But they did not care much for +news in the abstract as news, unless they could work it up into +political ammunition and discharge it at each other's heads. We must +not forget, too, that newspaper-editing, the "California of the +spiritually vagabond," as Carlyle calls it, was a recent discovery, and +that the rich mine was but surface-worked. "Our own Reporter" was, like +Milton's original lion, only half unearthed; and deep hidden from +mortal eyes as yet lay the sensation-items-man, who has made the +last-dying-speech-and-confession style of literature the principal +element of our daily press. + +At last the Federal editors gave tongue. It was high time; the town was +in an uproar. They perceived that Miranda might become a useful ally +against Mr. T. Jefferson. His expedition came opportunely, as the +Mammoth Cheese and Black Sally were beginning to grow stale. Mr. Lang +opened the cry in the "New York Gazette" by asserting the complicity of +Government, on the authority of a "gentleman of the first +respectability,"--meaning Mr. Rufus King.--Cheetham, of the "Citizen," +barked back at Lang, a would-be "Solomon," "a foul and abominable +slanderer." Mr. King, he could prove, had been examined, and had +nothing to reveal.--Tom Paine wrote to the "Citizen" to mention that he +had known Miranda in New York in 1783 and in Paris in 1793. Mr. +Littlepage of Virginia, Chamberlain to the King of Poland, had then +informed him that the Empress Catharine had given Miranda four thousand +pounds "as a retaining fee," and that Mr. Pitt had also paid him twelve +hundred pounds for his services in the Nootka Sound business.--All the +Federal papers charged the Government with connivance. You knew the +destination of the Leander; you did not prevent her from sailing; you +nourished the offence until it attained maturity, and then, after +permitting the principals to go upon this expedition, you seize upon +the accessories who remain at home. And in how shameful and illegal a +way! You examine them before a single judge, with no counsel to advise +them. You force them to criminate themselves, and to sign their +confessions, by the threat of imprisonment; and you punish Colonel +Smith before you have tried him, by depriving him of his office. Why, +such a proceeding is worse than any "Inquisitorial Tribunal" or +"Star-Chamber Court."--Nonsense! answered the Democrats. Ogden's and +Smith's testimony does not implicate the Government in the least. It +only proves that Smith has been the dupe of Miranda. The President knew +nothing about the matter. If the object of the Leander's outfit was so +generally spoken of, why did it escape the notice of the Marquis Yrujo? +Why did he not demand her seizure before she sailed? This charge +against the Government is a mere Federal trick. Your friends, the +British, are at the bottom of the expedition, and they have artfully +employed Rufus King, a Federal chief, to throw the blame upon the +Executive of the United States. By ascribing to those who administer +the government the atrocities committed by Transatlantic rulers, you +aim a deadly blow at the character of our system; and your conduct, +base in any view we can take of it, is particularly reprehensible in +the delicate state of our relations with Spain. + +Mr. Cadwallader Golden, of counsel for the defendants, made a motion +before Judge Tallmadge for an order to prevent the District Attorney +from using the preliminary evidence taken at the private examinations. +"It was a proceeding," he said, "arbitrary and subversive of the first +principles of law and liberty,"--"which would have disgraced the reign +of Charles and stained the character of Jeffries." The District +Attorney was heard in opposition, and was successful. + +On the 7th of April, the Grand Jury found a bill against Smith, Ogden, +Miranda, and Thomas Lewis, captain of the Leander, for "setting on foot +and beginning with force and arms a certain military enterprise or +expedition, to be carried on from the United States against the +dominions of a foreign prince: to wit, the dominions of the King of +Spain; the said King of Spain then and there being at peace with the +United States." The Grand Jury, as an evidence of their impartiality, +or of the public feeling, also handed the Judge a presentment of +himself, which he put into his pocket, censuring his conduct in the +private examinations, because "unusual, oppressive, and contrary to +law." + +The trial was set down for the 14th of July. Messrs. Ogden and Smith +did not wait so long for a hearing. They laid their case at once before +the public, in two memorials addressed to Congress, complaining +bitterly of the prosecution, not to say persecution, instituted against +them by the authorities in Washington, and of the cruel and oppressive +measures taken by Judge Tallmadge to carry out the mandates of his +superiors. If they had done wrong, they urged, it was innocently. A war +with Spain was imminent. The critical position of the Louisiana +Boundary question, the President's Message of the 6th of December, and +the documents accompanying it, left no doubts on that point. Were they +not right, then, in supposing, that, under these circumstances, the +President would encourage an expedition against the colonies of a +hostile power? As evidence of Mr. Jefferson's knowledge of Miranda's +schemes, they stated that the General had brought with him from England +a letter to "a gentleman of the first consequence in New York," (Mr. +King,) which contained a sketch of his project: this letter was +forwarded to the Secretary of State and laid before the President by +him. Miranda then went to Washington, saw the President and the +Secretary, and wrote to the memorialists that he had fully unfolded his +plans to both. In the course of a long conversation with Mr. Madison, +he asked for pecuniary assistance and for open encouragement, on the +ground that individuals might not be willing to join in the enterprise, +if Government did not approve it,--particularly as a bill was then +before Congress to prohibit the exportation of arms. He also requested +leave of absence for Colonel Smith, who wished to accompany him. Mr. +Madison answered, that the sentiments of the President could not be +doubted, but that the Government of the United States could afford no +assistance of any kind. Private individuals were at liberty to act as +they pleased, provided they did not violate the laws; and New York +merchants would always advance money, if they saw their advantage in +it. As to the bill Miranda had spoken of, it was unlikely that it would +pass,--and, in fact, it did not. It was impossible, Mr. Madison added, +to grant leave of absence to Colonel Smith, although he thought him +better fitted for military employment than for the custom-house. He +closed the interview by recommending the greatest discretion. + +Miranda, continued the memorialists, remained fourteen days in +Washington after this conversation, and returned to New York confident +of the silent approval of Government. Eleven days before the Leander +sailed, he sent a letter to Mr. Madison, inclosing another to Mr. +Jefferson, both of which he read to Ogden and to Smith. He assured Mr. +Madison that he had conformed in every way to the intentions of +Government, and requested him to keep the secret. To Mr. Jefferson he +wrote in a strain more fashionable ten years before than then, but well +adapted to the sentimentality, both scientific and political, of the +"Philosophic President." Here it is:-- + +"I have the honor to send you, inclosed, the 'Natural and Civil History +of Chili,' of which we conversed at Washington,--and in which you will, +perhaps, find more than in those which have been before published on +the same subject, concerning this beautiful country. + +"If ever the happy prediction, which you have pronounced on the future +destiny of our dear Columbia, is to be accomplished in our day, may +Providence grant that it may be under your auspices, and by the +generous efforts of her own children! We shall then, in some sort, +behold the revival of that age, the return of which the Roman bard +invoked in favor of the human race:-- + +"'The last great age foretold by sacred rhymes + Renews its finished course; Saturnian times + Roll round again; and mighty years, begun + From this first orb, in radiant circles run.'" + +On Miranda's reports, these letters, and the fact that the Leander had +not been seized, they rested their case, and prayed for the +interference of Congress in their behalf. + +Congress unanimously granted the petitioners leave to withdraw. Such +evidence as this, not only hearsay, but heard from the party most +interested in misrepresenting the Administration, was not entitled to +much consideration. It had, moreover, the additional disadvantage of +proving nothing against the President and Secretary, even if every word +of it were admitted as true. + +Public attention was diverted from the Leander, Captain Lewis, to the +Leander, Captain Whitby. This English frigate was cruising off Sandy +Hook, bringing to inward and outward bound vessels, searching them for +articles contraband of war, and helping herself to able-bodied seamen +who looked like British subjects. All of which was meekly submitted to +in 1806. Mr. Jefferson could not overcome his doubts as to the +constitutionality of a fleet, and the Opposition had the twofold +pleasure of chuckling over the insults offered by John Bull to a +government with French proclivities, and of reproaching the party in +power with its supineness and want of spirit. + +But the accident of the 25th of April brought the American people to a +proper sense of their situation, for the moment. On that day, His +British Majesty's ship Leander fired a round-shot into the sloop +Richard, bound to New York, and killed the man at the helm, John +Pierce. The body was brought to the city and borne through the +principal streets, in the midst of universal excitement, anger, and +cries for vengeance. Black streamers were displayed from the houses; +shops were closed; the newspapers appeared in mourning. A public +funeral was attended by the whole population. Captain Whitby was +indicted for murder, and took care to keep out of the reach of United +States law-officers. This homicide happened just in time for the May +election in New York. Both parties attempted to make use of it. The +Federalists proclaimed that the blood of Pierce was on the head of +Jefferson and his followers. These retorted, that the English pirates +were the friends and comrades of the Federalists. Cheetham had seen the +first lieutenant of the Leander, disguised, in company with eight or +ten of them, some days after the murder!!! And the Democratic +Republicans, as was and is still usual, had a majority at the polls. + +From time to time short paragraphs appeared in the papers, advertising +Miranda's success. "His flag was flying on every fort from Cumana to +Laguayra." "The whole of this fine country may be considered as lost to +Spain." Then came tidings of sadder complexion. He had been beaten off +with the loss of forty men, taken prisoners. The Spaniards had +threatened to hang them as pirates, but they would not dare to do it. +The British had furnished Miranda with forty Spanish prisoners, as +hostages, "to avenge the threatened insult to the feelings of every +friend to the rights of self-government in every part of the world." At +last, news arrived from the Gulf which left Miranda's failure in his +first attempt to land no longer doubtful. This, of course, made the +position of Ogden and Smith more dangerous, and their case more difficult +to manage. + +When the trial of Colonel Smith came on, public interest revived, and +became stronger than before. The court-room was crowded by intelligent +spectators during the whole course of the proceedings, The case was +peculiar, and had almost a dramatic interest. Here was a Government +prosecution against a man well known in the community, for an offence +new to our courts; and the heads of that Government, Jefferson and +Madison, were indirectly on trial at the same time:--"For, if Smith and +Ogden are acquitted," said the Federal papers, "then must the whole +guilt rest on the Administration." Apart from the political interest of +the trial, the eminence of the counsel employed would have commanded an +audience anywhere. Never, since New York has had courts of justice, +have so many distinguished lawyers adorned and dignified her bar as in +the first twenty years of this century. In this case, nearly all of the +leaders were retained: Nathan Sandford, District Attorney, and +Pierrepoint Edwards, for the prosecution; for the defence, Cadwallader +Colden, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Thomas Addis Emmet, Richard Harrison, and +Washington Morton.[*] + +[Footnote *: Judge Patterson, of the United States Court, occupied the +bench with Judge Tallmadge, until ill-health obliged him to withdraw. +He died soon after.] + +Mr. Colden handed the Clerk a list of his witnesses, and requested him +to call their names. Among them were those of Madison, Dearborn, +Gallatin, Granger, and Robert Smith, all members of the Government. He +then read the affidavit of service of subpoenas upon them on the 25th +of May, and, inasmuch as these gentlemen had not obeyed the subpoena, +and as Colonel Smith could not safely proceed to trial without their +testimony, he moved that an attachment issue against them. + +The District Attorney opposed the motion, on the ground that the +testimony of these witnesses could not possibly be of any use to the +defendant. None of them were present in New York when the Leander was +fitted out. And even if it could be shown by these witnesses that the +Administration had approved of this illegal expedition, it would not +help the defendant. This is a country governed by laws, and not by +arbitrary edicts. If Colonel Smith had violated these laws, he had +rendered himself liable to punishment. He could not escape by making +the President a _particeps criminis_. An amusing letter was read from +Madison, Dearborn, and Smith, which stated, "that the President, taking +into view the state of our public affairs, has specially signified to +us that our official duties cannot consistently therewith be at this +juncture dispensed with." They suggested that a commission should issue +for the purpose of taking their respective testimonies. + +Colden insisted that this was an attempt of the Executive to interfere +with the Judiciary, which ought not to be tolerated. Counsel in +criminal cases had always the right to stand face to face with +witnesses. It was outrageous that the President should first approve of +the conduct of Colonel Smith, then order a prosecution against him and +forbid his witnesses to attend the trial. + +The Court refused to grant an attachment. And later in the trial, when +the defence offered Rufus King to prove the President's knowledge and +approbation of the enterprise, the Court decided against the admission +of the evidence. + +The history of the expedition in New York, as shown by the testimony, +was briefly this:--Colonel Smith introduced Miranda to Ogden; and Ogden +agreed to furnish his armed ship Leander, and to load her with the +necessary provisions, stores, arms, and ammunition. He estimated his +expenditure at seventy thousand dollars. Miranda had brought with him +from London a bill of exchange on New York for eight hundred pounds, +which had been paid, and had drawn bills on England and on Trinidad for +seven thousand pounds, which had not been paid. This was all that Ogden +had received. But if the enterprise were successful, he was to be paid +two hundred per cent, advance on the ship and cargo. Smith had engaged +fifteen or twenty officers, without informing them of the object of the +expedition, but expressly stipulating in writing that they would not be +employed against England or France, and giving them a general verbal +assurance that they would speedily make their fortunes. In this he was +sincere, for he took his son from college and sent him with Miranda. +Smith had employed John Fink, a Bowery butcher, to engage men who could +serve on horseback. Fink enlisted twenty-three at fifteen dollars a +month, and fifteen more as a bounty. They were not to be taken out of +the territory of the United States. Some of them were told that the +President was raising a mounted guard; others, that they were to guard +the mail from Washington to New Orleans. One of Fink's papers was shown +on the trial, indorsed, "Muster-Roll for the President's Guard." Smith +had furnished the bounty-money, but it did not appear that he had +authorized these misrepresentations of Fink, who developed a talent in +this business which forty years later would have made his fortune as an +emigrant-runner. Abundant proofs of the purchase of military clothing, +arms, powder, shot, and cannon were produced. + +The Counsel for Colonel Smith, unable to get the connivance of the +Administration before the Jury in the shape of evidence, coolly assumed +it as established, and urged it in defence of their client. They used +his memorial to Congress as their brief, enlarged upon the arbitrary +conduct of the Judge in the examinations and upon the tyrannical +interference of the President with their witnesses. As Mr. Emmet +cleverly and classically remarked, quoting from Tacitus's description +of the funeral of Junia, "Perhaps their very absence rendered them more +decided witnesses in our favor." They also maintained that the Act of +1794, under which the prisoner was indicted, did not prohibit an +enterprise of this character. Even if it did, no proof existed that +this expedition was organized in New York. On the contrary, it was +known that Miranda had gone hence to Jacquemel, and had made his +preparations there, in a port out of our jurisdiction. + +This point made, they boldly went a step farther, and declared that the +United States were actually at war with Spain. The affair of the +Kempers, and of Flanagan in Louisiana, the obstruction of the Mobile +Kiver, the depredations upon our commerce by Spanish privateers, were +sufficient proof of a state of war. We had a right to meet force by +force. The President must have been of this opinion, else he could not +have violated his trust by authorizing this expedition. + +The case for the defence, considered in a logical point of view, was +desperate; but no case is desperate before a Jury; and when Mr. Colden, +Mr. Hoffman, and Mr. Emmet had each in his own peculiar mode of +eloquence appealed to the Jury to protect their client, already +punished by removal from his place, without a trial or even a hearing, +for an offence committed with, the sanction of his superior +officers,--when they compared this State prosecution to the attempts +made by despotic European governments to crush innocent men by the +machinery of law, and asserted that it was instituted solely to gratify +the malice of the King of Spain, a bitter enemy to the United +States,--and when they enlarged upon the grandeur of an undertaking to +give liberty to the down-trodden victims of Colonial tyranny, comparing +Miranda and his friends to our own Revolutionary heroes, there could be +but little doubt of the verdict. But there was an uneasy feeling after +the District Attorney had closed. He demolished with ease the arguments +of the other side, for not one of them had sufficient strength to stand +alone. Smith's perpetual excuse, that he had been led astray by the +belief of connivance in Washington, was preposterous. If he had been +anxious to know the sentiments of Government on the subject, he might +at any time within six days have ascertained whether Miranda told him +truth or not. He spoke of the cruelty and reckless folly of all such +attempts upon a neighboring people; asked the Jury how they would like +to see an armed force landed upon our shores to take part with one or +the other of the great political parties; and closed with a few strong +words, as true at this day as then:--"If you acquit the defendant, you +say to the world that the United States have renounced the law of +nations,--that they permit their citizens not only to violate their own +laws with impunity, but to invade the people of other countries with +hostile force in a time of peace, as avarice, ambition, or the thought +of plunder may dictate. Such a decision would justify the acts of the +pirate on the ocean, and would sink our national character to the +barbarism of savage tribes." + +The Jury were out two hours, and brought in a verdict of not guilty, +which gave great satisfaction to Federal editors. A few days afterward, +Mr. Ogden was acquitted.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Jefferson, after the expiration of his second term, +wrote to Don Valentino de Fornonda as follows:-- + +"Your predecessor [Yrujo] wished it to be believed that we were in +unjustifiable cooeperation in Miranda's expedition. + +"I solemnly and on my personal truth and honor declare to you that this +was entirely without foundation, and that there was neither cooeperation +nor connivance on our part. He informed us he was about to attempt the +liberation of his native country from bondage, and intimated a hope of +our aid, or connivance at least. He was at once informed, that, though +we had great cause of complaint against Spain, and even of war, yet, +whenever we should think proper to act as her enemy, it should be +openly and aboveboard, and that our hostility should never be exercised +by such petty means. We had no suspicion that he expected to engage men +here, but merely to purchase military stores. Against this there was no +law, nor, consequently, any authority for us to interpose. On the other +hand, we deemed it improper to betray his voluntary communication to +the agents of Spain. Although his measures were many days in +preparation at New York, we never had the least intimation or suspicion +of his engaging men in his enterprise until he was gone; and I presume +that the secrecy of his proceedings kept them equally unknown to the +Marquis Yrujo and to the Spanish Consul at New York, since neither of +them gave us any information of the enlistment of men until it was too +late for any measures taken at Washington to prevent their departure."] + +This is a brief account of the first filibuster-trial in the United +States. Other heroes of this profession, compared with whom Smith and +Ogden were spotless, have since come before our courts only to be +turned loose upon the world again. No other result is to be +anticipated. It is an established principle with our fellow-citizens, +that no man is happy, or ought to be, who lives under any other system +of government than our own. Let a lawyer pronounce the magic formula, +"Liberty to the oppressed," or "Free institutions to the victims of +despotism," and, _presto!_--rascality is metamorphosed into merit. +After all, it makes such a difference, when it is only our neighbor's +ox that is gored! + +Here closed the first act of the expedition. Colonel Smith lost his +office, and Mr. Ogden stopped payment. The passengers by the Leander +fared worse. There were two hundred men on board: one hundred and +twenty belonged to the ship; the others had been engaged by Smith and +his agent Fink as officers, dragoons, printers, and armorers. With the +exception of two or three, none of them had seen their commander or +knew their destination. The officers, all gentlemen "of crooked +fortunes," supposed that they were sailing to enlarge the area of +freedom somewhere in America; but what particular region of the Spanish +dominions was to be subjected to this wholesome treatment they neither +knew nor cared, provided they could improve their own financial +condition. Both officers and privates were for the most part +serviceable, steady men, worthy of a more efficient leader. + +On the 12th of February, they were overhauled and searched by H.B.M. +ship Cleopatra. Nineteen men with American protections were carried off +in the frigate's boat, and twelve native Americans taken out of prizes +sent back to replace them. The Leander's papers were examined and +pronounced unsatisfactory. Miranda was obliged to go on board the +Cleopatra, where he had a long private conversation with the captain. +He returned with full liberty to proceed, and with a written pass to +prevent detention or search by British cruisers. This adventure was +made to give an air of respectability to the enterprise; and Miranda +hinted to his suite that the English captain had promised to join him +with his frigate. A day or two later, the Leander took other airs upon +herself. Meeting a small Spanish schooner, laden with logwood, off the +Haytian coast, Lewis fired into her, and ordered the captain on board +with his papers, for the mere pleasure of exercising power. The +Spaniard, as soon as he got back to his own craft, made the best of his +way home and gave the first alarm. + +On the 18th of February, they cast anchor at Jacquemel. Lewis went +immediately to Port au-Prince, to engage the Emperor, a ship commanded +by his brother, to join the expedition. Miranda remained behind to +organize his followers. He at last announced to them that he intended +to land near Caracas; the whole country would rise at his name; his +brave Americans would form the nucleus and the heart of a great army; +there was no Spanish force in the province to resist him. In a general +order, "Parole, America; Countersign, Liberty," he assigned to his +officers their rank in the Columbian army, distributing them into the +Engineers, Artillery, Dragoons, Riflemen, and Foot. Another general +order, "Parole, Warren; Countersign, Bunker's Hill," fixed the uniforms +of the different corps,--to be distinguished by blue, yellow, or green +facings. All hands were set to work upon the crowded deck. Printers +struck off proclamations and blank commissions in the name of "Don +Francisco de Miranda, Commander-in-Chief of the Columbian Army"; +carpenters made pike-handles; armorers repaired the arms bought in New +York; (they had cost little, and were worth less;) the regimental +tailor and his disciples stitched the gay facings upon the new +uniforms; files of awkward fellows were put through the manual exercise +by an old drill-sergeant; and the young gentlemen officers read +diligently in treatises on war, or listened to the discourses of their +general upon the noble art. In the midst of this stir of preparation, +Lewis returned unsuccessful, without the ship Emperor; but Miranda +seemed in no hurry to depart. He continued his lectures and his +drilling until the 28th of March. At last he hoisted the new Columbian +flag,--a tricolor, blue, yellow, and red,--fired a grand salute, and +stood gallantly out of the harbor, where he had wasted six precious +weeks. + +Captain Lewis had chartered at Port-au-Prince the Bee, a small, unarmed +schooner, and had bought the Bacchus, a vessel of the same class, last +from Laguayra, whose captain and men disappeared mysteriously after +their arrival at Jacquemel. Some of the Leander's hands volunteered for +the schooners, to get out of the crowded ship; others were forced on +board, to make up a crew. The little fleet steered for Bonair, but, +through the ignorance of their pilot, or of their captain, found +themselves, after a ten-days' cruise, seventy miles to leeward, off the +Gulf of Venezuela. The Leander was a dull sailer; and, with the wind +and current against her, it took them four days to beat up to the +Island of Aruba, and seven more to reach Bonair. On the evening of the +27th of April, they were lying to off Puerto Cabello, preparing to +land, and sure of success, when they made out two Spanish +_guardacostas_ close in shore, beating up to windward. Miranda thought +them unworthy of attention, and gave the order to stand in. But the +pilot mistook the landmarks, owing to the darkness, and missed the +point agreed upon for landing. The Bacchus was sent in to reconnoitre +and did not return, although signals of recall were repeated throughout +the night. About midnight signals were noticed passing between the fort +at Puerto Cabello and the _guardacostas_; Captain Lewis beat to +quarters, and kept his men at their guns until morning. At daybreak the +Bacchus was seen close in shore, carrying a press of sail and closely +pursued by the Spanish vessels. The Leander bore down with a flowing +sheet upon the enemy, fired a few ineffective shot, and then, for some +reason best known to her captain, or to Miranda, hauled on to the wind, +and sailed away, leaving the schooners to take care of themselves. The +_guardacostas_ soon took possession of both, and carried their prizes, +with sixty prisoners, into Puerto Cabello,[1] before the eyes of their +astonished and indignant comrades, who could not understand such a want +of courage or conduct on the part of their chief. + +[Footnote 1: The unfortunate men taken in the schooners were tried at +Puerto Cabello for piracy. Ten officers were hanged, their heads cut +off and stuck upon poles, and six of them sent to Caracas, two to +Laguayra, and two set up at Puerto Cabello. The other prisoners were +sentenced to the chain-gang. The execution took place on the 21st of +July, the day before Smith was acquitted in New York.] + +After this disaster, the Leander sailed for Bonair for water. Miranda +still assumed a confident tone, and called a council of war to +deliberate whether they should attempt a landing at Coro. The council +decided, that, in view of the loss they had sustained, it would be +advisable to make for Trinidad in search of reinforcements. With wind +and tide against them, and a slow ship, the voyage was long. They were +reduced to their last barrel of bread, when they fell in with the +English sloop-of-war Lily, Captain Campbell, who was looking for +Miranda, and who sent supplies of all kinds on board. On the 6th of +June, they ran into Bridgetown, Barbadoes. Admiral Cochrane, who +commanded on that station, gave Miranda every assistance in his power, +and offered to put some of his smaller vessels under his orders, upon +condition that all goods imported into the new state of Columbia in +British bottoms should be assessed ten per cent, lower than the +products of any other nation, except the United States. Miranda signed +a formal agreement to this effect, and sailed for Trinidad, accompanied +by H.B.M. ships Lily and Express, and the Trimmer, a transport +schooner. Captain Lewis, whose repeated quarrels with Miranda had +affected the discipline of the force, resigned at Barbadoes. He was +succeeded by Captain Johnson, a daring fellow, who risked and lost life +and property in this expedition. + +The Governor of Trinidad, like all the English of the Gulf, was well +disposed to aid in an attack on the Spanish Provinces. Eighty +volunteers of all nations, most of them worthless fellows and +candidates for a commission, joined the fleet at this place. Miranda +was once more in high spirits. His army amounted to four hundred men, +and he had secured the cooperation of the English. Success seemed +certain. He issued a new proclamation to his followers, headed "To +Victory and Wealth," and set sail, accompanied by seven small British +war-vessels and three transports. + +On the 2d of August, the fleet anchored within nine miles of La Vela de +Coro. The next day two hundred and ninety men were landed in the boats +of the squadron. They were all "Mirandanians," the English furnishing +only the means of transportation and the necessary supplies. As the +boats approached the shore, they were fired upon from the bushes which +lined the beach. The Columbians jumped into the water and charged; the +Spaniards retreated to a fort near the shore. This was carried, sword +in hand,--the Spaniards leaping from the walls and flying in all +directions. Miranda then formed his party, and marched to the town, a +quarter of a mile distant, which was evacuated by the Spaniards with +such precipitation that they left their cannon loaded. The inhabitants +had fled, as well as the military, carrying off all their movable +property. The Columbian colors were hoisted, flags of truce sent in all +directions, the printed proclamations distributed about the neighboring +country; but in vain; nobody appeared. + +The same evening the Liberators marched twelve miles in a northwesterly +direction to Coro. They arrived an hour before dawn, and found the town +silent and deserted. Dividing themselves into two parties, they entered +cautiously on opposite sides, for fear of an ambuscade,--but, +unfortunately, when the detachments met in the Grand Plaza, they +mistook each other, in the dusk of the morning, for the enemy, and +fired. Miranda's most efficient officer fell, shot through both thighs. +One man was killed, and seven others badly wounded. Not a soul was +found in the place, except those who were too old or too ill to move, +and the occupants of the prison. The jailer presented himself, +surrendered his keys, and informed the General that the Governor had +forced the citizens to leave their homes. Miranda remained in the +deserted town for five days, endeavoring, by the most alluring +proclamations, to bring the inhabitants back. But it was useless. Not a +man presented himself. He then lost heart, and, instead of advancing +into the country, ordered a retreat to La Vela, and reembarked on the +19th. + +Those he left behind in the Leander had been still more unfortunate. +Captain Johnson had gone in the boats to a river three or four miles to +the eastward, for water, and, while filling his casks, was set upon by +a party of Spanish soldiers. He was killed, fighting bravely, with +fifteen of his men. The remainder escaped with difficulty. + +The discomfited invaders sailed for the Island of Aruba, where their +English allies, pretty well satisfied that nothing could be done with +this expedition, left them. Miranda landed his men and took formal +possession of the island. He sent an ambassador to the Governor of the +neighboring island of Curacoa, requesting him to surrender. This +request was declined. He was equally unsuccessful in a mission to +Jamaica, begging for assistance from Admiral Dacres. Dacres refused, on +the ground that he had no orders from his Government. + +Miranda remained at Aruba, drilling, issuing proclamations, and holding +courts martial, until the want of provisions brought the enterprise to +an end. An English ship-of-war, which touched at the island, offered +him a safe means of escape. On the 29th of October, after a passage of +twenty-five days, the Liberators arrived at Trinidad, and disbanded in +disgrace. The blue and yellow uniforms they had worn with pride, as +"Columbians," on their last visit, were hastily laid aside to escape +the scoff of the rabble, who jeered them as adventurers and +merry-andrews. Miranda kept out of sight until he could get the +opportunity of a passage to England. All his followers who could find +means to quit the island made their way home as best they could. To +conclude the business, the Leander was sold by order of the courts, and +the few poor fellows who had remained by her received a small share of +the proceeds. Nobody else was paid the smallest fraction of the sums +the General had so liberally promised. + +That a commander, safely landed with three hundred fighting men, in +possession of Coro, whose peninsular situation might have afforded him +an inexpugnable position, master of the sea, and backed by an English +fleet, should have retreated, without effecting anything, from a +country ripe for rebellion since the conspiracy of 1797, can be +explained only in one way: he must have been ignorant of the real +feelings of the people, and totally unfit to lead such an expedition. +Miranda had what we may call a pretty talent for war. He had studied +the principles of the art, and had seen some service. Excited by the +splendid career of Washington, he, like a certain distinguished +Frenchman, determined to imitate him and become the liberator of his +country. When the Giant at a show bends the iron bar, it seems so easy +that every strong man in the crowd thinks he can do as much, until he +tries. It needs a Giant of the first class to handle a people in +revolution. Miranda was not made of that kind of stuff. He was weak and +inefficient, fond of mystery and pomp, easily affected by flattery, +loving dearly to hear himself talk, and unable to control his temper. +His incessant quarrels with Captain Lewis were one cause of the loss of +the schooners off Puerto Cabello. A want of quickness and energy was +felt in all his operations. Delays are proverbially dangerous, but in a +_coup de main_ fatal. The time wasted by him at Jacquemel and at Aruba +was employed by the Spaniards in making preparations for defence. They +had few troops, and did not dare to trust the natives with arms, but +they succeeded in persuading them that Miranda and his men were pagans +and pirates, whose triumph would be ten times more insufferable than +the rule of the mother country. + +If Miranda was incompetent to carry out a liberating expedition, he had +wonderful success in talking it up. For twenty years he had carried +this project about with him in America and in Europe. It was elaborated +to perfection in every part, and there were answers prepared to every +objection. The new government was to be modelled upon the English +Constitution,--an hereditary chief, to be called Inca,--a senate, +nominated by the chief, composed of nobles, but not hereditary,--and a +chamber elected by suffrage, limited by a property qualification. He +had collected all the statistics of population and of trade, to show +what commercial advantages the world might expect from a free South +American government. And, "rising upon a wind of prophecy," he already +saw in the future a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama, and the +Nicaragua route opened. He had laid these plans before Catharine of +Russia, who gave him money to help them on. Mr. Pitt listened, promised +him assistance in return for commercial privileges, and kept him in pay +for years. The French Revolutionists were eager to furnish him with an +army and a fleet. Rufus King, American Ambassador at London, sent word +of the scheme to Hamilton and Knox, who both approved of it. Miranda +seems to have made the same impression upon everybody. His extensive +travels and acquaintance with distinguished men, his knowledge of +facts, dates, and figures, his retentive and ready memory, his +wonderful cleverness in persuading his hearers, are spoken of in the +same terms by all. Dr. Rush wrote to a friend, that Miranda had dined +with him, and had talked about European politics as if he had been "in +the inside of all the kings and princes." He might have been a second +Count de St. Germain, if he had lived in the reign of Louis XIV., +instead of in an era when men had abandoned the philosopher's stone, +and were seeking in politics for a new _magnum opus_, Constitutions, as +the certain means of perfecting the human species. + +Everybody was mistaken in him. Although he talked "like an angel," in +action he was worthless. If he had never undertaken to carry out his +plans, he might have left an excellent reputation, and have remained in +South American memory as the possible Father of his Country: _Capax +imperii, nisi imperasset_. A short sketch of his career may be +interesting, before we dismiss him again to the oblivion from which we +have evoked him for this month. + +Miranda entered the Spanish army in America at the age of seventeen, +and was advanced to be Colonel, a grade seldom or never before reached +by a Creole. He left the service before the close of the Revolutionary +War, travelled in the United States, and was admitted to the society of +Washington and of the leading men of the day. Here, his attainments, +quickness, and insatiable curiosity attracted attention. He knew the +topography and strategy of every battle fought during the war better +than our officers who had been on the field, and soon made himself +familiar with parties, and even with family connections in this +country. His constant topic was the independence of South America. +After the peace of 1783, Miranda went to England: Colonel Smith was +then Secretary of John Adams, the American Minister, and the +acquaintance between them began in London, which ended so disastrously +twenty years later in New York. Leaving England, he travelled over +Europe. At Cherson, he attracted the notice of Prince Potemkin, who +presented him to the Empress at Kiew. In 1790, when the dispute about +Nootka Sound[*] threatened to produce a war between Great Britain and +Spain, he reappeared in London, and proposed to Mr. Pitt his scheme for +revolutionizing the American Colonies. Pitt at once engaged his +services, but Spain yielded, and the project could not be carried out. +Miranda crossed to France, accepted a command in the Republican army, +and served, with credit, in the Netherlands, under Dumouriez, until the +Battle of Neerwinden. In November, 1792, the French rulers conceived +the idea of revolutionizing Spain, both in Europe and in America. +Brissot suggested Miranda as the fittest person for this purpose. He +was to take twelve thousand troops of the line from St. Domingo, +enlist, in addition, ten or fifteen thousand "_braves mulatres_," and +make a descent, with this force, upon the Main. "_Le nom de Miranda_," +wrote Brissot to Dumouriez, "_lui vaudra une armee; et ses talens, son +courage, son genie, tout nous repond du succes_." Monge, Gensonne, +Claviere, Petion, were pleased with the plan, but Miranda started +difficulties. The French system was too democratic for his taste, and +the pressure of affairs in Europe soon turned the attention of Brissot +and his friends in another direction. + +[Footnote *: In May, 1789, the Spanish sloop-of-war Princesa seized +four English vessels engaged in a trade with the natives of Vancouver's +Island, and took them into a Mexican port as prizes, on the ground that +they had violated the Spanish Colonial laws. The English government +denied the claim of Spain to those distant regions, and insisted upon +ample satisfaction. The King of Spain was obliged to submit to avoid +war, but the question of territory was left open.] + +After the disastrous affair of Neerwinden, Miranda was accused of +misconduct, arrested, and sent to Paris for trial, but was acquitted by +the _Tribunal Revolutionnaire_, and conducted home in triumph. He was +again imprisoned for _incivisme_, during the Reign of Terror, and did +not recover his liberty until the general jail-delivery which followed +the death of Robespierre. He was seized for the third time in 1797, by +the Directory, as an adherent of the Pichegru faction, and banished +from France. + +In January, 1798, Mr. Pitt again sent for Miranda, and a new plan was +arranged for the emancipation of South America. On this occasion, the +cooeperation of the United States was confidently relied upon. Both Pitt +and our own rulers foresaw that Spain must inevitably fall a prey to +France, and that the whole of her American possessions would probably +share her fate. Our relations with France were in so critical a +condition, that we were making preparations for defence; and it was, of +course, of the highest importance to our safety, that the Floridas and +Louisiana should not fall into the hands of a powerful enemy. It was +proposed, consequently, to form a commercial and defensive alliance +between England, the United States, and South America. We were to get +the Floridas and Louisiana to the Mississippi, and in return to furnish +a land-force of ten thousand men. Great Britain would provide the +fleet, in consideration of certain important advantages in trade. +Miranda kept his friends in the United States fully advised of the +progress of affairs. Hamilton and Knox were in favor of the project, +provided war were declared. Our provisional army might then have played +a brilliant part. But there was no war. President Adams refused to +listen to Miranda's communications, and patched up our difficulties +with France. Nothing was done by the English. + +In 1801 Lord Sidmouth revived Miranda's hopes, but the Peace of Amiens +put a stop to the preparations. In 1804 Mr. Pitt was again at the head +of affairs, and renewed his intercourse with Miranda. Orders were given +to prepare ships and to enrol men, when the hopes of the third +coalition again suspended the execution of the project. + +It was after this last blow from Fortune that Miranda came to New York +and fitted out the expedition we have undertaken to describe. His +disastrous failure seemed neither to destroy his hopes, nor to shake +the confidence of his English friends in his pretensions. When he +returned to England from Trinidad, he found ministers prepared to +embark with energy in the South American scheme. This time a fleet and +an army were really assembled at Cork, and Sir Arthur Wellesley was to +command them,--when the Spanish Revolution broke out, altered at once +the face of affairs in Europe, and turned Sir Arthur and his army +toward Portugal, to begin that brilliant series of campaigns which +drove the French out of the Peninsula. + +Few men fix their minds pertinaciously upon an object, and adhere to +the pursuit through life, without at least a partial attainment of it. +Miranda, the victim of so many bitter disappointments, at last found +himself for a few months in the position he had so often dreamed of. +When the news of the fall of Seville, and of the dispersion of the +Junta who governed in the name of Ferdinand VII., reached South +America, open rebellion broke out at Caracas. King Joseph Bonaparte had +sent over a proclamation, imploring his trusty and well-beloved South +Americans to come to his paternal arms,--or, if they would not do that, +at least to set up a government for themselves, and not take part with +Ferdinand and England. His emissaries were hunted down and hanged, +wherever caught. Revolutionary Juntas were established all over the +country. On the 19th of April, 1810, the American Confederation of +Venezuela, in Congress assembled, undertook to rule in the name of +Ferdinand VII., but in reality as an independent government. Miranda +was called to the command of the native army. On the 5th of July, 1811, +the Congress published their Declaration of Independence, and a +Constitution, both of them remarkable state-papers. In point of +liberality of sentiment and elegance of style they will bear comparison +with our own celebrated documents of '76 and '87. Indeed, in all these +Spanish political plays, the plot has been good, the text admirable, +but the actors so poor as to spoil the piece. So it fell out in +Venezuela. At first the Patriots were successful; Miranda defeated the +Royalists and took Valencia. The principal towns fell into the hands of +the insurgents. Then, came the terrible earthquake of 1812, which not +only shattered the resources of the Patriots, but was skilfully used by +the Church as a proof that Providence had taken sides against the +rebels. Monteverde, the Spanish general, recaptured Valencia. Congress +placed the dictatorship with unlimited power in Miranda's hands, but he +was not the man for desperate situations. On the 6th of July, the +Royalists took Puerto Cabello; Caracas fell on the 28th; and Miranda, +betrayed by his own party into the hands of the Spaniards, was sent a +prisoner to Cadiz in October. Simon Bolivar and others, men of +different mettle, regained all that had been lost, and cut loose the +Colonies from Spain. From California to Cape Horn the inestimable +system of self-government was established. According to the theory, the +South Americans should have been prosperous and happy; but, +unfortunately, the result has been murder, robbery, and general ruin. +The burden of taking care of one's self, which the North American had +the strength to bear, has crushed the poor half-caste Spaniard. There +are persons who assert that a political regimen which agrees so well +with us must therefore be good for all others. It may be instructive to +such believers in system to compare Humboldt's narrative of the +cultivation shown by the great Colonial Universities of Mexico, Quito, +and Lima, of the pleasing Creole society that entertained him, and the +peaceful quiet and security he noticed throughout country, with the +relations of modern travellers or newspaper-correspondents who visit +those semi-barbarous regions. + +Don Francisco de Miranda did not live to hear of the freedom of his +"Columbia." Before the close of the year 1812 he died in prison, at +Cadiz. Thus perished the most gentlemanlike of filibusters, since the +days when Jason sailed in the Argo to extend the blessing of Greek +institutions over Colchis and to appropriate the Golden Fleece. + + * * * * * + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE MORNING AFTER. + + +Colonel Sprowle's family arose late the next morning. The fatigues and +excitements of the evening and the preparation for it were followed by +a natural collapse, of which somnolence was a leading symptom. The sun +shone into the window at a pretty well opened angle when the Colonel +first found himself sufficiently awake to address his yet slumbering +spouse. + +"Sally!" said the Colonel, in a voice that was a little husky,--for he +had finished off the evening with an extra glass or two of "Madary," +and had a somewhat rusty and headachy sense of renewed existence, on +greeting the rather advanced dawn,--"Sally!" + +"Take care o' them custard-cups! There they go!" + +Poor Mrs. Sprowle was fighting the party over in her dream; and as the +visionary custard-cups crashed down through one lobe of her brain into +another, she gave a start as if an inch of lightning from a quart +Leyden jar had jumped into one of her knuckles with its sudden and +lively _poonk_! + +"Sally!" said the Colonel,--"wake up, wake up! What 'r' y' dreamin' +abaout?" + +Mrs. Sprowle raised herself, by a sort of spasm, _sur son seant_, as +they say in France,--up on end, as we have it in New England. She +looked first to the left, then to the right, then straight before her, +apparently without seeing anything, and at last slowly settled down, +with her two eyes, blank of any particular meaning, directed upon the +Colonel. + +"What time is't?" she said. + +"Ten o'clock. What 'y' been dreamin' abaout? Y' giv a jump like a +hoppergrass. Wake up, wake up! Th' party's over, and y' been asleep all +the mornin'. The party's over, I tell ye! Wake up!" + +"Over!" said Mrs. Sprowle, who began to define her position at +last,--"over! I should think 'twas time 'twas over! It's lasted a +hundud year. I've been workin' for that party longer 'n Methuselah's +lifetime, sence I been asleep. The pies wouldn' bake, and the blo'monge +wouldn' set, and the ice-cream wouldn' freeze, and all the folks kep' +comin' 'n' comin' 'n' comin',--everybody I ever knew in all my +life,--some of 'em's been dead this twenty year 'n' more,--'n' nothin' +for 'em to eat nor drink. The fire wouldn' burn to cook anything, all +we could do. We blowed with the belluses, 'n' we stuffed in paper 'n' +pitch-pine kindlin's, but nothin' could make that fire burn; 'n' all +the time the folks kep' comin', as if they'd never stop,--'n' nothin' +for 'em but empty dishes, 'n' all the borrowed chaney slippin' round on +the waiters 'n' chippin' 'n' crackin'. I wouldn' go through what I been +through t'-night for all th' money in th' Bank,--I do believe it's +harder t' have a party than t'"---- + +Mrs. Sprowle stated the case strongly. + +The Colonel said he didn't know how that might be. She was a better +judge than he was. It was bother enough, anyhow, and he was glad that +it was over. After this, the worthy pair commenced preparations for +rejoining the waking world, and in due time proceeded down-stairs. + +Everybody was late that morning, and nothing had got put to rights. The +house looked as if a small army had been quartered in it over night. +The tables were of course in huge disorder, after the protracted +assault they had undergone. There had been a great battle evidently, +and it had gone against the provisions. Some points had been stormed, +and all their defences annihilated, but here and there were centres of +resistance which had held out against all attacks,--large rounds of +beef, and solid loaves of cake, against which the inexperienced had +wasted their energies in the enthusiasm of youth or uninformed +maturity, while the longer-headed guests were making discoveries of +"shell-oysters" and "patridges" and similar delicacies. + +The breakfast was naturally of a somewhat fragmentary character. A +chicken that had lost his legs in the service of the preceding campaign +was once more put on duty. A great ham stuck with cloves, as Saint +Sebastian was with arrows, was again offered for martyrdom. It would +have been a pleasant sight for a medical man of a speculative turn to +have seen the prospect before the Colonel's family of the next week's +breakfasts, dinners, and suppers. The trail that one of these great +rural parties leaves after it is one of its most formidable +considerations. Every door-handle in the house is suggestive of +sweetmeats for the next week, at least. The most unnatural articles of +diet displace the frugal but nutritious food of unconvulsed periods of +existence. If there is a walking infant about the house, it will +certainly have a more or less fatal fit from overmuch of some +indigestible delicacy. Before the week is out, everybody will be tired +to death of sugary forms of nourishment and long to see the last of the +remnants of the festival. + +The family had not yet arrived at this condition. On the contrary, the +first inspection of the tables suggested the prospect of days of +unstinted luxury; and the younger portion of the household, especially, +were in a state of great excitement as the account of stock was taken +with reference to future internal investments, Some curious facts came +to light during these researches. + +"Where's all the oranges gone to?" said Mrs. Sprowle. "I expected +there'd be ever so many of 'em left. I didn't see many of the folks +eatin' oranges. Where's the skins of 'em? There ought to be six dozen +orange-skins round on the plates, and there a'n't one dozen. And all +the small cakes, too, and all the sugar things that was stuck on the +big cakes.--Has anybody counted the spoons? Some of 'em got swallered, +perhaps. I hope they was plated ones, if they did!" + +The failure of the morning's orange-crop and the deficit in other +expected residual delicacies were not very difficult to account for. In +many of the two-story Rockland families, and in those favored +households of the neighboring villages whose members had been invited +to the great party, there was a very general excitement among the +younger people on the morning after the great event. "Did y' bring home +somethin' from the party? What is it? What is it? Is it frut-cake? Is +it nuts and oranges and apples? Give me some! Give _me_ some!" Such a +concert of treble voices uttering accents like these had not been heard +since the great Temperance Festival with the celebrated "colation" in +the open air under the trees of the Parnassian Grove,--as the place was +christened by the young ladies of the Institute. The cry of the +children was not in vain. From the pockets of demure fathers, from the +bags of sharp-eyed spinsters, from the folded handkerchiefs of +light-fingered sisters, from the tall hats of sly-winking brothers, +there was a resurrection of the missing oranges and cakes and +sugar-things in many a rejoicing family-circle, enough to astonish the +most hardened "caterer" that ever contracted to feed a thousand people +under canvas. + +The tender recollection of those dear little ones whom extreme youth or +other pressing considerations detain from scenes of festivity--a trait +of affection by no means uncommon among our thoughtful people +--dignifies those social meetings where it is manifested, and +sheds a ray of sunshine on our common nature. It is "an oasis in the +desert,"--to use the striking expression of the last year's +"Valedictorian" of the Apollinean Institute. In the midst of so much +that is purely selfish, it is delightful to meet such disinterested +care for others. When a large family of children are expecting a +parent's return from an entertainment, it will often require great +exertions on his part to provide himself so as to meet their reasonable +expectations. A few rules are worth remembering by all who attend +anniversary dinners in Faneuil Hall or elsewhere. Thus: Lobsters' claws +are always acceptable to children of all ages. Oranges and apples are +to be taken _one at a time_, until the coat-pockets begin to become +inconveniently heavy. Cakes are injured by sitting upon them; it is, +therefore, well to carry a stout tin box of a size to hold as many +pieces as there are children in the domestic circle. A very pleasant +amusement, at the close of one of these banquets, is grabbing for the +flowers with which the table is embellished. These will please the +ladies at home very greatly, and, if the children are at the same time +abundantly supplied with fruits, nuts, cakes, and any little ornamental +articles of confectionery which are of a nature to be unostentatiously +removed, the kind-hearted parent will make a whole household happy, +without any additional expense beyond the outlay for his ticket. + +There were fragmentary delicacies enough left, of one kind and another, +at any rate, to make all the Colonel's family uncomfortable for the +next week. It bid fair to take as long to get rid of the remains of the +great party as it had taken to make ready for it. + +In the mean time Mr. Bernard had been dreaming, as young men dream, of +gliding shapes with bright eyes and burning cheeks, strangely blended +with red planets and hissing meteors, and, shining over all, the white, +unwandering star of the North, girt with its tethered constellations. + +After breakfast he walked into the parlor, where he found Miss Darley. +She was alone, and, holding a school-book in her hand, was at work with +one of the morning's lessons. She hardly noticed him as he entered, +being very busy with her book,--and he paused a moment before speaking, +and looked at her with a kind of reverence. It would not have been +strictly true to call her beautiful. For years,--since her earliest +womanhood,--those slender hands had taken the bread which repaid the +toil of heart and brain from the coarse palms that offered it in the +world's rude market. It was not for herself alone that she had bartered +away the life of her youth, that she had breathed the hot air of +school-rooms, that she had forced her intelligence to posture before +her will, as the exigencies of her place required,--waking to mental +labor,--sleeping to dream of problems,--rolling up the stone of +education for an endless twelvemonth's term, to find it at the bottom +of the hill again when another year called her to its renewed +duties,--schooling her temper in unending inward and outward conflicts, +until neither dulness nor obstinacy nor ingratitude nor insolence could +reach her serene self-possession. Not for herself alone. Poorly as her +prodigal labors were repaid in proportion to the waste of life they +cost, her value was too well established to leave her without what, +under other circumstances, would have been a more than sufficient +compensation. But there were others who looked to her in their need, +and so the modest fountain which might have been filled to its brim was +continually drained through silent-flowing, hidden sluices. + +Out of such a life, inherited from a race which had lived in conditions +not unlike her own, _beauty_, in the common sense of the term, could +hardly find leisure to develop and shape itself. For it must be +remembered, that symmetry and elegance of features and figure, like +perfectly formed crystals in the mineral world, are reached only by +insuring a certain necessary repose to individuals and to generations. +Human beauty is an agricultural product in the country, growing up in +men and women as in corn and cattle, where the soil is good. It is a +luxury almost monopolized by the rich in cities, bred under glass like +their forced pine-apples and peaches. Both in city and country, the +evolution of the physical harmonics which make music to our eyes +requires a combination of favorable circumstances, of which +alternations of unburdened tranquillity with intervals of varied +excitement of mind and body are among the most important. Where +sufficient excitement is wanting, as often happens in the country, the +features, however rich in red and white, get heavy, and the movements +sluggish; where excitement is furnished in excess, as is frequently +the case in cities, the contours and colors are impoverished, and the +nerves begin to make their existence known to the consciousness, as the +face very soon informs us. + +Helen Darley could not, in the nature of things, have possessed the +kind of beauty which pleases the common taste. Her eye was calm, +sad-looking, her features very still, except when her pleasant smile +changed them for a moment, all her outlines were delicate, her voice +was very gentle, but somewhat subdued by years of thoughtful labor, and +on her smooth forehead one little hinted line whispered already that +Care was beginning to mark the trace which Time sooner or later would +make a furrow. She could not be a beauty; if she had been, it would +have been much harder for many persons to be interested in her. For, +although in the abstract we all love beauty, and although, if we were +sent naked souls into some ultramundane warehouse of soul-less bodies +and told to select one to our liking, we should each choose a handsome +one, and never think of the consequences,--it is quite certain that +beauty carries an atmosphere of repulsion as well as of attraction with +it, alike in both sexes. We may be well assured that there are many +persons who no more think of specializing their love of the other sex +upon one endowed with signal beauty, than they think of wanting great +diamonds or thousand-dollar horses. No man or woman can appropriate +beauty without paying for it,--in endowments, in fortune, in position, +in self-surrender, or other valuable stock; and there are a great many +who are too poor, too ordinary, too humble, too busy, too proud, to pay +any of these prices for it. So the unbeautiful get many more lovers +than the beauties; only, as there are more of them, their lovers are +spread thinner and do not make so much show. + +The young master stood looking at Helen Darley with a kind of tender +admiration. She was such a picture of the martyr by the slow social +combustive process, that it almost seemed to him he could see a pale +lambent aureole round her head. + +"I did not see you at the great party last evening," he said, +presently. + +She looked up and answered, "No. I have not much taste for such large +companies. Besides, I do not feel as if my time belonged to me after it +has been paid for. There is always something to do, some lesson or +exercise,--and it so happened, I was very busy last night with the new +problems in geometry. I hope you had a good time." + +"Very. Two or three of our girls were there. Rosa Milburn. What a +beauty she is! I wonder what she feeds on! Wine and musk and chloroform +and coals of fire, I believe; I didn't think there was such color and +flavor in a woman outside the tropics." + +Miss Darley smiled rather faintly; the imagery was not just to her +taste: _femineity_ often finds it very hard to accept the fact of +_muliebrity_. + +"Was"----? + +She stopped short; but her question had asked itself. + +"Elsie there? She was, for an hour or so. She looked frightfully +handsome. I meant to have spoken to her, but she slipped away before I +knew it." + +"I thought she meant to go to the party," said Miss Darley. "Did she +look at you?" + +"She did. Why?" + +"And you did not speak to her?" + +"No. I should have spoken to her, but she was gone when I looked for +her. A strange creature! Isn't there an odd sort of fascination about +her? You have not explained all the mystery about the girl. What does +she come to this school for? She seems to do pretty much as she likes +about studying." + +Miss Darley answered in very low tones. "It was a fancy of hers to +come, and they let her have her way. I don't know what there is about +her, except that she seems to take my life out of me when she looks at +me. I don't like to ask other people about our girls. She says very +little to anybody, and studies, or makes believe study, almost what she +likes. I don't know what she is," (Miss Darley laid her hand, +trembling, on the young master's sleeve,) "but I can tell when she is +in the room without seeing or hearing her. Oh, Mr. Langdon, I am weak +and nervous, and no doubt foolish,--but--if there were women now, as +in the days of our Saviour, possessed of devils, I should think there +was something not human looking out of Elsie Venner's eyes!" + +The poor girl's breast rose and fell tumultuously as she spoke, and her +voice labored, as if some obstruction were rising in her throat. + +A scene might possibly have come of it, but the door opened. Mr. Silas +Peckham. Miss Darley got away as soon as she well could. + +"Why did not Miss Darley go to the party last evening?" said Mr. +Bernard. + +"Well, the fact is," answered Mr. Silas Peckham, "Miss Darley, she's +pootty much took up with the school. She's an industris young +woman,--yis, she _is_ industris,--but perhaps she a'n't quite so spry a +worker as some. Maybe, considerin' she's paid for her time, she isn't +fur out o' the way in occoopyin' herself evenin's,--that is, if so be +she a'n't smart enough to finish up all her work in the daytime. +Edoocation is the great business of the Institoot. Amoosements are +objec's of a secondary natur', accordin' to my v'oo." [The unspellable +pronunciation of this word is the touchstone of New England +Brahminism.] + +Mr. Bernard drew a deep breath, his thin nostrils dilating, as if the +air did not rush in fast enough to cool his blood, while Silas Peckham +was speaking. The Head of the Apollinean Institute delivered himself of +these judicious sentiments in that peculiar acid, penetrating tone, +wadded with a nasal twang, which not rarely becomes hereditary after +three or four generations raised upon east winds, salt fish, and large, +white-bellied, pickled cucumbers. He spoke deliberately, as if weighing +his words well, so that, during his few remarks, Mr. Bernard had time +for a mental accompaniment with variations, accented by certain bodily +changes, which escaped Mr. Peckham's observation. First there was a +feeling of disgust and shame at hearing Helen Darley spoken of like a +dumb working animal. That sent the blood up into his cheeks. Then the +slur upon her probable want of force--_her_ incapacity, who made the +character of the school and left this man to pocket its profits--sent a +thrill of the old Wentworth fire through him, so that his muscles +hardened, his hands closed, and he took the measure of Mr. Silas +Peckham, to see if his head would strike the wall in case he went over +backwards all of a sudden. This would not do, of course, and so the +thrill passed off and the muscles softened again. Then came that state +of tenderness in the heart, overlying wrath in the stomach, in which +the eyes grow moist like a woman's, and there is also a great +boiling-up of objectionable terms out of the deep-water vocabulary, so +that Prudence and Propriety and all the other pious Ps have to jump +upon the lid of speech to keep them from boiling _over_ into fierce +articulation. All this was internal, chiefly, and of course not +recognized by Mr. Silas Peckham. The idea, that any full-grown, +sensible man should have any other notion than that of getting the most +work for the least money out of his assistants, had never suggested +itself to him. + +Mr. Bernard had gone through this paroxysm, and cooled down, in the +period while Mr. Peckham was uttering these words in his thin, shallow +whine, twanging up into the frontal sinuses. What was the use of losing +his temper and throwing away his place, and so, among the consequences +which would necessarily follow, leaving the poor lady-teacher without a +friend to stand by her ready to lay his hand on the grand-inquisitor +before the windlass of his rack had taken one turn too many? + +"No doubt, Mr. Peckham," he said, in a grave, calm voice, "there is a +great deal of work to be done in the school; but perhaps we can +distribute the duties a little more evenly after a time. I shall look +over the girls' themes myself, after this week. Perhaps there will be +some other parts of her labor that I can take on myself. We can arrange +a new programme of studies and recitations." + +"We can do that," said Mr. Silas Peckham. "But I don't propose +mater'lly alterin' Miss Darley's dooties. I don't think she works to +hurt herself. Some of the Trustees have proposed interdoosin' new +branches of study, and I expect you will be pootty much occoopied with +the dooties that belong to your place. On the Sabbath you will be able +to attend divine service three times, which is expected of our +teachers. I shall continoo myself to give Sabbath Scriptur'-readin's to +the young ladies. That is a solemn dooty I can't make up my mind to +commit to other people. My teachers enjoy the Lord's day as a day of +rest. In it they do no manner of work,--except in cases of necessity or +mercy, such as fillin' out diplomas, or when we git crowded jest at the +end of a term, or when there is an extry number of poopils, or other +Providential call to dispense with the ordinance." + +Mr. Bernard had a fine glow in his cheeks by this time,--doubtless +kindled by the thought of the kind consideration Mr. Peckham showed for +his subordinates in allowing them the between-meeting-time on Sundays +except for some special reason. But the morning was wearing away; so he +went to the school-room, taking leave very properly of his respected +principal, who soon took his hat and departed. + +Mr. Peckham visited certain "stores" or shops, where he made inquiries +after various articles in the provision-line, and effected a purchase +or two. Two or three barrels of potatoes, which had sprouted in a +promising way, he secured at a bargain. A side of feminine beef was +also obtained at a low figure. He was entirely satisfied with a couple +of barrels of flour, which, being invoiced "slightly damaged", were to +be had at a reasonable price. + +After this, Silas Peckham felt in good spirits. He had done a pretty +stroke of business. It came into his head whether he might not follow +it up with a still more brilliant speculation. So he turned his steps +in the direction of Colonel Sprowle's. + +It was now eleven o'clock, and the battlefield of last evening was as +we left it. Mr. Peckham's visit was unexpected, perhaps not very well +timed, but the Colonel received him civilly. + +"Beautifully lighted,--these rooms last night!" said Mr. Peckham. +"Winter-strained?" + +The Colonel nodded. + +"How much do you pay for your winter-strained?" + +The Colonel told him the price. + +"Very hahnsome supper,--very hahnsome! Nothin' ever seen like it in +Rockland. Must have been a great heap of things left over." + +The compliment was not ungrateful, and the Colonel acknowledged it by +smiling and saying, "I should think the' was a trifle! Come and look." + +When Silas Peckham saw how many delicacies had survived the evening's +conflict, his commercial spirit rose at once to the point of a +proposal. + +"Colonel Sprowle," said he, "there's meat and cakes and pies and +pickles enough on that table to spread a hahnsome colation. If you'd +like to trade reasonable, I think perhaps I should be willin' to take +'em off your hands. There's been a talk about our havin' a celebration +in the Parnassian Grove, and I think I could work in what your folks +don't want and make myself whole by chargin' a small sum for tickets. +Broken meats, of course, a'n't of the same valoo as fresh provisions; +so I think you might be willin' to trade reasonable." + +Mr. Peckham paused and rested on his proposal. It would not, perhaps, +have been very extraordinary, if Colonel Sprowle had entertained the +proposition. There is no telling beforehand how such things will strike +people. It didn't happen to strike the Colonel favorably. He had a +little red-blooded manhood in him. + +"Sell you them things to make a colation out of?" the Colonel replied. +"Walk up to that table, Mr. Peckham, and help yourself! Fill your +pockets, Mr. Peckham! Fetch a basket, and our hired folks shall fill it +full for ye! Send a cart, if y' like, 'n' carry off them leavin's to +make a celebration for your pupils with! Only let me tell ye this:--as +sure's my name's Hezekiah Spraowle, you'll be known through the taown +'n' through the caounty, from that day forrard, as the Principal of the +Broken-Victuals Institoot!" + +Even provincial human-nature sometimes has a touch of sublimity about +it. Mr. Silas Peckham had gone a little deeper than he meant, and come +upon the "hard pan," as the well-diggers call it, of the Colonel's +character, before he thought of it. A militia-colonel standing on his +sentiments is not to be despised. That was shown pretty well in New +England two or three generations ago. There were a good many plain +officers that talked about their "rigiment" and their "caounty" who +knew very well how to say "Make ready!" "Take aim!" "Fire!"--in the +face of a line of grenadiers with bullets in their guns and bayonets on +them. And though a rustic uniform is not always unexceptionable in its +cut and trimmings, yet there was many an ill-made coat in those old +times that was good enough to be shown to the enemy's front rank, too +often to be left on the field with a round hole in its left lapel that +matched another going right through the brave heart of the plain +country captain or major or colonel who was buried in it under the +crimson turf. + +Mr. Silas Peckham said little or nothing. His sensibilities were not +acute, but he perceived that he had made a miscalculation. He hoped +that there was no offence,--thought it might have been mutooally +agreeable, conclooded he would give up the idee of a colation, and +backed himself out as if unwilling to expose the less guarded aspect of +his person to the risk of accelerating impulses. + +The Colonel shut the door,--cast his eye on the toe of his right boot, +as if it had had a strong temptation,--looked at his watch, then round +the room, and, going to a cupboard, swallowed a glass of deep-red +brandy and water to compose his feelings. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE DOCTOR ORDERS THE BEST SULKY. + + +(_With a Digression on "Hired Help"_) + +"Abel! Slip Cassia into the new sulky, and fetch her round." + +Abel was Dr. Kittredge's hired man. He was born in New Hampshire, a +queer sort of a State, with fat streaks of soil and population where +they breed giants in mind and body, and lean streaks which export +imperfectly nourished young men with promising but neglected appetites, +who may be found in great numbers in all the large towns, or could be +until of late years, when they have been half driven out of their +favorite basement-stories by foreigners, and half coaxed away from them +by California. New Hampshire is in more than one sense the Switzerland +of New England. The "Granite State" being naturally enough deficient in +pudding-stone, its children are apt to wander southward in search of +that deposit,--in the unpetrified condition. + +Abel Stebbins was a good specimen of that extraordinary hybrid or mule +between democracy and chrysocracy, a native-born New-England +serving-man. The Old World has nothing at all like him. He is at once +an emperor and a subordinate. In one hand he holds one five-millionth +part (be the same more or less) of the power that sways the destinies +of the Great Republic. His other hand is in your boot, which he is +about to polish. It is impossible to turn a fellow-citizen whose vote +may make his master--say, rather, employer--Governor or President, or +who may be one or both himself, into a flunky. That article must be +imported ready-made from other centres of civilization. When a +New-Englander has lost his self-respect as a citizen and as a man, he +is demoralized, and cannot be trusted with the money to pay for a +dinner. + +It may be supposed, therefore, that this fractional emperor, this +continent-shaper, finds his position awkward when he goes into service, +and that his employer is apt to find it still more embarrassing. It is +always under protest that the hired man does his duty. Every act of +service is subject to the drawback, "I am as good as you are." This is +so common, at least, as almost to be the rule, and partly accounts for +the rapid disappearance of the indigenous "domestic" from the basements +above mentioned. Paleontologists will by-and-by be examining the floors +of our kitchens for tracks of the extinct native species of +serving-man. The female of the same race is fast dying out; indeed, the +time is not far distant when all the varieties of young _woman_ will +have vanished from New England, as the dodo has perished in the +Mauritius. The young _lady_ is all that we shall have left, and the mop +and duster of the last Almira or Loizy will be stared at by generations +of Bridgets and Noras as that famous head and foot of the lost bird are +stared at in the Ashmolean Museum. + +Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man, took the true American view of his +difficult position. He sold his time to the Doctor, and, having sold +it, he took care to fulfil his half of the bargain. The Doctor, on his +part, treated him, not like a gentleman, because one does not order a +gentleman to bring up his horse or run his errands, but he treated him +like a man. Every order was given in courteous terms. His reasonable +privileges were respected as much as if they had been guarantied under +hand and seal. The Doctor lent him books from his own library, and gave +him all friendly counsel, as if he were a son or a younger brother. + +Abel had Revolutionary blood in his veins, and though he saw fit to +"hire out," he could never stand the word "servant," or consider +himself the inferior one of the two high contracting parties. When he +came to live with the Doctor, he made up his mind he would dismiss the +old gentleman, if he did not behave according to his notions of +propriety. But he soon found that the Doctor was one of the right sort, +and so determined to keep him. The Doctor soon found, on his side, that +he had a trustworthy, intelligent fellow, who would be invaluable to +him, if he only let him have his own way of doing what was to be done. + +The Doctor's hired man had not the manners of a French valet. He was +grave and taciturn for the most part, he never bowed and rarely smiled, +but was always at work in the daytime and always reading in the +evening. He was hostler, and did all the housework that a man could +properly do, would go to the door or "tend table," bought the +provisions for the family,--in short, did almost everything for them +but get their clothing. There was no office in a perfectly appointed +household, from that of steward down to that of stable-boy, which he +did not cheerfully assume. His round of work not consuming all his +energies, he must needs cultivate the Doctor's garden, which he kept in +one perpetual bloom, from the blowing of the first crocus to the fading +of the last dahlia. + +This garden was Abel's poem. Its half-dozen beds were so many cantos. +Nature crowded them for him with imagery such as no Laureate could copy +in the cold mosaic of language. The rhythm of alternating dawn and +sunset, the strophe and antistrophe still perceptible through all the +sudden shifts of our dithyrambic seasons and echoed in corresponding +floral harmonies, made melody in the soul of Abel, the plain serving- +man. It softened his whole otherwise rigid aspect. He worshipped God +according to the strict way of his fathers; but a florist's Puritanism +is always colored by the petals of his flowers,--and Nature never shows +him a black corolla. + +Perhaps he may have little or nothing to do in this narrative; but as +there must be some who confound the New-England _hired man_, +native-born, with the _servant_ of foreign birth, and as there is the +difference of two continents and two civilizations between them, it did +not seem fair to let Abel bring round the Doctor's mare and sulky +without touching his features in half-shadow into our background. + +The Doctor's mare, Cassia, was so called by her master from her +cinnamon color, cassia being one of the professional names for that +spice or drug. She was of the shade we call sorrel, or, as an +Englishman would perhaps say, chestnut,--a genuine "Morgan" mare, with +a low forehand, as is common in this breed, but with strong quarters +and flat hocks, well ribbed up, with a good eye and a pair of lively +ears,--a first-rate doctor's beast,--would stand until her harness +dropped off her back at the door of a tedious case, and trot over hill +and dale thirty miles in three hours, if there was a child in the next +county with a bean in its windpipe and the Doctor gave her a hint of +the fact. Cassia was not large, but she had a good deal of action, and +was the Doctor's show-horse. There were two other animals in his +stable: Quassia or Quashy, the black horse, and Caustic, the old bay, +with whom he jogged round the village. + +"A long ride to-day?" said Abel, as he brought up the equipage. + +"Just out of the village,--that's all.--There's a kink in her +mane,--pull it out, will you?" + +"Goin' to visit some of the great folks," Abel said to himself. "Wonder +who it is."--Then to the Doctor,--"Anybody get sick at Sprowles's? They +say Deacon Soper had a fit, after eatin' some o' their frozen +victuals." + +The Doctor smiled. He guessed the Deacon would do well enough. He was +only going to ride over to the Dudley mansion-house. + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE DOCTOR CALLS ON ELSIE VENNER. + + +If that primitive physician, CHIRON, M.D., appears as a Centaur, as we +look at him through the lapse of thirty centuries, the modern +country-doctor, if he could be seen about thirty miles off, could not +be distinguished from a wheel-animalcule. He _inhabits_ a +wheel-carriage. He thinks of stationary dwellings as Long Tom Coffin +did of land in general; a house may be well enough for incidental +purposes, but for a "stiddy" residence give him a "kerridge." If he is +classified in the Linnaean scale, he must be set down thus: Genus +_Homo_; Species _Rotifer infusorius_,--the wheel-animal of infusions. + +The Dudley mansion was not a mile from the Doctor's; but it never +occurred to him to think of walking to see any of his patients' +families, if he had any professional object in his visit. Whenever the +narrow sulky turned in at a gate, the rustic who was digging potatoes, +or hoeing corn, or swishing through the grass with his scythe in +wave-like crescents, or stepping short behind a loaded wheel-barrow, +or trudging lazily by the side of the swinging, loose-throated, +short-legged oxen, rocking along the road as if they had just been +landed after a three-months' voyage,--the toiling native, whatever he +was doing, stopped and looked up at the house the doctor was visiting. + +"Somebody sick over there t' Haynes's. Guess th' old man's ailin' +ag'in. Winder's haaef-way open in the chamber,--shouldn't wonder 'f he +was dead and laid aout. Docterin' a'n't no use, when y' see the winders +open like that. Wahl, money a'n't much to speak of to th' old man naow! +He don't want but _tew cents_,--and old Widah Peake, she knows what he +wants them for!" + +Or again,-- + +"Measles raound pootty thick. Briggs's folks's' buried two children +with 'em laaest week. Th' old Doctor, he'd h' ker'd 'em threugh. Struck +in 'n' p'dooeed mot'f cation,--so they say." + +This is only meant as a sample of the kind of way they used to think or +talk, when the narrow sulky turned in at the gate of some house where +there was a visit to be made. + +Oh, that narrow sulky! What hopes, what fears, what comfort, what +anguish, what despair, in the roll of its coming or its parting wheels! +In the spring, when the old people get the coughs which give them a few +shakes and their lives drop in pieces like the ashes of a burned thread +which have kept the threadlike shape until they were stirred,--in the +hot summer noons, when the strong man comes in from the fields, like +the son of the Shunamite, crying, "My head, my head,"--in the dying +autumn days, when youth and maiden lie fever-stricken in many a +household, still-faced, dull-eyed, dark-flushed, dry-lipped, +low-muttering in their daylight dreams, their fingers moving singly +like those of slumbering harpers,--in the dead winter, when the white +plague of the North has caged its wasted victims, shuddering as they +think of the frozen soil which must be quarried like rock to receive +them, if their perpetual convalescence should happen to be interfered +with by any untoward accident,--at every season, the narrow sulky +rolled round freighted with unmeasured burdens of joy and woe. + +The Doctor drove along the southern foot of The Mountain. The "Dudley +mansion" was near the eastern edge of this declivity, where it rose +steepest, with baldest cliffs and densest patches of over-hanging wood. +It seemed almost too steep to climb, but a practised eye could see from +a distance the zigzag lines of the sheep-paths which scaled it like +miniature Alpine roads. A few hundred feet up The Mountain's side was a +dark, deep dell, unwooded, save for a few spindling, crazy--looking +hackmatacks or native larches, with pallid green tufts sticking out +fantastically all over them. It shelved so deeply, that, while the +hemlock-tassels were swinging on the trees around its border, all would +be still at its springy bottom, save that perhaps a single fern would +wave slowly backward and forward like a sabre, with a twist as of a +feathered oar,--and this, when not a breath could be felt, and every +other stem and blade were motionless. There was an old story of one +having perished here in the winter of '86, and his body having been +found in the spring,--whence its common name of "Dead-Man's Hollow." +Higher up there were huge cliffs with chasms, and, it was thought, +concealed caves, where in old times they said that Tories lay +hid,--some hinted not without occasional aid and comfort from the +Dudleys then living in the mansion-house. Still higher and farther west +lay the accursed ledge,--shunned by all, unless it were now and then a +daring youth, or a wandering naturalist who ventured to its edge in the +hope of securing some infantile _Crotalus durissus_, who had not yet +cut his poison-teeth. + +Long, long ago, in old Colonial times, the Honorable Thomas Dudley, +Esquire, a man of note and name and great resources, allied by descent +to the family of "Tom Dudley," as the early Governor is sometimes +irreverently called by our most venerable, but still youthful +antiquary,--and to the other public Dudleys, of course,--of all of whom +he made small account, as being himself an English gentleman, with +little taste for the splendors of provincial office,--early in the last +century, Thomas Dudley had built this mansion. For several generations +it had been dwelt in by descendants of the same name, but soon after +the Revolution it passed by marriage into the hands of the Venners, by +whom it had ever since been held and tenanted. + +As the Doctor turned an angle in the road, all at once the stately old +house rose before him. It was a skilfully managed effect, as it well +might be, for it was no vulgar English architect who had planned the +mansion and arranged its position and approach. The old house rose +before the Doctor crowning a terraced garden, flanked at the left by a +double avenue of tall elms. The flower-beds were edged with box, which +diffused around it that dreamy balsamic odor, full of ante-natal +reminiscences of a lost Paradise, dimly fragrant as might be the +bdellium of ancient Havilah, the land compassed by the river Pison that +went out of Eden. The garden was somewhat neglected, but not in +disgrace,--and in the time of tulips and hyacinths, of roses, of +"snowballs," of honeysuckles, of lilacs, of syringas, it was rich with +blossoms. + +From the front-windows of the mansion the eye reached a far blue +mountain-summit,--no rounded heap, such as often shuts in a +village-landscape, but a sharp peak, clean-angled as Ascutney from the +Dartmouth green. A wide gap through miles of woods had opened this +distant view, and showed more, perhaps, than all the labors of the +architect and the landscape-gardener the large style of the early +Dudleys. + +The great stone chimney of the mansion-house was the centre from which +all the artificial features of the scene appeared to flow. The roofs, +the gables, the dormer-windows, the porches, the clustered offices in +the rear, all seemed to crowd about the great chimney. To this central +pillar the paths all converged. The single poplar behind the +house,--Nature is jealous of proud chimneys, and always loves to put a +poplar near one, so that it may fling a leaf or two down its black +throat every autumn,--the one tall poplar behind the house seemed to +nod and whisper to the grave square column, the elms to sway their +branches towards it. And when the blue smoke rose from its summit, it +seemed to be wafted away to join the azure haze which hung around the +peak in the far distance, so that both should bathe in a common +atmosphere. + +Behind the house were clumps of lilacs with a century's growth upon +them, and looking more like trees than like shrubs. Shaded by a group +of these was the ancient well, of huge circuit, and with a low arch +opening out of its wall about ten feet below the surface,--whether the +door of a crypt for the concealment of treasure, or of a subterranean +passage, or merely of a vault for keeping provisions cool in hot +weather, opinions differed. + +On looking at the house, it was plain that it was built with Old-World +notions of strength and durability, and, so far as might be, with +Old-World materials. The hinges of the doors stretched out like arms, +instead of like hands, as we make them. The bolts were massive enough +for a donjon-keep. The small window-panes were actually inclosed in the +wood of the sashes, instead of being stuck to them with putty, as in +our modern windows. The broad staircase was of easy ascent, and was +guarded by quaintly turned and twisted balusters. The ceilings of the +two rooms of state were moulded with medallion-portraits and rustic +figures, such as may have been seen by many readers in the famous old +Philipse house,--Washington's headquarters,--in the town of Yonkers. +The fireplaces, worthy of the wide-throated central chimney, were +bordered by pictured tiles, some of them with Scripture stories, some +with Watteau-like figures,--tall damsels in slim waists and with spread +enough of skirt for a modern ballroom, with bowing, reclining, or +musical swains of what everybody calls the "conventional" sort,--that +is, the swain adapted to genteel society rather than to a literal +sheep-compelling existence. + +The house was furnished, soon after it was completed, with many heavy +articles made in London from a rare wood just then come into fashion, +not so rare now, and commonly known as mahogany. Time had turned it +very dark, and the stately bedsteads and tall cabinets and claw-footed +chairs and tables were in keeping with the sober dignity of the ancient +mansion. The old "hangings" were yet preserved in the chambers, faded, +but still showing their rich patterns,--properly entitled to their +name, for they were literally hung upon flat wooden frames like +trellis-work, which again were secured to the naked partitions. +There were portraits of different date on the walls of the various +apartments, old painted coats-of-arms, bevel-edged mirrors, and in one +sleeping-room a glass case of wax-work flowers and spangly symbols, +with a legend signifying that E.M. (supposed to be Elizabeth Mascarene) +wished not to be "forgot" + + "When I am dead and lay'd in dust + And all my bones are"---- + +Poor E.M.! Poor everybody that sighs for earthly remembrance in a +planet with a core of fire and a crust of fossils! + +Such was the Dudley mansion-house,--for it kept its ancient name in +spite of the change in the line of descent. Its spacious apartments +looked dreary and desolate; for here Dudley Venner and his daughter +dwelt by themselves, with such servants only as their quiet mode of +life required. He almost lived in his library, the western room on the +ground-floor. Its window looked upon a small plat of green, in the +midst of which was a single grave marked by a plain marble slab. Except +this room, and the chamber where he slept, and the servants' wing, the +rest of the house was all Elsie's. She was always a restless, wandering +child from her early years, and would have her little bed moved from +one chamber to another,--flitting round as the fancy took her. +Sometimes she would drag a mat and a pillow into one of the great empty +rooms, and, wrapping herself in a shawl, coil up and go to sleep in a +corner. Nothing frightened her; the "haunted" chamber, with the torn +hangings that flapped like wings when there was air stirring, was one +of her favorite retreats. + +She had been a very hard creature to manage. Her father could +influence, but not govern her. Old Sophy, born of a slave mother in the +house, could do more with her than anybody, knowing her by long +instinctive study. The other servants were afraid of her. Her father +had sent for governesses, but none of them ever stayed long. She made +them nervous; one of them had a strange fit of sickness; not one of +them ever came back to the house to see her. A young Spanish woman who +taught her dancing succeeded best with her, for she had a passion for +that exercise, and had mastered some of the most difficult dances. + +Long before this period, she had manifested some most extraordinary +singularities of taste or instinct. The extreme sensitiveness of her +father on this point prevented any allusion to them; but there were +stories floating round, some of them even getting into the +papers,--without her name, of course,--which were of a kind to excite +intense curiosity, if not more anxious feelings. This thing was +certain, that at the age of twelve she was missed one night, and was +found sleeping in the open air under a tree, like a wild creature. Very +often she would wander off by day, always without a companion, bringing +home with her a nest, a flower, or even a more questionable trophy of +her ramble, such as showed that there was no place where she was afraid +to venture. Once in a while she had stayed out over night, in which +case the alarm was spread, and men went in search of her, but never +successfully,--so that some said she hid herself in trees, and others +that she had found one of the old Tory caves. + +Some, of course, said she was a crazy girl, and ought to be sent to an +Asylum. But old Dr. Kittredge had shaken his head, and told them to +bear with her, and let her have her way as much as they could, but +watch her, as far as possible, without making her suspicious of them. +He visited her now and then, under the pretext of seeing her father on +business, or of only making a friendly call. + + * * * * * + +The Doctor fastened his horse outside the gate, and walked up the +garden-alley. He stopped suddenly with a start. A strange sound had +jarred upon his ear. It was a sharp prolonged rattle, continuous, but +rising and falling as if in rhythmical cadence. He moved softly towards +the open window from which the sound seemed to proceed. + +Elsie was alone in the room, dancing one of those wild Moorish +fandangos, such as a _matador_ hot from the _Plaza de Toros_ of Seville +or Madrid might love to lie and gaze at. She was a figure to look upon +in silence. The dancing frenzy must have seized upon her while she was +dressing; for she was in her bodice, bare-armed, her hair floating +unbound far below the waist of her barred or banded skirt. She had +caught up her castanets, and rattled them as she danced with a kind of +passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace, +her diamond eyes glittering, her round arms wreathing and unwinding, +alive and vibrant to the tips of the slender fingers. Some passion +seemed to exhaust itself in this dancing paroxysm; for all at once she +reeled from the middle of the floor, and flung herself, as it were in a +careless coil, upon a great tiger's-skin which was spread out in one corner +of the apartment. + +The old Doctor stood motionless, looking at her as she lay panting on +the tawny, black-lined robe of the dead monster, which stretched out +beneath her, its rude flattened outline recalling the Terror of the +Jungle as he crouched for his fatal spring. In a few moments her head +drooped upon her arm, and her glittering eyes closed,--she was +sleeping. He stood looking at her still, steadily, thoughtfully, +tenderly. Presently he lifted his hand to his forehead, as if recalling +some fading remembrance of other years. + +"Poor Catalina!" + +This was all he said. He shook his head,--implying that his visit would +be in vain to-day,--returned to his sulky, and rode away, as if in a +dream. + + * * * * * + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. + + +The romance of "The Marble Faun" will be widely welcomed, not only for +its intrinsic merits, but because it is a sign that its writer, after a +silence of seven or eight years, has determined to resume his place in +the ranks of authorship. In his preface he tells us, that in each of +his previous publications he had unconsciously one person in his eye, +whom he styles his "gentle reader." He meant it "for that one congenial +friend, more comprehensive of his purposes, more appreciative of his. +success, more indulgent of his short-comings, and, in all respects, +closer and kinder than a brother,--that all-sympathizing critic, in +short, whom an author never actually meets, but to whom he implicitly +makes his appeal, whenever he is conscious of having done his best." He +believes that this reader did once exist for him, and duly received the +scrolls he flung "upon whatever wind was blowing, in the faith that +they would find him out." "But," he questions, "is he extant now? In +these many years since he last heard from me, may he not have deemed +his earthly task accomplished, and have withdrawn to the paradise of +gentle readers, wherever it may be, to the enjoyments of which his +kindly charity on my behalf must surely have entitled him?" As we feel +assured that Hawthorne's reputation has been steadily growing with the +lapse of time, he has no cause to fear that the longevity of his gentle +reader will not equal his own. As long as he writes, there will be +readers enough to admire and appreciate. + +The publication of this new romance seems to offer us a fitting +occasion to attempt some description of the peculiarities of the genius +of which it is the latest offspring, and to hazard some judgments on +its predecessors. It is more than twenty-five years since Hawthorne +began that remarkable series of stories and essays which are now +collected in the volumes of "Twice-Told Tales," "The Snow Image and +other Tales," and "Mosses from an Old Manse." From the first he was +recognized by such readers as he chanced to find as a man of genius, +yet for a long time he enjoyed, in his own words, the distinction of +being "the obscurest man of letters in America." His readers were +"gentle" rather than enthusiastic; their fine delight in his creations +was a private perception of subtile excellences of thought and style, +too refined and self-satisfying to be contagious; and the public was +untouched, whilst the "gentle" reader was full of placid enjoyment. +Indeed, we fear that this kind of reader is something of an +Epicurean,--receives a new genius as a private blessing, sent by a +benign Providence to quicken a new life in his somewhat jaded sense of +intellectual pleasure; and after having received a fresh sensation, he +is apt to be serenely indifferent whether the creator of it starve +bodily or pine mentally from the lack of a cordial human shout of +recognition. + +There would appear, on a slight view of the matter, no reason for the +little notice which Hawthorne's early productions received. The +subjects were mostly drawn from the traditions and written records of +New England, and gave the "beautiful strangeness" of imagination to +objects, incidents, and characters which were familiar facts in the +popular mind. The style, while it had a purity, sweetness, and grace +which satisfied the most fastidious and exacting taste, had, at the +same time, more than the simplicity and clearness of an ordinary +school-book. But though the subjects and the style were thus popular, +there was something in the shaping and informing spirit which failed to +awaken interest, or awakened interest without exciting delight. +Misanthropy, when it has its source in passion,--when it is fierce, +bitter, fiery, and scornful,--when it vigorously echoes the aggressive +discontent of the world, and furiously tramples on the institutions and +the men luckily rather than rightfully in the ascendant,--this is +always popular; but a misanthropy which springs from insight,--a +misanthropy which is lounging, languid, sad, and depressing,--a +misanthropy which remorselessly looks through cursing misanthropes and +chirping men of the world with the same sure, detecting glance of +reason,--a misanthropy which has no fanaticism, and which casts the +same ominous doubt on subjectively morbid as on subjectively moral +action,--a misanthropy which has no respect for impulses, but has a +terrible perception of spiritual laws,--this is a misanthropy which can +expect no wide recognition; and it would be vain to deny that traces of +this kind of misanthropy are to be found in Hawthorne's earlier, and +are not altogether absent from his later works. He had spiritual +insight, but it did not penetrate to the sources of spiritual joy; and +his deepest glimpses of truth were calculated rather to sadden than to +inspire. A blandly cynical distrust of human nature was the result of +his most piercing glances into the human soul. He had humor, and +sometimes humor of a delicious kind; but this sunshine of the soul was +but sunshine breaking through or lighting up a sombre and ominous +cloud. There was also observable in his earlier stories a lack of vigor, +as if the power of his nature had been impaired by the very +process--which gave depth and excursiveness to his mental vision. +Throughout, the impression is conveyed of a shy recluse, alternately +bashful in disposition and bold in thought, gifted with original and +various capacities, but capacities which seemed to have developed +themselves in the shade, without sufficient energy of will or desire to +force them, except fitfully, into the sunlight. Shakspeare calls +moonlight the sunlight _sick_; and it is in some such moonlight of the +mind that the genius of Hawthorne found its first expression. A mild +melancholy, sometimes deepening into gloom, sometimes brightened into a +"humorous sadness," characterized his early creations. Like his own +Hepzibah Pyncheon, he appeared "to be walking in a dream"; or rather, +the life and reality assumed by his emotions "made all outward +occurrences unsubstantial, like the teasing phantasms of an unconscious +slumber." Though dealing largely in description, and with the most +accurate perceptions of outward objects, he still, to use again his own +words, gives the impression of a man "chiefly accustomed to look +inward, and to whom external matters are of little value or import, +unless they bear relation to something within his own mind." But that +"something within his own mind" was often an unpleasant something, +perhaps a ghastly occult perception of deformity and sin in what +appeared outwardly fair and good; so that the reader felt a secret +dissatisfaction with the disposition which directed the genius, even in +the homage he awarded to the genius itself. As psychological portraits +of morbid natures, his delineations of character might have given a +purely intellectual satisfaction; but there was audible, to the +delicate ear, a faint and muffled growl of personal discontent, which +showed they were not mere exercises of penetrating imaginative +analysis, but had in them the morbid vitality of a despondent mood. + +Yet, after admitting these peculiarities, nobody who is now drawn to +the "Twice-Told Tales," from his interest in the later romances of +Hawthorne, can fail to wonder a little at the limited number of readers +they attracted on their original publication. For many of these stories +are at once a representation of early New-England life and a criticism +on it. They have much of the deepest truth of history in them. "The +Legends of the Province House," "The Gray Champion," "The Gentle Boy," +"The Minister's Black Veil," "Endicott and the Red Cross," not to +mention others, contain important matter which cannot be found in +Bancroft or Grahame. They exhibit the inward struggles of New-England +men and women with some of the darkest problems of existence, and have +more vital import to thoughtful minds than the records of Indian or +Revolutionary warfare. In the "Prophetic Pictures," "Fancy's Show-Box," +"The Great Carbuncle," "The Haunted Mind," and "Edward Fane's +Rose-Bud," there are flashes of moral insight, which light up, for the +moment, the darkest recesses of the individual mind; and few sermons +reach to the depth of thought and sentiment from which these seemingly +airy sketches draw their sombre life. It is common, for instance, for +religious moralists to insist on the great spiritual truth, that wicked +thoughts and impulses, which circumstances prevent from passing into +wicked acts, are still deeds in the sight of God; but the living truth +subsides into a dead truism, as enforced by commonplace preachers. In +"Fancy's Show-Box," Hawthorne seizes the prolific idea; and the +respectable merchant and respected church-member, in the still hour of +his own meditation, convicts himself of being a liar, cheat, thief, +seducer, and murderer, as he casts his glance over the mental events +which form his spiritual biography. Interspersed with serious histories +and moralities like these, are others which embody the sweet and +playful, though still thoughtful and slightly saturnine action of +Hawthorne's mind,--like "The Seven Vagabonds," "Snow-Flakes," "The +Lily's Quest," "Mr. Higgenbotham's Catastrophe," "Little Annie's +Ramble," "Sights from a Steeple," "Sunday at Home," and "A Rill from +the Town-Pump." + +The "Mosses from an Old Manse" are intellectually and artistically an +advance from the "Twice-Told Tales." The twenty-three stories and +essays which make up the volumes are almost perfect of their kind. Each +is complete in itself, and many might be expanded into long romances by +the simple method of developing the possibilities of their shadowy +types of character into appropriate incidents. In description, +narration, allegory, humor, reason, fancy, subtilty, inventiveness, +they exceed the best productions of Addison; but they want Addison's +sensuous contentment and sweet and kindly spirit. Though the author +denies that he has exhibited his own individual attributes in these +"Mosses," though he professes not to be "one of those supremely +hospitable people who serve up their own hearts delicately fried, with +brain-sauce, as a titbit for their beloved public,"--yet it is none the +less apparent that he has diffused through each tale and sketch the +life of the mental mood to which it owed its existence, and that one +individuality pervades and colors the whole collection. The defect of +the serious stories is, that character is introduced, not as thinking, +but as the illustration of thought. The persons are ghostly, with a sad +lack of flesh and blood. They are phantasmal symbols of a reflective +and imaginative analysis of human passions and aspirations. The +dialogue, especially, is bookish, as though the personages knew their +speech was to be printed, and were careful of the collocation and +rhythm of their words. The author throughout is evidently more +interested in his large, wide, deep, indolently serene, and lazily sure +and critical view of the conflict of ideas and passions, than he is +with the individuals who embody them. He shows moral insight without +moral earnestness. He cannot contract his mind to the patient +delineation of a moral individual, but attempts to use individuals in +order to express the last results of patient moral perception. Young +Goodman Brown and Roger Malvin are not persons; they are the mere, +loose, personal expression of subtile thinking. "The Celestial +Railroad," "The Procession of Life," "Earth's Holocaust," "The Bosom +Serpent," indicate thought of a character equally deep, delicate, and +comprehensive, but the characters are ghosts of men rather than +substantial individualities. In the "Mosses from an Old Manse," we are +really studying the phenomena of human nature, while, for the time, we +beguile ourselves into the belief that we are following the fortunes of +individual natures. + +Up to this time the writings of Hawthorne conveyed the impression of a +genius in which insight so dominated over impulse, that it was rather +mentally and morally curious than mentally and morally impassioned. The +quality evidently wanting to its full expression was intensity. In the +romance of "The Scarlet Letter" he first made his genius efficient by +penetrating it with passion. This book forced itself into attention by +its inherent power; and the author's name, previously known only to a +limited circle of readers, suddenly became a familiar word in the +mouths of the great reading public of America and England. It may be +said, that it "captivated" nobody, but took everybody captive. Its +power could neither be denied nor resisted. There were growls of +disapprobation from novel-readers, that Hester Prynne and the Rev. Mr. +Dimmesdale were subjected to cruel punishments unknown to the +jurisprudence of fiction,--that the author was an inquisitor who put +his victims on the rack,--and that neither amusement nor delight +resulted from seeing the contortions and hearing the groans of these +martyrs of sin; but the fact was no less plain that Hawthorne had for +once compelled the most superficial lovers of romance to submit +themselves to the magic of his genius. The readers of Dickens voted +him, with three times three, to the presidency of their republic of +letters; the readers of Hawthorne were caught by a _coup d'etat_, and +fretfully submitted to a despot whom they could not depose. + +The success of "The Scarlet Letter" is an example of the advantage +which an author gains by the simple concentration of his powers on one +absorbing subject. In the "Twice-Told Tales" and the "Mosses from an +Old Manse" Hawthorne had exhibited a wider range of sight and insight +than in "The Scarlet Letter." Indeed, in the little sketch of "Endicott +and the Red Cross," written twenty years before, he had included in a +few sentences the whole matter which he afterwards treated in his +famous story. In describing the various inhabitants of an early +New-England town, as far as they were representative, he touches +incidentally on a "young woman, with no mean share of beauty, whose +doom it was to wear the letter A on the breast of her gown, in the eyes +of all the world and her own children. And even her own children knew +what that initial signified. Sporting with her infamy, the lost and +desperate creature had embroidered the fatal token in scarlet cloth, +with golden thread and the nicest art of needle-work; so that the +capital A might have been thought to mean Admirable, or anything, +rather than Adulteress." Here is the germ of the whole pathos and +terror of "The Scarlet Letter"; but it is hardly noted in the throng of +symbols, equally pertinent, in the few pages of the little sketch from +which we have quoted. + +Two characteristics of Hawthorne's genius stand plainly out, in the +conduct and characterization of the romance of "The Scarlet Letter," +which were less obviously prominent in his previous works. The first +relates to his subordination of external incidents to inward events. +Mr. James's "solitary horseman" does more in one chapter than +Hawthorne's hero in twenty chapters; but then James deals with the arms +of men, while Hawthorne deals with their souls. Hawthorne relies almost +entirely for the interest of his story on what is felt and done within +the minds of his characters. Even his most picturesque descriptions and +narratives are only one-tenth matter to nine-tenths spirit. The results +that follow from one external act of folly or crime are to him enough +for an Iliad of woes. It might be supposed that his whole theory of +Romantic Art was based on these tremendous lines of Wordsworth:-- + + "Action is momentary,-- + The motion of a muscle, this way or that: + Suffering is long, obscure, and infinite." + +The second characteristic of his genius is connected with the first. +With his insight of individual souls he combines a far deeper insight +of the spiritual laws which govern the strangest aberrations of +individual souls. But it seems to us that his mental eye, keen-sighted +and far-sighted as it is, overlooks the merciful modifications of the +austere code whose pitiless action it so clearly discerns. In his long +and patient brooding over the spiritual phenomena of Puritan life, it +is apparent, to the least critical observer, that he has imbibed a deep +personal antipathy to the Puritanic ideal of character; but it is no +less apparent that his intellect and imagination have been strangely +fascinated by the Puritanic idea of justice. His brain has been subtly +infected by the Puritanic perception of Law, without being warmed by +the Puritanic faith in Grace. Individually, he would much prefer to +have been one of his own "Seven Vagabonds" rather than one of the +austerest preachers of the primitive church of New England; but the +austerest preacher of the primitive church of New England would have +been more tender and considerate to a real Mr. Dimmesdale and a real +Hester Prynne than this modern romancer has been to their typical +representatives in the world of imagination. Throughout "The Scarlet +Letter" we seem to be following the guidance of an author who is +personally good-natured, but intellectually and morally relentless. + +"The House of the Seven Gables," Hawthorne's next work, while it has +less concentration of passion and tension of mind than "The Scarlet +Letter," includes a wider range of observation, reflection, and +character; and the morality, dreadful as fate, which hung like a black +cloud over the personages of the previous story, is exhibited in more +relief. Although the book has no imaginative creation equal to little +Pearl, it still contains numerous examples of characterization at once +delicate and deep. Clifford, especially, is a study in psychology, as +well as a marvellously subtile delineation of enfeebled manhood. The +general idea of the story is this,--"that the wrong-doing of one +generation lives into the successive ones, and, divesting itself of +every temporary advantage, becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief"; +and the mode in which this idea is carried out shows great force, +fertility, and refinement of mind. A weird fancy, sporting with the +facts detected by a keen observation, gives to every gable of the Seven +Gables, every room in the House, every burdock growing rankly before +the door, a symbolic significance. The queer mansion is +haunted,--haunted with thoughts which every moment are liable to take +ghostly shape. All the Pyncheons who have resided in it appear to have +infected the very timbers and walls with the spiritual essence of their +lives, and each seems ready to pass from a memory into a presence. The +stern theory of the author regarding the hereditary transmission of +family qualities, and the visiting of the sins of the fathers on the +heads of their children, almost wins our reluctant assent through the +pertinacity with which the generations of the Pyncheon race are made +not merely to live in the blood and brain of their descendants, but to +cling to their old abiding-place on earth, so that to inhabit the house +is to breathe the Pyncheon soul and assimilate the Pyncheon +individuality. The whole representation, masterly as it is, considered +as an effort of intellectual and imaginative power, would still be +morally bleak, were it not for the sunshine and warmth radiated from +the character of Phoebe. In this delightful creation Hawthorne for once +gives himself up to homely human nature, and has succeeded in +delineating a New-England girl, cheerful, blooming, practical, +affectionate, efficient, full of innocence and happiness, with all the +"handiness" and native sagacity of her class, and so true and close to +Nature that the process by which she is slightly idealized is +completely hidden. + +In this romance there is also more humor than in any of his other +works. It peeps out, even in the most serious passages, in a kind of +demure rebellion against the fanaticism of his remorseless +intelligence. In the description of the Pyncheon poultry, which we +think unexcelled by anything in Dickens for quaintly fanciful humor, +the author seems to indulge in a sort of parody on his own doctrine of +the hereditary transmission of family qualities. At any rate, that +strutting chanticleer, with his two meagre wives and one wizened +chicken, is a sly side fleer at the tragic aspect of the law of +descent. Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon, her shop, and her customers, are so +delightful, that the reader would willingly spare a good deal of +Clifford and Judge Pyncheon and Holgrave, for more details of them and +Phoebe. Uncle Venner, also, the old wood-sawyer, who boasts "that he +has seen a good deal of the world, not only in people's kitchens and +back-yards, but at the street-corners, and on the wharves, and in other +places where his business" called him, and who, on the strength of this +comprehensive experience, feels qualified to give the final decision in +every case which tasks the resources of human wisdom, is a very much +more humane and interesting gentleman than the Judge. Indeed, one +cannot but regret that Hawthorne should be so economical of his +undoubted stores of humor,--and that, in the two romances he has since +written, humor, in the form of character, does not appear at all. + +Before proceeding to the consideration of "The Blithedale Romance," it +is necessary to say a few words on the seeming separation of +Hawthorne's genius from his will. He has none of that ability which +enabled Scott and enables Dickens to force their powers into action, +and to make what was begun in drudgery soon assume the character of +inspiration. Hawthorne cannot thus use his genius; his genius always +uses him. This is so true, that he often succeeds better in what calls +forth his personal antipathies than in what calls forth his personal +sympathies. His life of General Pierce, for instance, is altogether +destitute of life; yet in writing it he must have exerted himself to +the utmost, as his object was to urge the claims of an old and dear +friend to the Presidency of the Republic. The style, of course, is +excellent, as it is impossible for Hawthorne to write bad English, but +the genius of the man has deserted him. General Pierce, whom he loves, +he draws so feebly, that one doubts, while reading the biography, if +such a man exists; Hollingsworth, whom he hates, is so vividly +characterized, that the doubt is, while we read the romance, whether +such a man can possibly be fictitious. + +Midway between such a work as the "Life of General Pierce" and "The +Scarlet Letter" may be placed "The Wonder-Book" and "Tanglewood Tales." +In these Hawthorne's genius distinctly appears, and appears in its most +lovable, though not in its deepest form. These delicious stories, +founded on the mythology of Greece, were written for children, but they +delight men and women as well. Hawthorne never pleases grown people so +much as when he writes with an eye to the enjoyment of little people. + +Now "The Blithedale Romance" is far from being so pleasing a +performance as "Tanglewood Tales," yet it very much better illustrates +the operation, indicates the quality, and expresses the power, of the +author's genius. His great books appear not so much created by him as +through him. They have the character of revelations,--he, the +instrument, being often troubled with the burden they impose on his +mind. His profoundest glances into individual souls are like the +marvels of clairvoyance. It would seem, that, in the production of such +a work as "The Blithedale Romance," his mind had hit accidentally, as +it were, on an idea or fact mysteriously related to some morbid +sentiment in the inmost core of his nature, and connecting itself with +numerous scattered observations of human life, lying unrelated in his +imagination. In a sort of meditative dream, his intellect drifts in the +direction to which the subject points, broods patiently over it, looks +at it, looks into it, and at last looks through it to the law by which +it is governed. Gradually, individual beings, definite in spiritual +quality, but shadowy in substantial form, group themselves around this +central conception, and by degrees assume an outward body and +expression corresponding to their internal nature. On the depth and +intensity of the mental mood, the force of the fascination it exerts +over him, and the length of time it holds him captive, depend the +solidity and substance of the individual characterizations. In this way +Miles Coverdale, Hollingsworth, Westervelt, Zenobia, and Priscilla +become real persons to the mind which has called them into being. He +knows every secret and watches every motion of their souls, yet is, in +a measure, independent of them, and pretends to no authority by which +he can alter the destiny which consigns them to misery or happiness. +They drift to their doom by the same law by which they drifted across +the path of his vision. Individually, he abhors Hollingsworth, and +would like to annihilate Westervelt, yet he allows the superb Zenobia +to be their victim; and if his readers object that the effect of the +whole representation is painful, he would doubtless agree with them, +but profess his incapacity honestly to alter a sentence. He professes +to tell the story as it was revealed to him; and the license in which a +romancer might indulge is denied to a biographer of spirits. Show him a +fallacy in his logic of passion and character, point out a false or +defective step in his analysis, and he will gladly alter the whole to +your satisfaction; but four human souls, such as he has described, +being given, their mutual attractions and repulsions will end, he feels +assured, in just such a catastrophe as he has stated. + +Eight years have passed since "The Blithedale Romance" was written, and +during nearly the whole of this period Hawthorne has resided abroad. +"The Marble Faun," which must, on the whole, be considered the greatest +of his works, proves that his genius has widened and deepened in this +interval, without any alteration or modification of its characteristic +merits and characteristic defects. The most obvious excellence of the +work is the vivid truthfulness of its descriptions of Italian life, +manners, and scenery; and, considered merely as a record of a tour in +Italy, it is of great interest and attractiveness. The opinions on Art, +and the special criticisms on the masterpieces of architecture, +sculpture, and painting, also possess a value of their own. The story +might have been told, and the characters fully represented, in +one-third of the space devoted to them, yet description and narration +are so artfully combined that each assists to give interest to the +other. Hawthorne is one of those true observers who concentrate in +observation every power of their minds. He has accurate sight and +piercing insight. When he modifies either the form or the spirit of the +objects he describes, he does it either by viewing them through the +medium of an imagined mind or by obeying associations which they +themselves suggest. We might quote from the descriptive portions of the +work a hundred pages, at least, which would demonstrate how closely +accurate observation is connected with the highest powers of the +intellect and imagination. + +The style of the book is perfect of its kind, and, if Hawthorne had +written nothing else, would entitle him to rank among the great masters +of English composition. Walter Savage Landor is reported to have said +of an author whom he knew in his youth, "My friend wrote excellent +English, a language now obsolete." Had "The Marble Faun" appeared +before he uttered this sarcasm, the wit of the remark would have been +pointless. Hawthorne not only writes English, but the sweetest, +simplest, and clearest English that ever has been made the vehicle of +equal depth, variety, and subtilty of thought and emotion. His mind is +reflected in his style as a face is reflected in a mirror; and the +latter does not give back its image with less appearance of effort than +the former. His excellence consists not so much in using common words +as in making common words express uncommon things. Swift, Addison, +Goldsmith, not to mention others, wrote with as much simplicity; but +the style of neither embodies an individuality so complex, passions so +strange and intense, sentiments so fantastic and preternatural, +thoughts so profound and delicate, and imaginations so remote from the +recognized limits of the ideal, as find an orderly outlet in the pure +English of Hawthorne. He has hardly a word to which Mrs. Trimmer would +primly object, hardly a sentence which would call forth the frosty +anathema of Blair, Hurd, Kames, or Whately, and yet he contrives to +embody in his simple style qualities which would almost excuse the +verbal extravagances of Carlyle. + +In regard to the characterization and plot of "The Marble Faun," there +is room for widely varying opinions. Hilda, Miriam, and Donatello will +be generally received as superior in power and depth to any of +Hawthorne's previous creations of character; Donatello, especially, +must be considered one of the most original and exquisite conceptions +in the whole range of romance; but the story in which they appear will +seem to many an unsolved puzzle, and even the tolerant and +interpretative "gentle reader" will be troubled with the unsatisfactory +conclusion. It is justifiable for a romancer to sting the curiosity of +his readers with a mystery, only on the implied obligation to explain +it at last; but this story begins in mystery only to end in mist. The +suggestive faculty is tormented rather than genially excited, and in +the end is left a prey to doubts. The central idea of the story, the +necessity of sin to convert such a creature as Donatello into a moral +being, is also not happily illustrated in the leading event. When +Donatello kills the wretch who malignantly dogs the steps of Miriam, +all readers think that Donatello committed no sin at all; and the +reason is, that Hawthorne has deprived the persecutor of Miriam of all +human attributes, made him an allegorical representation of one of the +most fiendish forms of unmixed evil, so that we welcome his destruction +with something of the same feeling with which, in following the +allegory of Spenser or Bunyan, we rejoice in the hero's victory over +the Blatant Beast or Giant Despair. Conceding, however, that +Donatello's act was murder, and not "justifiable homicide," we are +still not sure that the author's conception of his nature and of the +change caused in his nature by that act, are carried out with a +felicity corresponding to the original conception. + +In the first volume, and in the early part of the second, the author's +hold on his design is comparatively firm, but it somewhat relaxes as he +proceeds, and in the end it seems almost to escape from his grasp. Few +can be satisfied with the concluding chapters, for the reason that +nothing is really concluded. We are willing to follow the ingenious +processes of Calhoun's deductive logic, because we are sure, that, +however severely they task the faculty of attention, they will lead to +some positive result; but Hawthorne's logic of events leaves us in the +end bewildered in a labyrinth of guesses. The book is, on the whole, +such a great book, that its defects are felt with all the more force. + +In this rapid glance at some of the peculiarities of Hawthorne's +genius, we have not, of course, been able to do full justice to the +special merits of the works we have passed in review; but we trust that +we have said nothing which would convey the impression that we do not +place them among the most remarkable romances produced in an age in +which romance-writing has called forth some of the highest powers of +the human mind. In intellect and imagination, in the faculty of +discerning spirits and detecting laws, we doubt if any living novelist +is his equal; but his genius, in its creative action, has been +heretofore attracted to the dark rather than the bright side of the +interior life of humanity, and the geniality which evidently is in him +has rarely found adequate expression. In the many works which he may +still be expected to write, it is to be hoped that his mind will lose +some of its sadness of tone without losing any of its subtilty and +depth; but, in any event, it would be unjust to deny that he has +already done enough to insure him a commanding position in American +literature as long as American literature has an existence. + + * * * * * + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Le Prime Quattro Edizioni della Divina Commedia Letteralmente +Ristampate per Cura di_ G.G. WARREN LORD VERNON. Londra: Presso Tommaso +e Guglielmo Boone. MDCCCLVIII. 4to. pp. xxvi., 748. + +The zeal with which the study of Dante has been followed by students in +every country of Europe, during the last forty years, is one of the +most illustrative facts of the moral as well as of the intellectual +character of the period. The interest which has attracted men of the +most different tempers and persuasions to this study is not due alone +to the poetic or historic value of his works, however high we may place +them in these respects, but also and especially to the circumstance +that they present a complete and distinct view of the internal life and +spiritual disposition of an age in which the questions which still +chiefly concern men were for the first time positively stated, and +which exhibited in its achievements and its efforts some of the highest +qualities of human nature in a condition of vigor such as they have +never since shown. Dante himself combined a power of imagination beyond +that of any other poet with an intensity and directness of individual +character not less extraordinary. The tendency of modern civilization +is to diminish rather than to strengthen the originality and +independence of individuals. Autocracy and democracy seem to have a +like effect in reducing men to a uniform level of thought and effort. +And thus during a time when these two principles have been brought into +sharp conflict, it is not surprising that the most thoughtful students +should turn to the works of a man who by actual experience, or by force +of imagination, comprehended all the conditions of his own age, and +exhibited in his life and in his writings an individualism of the +noblest sort. The conservative and the reformer, the king and the +radical, the priest and the heretic, the man of affairs and the man of +letters, have taken their seats, side by side, on the scholars' +benches, before the same teacher, and, after listening to his large +discourse, have discussed among themselves the questions in religion, +in philosophy, in morals, politics, or history, which his words +suggested or explained. + +The success which has attended these studies has been in some degree +proportioned to the zeal with which they have been pursued. Dante is +now better understood and more intelligently commented than ever +before. Much remains to be done as regards the clearing up of some +difficult points and the explanation of some dark passages,--and the +obscurity in which Dante intentionally involved some portions of his +writings is such as to leave little hope that their absolute meaning +will ever be satisfactorily established. The history of the study of +the poet, of the comments on his meaning or his text, of the formation +of the commonly received text, and of the translations of the "Divina +Commedia," affords much curious and entertaining matter to the lover of +purely literary and bibliographic narrative, and incidentally +illustrates the general character of each century since his death. As +regards the settlement of the text, no single publication has ever +appeared of equal value to that of the magnificent volume the title of +which stands at the head of this notice. Lord Vernon has been known for +many years as the most munificent fosterer of Dantesque publications. +One after another, precious and costly books upon Dante have appeared, +edited and printed at his expense, showing both a taste and a +liberality as honorable as unusual. + +The first four editions of the "Divina Commedia," of which this volume +is a reprint, are all of excessive rarity. Although each is a document +of the highest importance in determining the text, few of the editors +of the poem have had the means of consulting more than one or two of +them. The volumes are to be found united only in the Library of the +British Museum, and it is but a few years that even that great +collection has included them all. They were printed originally between +1470 and 1480 at Foligno, Jesi, Mantua, and Naples; and their chief +value arises from the fact that they present the various readings of +three, if not four, early and selected manuscripts. The doubt whether +four manuscripts are represented by them is occasioned by the +similarity between the editions of Foligno and Naples, which are of +such a sort (for instance, correspondence in the most unlikely and odd +misprints) as to prove that one must have served as the basis of the +other. But at the same time there are such differences between them as +indicate a separate revision of each, and possibly the consultation by +their editors of different codices. + +Unfortunately, there is no edition of the "Divina Commedia" which can +claim any special authority,--none which has even in a small degree +such authority as belongs to the first folio of Shakspeare's plays. The +text, as now received, rests upon a comparison of manuscripts and early +printed editions; and as affording to scholars the means of an +independent critical judgment upon it, a knowledge of the readings of +these earliest editions is indispensable. But reprints of old books are +proverbially open to error. The reprint of the first folio Shakspeare +is so full of mistakes as to be of comparatively little use. The +character of the Italian language is such that inaccuracies are both +easier and more dangerous than in English. Unless the reprint of the +first four editions were literally correct, it would be of little +value. To secure this correctness, so far as was possible, Lord Vernon +engaged Mr. Panizzi, the chief librarian of the British Museum, to edit +the volume. A more competent editor never lived. Mr. Panizzi is +distinguished not more for his thorough and appreciative acquaintance +with the poetic literature of his country than for the extent and +accuracy of his bibliographical knowledge and the refinement of his +bibliographic skill. There can be no doubt that the reprint is as exact +as the most rigid critic could desire. It is a monument of patience and +of unpretending labor, as well as of typographic beauty,--the work of +the editor having been well seconded by that well-known disciple of +Aldus, Mr. Charles Whittingham. + +Nor is it only in essential variations that these four texts are +important, but also in the illustration which their different spelling +and their varying grammatical forms afford in regard to the language +used by Dante. At the time when these editions appeared, the +orthography of the Italian tongue was not yet established, and its +grammatical inflections not in all cases definitely settled. Printing +had not yet been long enough in use to fix a permanent form upon words. +Moreover, the misprints themselves, which in these early editions are +very numerous, often give hints as to the changes which they may have +induced, or as to the misplacing of letters most likely to occur, and +consequently most likely to lead to unobserved errors of the text. + +The style of the printing in these first editions, and the aid it may +give, or the difficulty it may occasion, are hardly to be understood +without an extract. We open at _Paradiso_, xv. 70. Cacciaguida has just +spoken to his descendant, and then follows, according to the Foligno, +the following passage:-- + + Io mi uolfi abeatrice et quella udio + pria chio parlaffi et arofemi un cenno + che fece crefcer lali aluoler mio + + Poi cominciai con leefftto elfenno + come laprima equalita napparfe + dun pefo per ciafchun di noi fi fenno + + Pero chel fole che nallumo et arfe + colcaldo et conlaluce et fi iguali + che tutte fimiglianze fono fcarfe. + +This looks different enough from the common text, that, for example, of +the Florentine edition of 1844. + + I' mi volsi a Beatrice, e quella udio + Pria ch' io parlassi, ed arrisemi un cenno + Che fece crescer l' ale al voler mio. + + Poi cominciai cosi: L' affetto e il senno, + Come la prima egualita v' apparse, + D' un peso per ciascun di voi si fenno; + + Perocche al Sol, che v' allumo ed arse + Col caldo e con la luce, en si iguali, + Che tutte simiglianze sono scarse. + +"I turned to Beatrice, and she heard before I spoke, and smiled on me a +sign which added wings to my desire. Then I began thus: Love and +wisdom, as soon as the primal Equality has appeared to you, become of +one weight in each one of you; since in that Sun, which illuminates and +warms you with heat and light, they are so equal, that every comparison +falls short." + +The three other ancient texts are each quite as different from the +modern one as that which we have given, nor is the passage one that +affords example of unusual variations. It would have been easy to +select many others varying much more than this, but our object is to +show the general character of these first editions. The second line of +the quotation offers a various reading which is supported by the +_arrossemi_ of the Jesi edition, and the _arossemi_ of that of Naples, +as well as by the text of the comment of Benvenuto da Imola, and some +other early authorities. But even were the weight of evidence in its +favor far greater than it is, it could never be received in place of +the thoroughly Dantesque and exquisite expression, _arrisemi un cenno_, +which is found in the Mantua edition. The _napparse_ and the _noi_ of +the fifth and sixth lines and the _nallumo_ of the seventh are plainly +mistakes of the scribe, puzzled by the somewhat obscure meaning of the +passage. Not one of the four editions before us gives us the right +pronouns, but they are found in the Bartolinian codex, (as well as many +others,) and they are established in the rare Aldine edition of 1502, +the chief source of the modern text. In the eighth line, where we now +read _en si iguali_, the four give us _et_ or _e si iguali_, a reading +from which it is difficult to extract a meaning, unless, with the +Bartolinian, we omit the _che_ in the preceding line, and suppose the +_pero chel_ to stand, not for _perocche al_, but for _perocche +il_,--or, retaining the _che_, read the first words _perocch' e il +Sol_, and take the clause as a parenthesis. The meaning, according to +the first supposition, would be, "Love and wisdom are of one measure in +you, (since the Sun [_sc._ the primal Equality] warmed and enlightened +you,) and so equal that," etc. According to the second supposition, we +should translate, "Since it [the primal Equality] is the sun which," +etc. Benvenuto da Imola gives still a third reading, making the _e si +iguali_ into _ee si iguale_, or, in modern orthography, _e si iguale_; +but, as this spoils the rhyme, it may be left out of account. There +seems to us to be some ground for believing the second reading +suggested above, + + Perocch' e il Sol che v' allumo ed arse + Con caldo e con la luce, e si iguali. + +to be the true one, not only from its correspondence with most of the +early copies, but from the rarity of the use of _en_ by Dante. There is +but one other passage in the poem where it is found (_Purgatory_, xvi. +121). + +Such is an example, taken at random, of the doubts suggested and the +illustration afforded by these editions in the study of the text. Of +course such minute criticism is of interest only to those few who +reckon Dante's words at their true worth. The common reader may be +content with the text as he finds it in common editions, But Dante, +more than any other author, stimulates his student to research as to +his exact words; for no other author has been so choice in his +selection of them. He is not only the greatest modern master of +condensation in style, but he has the deepest insight into the value +and force of separate words, the most delicate sense of appropriateness +in position, and in the highest degree the poetic faculty of selecting +the word most fitting for the thought and most characteristic in +expression. It rarely happens that the place of a word of any +importance is a matter of indifference in his verse, no regard being +had to the rhythm; and every one sufficiently familiar with the +language in which he wrote to be conscious of its indefinable powers +will feel, though he may be unable to point out specifically, a marked +distinction in the quality and combinations of the words in the +different parts of the poem. The description of the entrance to Hell, +in the third canto of the _Inferno_ is, for instance, hardly more +different from the description of the Terrestrial Paradise, +(_Purgatory_, xxviii.,) in scenery and imagery, than it is in the vague +but absolute qualities of language, in its rhythmical and verbal +essence. + +But, leaving these subtilties, let us look at some of the disputed +passages of the poem, upon which the texts before us may give their +evidence. + +In the episode of Francesca da Rimini, Mr. Barlow has recently +attempted to give currency to a various reading long known, but never +accepted, in the line (_Inferno_, v. 102) in which Francesca expresses +her horror at the manner of her death. She says, _il modo ancor m' +offende_, "the manner still offends me." But for _il modo_ Mr. Barlow +would substitute _il mondo_, "the world still offends me,"--that is, as +we suppose, by holding a false opinion of her conduct. Mr. Barlow's +suggestions are always to be received with respect, but we cannot but +think him wrong in proposing this change. The spirits in Hell are not +supposed to be aware of what is passing upon earth; they are +self-convicted, (_Purgatory_, xxvi. 85, 86,) and Francesca being doomed +to eternal woe, the world could not do her wrong by taxing her with +sin; while, further, the shudder at the method of her death, lasting +even in torment, seems to us a far more imaginative conception than the +one proposed in its stead. Our four texts read _elmodo_. + +In the famous simile (_Inferno_, iii. 112-114) in which Dante compares +the spirits falling from the bank of Acheron to the dead leaves +fluttering from a bough in autumn, giving, as Mr. Ruskin says, "the +most perfect image possible of their utter lightness, feebleness, +passiveness, and scattering agony of despair," our common texts have + + infin che il ramo + Rende alla terra tutte le sue spoglie, + +"Until the branch gives to the earth all its spoils"; but the texts of +Jesi and Mantua, as well as those of the Bartolinian and the Aldus, and +many other early authorities, here put the word _Vede_ in place of +_Rende_, giving a variation which for its poetic worth well deserves to +be marked, if not to be introduced into the received text. "Until the +branch sees all its spoils upon the earth" is a personification quite +in Dante's manner. A confirmation of the value of this reading is given +by the fact that Tasso preferred it to the more common one, and in his +treatise on the "Art of Poetry" praises it as full of energy. + +The value of this work of Lord Vernon's to the students of Dante, in +enabling them to secure accuracy in their statements in regard to the +early texts, has been illustrated to us by finding that Blanc, in his +useful and excellent "Vocabolario Dantesco," has not unfrequently +fallen into error through his inability to consult those first +editions. For example, in the line, (_Inferno_, xviii. 43,) _Percio a +figuralo i piedi affissi_, as it is commonly given, or, _Percio a +firgurarlo gli occhi affissi_, as it appears in some editions, Blanc, +who prefers the latter reading, states that _gli occhi_ is found in +_"toutes les anciennes editions."_ But the truth is, that those of +Foligno and Naples read _ipedi_, that of Jesi has _in piedi_, and that +of Mantua _i pie_. The Aldine of 1502 is the earliest edition we have +seen which has _gli occhi_. + +In the episode of Ugolino, (_Inferno,_ xxxiii.,) the verse which has +given rise to more comment, perhaps than any other is that (the 26th) +in which the Count says, according to the usual reading, that the +narrow window in his tower had shown him many moons before he dreamed +his evil dream: _Piu lune gia, quand' i' feci il mal sonno,_ "Many +moons already, when I had my ill slumber." But another reading, found +in a majority of the early MSS. and editions, including those of Jesi +and Mantua gives the variation, _piu lume;_ while the editions of +Foligno and Naples give _lieve_, which, affording no intelligible +meaning, must be regarded as a mere misprint. In spite of the weight +of early authority for _lume_, the reading _lune_ is perhaps to be +preferred, as giving in a word a brief expressive statement of a weary +length of imprisonment,--while _lume_ would only serve to fix the +moment of the dream as having been between the first dawn and the full +day. It is rare that the difference between an _n_ and an _m_ is of +such marked effect. + +In the sixth canto of _Purgatory_, verse 58, Virgil says, "Behold there +a soul which _a posta_ looks toward us." Such at least is the common +reading, and the words _a posta_ are explained as meaning _fixedly._ +But this signification is somewhat forced, _a posta_, or _apposta_, +being more properly used with the meaning of _on purpose_ or +_deliberately_,--and the first four editions supply a reading without +this difficulty, and one which adds a new and significant feature to +the description. They unite in the omission of the letter _a_. The +passage then bears the meaning,--"But behold there a soul which, +_fixed_, or _placed_, alone and all apart, looks toward us." This +reading, beside being supported by the weight of ancient authority, +finds confirmation, in the context, in the terms in which Sordello's +aspect is described: "How lofty and disdainful didst thou stand! how +slow and decorous in the moving of thy eyes!" + +A curious example of the mistakes of the old copies is afforded in the +charming description of the Terrestrial Paradise in the twenty-eighth +canto of the _Purgatory_. Dante says, that the leaves on the trees, +trembling in the soft air, were not so disturbed that the little birds +in their tops ceased from any of their arts,-- + + che gli augelletti per le cime + Lasciasser d' operare ogni lor arte. + +The lines are so plain that a mistake is difficult in them; but, of our +four editions, the Jesi is the only one which gives them correctly. +Foligno and Naples read _angeleti_ for _augelletti_, while Mantua gives +us the astonishing word _intelletti_. Again, in line 98 of the same +canto, all four read, _exaltation dell' acqua_, for the simple and +correct _esalazion dell' acqua_. And in line 131, for _Eunoe si +chiama_, Jesi supplies the curious word _curioce si chiama_. + +These examples of error are not of great importance in themselves, and +are easily corrected, but they serve to illustrate the great frequency +of error in all the early texts of the "Divina Commedia," and the +probability that many errors not so readily discovered may still exist +in the text, making difficulties where none originally existed. They +are of value, furthermore, in the wider range of critical studies, as +illustrating in a striking way the liability to error which existed in +all books so long as they were preserved only by the work of scribes. +Here is a poem which was transmitted in manuscript for only about one +hundred and fifty years, the first four printed editions of which show +differences in almost every line. It is no exaggeration to say that the +variations between the editions of Foligno, Jesi, and Mantua, in +orthography, inflection, and other grammatical and dialectic forms, not +to speak of the less frequent, though still numerous differences in the +words themselves, greatly exceed, throughout the poem, the number of +lines of which it is composed. Yet by a comparison of them one with +another a consistent and generally satisfactory text has been formed. +The bearing of this upon the views to be taken of the condition of the +text of more ancient works, as, for instance, that of the Gospels, is +plain. + +The work before us is so full of matter interesting to the student of +Dante, that we are tempted to go on with further illustrations of it, +though well aware that there are few who have zeal or patience enough +to continue the examination with us. But the number of those in America +who are beginning to read the "Divina Commedia," as something more than +a mere exercise in the Italian language, is increasing, and some of +them, at least, will take pleasure with us in this inquiry concerning +the words, that is, the thoughts of Dante. Why should the minute, but +not fruitless criticism of texts be reserved for the ancient classic +writers? The great poet of the Middle Ages deserves this work at our +hands far more than any of the Latin poets, not excluding even his own +master and guide. + +The eleventh canto of the _Paradiso_ is chiefly occupied with the noble +narrative of the life of St. Francis. Reading it as we do, at such a +distance from the time of the events which it records, and with +feelings that have never been warmed into fervor by the facts or the +legends concerning the Saint, it is hard for us to appreciate at its +full worth the beauty of this canto, and its effect upon those who had +seen and conversed with the first Franciscans. Not a century had yet +passed since the death of St. Francis, and the order which he had +founded kept his memory alive in every part of the Catholic world. A +story which may be true or false, and it matters little which, tells us +that Dante himself in his early manhood had proposed to enter its +ranks. There is no doubt that its vows of poverty and chastity, its +arduous but invigorating rule during its early days, appealed with +strong force to his temperament and his imagination, as promising a +withdrawal from those worldly temptations of which he was conscious, +from that pressure of private and public affairs of which he was +impatient. The contrast between the effects which the life of St. +Francis and that of St. Dominic had upon the poet's mind is shown by +the contrast in tone in which in successive cantos he tells of these +two great pillars of the Church. + +In lines 71 and 72, speaking of Poverty, the bride of the Saint, he +says,-- + + Si che dove Maria rimase giuso, + Ella con Cristo salse in sulia croce: + +"So that whilst Mary remained below, she mounted the cross with +Christ," Such is the common reading. Now in all four of the editions +which are in Lord Vernon's reprint, in Benvenuto da Imola, in the +Bartolinian codex, in the precious codex of Cortona, and in many other +early manuscripts and editions, the word _pianse_ is found in the place +of _salse_; "She lamented upon the cross with Christ." The antithesis, +though less direct, is not less striking, and the phrase seems to us to +become simpler, more natural, and more touching. Yet this reading has +found little favor with recent editors, and one of them goes so far as +to say, "che non solo impoverisce, ma adultera l' idea." + +Passing over other variations, some of them of importance, in this +eleventh canto, we find the last verses standing in most modern +editions,-- + + E vedra il coreggier che argomenta + U' ben s' impingua, se non si vaneggia. + +And the meaning is explained as being,--"And he who is girt with a +leathern cord (_i.e._ the Dominican) will see what is meant by 'Where +well they fatten, if they do not stray.'" But to this there are several +objections. No other example of _coreggier_ thus used is, we believe, +to be found. Moreover, the introduction of a Dominican to learn this +lesson is forced, for it was Dante himself who had had a doubt as to +the meaning of these words, and it was for his instruction that the +discourse in which they were explained was held. We prefer, therefore, +the reading which is found in the editions of Jesi, Foligno, and +Naples, (in part in that of Mantua,) and which is given by many other +ancient texts: _Vedrai_ or _E vedrai il correger che argomenta:_ "Thou +wilt see the reproof which 'Where well they fatten, if they do not +stray,' conveys." This reading has been adopted by Mr. Cayley in his +remarkable translation. + +One more instance of the value of Lord Vernon's work, and we have done. +The 106th, 107th, and 108th verses of the twenty-sixth canto of the +_Paradiso_ are among the most difficult of the poem, and have given +rise to great variety of comment. In the edition of Florence of 1830, +in those of Foscolo, and of Costa, and many others, they stand,-- + + Perch' io la veggio nel verace speglio + Che fa di se pareglie l' altre cose + E nulla face lui di se pareglio. + +And they are explained by Bianchi as meaning, "Because I see it in that +true mirror (i. e. God) which makes other things like to themselves, +(that is, represents them as they are,) while nothing can represent Him +like to Himself." Those who love the quarrels of commentators should +look at the notes in the Variorum editions of Padua or Florence to see +with what amusing asperity they have treated each other's solutions of +the passage. Italian words of abuse have a sonorous quality which gives +grandeur to a skirmish of critics. One is declared by his opponent to +have _ingarbugliato_ the clearest meaning; another _guasta il +sentimento_ and _sproposita in grammatica_; a third brings _falso_ and +_assurdo_ to the charge, and, not satisfied with their force, adds +_blasfemo_; a fourth declares that the third has contrived _capovolgere +la consegitenza_; and so on;--from all which the reader, trying to find +shelter from the pelting of hard words, discovers that the meaning is +not clear even to the most confident of the critics. But, standing +apart from the battle, and looking only at the text, and not at the +bewildered comment, we find in the editions of Foligno, Jesi, and +Naples, and in many other ancient texts, a reading which seems to us +somewhat easier than the one commonly adopted. We copy the lines after +the Foligno:-- + + Per chio laueggio neluerace speglio + che fa dise pareglio alaltre cose + et nulla face lui dise pareglio. + +And we would translate them, "Because I see it in that true mirror who +in Himself affords a likeness to [or of] all other things, while +nothing gives back to Him a likeness of Himself." Here _pareglio_ +corresponds with the Provencal _parelh_ and the later French +_pareil_,--and the Provencal phrase _rendre le parelha_ affords an +example of similar application to that of the word in Dante. + +With us in America, criticism is not rated as it deserves; it is little +followed as a study, and the love for the great masters and poets of +other times and other tongues than our own fails to stimulate the ardor +of students to the thorough examination of their thoughts and words. No +doubt, criticism, as it has too often been pursued, is of small worth, +displaying itself in useless inquiries, and lavishing time and labor +upon insoluble and uninteresting questions. But such is not its true +end. Verbal criticism, rightly viewed, has a dignity which belongs to +few other studies; for it deals with words as the symbols of +thoughts,--with words, which are the most spiritual of the instruments +of human power, the most marvellous of human possessions. It makes +thought accurate, and perception fine. It adds truth to the creations +of imagination by teaching the modes by which they may be best +expressed, and it thus leads to fuller and more appreciative +understanding and enjoyment of the noblest works of the past. There +can, indeed, be no thorough culture without it. + +To restore the balance of our lives, in these days of haste, novelty, +and restlessness, there is a need of a larger infusion into them of +pursuits which have no end of immediate publicity or instant return of +tangible profit,--of pursuits which, while separating us from the +intrusive world around us, should introduce us into the freer, +tranquiller, and more spacious world of noble and everlasting thought. +The greener and lonelier precincts of our minds are now trampled upon +by the hurrying feet of daily events and transient interests. If we +would keep that spiritual region unpolluted, we need to acquaint +ourselves with some other literature than that of newspapers and +magazines, and to entertain as familiars the men long dead, yet living +in their works. As Americans, our birthrights in the past are +imperfect; we are born into the present alone. But he who lives only in +present things lives but half a life, and death comes to him as an +impertinent interruption: by living also in the past we learn to value +the present at its worth, to hold ourselves ready for its end. With +Dante, taking him as a guide and companion in our privater moods, we +may, even in the natural body, pass through the world of spirit. + +It will be a good indication of the improvement in the intellectual +disposition of our people, when the study of Dante becomes more +general. Meanwhile, on the part of his few students in America, we +would offer our thanks to Lord Vernon and to Mr. Panizzi for the aid +which the liberality of the one and the skill and learning of the other +have given to us, and for the honor they have done to the memory of our +common Author and Leader. + +_Notes of Travel and Study in Italy_. By CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. Boston: +Ticknor & Fields. 1860. pp. x., 320. + +There is, perhaps, no country with which we are so intimate as with +Italy,--none of which we are always so willing to hear more. Poets and +prosers have alike compared her to a beautiful woman; and while one +finds nothing but loveliness in her, another shudders at her fatal +fascination. She is the very Witch-Venus of the Middle Ages. Roger +Ascham says, "I was once in _Italy_ myself, but I thank God my abode +there was but nine days; and yet I saw in that little time, in one +city, more liberty to sin than ever I heard tell of in our noble city +of London in nine years." He quotes triumphantly the proverb,--_Inglese +italianato, diavolo incarnato_. A century later, the entertaining +"Richard Lassels, Gent., who Travelled through Italy Five times as +Tutor to several of the _English_ Nobility and Gentry," and who is open +to new engagements in that kind, declares, that, "For the Country +itself, it seemed to me to be _Nature's Darling_, and the _Eldest +Sister_ of all other Countries; carrying away from them all the +greatest blessings and favours, and receiving such gracious looks from +the _Sun_ and _Heaven_, that, if there be any fault in _Italy_, it is, +that her Mother _Nature_ hath cockered her too much, even to make her +become Wanton." Plainly, our Tannhaeuser is but too ready to go back to +the Venus-berg! + +A new book on Italy seems a dangerous experiment. Has not all been told +and told and told again? Is it not one chief charm of the land, that it +is changeless without being Chinese? Did not Abbot Samson, in 1159, +_Scotti habitum induens_, (which must have shown his massive calves to +great advantage.) probably see much the same popular characteristics +that Hawthorne saw seven hundred years later? Shall a man try to be +entertaining after Montaigne, aesthetic after Winckelmann, wise after +Goethe, or trenchant after Forsyth? Can he hope to bring back anything +so useful as the _fork_, which honest Tom Coryate made prize of two +centuries and a half ago, and put into the greasy fingers of Northern +barbarians? Is not the "Descrittione" of Leandro Alberti still a +competent itinerary? And can one hope to pick up a fresh Latin +quotation, when Addison and Eustace have been before him with their +scrap-baskets? + +If there be anything which a person of even moderate accomplishments +may be presumed to know, it is Italy. The only open question left seems +to be, whether Shakespeare were the only man that could write his name +who had never been there. We have read our share of Italian travels, +both in prose and verse, but, as the nicely discriminating Dutchman +found that "too moch brahndee was too moch, but too moch lager-beer was +jost hright," so we are inclined to say that too much Italy is just +what we want. After Des Brosses, we are ready for Henri Beyle, and +Ampere, and Hillard, and About, and Gallenga, and Julia Kavanagh; +"Corinne" only makes us hungry for George Sand. That no one can tell us +anything new is as undeniable as the compensating fact that no one can +tell us anything too old. + +There are two kinds of travellers,--those who tell us what they went to +see, and those who tell us what they saw. The latter class are the only +ones whose journals are worth the sifting; and the value of their eyes +depends on the amount of individual character they took with them, and +of the previous culture that had sharpened and tutored the faculty of +observation. In our conscious age the frankness and naivete of the +elder voyagers is impossible, and we are weary of those humorous +confidences on the subject of fleas with which we are favored by some +modern travellers, whose motto should be (slightly altered) from +Horace,--_Flea-bit, et toto cantabitur orbe._ A naturalist +self-sacrificing enough may have this experience more cheaply at home. + +The book before us is the record of a second residence in Italy, of +about two years. This in itself is an advantage; since a renewed +experience, after an interval of absence and distraction, enables us to +distinguish what had merely interested us by its strangeness from what +is permanently worthy of study and remembrance. In a second visit we +know at least what we do _not_ wish to see, and our first impressions +have so defined themselves that they afford us a safer standard of +comparison. To most travellers Italy is a land of pure vacation, a +lotus-eating region, "in which it seemeth always afternoon." But Mr. +Norton, whose book shows bow well his time had been employed at home, +could not but spend it to good purpose abroad. The word "study" has a +right to its place on his title-page, and his volume is worthy of a +student. He shows himself to be one who, like Wordsworth, "does not +much or oft delight in personal talk"; there is no gossip between the +covers of his book, no impertinent self-obtrusion. Familiar with what +has been written about Italy by others, he has known how to avoid the +trite highways, and by going back to what was old has found topics that +are really fresh and delightful. The Italy of the ancient Romans is a +foreign country to us, and must always continue so; but the Italy of +the Middle Ages is nearer, not so much in time, as because there is no +impassable rift of religious faith, and consequently of ideas and +motives, between us and it. Far enough away in the centuries to be +picturesque, it is near enough in the sympathy of belief and thought to +be thoroughly intelligible. The chapter on the Brotherhood of the +Misericordia at Florence is remarkably interesting, and the coincidence +which Mr. Norton points out in a note between the circumstances which +led to its foundation and those in which a somewhat similar society +originated in California so lately as 1859 is not only curious, but +pleasant, as showing that there is a natural piety proper to man in all +ages alike. In his account of the building of the Cathedral of Orvieto, +and his notices of Rome as it was when Dante and Petrarch saw it, Mr. +Norton has struck a rich vein, which we hope he will find time to work +more thoroughly hereafter. By the essential fairness of his mind, his +patience in investigation, and his sympathy with what is noble in +character and morally influential in events, he seems to us peculiarly +fitted for that middle ground occupied by the historical essayist, to +whom literature is something cooerdinate with politics, and who finds a +great book more eventful than a small battle. + +But if, as a scholar and lover of Art, Mr. Norton naturally turns to +the past, he does not fail to tell us whatever he finds worth knowing +in the present. His tone of mind and habitual subjects of thought may +be inferred from the character of the topics that interest him. The +glimpses he gives us of the actual condition of the people of Italy, as +indicated by their practical conception of the religious dogmas of +their Church, by the quality of the cheap literature that is popular +among them, of the tracts provided for their spiritual aliment by +ecclesiastical authority, and of the caricatures produced in 1848-9, +(as in his notice of "Don Pirlone,") are of special value, and show that +he knows where to look for signs of what lies beneath the surface. His +appreciation of the beautiful in Art has not been cultivated at the +expense of his interest in the moral, political, and physical +well-being of man. His touching sketch of the life of Letterato, the +founder of Ragged Schools, shows that moral loveliness attracts his +sympathy as much when embodied in a life of obscure usefulness as when +it gleams in the saints and angels of Fra Angelico. A conscientious +Protestant, he exposes the corruptions of the Established Church in +Italy, not as an anti-Romanist, but because he sees that they are +practically operative in the social and political degradation of the +people. What good there is never escapes his attention, and we learn +from him much that is new and interesting concerning public charities +and private efforts for the elevation of the lower orders. The miles of +statuary in the Vatican do not weary him so much that he cannot at +night make the round of evening schools for the poor. + +We have not read a pleasanter or more instructive book of Italian +travel than this. Mr. Norton's range of interest is so wide that we are +refreshed with continual variety of topic; and his style is pure, +clear, and chaste, without any sacrifice of warmth or richness. It is +always especially agreeable to us to encounter an American who is a +scholar in the true sense of the word, in which sense it is never +dissociated from gentleman. When, as in the present instance, +scholarship is united with a deep and active interest in whatever +concerns the practical well-being of men, we have one of the best +results of our modern civilization. We are no lovers of dilettantism, +but we see in these scholarly tastes and habits which do not seclude a +man from the duties of real life and useful citizenship the only +safeguard against the evils which the rapid heaping-up of wealth is +sure to bring with it. + +We do not always agree with Mr. Norton in his estimate of the +comparative merit of different artists. We think he sometimes makes Mr. +Ruskin's mistake of attributing to positive religious sentiment what is +rather to be ascribed to the negative influence of circumstances and +date. We cannot help thinking that the mere arrangement of their +figures by such painters as Cima da Conegliano and Francesco Francia, +the architectural regularity of their disposition, the sculpturesque +dignity of their attitudes, and the consequent impression of +simplicity and repose which they convey, have much to do with the +religious effect they produce on the mind, as contrasted with the more +dramatic and picturesque conceptions of later artists. When we look at +John Bellino's "Gods come down to taste the Fruits of the Earth," we +cannot think him essentially a more religious man than his great pupil +who painted that truly divine countenance of Christ in "The +Tribute-Money." At the same time we go along with Mr. Norton heartily, +where, in the concluding pages of his book, with equal learning and +eloquence, he points out the causes and traces the progress of the +moral and artistic decline which came over Italy in the sixteenth +century, and whose effect made the seventeenth almost a desert. This is +one of the most striking passages in the volume, and the lesson of it +is brought home to us with a force and fervor worthy of the theme. It +also affords a good type of the quiet vigor of thought and the high +moral purpose which are characteristic of the author. + + +1. _An American Dictionary of the English Language,_ etc., etc. By +NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D. Revised and enlarged by CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH, +Professor in Yale College. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam. 1859. +pp. ccxxxvi., 1512. + +2. _A Dictionary of the English Language._ By JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, LL. +D. Boston: Hickling, Swan, & Brewer. 1860. pp. lxviii,, 1786. + +Since the famous Battle of the Books in St. James's Library, no +literary controversy has been more sharply waged than that between the +adherents of the rival Dictionaries of Doctors Worcester and Webster. +The attack was begun thirty years ago, by Dr. Webster's publishers, +when Dr. Worcester's "Comprehensive Dictionary" first appeared in +print. On the publication of his "Universal and Critical Dictionary," +in 1846, it was renewed, and, not to speak of occasional skirmishes +during the interval, the appearance of Dr. Worcester's enlarged and +finished work brought matters to the crisis of a pitched battle. + +From this long conflict Dr. Worcester has unquestionably come off +victorious. Dr. Webster seemed to assume that he had a kind of monopoly +in the English language, and that whoever ventured to compile a +dictionary was guilty of infringing his patent-right. He drew up a list +of words, and triumphantly asked Dr. Worcester where he had found them, +unless in his two quartos of 1828. Dr. Worcester replied by showing +that most of the words were to be found in previous English +dictionaries, and added, with sly humor, that he freely acknowledged +Dr. Webster's exclusive property in the word "bridegoom," and others +like it, which would be sought for vainly in any volumes but his own. +Dr. Webster's attack was as unfair as the result of it was unfortunate +for himself. + +We have several reasons, which seem to us sufficient, for preferring +Dr. Worcester's Dictionary; but we are not, on that account, disposed +to underrate the remarkable merits of its rival. Dr. Webster was a man +of vigorous mind, and endowed with a genuine faculty of independent +thinking. He has hardly received justice at the hands of his +countrymen, a large portion of whom have too hastily taken a few +obstinate whimsies as the measure of his powers. Utterly fanciful as +are many of his etymologies, we should be false to our duty as critics, +if we did not acknowledge that Dr. Webster possessed in very large +measure the chief qualities which go to the making of a great +philologist. The very tendency to theorize, which led him to adopt +those oddities of spelling by which he may be said to be chiefly known, +united as it was to an understanding of uncommon breadth and clearness, +would under more favorable auspices have given him a very eminent place +among the philosophic students of language. His great mistake was in +attempting to force his peculiar notions upon the world in his +Dictionary, instead of confining them to his Preface, or putting them +forward tentatively in a separate treatise. The importance which he +attached to these trifles ought to have given him a hint that others +might be as obstinate on the other side, and that the prejudices of +taste have much tougher roots than those of opinion. We are inclined to +think that many of the changes proposed by Dr. Webster will be adopted +in the course of time. But it is a matter of little consequence, and +the progress of such reforms is slow. Already two hundred years ago, +James Howel (the author of Charles Lamb's favorite "Epistolae +Ho-Elianae") advocated similar reforms, and, as far as the printers +would let him, carried them out in practice. "The printer hath not bin +so careful as he should have bin," he complains. He especially condemns +the superfluous letters in many of our words, choosing to write _don_, +_com_, and _som_, rather than _done_, _come_, and _some_. "Moreover," +he says, "those words that have the Latin for their original, the +author prefers that orthography rather than the French, whereby divers +letters are spar'd: as _Physic, Logic, Afric_, not _Physique, Logique, +Afrique; favor, honor, labor_, not _favour, honour, labour_, and very +many more; as also he omits the Dutch _k_ in most words; here you shall +read _peeple_, not _pe-ople_, _tresure_, not _tre-asure_, _toung_, not +_ton-gue_, &c.; _Parlement_, not _Parliament_; _busines, witnes, +sicknes_, not _businesse, witnesse, sicknesse_; _star, war, far_, not +_starre, warre, farre_; and multitudes of such words, wherein the two +last letters may well be spar'd. Here you shall also read _pity, piety, +witty_, not _piti-e, pieti-e, witti-e_, as strangers at first sight +pronounce them, and abundance of such like words." + +Howel gives a weak reason for making the changes he proposes, namely, +that the language will thereby be simplified to foreigners. He hints at +the true one when he says that "we do not speak as we write." Dr. +Webster also, speaking of certain words ending in _our_, says, "What +motive could induce them to write these words, and _errour, honour, +favour, inferiour_, &c., in this manner, following neither the Latin +nor the French, I cannot conceive." Had Dr. Webster's knowledge of the +written English language been as great as it undoubtedly was of its +linguistic relations, he would have seen that the _spelling_ followed +the _accent_. The third verse of the Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" +would have satisfied him:-- + + "And bathed every root in such licour"; + +and a little farther on,-- + + "Or swinken with his houdes and laboure." + +In this respect the spelling of our older writers, where it can be +depended on, and especially of reformers like Howel, is of value, as +throwing some light on the question, how long the Norman pronunciation +lingered in England. Warner, for instance, in his "Albion's England," +spells _creator_ and _creature_ as they are spelt now, but gives the +French accent to both; and we are inclined to think that the charge of +speaking "right Chaucer," brought against the courtiers of Queen +Elizabeth, referred rather to accent than diction. + +The very title of Dr. Webster's Dictionary indicates a radical +misapprehension as to the nature and office of such a work. He calls +the result of his labors an "_American_ Dictionary of the English +Language," as if provincialism were a merit. He evidently thought that +the business of a lexicographer was to _regulate_, not to _record_. +Sometimes also his zeal as an etymologist misled him, as in his famous +attempt to make the word _bridegroom_ more conformable to its supposed +Anglo-Saxon root and its modern Teutonic congeners. It never occurred +to him that we were still as far as ever from the goal, and that it +would be quite as inconvenient to explain that the termination _goom_ +was a derivation from the Anglo-Saxon _guma_ as that it was a +corruption of it; the point to be gained being, after all, that we +should be able to find out the meaning of the English word +_bridegroom_, having no pressing need of _guma_ for conversational +purposes. We have spoken of this word only because we have heard it +brought up against Dr. Webster as often as anything else, and because +the disproportionate antipathy produced by this and a few similar +oddities shows, that, the primary object of all writing being the clear +conveyance of meaning, and not only so, but its conveyance in the most +winning way, a writer blunders who wilfully estranges the reader's eye +or jars upon its habitual associations, and that a lexicographer +blunders still more desperately, who, upon system, teaches to offend in +that kind. And it is amusing in respect to this very word _bridegoom_, +that the whimsey is not Dr. Webster's own, but that the bee was put +into his bonnet by Horne Tooke. + +Webster in these matters was a bit of a Hotspur. He thought to deal +with language as the vehement Percy would have done with the Trent. The +smug and silver stream was to be allowed no more wilful windings, but +to run + + "In a new channel fair and evenly." + +He found an equally hot-headed Glendower, wherever there was an +educated man, ready with the answer,-- + + "Not wind? it shall; it must; you see it + doth." + +"You see _it doth_" is an argument whose force no theorist ever takes +into his reckoning. + +We said that the title "American Dictionary of the English Language" +was an absurdity. Fancy a "Cuban Dictionary of the Spanish Language." +It would be of value only to the comparative philologist, curious in +the changes of meaning, pronunciation, and the like, which +circumstances are always bringing about in languages subjected to new +conditions of life and climate. But we must not forget to say +that the title chosen by Dr. Webster conveyed also a meaning +creditable to his spirit and judgment. He always stoutly maintained the +right of English as spoken in America to all the privileges of a living +language. In opposition to the purists who would have clasped the +language forever within the covers of Johnson, he insisted on the +necessity of coining new words or adapting old ones to express new +things and new relations. It is many years since we read his "Remarks" +(if that was the title) on Pickering's "Vocabulary," and in answer to +the rather supercilious criticisms on himself in the "Anthology"; but +the impression left on our mind by that pamphlet is one of great +respect for the good sense, acuteness, and courage of its author. And +of his Dictionary it may safely be said, that, with all its mistakes, +no work of the kind had then appeared so learned and so comprehensive. +It may be doubted if any living language possessed at that time a +dictionary, or one, at least, the work of a single man, in all respects +its equal. + +But etymologies are not the most important part of a good working +dictionary, the intention of which is not to inform readers and writers +what a word may have meant before the Dispersion, but what it means +now. The pedigree of an adjective or substantive is of little +consequence to ninety-nine men in a hundred, and the writers who have +wielded our mother-tongue with the greatest mastery have been men who +knew what words had most meaning to their neighbors and acquaintances, +and did not stay their pens to ask what ideas the radicals of those +words may possibly have conveyed to the mind of a bricklayer going up +from Padanaram to seek work on the Tower of Babel. A thoroughly good +etymological dictionary of English is yet to seek; and even if we +should ever get one, it will be for students, and not for the laity. +Nor is it the primary object of a common dictionary to trace the +history of the language. Of great interest and importance to scholars, +it is of comparatively little to Smith and Brown and their children at +the public school. It is a work apart, which we hope to see +accomplished by the London Philological Society in a manner worthy of +comparison with what has been partly done for German by the brothers +Grimm,--alas that the illustrious duality should have been broken by +death! A lexicon of that kind should be an index to all the more +eminent books in the language; but we do not hold this to be the office +of a dictionary for daily reference. A dictionary that should embrace +every unusual word, every new compound, every metaphorical turn of +meaning, to be found in our great writers, would be a compendium of the +genius of our authors rather than of our language; and a lexicographer +who rakes the books of second and third-rate men for out-of-the-way +phrases is doing us no favor. A dictionary is not a drag-net to bring +up for us the broken pots and dead kittens, the sewerage of speech, as +well as its living fishes. Nor do we think it a fair test of such a +work, that one should seek in it for every odd word that may have +tickled his fancy in a favorite author. Like most middle-aged readers, +we have our specially private volumes. One of these--but we will not +betray the secret of our loves--contains some rare words, such as the +Gallicism _mistresse-piece_, and the delightful hybrid _pundonnore_ for +trifling points-of-honor; yet we by no means complain that we can find +neither of them in Worcester, and only the former (with a ludicrously +mistaken definition) in Webster. + +A conclusive reason with us for preferring Dr. Worcester's Dictionary +is, that its author has properly understood his functions, and has +aimed to give us a true view of English as it is, and not as he himself +may have wished it should be or thought it ought to he. Its etymologies +are sufficient for the ordinary reader,--sometimes superfluously full, +as where the same word is given over and over again in cognate +languages. We do not see the use, under the word PLAIN, of taking up +room with a list like the following: "L. _planus;_ It. _piano;_ Sp. +_piano;_ Fr. _plain._" Not content with this, Dr. Worcester gives it +once more under PLAN: "L. _planus_, flat; It. _piano_, a plan; Sp. +_piano;_ Fr. _plan._--Dut., Ger., Dan., and Sw. _plan._" Even yet we +have not done with it, for under PLANE we find "L. _planus;_ It. +_piano;_ Sp._plano_, Fr. _plan._" One would think this rather a Polyglot +Lexicon than an English Dictionary. It seems to us that no Romanic +derivative of the Latin root should he given, unless to show that the +word has come into English by that channel. And so of the Teutonic +languages. If we have Danish, Swedish, German, and Dutch, why not +Scotch, Icelandic, Frisic, Swiss, and every other conceivable dialectic +variety? + +Another fault of superfluousness we find in the number of compounded +words, where the meaning is obvious,--such, for instance, as are formed +with the adverb out, which the genius of the language permits without +limit in the case of verbs. Dr. Worcester gives us, among many +others,-- + +"OUT-BABBLE, _v. a._ To surpass in Idle prattle; to exceed in babbling. +_Milton._" + +"OUT-BELLOW, _v. a._ To bellow more or louder than; to exceed or +surpass in bellowing. _Bp. Hall._" + +"OUT-BLEAT, _v. a._ To bleat more than; to exceed in bleating. _Bp. +Hall_." + +"OUT-BRAG, _v. a._ To surpass in bragging. _Shak._" + +"OUT-BRIBE, _v, a._ To exceed in bribing. _Blair._" + +"OUT-BURN, _v. a._ To exceed in burning. _Young._" [The definition here +is hardly complete; since the word means also to burn longer than.] + +"OUT-CANT, _v. a._ To surpass in canting. _Pope._" + +"OUT-CHEAT, _v. a._ To surpass in cheating." + +"OUT-CURSE, _v. a._ To surpass in cursing." + +"OUT-DRINK, _v. a._ To exceed in drinking. _Donne._" + +"OUT-FAWN, _v. a._ To excel in fawning. _Hudibras._" + +"OUT-FEAT, _v. a._ To surpass in feats. _Smart._" + +"OUT-FLASH, _v. a._ To surpass in flashing. _Clarke._" + +Similar words occur at frequent intervals through nine columns. Dr. +Webster is equally relentless, (even roping in a few estrays in his +Appendix,) and we hardly know which has out-worded the other. We were +surprised to find in neither the useful and legitimate substantive form +of _outgo_, as the opposite of _income_. This superfluousness (unless +we apply Voltaire's saying, "_Le superflu, chose bien necessaire_" to +dictionaries also) is the result, we suppose, of the rivalry of +publishers, who have done their best to persuade the public that +numerosity is the chief excellence in works of this kind, and that +whoever buys their particular quarto may be sure of an honest +pennyworth and of owning a thousand or two more words than his less +judicious neighbors. In this way a false standard is manufactured, to +which the lexicographer must conform, if he would have a remunerative +sale for his book. He accordingly explores every lane and _impasse_ in +the purlieus of Grub Street, and pounces on a new word as a naturalist +would on a new bug,--the stranger and uglier, the better. We regret +that this kind of rivalry has been forced on Dr. Worcester; but he is +so thorough, patient, and conscientious, that he leaves little behind +him for the gleaner. We confess that the amplitude of his research has +surprised us, highly as we were prepared to rate him in this respect +by our familiarity with his former works. We have subjected his Dictionary +to a pretty severe test. From the time of its publication we have made +a point of seeking in it every unusual word, old or new, that we met with +in our reading. We have been disappointed in hardly a single instance, and +we are not acquainted with any other dictionary of which we could say as +much. + +An attempt has been made to damage Dr. Worcester's work by a partial +comparison of his definitions with those of Dr. Webster; and here, +again, the assumption has been, that _number_ was of more importance +than concise completeness. In the case of a quarto dictionary, we +suppose an honest reviewer may confess that he has not read through the +subject of his criticism. We have opened Dr. Webster's volume at +random, and have found some of his definitions as extraordinarily +inaccurate as many of his etymologies. They quite justify a +_double-entendre_ of Daniel Webster's, which we heard him utter many +years ago in court. He had forced such a meaning upon some word in a +paper connected with the case on trial, that the opposing counsel +interrupted him to ask in what dictionary he found the word so defined. +He silenced his questioner instantly with a happy play upon the name +common to himself and the lexicographer: "In _Webster's_ Dictionary, +Sir!" We find in Webster, for example, the following definition of a +word as to whose meaning he could have been set right by any +coasting-skipper that sailed out of New Haven:-- + +"AMID-SHIPS; _in marine language_, the middle of a ship with regard to +her length and breadth." Now, when one ship runs into another at sea +and strikes her _amid-ships_, how is she to contrive to accomplish it +so as to satisfy the requirements of this definition? Or if a sailor is +said to be standing amidships, must he be planted precisely in what he +would probably agree with Dr. Webster in spelling the _center_ of the +main-hatch? Dr. Worcester, quoting Falconer, is of course right. + +We give another of Dr. Webster's definitions, which caught our eye in +looking over his array of words compounded with _out_. "OUTWARD-BOUND; +proceeding from a port or country." Now Dr. Webster does not tell his +readers that the term is exclusively applicable to vessels; and we +should like to know whence a vessel is likely to proceed, unless from a +port,--and where ports are commonly situated, unless in countries? If +an American ship be "proceeding from" the port of Liverpool to some +port in the United States, how soon does she enter on what +lexicographers call "the state of being" homeward-bound? The narrow +limits to which Dr. Webster confines the word would not extend beyond +the jaws of the harbor from which the ship is sailing. Dr. Worcester's +definition is, "OUTWARD-BOUND. (_Naut_.) Bound outward or to foreign +parts. _Crabb_." + +Under the word MORESQUE we find in Webster the following definition: "A +species of painting or carving done after the Moorish manner, +consisting of _grotesque_ pieces and compartments _promiscuously +interspersed_; arabesque. _Gwilt_." (The Italics are our own.) We have +not Mr. Gwilt's Encyclopaedia at hand; but if this be a fair +representation of one of its definitions, it is a very untrustworthy +authority. The last term to be applied to arabesque-work is +_grotesque_, or _promiscuously interspersed_; and the description here +given leaves out the most beautiful kind of arabesque, namely, the +inlaid work of geometrical figures in colored marbles, in which the +Arabs far surpassed the older _opus Alexandrinum_. Nothing could be +less grotesque, less promiscuously interspersed, or more beautiful in +its harmonious variety, than the work of this kind in the famous +_Capella Reale_ at Palermo. + +Dr. Webster defines NIGHT-PIECE as "a piece of painting so colored as +to be supposed seen by candle-light,"--a description which we suspect +would have somewhat puzzled Gherardo della Notte. + +We might give other instances, had we time and space; but our object is +not to depreciate Webster, but only to show that the claim set up for +him of superior exactness in definition is altogether gratuitous. We +have found no inaccuracies comparable with these in Dr. Worcester's +Dictionary, which we tried in precisely the same way, by opening it +here and there at random. Moreover, looking at his work, not +absolutely, but in comparison with Dr. Webster's, (as we are challenged +to do,) we cannot leave out of view that the former is a first edition, +while the latter has had the advantage of repeated revisions. + +Under the word MAGDALEN, we find Webster superior to Worcester. Under +ULAN, we find them both wrong. Dr. Worcester says it means "a species +of militia among the modern Tartars"; and Dr. Webster, "a certain +description of militia among the modern Tartars." In any Polish +dictionary they would have found the word defined as meaning "lancer," +and the Uhlans in the Austrian army can hardly be described as modern +Tartar militia. Both Dictionaries give SLAW, and neither explains it +rightly. The word does not properly belong in an English dictionary, +unless as an American provincialism of very narrow range. As such, it +will be found, properly defined, in Mr. Bartlett's excellent +Vocabulary. Lexicographers who so often cite the Dutch equivalents of +English words should own Dutch dictionaries. Under IMAGINATION, a good +kind of test-word, we find Worcester much superior to Webster, +especially in illustrative citations. + +We have been astonished by some instances of slovenly writing to be +found here and there in Dr. Webster's Dictionary, because he was +capable of writing pure and vigorous English. Under MAGAZINE (and by +the way, Dr. Webster's definition omits altogether the metaphorical +sense of the word) we read that "The first publication of this bind in +England was the _Gentleman's Magazine_, which first appeared in 1731, +under the name of _Sylvanus Urban_, by Edward Cave, and which is still +continued." A reader who knew nothing about the facts would be puzzled +to say what the name of the new periodical really was, whether +_Gentleman's Magazine_ or _Sylvanus Urban_; and a reader who knew +little about English would be led to think that "appeared by" was +equivalent to "was commenced by," unless, indeed, he came to the +conclusion that its apparition took place in the neighborhood of some +cavern known by the name of Edward. + +We have only a word to say as to the _illustrations_, as they are +called, a mistaken profuseness in which disfigures both Dictionaries, +another evil result of bookselling competition. The greater part of +them, especially those in Webster, are fitter for a child's scrap-book +than for a volume intended to go into a student's library. Such +adjuncts seem to us allowable only, if at all, somewhat as they were +introduced by Blunt in his "Glossographia," to make terms of heraldry +more easily comprehensible. They might be admitted to save trouble in +describing geometrical figures, or in explaining certain of the more +frequently occurring terms in architecture and mechanics, but beyond +this they are childish. The publishers of Webster give us all the +coats-of-arms of the States of the American Union, among other equally +impertinent woodcuts. We enter a protest against the whole thing, as an +equally unfair imputation on the taste and the standard of judgment of +intelligent Americans. If we must have illustrations, let them be strictly +so, and not primer-pictures. Both Dictionaries give us the figure of a +crossbow, for instance, as if there could be anywhere a boy of ten years +old who did not know the implement, at least under its other name of +_bow-gun_. Neither cut would give the slightest notion of the thing as +a weapon, nor of the mode in which it was wound up and let off. Dr. +Worcester says that it was intended "for shooting _arrows_," which is not +strictly correct, since the proper name of the missile it discharged +was _bolt_,--something very unlike the shaft used by ordinary bowmen. + +We believe Dr. Worcester's Dictionary to be the most complete and +accurate of any hitherto published. He intrudes no theories of his own +as to pronunciation or orthography, but cites the opinions of the best +authorities, and briefly adds his own where there is occasion. He is no +bigot for the present spelling of certain classes of words, but gives +them, as he should do, in the way they are written by educated men, at +the same time expressing his belief that the drift of the language is +toward a change, wherever he thinks such to be the case. We reprobate, +in the name of literary decency, the methods which have been employed +to give an unfair impression of his work, as if it had been compiled +merely to supplant Webster, and as if the whole matter were a question +of blind partisanship and prejudice. The assigning of such motives as +these, even by implication, to such men, among many others, as Mr. +Marsh and Mr. Bryant, both of whom have expressed themselves in favor +of the new Dictionary, is an insult to American letters. Mr. Marsh, by +the extent of his learning, is probably better qualified than any other +man in America to pronounce judgment in such a case; and Mr. Bryant has +not left it doubtful that he knows what pure and vigorous English is, +whether in verse or prose, or that he could not employ it except to +maintain a well-grounded conviction. + +Apart from more general considerations, there are several reasons which +would induce us to prefer Dr. Worcester's Dictionary. It has the great +advantage, not only that it is constructed on sounder principles, as it +seems to us, but that it is the latest. Stereotyping is an unfortunate +invention, when it tends to perpetuate error or incompleteness, and +already the Appendix of added words in Webster amounts to eighty pages. +For all the words it contains, accordingly, the reader is put to double +pains: he must first search the main body of the work, and then the +supplement. Again, in Worcester, the synonymes are given, each under +its proper head, in the main work; in Webster they form a separate +treatise. One other advantage of Worcester would be conclusive with us, +even were other things equal,--and that is the size of the type, and +the greater clearness of the page, owing to the freshness of the +stereotype-plates. + +We know the inadequacy of such hand-to-mouth criticism as that of a +monthly reviewer must be upon works demanding so minute an examination +as a dictionary deserves. For ourselves, we should wish to own both +Webster and Worcester, but, if we could possess only one, we should +choose the latter. It is a monument to the industry, judgment, and +accuracy of the author, of which he may well be proud. + + +_Elements of Mechanics, for the Use of Colleges, Academies, and High +Schools._ By WILLIAM G. PECK, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia +College. New York: A.S. Barnes & Burr. 1859. + +Text-books on Mechanics are of three sorts. Many teachers, +school-committees, and parents wish to add a taste of Mechanics to the +smatterings of twenty or thirty different subjects which constitute +"liberal education," as understood in American high schools and +colleges. For this purpose it is of the first importance that the +text-book should be brief, for the time to be devoted to it is very +short; secondly, it must divest the subject of every perplexity and +difficulty, that it may be readily understood by all young persons, +though of small capacity and less application. Such a text-book can +contain nothing beyond the statement, without proof, of the more +important principles, illustrated by familiar examples, and simple +explanations of the commonest phenomena of motion, and of the machines +and mechanical forces used in the arts. To a few it seems that more +light comes into a room through two or three broad windows, though they +be all on one side, than through fifty bull's-eyes, scattered on every +wall. But the many prefer bull's-eyes,--fifty narrow, distorted +glimpses in as many directions, rather than a broad, clear view of the +heavens and the earth in one direction. Hence superficial, scanty +text-books on science are the only ones which are popular and salable. + +The thorough study of Mechanics is, or should be, an essential part of +the training of an architect, an engineer, or a machinist; and there +are several text-books, like Weisbach's Mechanics and Engineering, +intended for students preparing for any of these professions, which are +complete mathematical treatises upon the subject. Such text-books are +invaluable; they become standard works, and win for their authors a +well-deserved reputation. + +Professor Peck's book belongs to neither of the two classes of +text-books indicated, but to a class intermediate between the two. It +is at once too good, too difficult a book for general, popular use, and +too incomplete for the purposes of the professional student. As it +assumes that the student is already acquainted with the elements of +Algebra, Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry, and the Calculus, the +successful use of this text-book in the general classes of any academy +or college will be good evidence that the Mathematics are there taught +more thoroughly than is usual in this country. In few American colleges +is the study of the Calculus required of all students. In preparing a +scientific text-book of this sort, originality is neither aimed at nor +required. A judicious selection of materials, correct translation from +the excellent French and German hand-books, with such changes in the +notation as will better adapt it for American use, and a clear, logical +arrangement are the chief merits of such a treatise; and these are +merits which seldom gain much praise, though their absence would expose +the author to censure. The definitions of Professor Peck's book are +exact and concise, every proposition is rigidly demonstrated, and the +illustrations and descriptions are brief, pointed, and intelligible. +Professor Peck says in the Preface, that the book was prepared "to +supply a want felt by the author when engaged in teaching Natural +Philosophy to college classes"; but surely a teacher who prepares a +text-book for his own classes must need a double share of patience and +zeal. Every error which the book contains will be exposed, and the +author will have ample opportunity to repent of all the inaccuracies +which may have crept into his work. Again, the instructor who uses his +own text-book encounters, besides the inevitable monotony of teaching +the same subject year after year, the additional weariness of finding +in the pages of his text-book no mind but his own, which he has read so +often and with so little satisfaction. Even in teaching Mechanics, +there is no exception to the general rule, that two heads are better +than one. + + * * * * * + +_Stories from Famous Ballads_. For Children. By GRACE GREENWOOD, Author +of "History of my Pets," "Merrie England," etc., etc. With +Illustrations by BILLINGS. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. + +All "famous ballads" are so close to Nature in their conceptions, +emotions, incidents, and expressions, that it seems hardly possible to +change their form without losing their soul. The present little volume +proves that they may be turned into prose stories for children, and yet +preserve much of the vitality of their sentiment and the interest of +their narrative. Grace Greenwood, well known for her previous successes +in writing works for the young, has contrived in this, her most +difficult task, to combine simplicity with energy and richness of +diction, and to present the events and characters of the Ballads in the +form best calculated to fill the youthful imagination and kindle the +youthful love of action and adventure. Among the subjects are Patient +Griselda, The King of France's Daughter, Chevy Chase, The Beggar's +Daughter of Bednall Green, Sir Patrick Spens, and Auld Robin Gray. Much +of the author's success in giving prose versions of these, without +making them prosaic, is due to the intense admiration she evidently +feels for the originals. Among American children's books, this volume +deserves a high place. + + * * * * * + +_Mary Staunton; or the Pupils of Marvel Hall_. By the Author of +"Portraits of, my Married Friends." New York: D. Appleton & Co. + +This story has a practical aim, the exposure of the faults of +fashionable boarding-schools. "A good plot, and full of expectation," +as Hotspur said; but the author had not the ability to execute the +design. The satire and denunciation are both weak, and are not relieved +by the introduction of a very silly and threadbare love-story. + + * * * * * + +_Poems_. By the Author of "John Halifax," "A Life for a Life," etc. +Boston: Ticknor & Fields. + +Some of the verses in this little volume are quite pretty, especially +those entitled, "By the Alma River," "The Night before the Mowing," "My +Christian Name," and "My Love Annie." Miss Muloch is not able to take +any high rank as a poetess, and very sensibly does not try. + + * * * * * + +_Title-Hunting_. By E. L. LLEWELLYN, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & +Co. + +This is a miraculously foolish book. Titled villains, impossible +parvenus, abductions, and convents abound in its pages, and all are as +stupid as they are improbable. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Haunted Homestead, and other Nouvellettes. With an Autobiography of +the Author. By Mrs. Emma D.E.N. Southworth, Author of "India," "Lady +of the Isle," etc., etc. Philadelphia. Peterson and Brothers. 12mo. pp. +292. $1.25. + +Adela, the Octoroon. By H. L. Hosmer. Columbus. Follett, Foster, & Co. +12mo. pp. 400. $1.00. + +The Caxtons: A Family Picture. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Hart. +Library Edition. In Two Volumes. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. +pp. 398, 387. $2.00. + +Julian Home: A Tale of College Life. By Frederic W. Farrar, M.A., +Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Author of "Eric; or, Little by +Little." Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. pp. 420. $1.00. + +Bible History: A Text-Book for Seminaries, Schools, and Families. By +Sarah E. Hanna, (formerly Miss Foster,) Principal of the Female +Seminary, Washington, Pa. New York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 290. 76 +cts. + +Elements of Mechanics: For the Use of Colleges, Academies, and High +Schools. By William G. Peck, M. A,, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia +College. New York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 338. $1.50. + +The Human Voice: its Right Management in Speaking, Reading, and +Debating, including the Principles of True Eloquence; together with the +Functions of the Vocal Organs,--the Motion of the Letters of the +Alphabet,--the Cultivation of the Ear,--the Disorders of the Vocal and +Articulating Organs,--Origin and Construction of the English +Language.--Proper Methods of Delivery,--Remedial Effects of Reading and +Speaking, etc. By the Rev. W. W. Cazalet, A. M., Cantab. New York. +Fowler & Wells. 16mo. paper, pp. 46. 10 cts. + +American Normal Schools: their Theory, their Workings, and their +Results, as embodied in the Proceedings of the First Annual Convention +of the American Normal School Association, held at Trenton, New Jersey, +August 19th and 20th, 1859. New York. Barnes & Burr. 8vo. pp. 113. +$1.25. + +History of the Early Church, from the First Preaching of the Gospel, to +the Council of Nicea. For the Use of Young Persons. By the Author of +"Amy Herbert." New York. Appleton & Co. 16mo. pp. x., 383. 60 cts. + +Our Bible Chronology, Historic and Prophetic, Critically Examined and +Demonstrated, and Harmonized with the Chronology of Profane Writers: +Embracing an Examination and Refutation of the Theories of Modern +Egyptologists. Accompanied with Extensive Chronological and +Genealogical Tables, from the Earliest Records to the Present Time; a +Map of the Ancients; a Chart of the Course of Empires; and Various +Pictorial Illustrations. On a Plan entirely New. Designed for the Use +of Universities, Colleges, Academies, Bible Classes, Sabbath Schools, +Families, etc. By the Rev. R.C. Shimeall, a Member of the Presbytery of +New York; Author of an Illuminated Scripture Chart; Dr. Watts's +Scripture History, Enlarged; a Treatise on Prayer; etc. New York. +Barnes & Burr. 4to. pp. 234. $2.00. + +The National Fifth Reader: Containing a Treatise on Elocution; +Exercises in Reading and Declamation; with Biographical Sketches and +Copious Notes. Adapted to the Use of Students in English and American +Literature. By Richard G. Parker, A.M., and J. Madison Watson. New +York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 600. $1.00. + +Popular Music of the Olden Time: A Collection of Ancient Songs, +Ballads, and Dance Tunes, Illustrative of the National Music of +England. With Short Introductions to the Different Reigns, and Notices +of the Airs from Writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. +Also a Short Account of the Minstrels. By W. Chappell, F.S.A. The whole +of the Airs harmonized by G.A. Macfarren. In Two Volumes. London: +Cramer, Beale, & Chappell. New York. Webb & Allen. 8vo. pp. xx., 822. +(Paged as one vol.) $15.75. + +The Material Condition of the People of Massachusetts. By Rev. Theodore +Parker. Reprinted from the Christian Examiner. Boston. Published by the +Fraternity. 16mo. paper, pp. 52. 15 cts. + +Die Teutschen und die Amerikaner. Von K. Heinzen. Boston. Selbstverlag +des Verfassers. 16mo. paper, pp. 69. 25 cts. + +Letters from Switzerland. By Samuel Irenaeus Prime, Author of "Travels +in Europe and the East," etc., etc. New York. Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. +264. $1.00. + +Disquisitions and Notes on the Gospels. Matthew. By John H. Morison. +Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. 12mo. pp. 588. $1.25. + +Chamber's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the +People. Part XII. New York. Appleton & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. 64. 15 cts. + +The Monikins. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Illustrated from Drawings by +F.O.C. Darley. New York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 454. $1.50. + +Life Before Him. A Novel of American Life. New York. Townsend & Co. +12mo. pp. 401. $1.00. + +Against Wind and Tide. By Holme Lee, Author of "Kathie Brande," "Sylvan +Holt's Daughter," etc. New York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 440. $1.00. + +Mrs. Ellis's Housekeeping Made Easy. A Complete Instructor in all +Branches of Cookery and Domestic Economy. Edited by Mrs. Mowatt. New +York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. paper, pp. 120. 25 cts. + +Life's Evening; or, Thoughts for the Aged. By the Author of "Life's +Morning," etc, Boston. Tilton & Co. 16mo. pp. 265. $1.00. + +Wooing and Warring in the Wilderness. By Charles D. Kirk. New York. +Derby & Jackson. 18mo. pp. 288. $1.00. + +The History of Herodotus. 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By Paul Siogvolk, Author of "Schediasms." +New York. Rudd & Carleton. 16mo. pp. 296. $1.00. + +Elementary Anatomy and Physiology, for Colleges, Academies, and other +Schools. By Edward Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., of Amherst College, and +Edward Hitchcock, Jr., M.D., Teacher in Williston Seminary. New York. +Ivison, Phinney, & Co. 12mo. pp. vi., 442. $1.00. + +Fragments from the Study of a Pastor. By Rev. George W. Nichols, A.M. +New York. H.B. Price. 16mo. pp. 252. 75 cts. + +"My Novel"; or, Varieties in English Life. By Pisistratus Caxton. By +Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. Library Edition. In Four Volumes. +Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. pp. 414, 408, 491, 482. $4.00. + +Cousin Maude and Rosamond. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes, Author of "Lena +Rivers," "Meadow Brook," etc. New York. Saxton, Barker, & Co. 12mo. pp. +374. $1.25. + +The Caxtons: A Family Picture. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. +Library Edition. New York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 505. $1.00. + +Stories of Rainbow and Lucky. By Jacob Abbott. The Three Pines. New +York. Harper & Brothers. 16mo. pp. 190. 50 cts. + +Stories of Inventors and Discoverers in Science and the Useful Arts. A +Book for Old and Young. By John Timbs, F.S.A. With Illustrations. New +York. Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 473. $1.25. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 5, NO. 31, MAY, 1860 *** + +This file should be named 705a510.txt or 705a510.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 705a511.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 705a510a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 31, May, 1860 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9472] +[This file was first posted on October 3, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOL. 5, NO. 31, MAY, 1860 *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Tonya Allen, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS + +VOL. V, MAY, 1860, NO. XXXI + + + + + + +INSTINCT. + + +"Instinct is a great matter," quoth Falstaff, when called upon to find +out a device, a "starting-hole," to hide himself from the open and +apparent shame of having run away from the fight and hacked his sword +like a handsaw with his own dagger. Like a valiant lion, he would not +turn upon the true prince, but ran away upon instinct. Although the +peculiar circumstances of the occasion upon which the subject was +presented to Falstaff's mind were not very favorable to a calm +consideration of it, he was undoubtedly correct in saying that instinct +is a great matter. "If, then, the tree may be known by the fruit," says +Falstaff, "as the fruit by the tree, then, peremptorily I speak it, +there is virtue in that Falstaff"; and it is proper that his authority +should be quoted, even upon a question of metaphysical science. + +That psychological endowment of animals which we denominate instinct +has in every age been a matter full of wonder; and men of thought have +found few more interesting subjects of inquiry. But it is confessed +that little has been satisfactorily made out concerning the nature and +limitations of instinct. In former times the habits and mental +characteristics of those orders of animated being which are inferior to +man were observed with but a careless eye; and it was late before the +phenomena of animal life received a careful and reverent examination. +It is vain to inquire what instinct is, before there has been an +accurate observation of its manifestations. It is only from its outward +manifestations that we can know anything of that marvellous inward +nature which is given to animals. We cannot know anything of the +essential constitution of mind, but can know only its properties. This +is all we know even of matter. "If material existence," says Sir +William Hamilton, "could exhibit ten thousand phenomena, and if we +possessed ten thousand senses to apprehend these ten thousand phenomena +of material existence, of existence absolutely and in itself we should +be then as ignorant as we are at present." But this limitation of human +knowledge has not always been kept in view. Men have been solicitous to +penetrate into the higher mysteries of absolute and essential +existence. But in thus reaching out after the unattainable, we have +often passed by the only knowledge which it was possible for us to +gain. Much vague speculation concerning instinct has arisen from the +attempt to resolve the problem of its ultimate nature; and perhaps much +more might have been made out with certainty about it, if no greater +task had been attempted than to classify the phenomena which it +exhibits and determine the nature of its manifestations. In regard to +instinct, as well as everything else, we must be content with finding +out what it seems to us to be, rather than what it is. Even with this +limitation, the inquiry will prove sufficiently difficult. The +properties of instinct are a little more inscrutable than those of the +human mind, inasmuch as we have our own consciousness to assist us in +this case, while we are left to infer the peculiarities of instinct +from its outward manifestations only. And moreover, the inquiry +involves an understanding of the workings of the human mind; for it is +only when viewed in contrast with the rational endowments of man that +the character of instinct is best known. All other questions connected +with the subject are subordinate to this one of the apparent difference +between instinct and reason. + +Many definitions have been given of instinctive actions. These differ +widely in their extent, and are for the most part quite inadequate. +Some writers have ranged under this term all those customary habits and +actions which are common to all the individuals of a species. According +to this definition, almost every action of animated life is +instinctive. But the general idea of an instinctive action is much more +restricted; it is one that is performed without instruction and prior +to experience,--and not for the immediate gratification of the agent, +but only as the means for the attainment of some ulterior end. To apply +the term instinct to the regular and involuntary movements of the +bodily organs, such as the beating of the heart and the action of the +organs of respiration, is manifestly an extension of the ordinary +acceptation of the term. Organic actions of a similar character are +also performed by plants, and are purely mechanical. "In the lowest and +simplest class of excited movements," says Müller, "the nervous system +would not appear to be concerned. They result from stimuli directly +applied to the muscles, which immediately excite their contractility; +and they are evidently of the same character with the motions of +plants." Thus, the heart is excited to pulsation by the direct contact +of the blood with the muscle. The hand of a sleeping child closes upon +any object which gently touches the palm. And it is in this way, +doubtless, that the Sea Anemone entraps its prey, or anything else that +may come in contact with its tentacles. But so far are these movements +from indicating of themselves the action of any instinctive principle, +that they are no proof of animality; for a precisely analogous power is +possessed by the sensitive plant known as the Fly-Trap of Venus +(_Dionoea muscipula_): "any insect touching the sensitive hairs on the +surface of its leaf instantly causes the leaf to shut up and enclose +the insect, as in a trap; nor is this all; a mucilaginous secretion +acts like a gastric juice on the captive, digests it, and renders it +assimilable by the plant, which thus feeds on the victim, as the +Actinea feeds on the Annelid or Crustacean it may entrap." In the +animal organization a large class of reflex actions are excited, not by +a direct influence, but indirectly by the agency of the nerves and +spinal cord. Such actions are essentially independent of the brain; for +they occur in animals which have no brain, and in those whose brain has +been removed. However marvellous these functions of organic life may +be, there is nothing in them at all resembling that agency properly +called instinct, which may be said to take the place in the inferior +tribes of reason in man. To refer these operations to the same source +as the wonderful instinct that guides the bird in its long migratory +flight, or in the construction of its nest, would be to make the bird a +curiously constructed machine which is operated by impressions from +without upon its sentient nerves. + +Those actions have sometimes been called instinctive which arise from +the appetites and passions; and they have been referred to instinct, +doubtless, because they have one characteristic of instinct,--that they +are not acquired by experience or instruction. "But they differ," says +Professor Bowen, "at least in one important respect from those +instincts of the lower animals which are usually contrasted with human +reason. The objects towards which they are directed are prized for +their own sake; they are sought as _ends_; while instinct teaches +brutes to do many things which are needed only as means for the +attainment of some ulterior purpose." When the butterfly extracts the +nectar from the flowers which she loves most, she meets a want of her +physical nature which demands satisfaction at the moment; but when, in +opposition to her appetite, she proceeds to the flowerless shrub to +deposit her eggs upon the leaves best suited to support her +unthought-of progeny, she is not influenced by any desire for the +immediate gratification of her senses, but is led to the act by some +dim impulse, in order that an ultimate object may be provided for to +which she has no reference at the time. We are surprised to find it +declared, in the very interesting "Psychological Inquiries" of Sir B.C. +Brodie, that the desire for food is the simplest form of an instinct, +and that such an instinct goes far towards explaining others which are +more complicated. It is true that the appetites and passions of animals +have an ultimate object, but they are impelled to action by a desire +for immediate gratification only; but when we speak of an instinct, we +mean something more than a mere want or desire,--we have chiefly in +view the end beyond the blind instrumentality by which it is reached. + +When we watch the movements of a young bee, as it first goes forth from +its waxen cradle, we are forced to recognize an influence at work which +is unlike reason, and which is neither appetite nor any mechanical +principle of organic life. Rising upon the comb, and holding steadily +with its tiny feet, with admirable adroitness the young bee smooths its +wings for its first flight, and rubs its body with its fore legs and +antennae; then walking along the comb to the mouth of the hive, it +mounts into the air, flies forth into the fields, alights upon the +proper flowers, extracts their juices, collects their pollen, and, +kneading it into little balls, deposits them in the sacks upon its +feet; and then returning to its hive, it delivers up the honey and the +wax and the bread which it has gathered and elaborated. In the hive it +works the wax with its paws and feelers into an hexagonal cell with a +rhomboidal bottom, the three plates of which form such angles with each +other as require the least wax and space in the construction of the +cell. All these complex operations the bee performs as adroitly, on the +first morning of its life, as the most experienced workman in the hive. +The tyro gatherer sought the flowery fields upon untried wings, and +returned to its home from this first expedition with unerring flight by +the most direct course through the trackless air. + +This is one instance of that great class of actions which are allowed +on all hands to be strictly instinctive. In the fact, that the occult +faculties which urge the bee to make honey and construct geometrical +cells are in complete development when it first emerges from its cell, +we recognize one of the most striking characteristics of instinct,--its +existence prior to all experience or instruction. The insect tribes +furnish us with many instances in which the young being never sees its +parents, and therefore all possibility of its profiting from their +instructions or of its imitating their actions is cut off. The solitary +wasp, for example, is accustomed to construct a tunnelled nest in which +she deposits her eggs and then brings a number of living caterpillars +and places them in a hole which she has made above each egg; being very +careful to furnish just caterpillars enough to maintain the young worm +from the time of its exclusion from the egg till it can provide for +itself, and to place them so as to be readily accessible the moment +food is required. But what is most curious of all is the fact that the +wasp does not deposit the caterpillars unhurt, for thus they would +disturb or perhaps destroy the young; nor does she sting them to death, +for thus they would soon be in no state of proper preservation; but, as +if understanding these contingencies, she inflicts a disabling wound. +Yet the wasp does not feed upon caterpillars herself, nor has she ever +seen a wasp provide them for her future offspring. She has never seen a +worm such as will spring from her egg, nor can she know that her egg +will produce a worm; and besides, she herself will be dead long before +the unknown worm can be in existence. Therefore she works blindly; +without knowing that her work is to subserve any useful purpose, she +works to a purpose both definite and important; and her acts are +uniform with those of all solitary wasps that have lived before her or +that will live after her; so that we are compelled to refer these +untaught actions to some constant impulse connected with the special +organization of the wasp,--an innate tact, uniform throughout the +species, of which we, not possessing anything of the kind, can form +only a poor conception, but which we call instinct. + +There have been some philosophers, however, who have exercised their +ingenuity in tracing so-called instinctive actions to the operation of +experience. The celebrated Doctor Erasmus Darwin gave, as an +illustration of this view, his opinion that the young of animals know +how to swallow from their experience of swallowing _in utero_. Without +going into any refutation of this position, we would only remark, in +passing, that the act of swallowing is not an instinctive action at +all, but a purely mechanical one. Would not Doctor Darwin have rejoiced +greatly, if he could have brought to the support of his theory the +observation of our own great naturalist, Agassiz, who, knowing the +savage snap of one of the large, full-grown Testudinata, is said to +have asserted, that, under the microscope, he has seen the juvenile +turtle snapping precociously _in embryo_? + +But not only is instinct prior to all experience, it is even superior +to it, and often leads animals to disregard it,--the spontaneous +impulse which Nature has given them being their best guide. The +carrier-pigeon or the bird of passage, taken a long distance from home +by a circuitous route, trusting to this "pilot-sense," flies back in a +straight course; and the hound takes the shortest way home through +fields where he has never previously set foot. + +The existence of instinct prior to all experience or instruction, and +its perfection in the beginning, render cultivation and improvement not +only unnecessary, but impossible. As it is with the individual, so it +is with the race. One generation of the irrational tribes does not +improve upon the preceding or educate its successor. The web which you +watched the spider weaving in your open window last summer, carefully +measuring off each radius of her wheel and each circular mesh by one of +her legs, was just such a web as the spider wove of old when she was +pronounced to be "little upon the earth, yet exceeding wise." + +This incapacity for education is what so widely separates instinct from +the rational powers of man. Man gathers knowledge and transmits it from +generation to generation. He is not born with a ready skill, but with a +capacity for it. His mind is formed destitute of all connate knowledge, +that it may acquire the knowledge of all things. "Man's imperfection at +his nativity is his perfection; while the perfection of brutes at their +nativity is their imperfection." No rational being has ever arrived at +such perfection that he cannot still improve; he can travel on from one +attainment to another in a perpetual progress of improvement. He is, +moreover, free to choose his own path of action; while the being of +instinct is governed by a power which is not subject to his will, and +which confines him to a narrow path which he cannot leave. But +instinct, within its narrow limits, in many cases quite transcends +reason in its achievements. + + "Man's attainments in his own concerns, + Matched with the expertness of the brutes in theirs, + Are ofttimes vanquished and thrown far behind." + +Perhaps man has never made a structure as perfect in all its +adaptations as the honeycomb. Yet when Virgil spoke of the belief that +bees have a portion of the mind divine, nothing was known of the +wonderful mathematical properties of this beautiful fabric; and the +demonstration of them which has been made within the present century is +beyond the comprehension of far the larger part of mankind. If the bee +comprehended the problem which it has been working out for these many +ages before man was able to solve it, would its intellectual powers be +inferior to his in degree, if they were the same in kind? The +water-spider weaves for herself a cocoon, makes it impervious to water, +and fastens it by loose threads to the leaves of plants growing at the +bottom of a still pool. She carries down air in a bag made for this +purpose, till the water is expelled from the cell through the opening +below. The spider lived quite dry in her little air-chamber beneath the +water ages before the diving-bell was invented; but that she understood +anything of the doctrines of space and gravity, no one would venture to +assert. + +It has been the belief of some philosophers, and poets as well, that +man has taken the hint for some of the arts he now practises from the +brute creation. Democritus represents him as having derived the arts of +weaving and sewing from the spider, and the art of building of tempered +clay from the swallow; and we also read in Pliny's "Natural History," +that the nest of the swallow suggested to Toxius, the son of Coelus, +the invention of mortar. According to Lucretius, men learned music from +the song of birds, and Pope describes them as learning from the mole to +plough, from the nautilus to sail, and from bees and ants to form a +political community. Perhaps we were behind the beaver in felling +timber, in leading dams across rivers, and in building cabin +villages,--behind the wasp in making paper, and behind the squirrel and +spider in crossing streams upon rafts. So, if man had needed any +example of war and violence and wrong, he had only to go to the +ant-hill and see the red ants invade the camps of the black and bear +off their little negro prisoners into slavery. + +Whatever truth there may be in these ideas, it is at least conceivable +that man may have profited from the example of these animals. He has +copied from patterns set by Nature in tree and leaf and flower and +plant; he has formed the Gothic arch and column from the trunks and +interlacing boughs of the lofty avenue, the Corinthian capital from the +acanthus foliage embracing a basket, and classic urns and vases from +flowers. But no one could describe one species of the brute world as +having derived a similar lesson from another, and much less from trees +and plants. No species of animals has learnt anything new even from +man, except within the narrow sphere of domestication. + +It is only in particulars that instinct appears superior to reason in +the works it achieves. When an animal is taken, ever so little, out of +the ordinary circumstances in which its instincts act, it is apt to +behave very foolishly. If a woodpecker's egg is hatched by a bird which +builds an open nest upon the branches of a tree, when the young bird is +grown large enough to shuffle about in the nest, induced by its +instinct to suppose that its nest is in a hole walled round on all +sides by the tree, with a long, narrow entrance down from above, it +does not see that it has been inducted into the open nest of another +bird, and is sure to tumble out. The bee and the ant, in a few +particulars, show wonderful sagacity; but remove them from the narrow +compass of their instincts, and all their wisdom is at an end. That +animals are so wise in a few things and so wanting in wisdom in all +others shows that they are endowed with a mental principle essentially +of a different nature from that of the human race. "They do many things +even better than ourselves," says Descartes; "but this does not prove +them to be endowed with reason, for this would prove them to have more +reason than we have, and that they should excel us in all other things +also"; for reason can act not only in one direction, but in all. + +But it will be said that instinct is not invariable,--that it often +displays a capacity of accommodating itself, like reason, to +circumstances, and is therefore a principle the same in kind with +it,--or else that the animal has something of the rational faculty +superadded to the instinctive. But does the animal make these +variations in its conduct from a true perception of their meaning and +purpose? + +It is very natural for us to ascribe to reason those actions of other +animals which would be ascribable to reason, if performed by man. "If," +says Keller, (an old German writer,) "the fly be enabled to choose the +place which suits her best for the deposition of her eggs, (as, for +instance, in my sugar-basin, in which I placed a quantity of decaying +wheat,) she takes a correct survey of every part and selects that in +which she believes her ova will be the best preserved and her young +ones well cared for." The fly, in this instance, apparently exercises +an intelligent choice; but does any one doubt that the selection she +makes is determined wholly by a blind, uncalculating instinct? The +beaver selects a site for his dam at a place where the depth, width, +and rapidity of the stream are most fit. There is a tree upon the bank, +and food and materials for his work in the vicinity. If a man should +attempt to build a beaver's dam, he would abstractly consider all these +elements of fitness. The outward manifestations of the quality of +abstraction are equally observable in either case. But we must not +hastily conclude, because the beaver in one instance acts in a manner +apparently reasonable, that he has any reason of his own; for, when we +come to study the habits of this animal, we find that he displays all +the characteristics of the instinctive principle. If animals are +endowed with instincts which apparently act so much like reason in the +ordinary course of their operations, we should not at once conclude +that there is any need of endowing them with a modicum of reason to +account for their deviations from this course, which do not outwardly +resemble the acts of reason any more strongly. And besides, it is said, +that, if we refer the variations to an intelligent principle, we must +refer the ordinary conduct to the same principle. To use an old +illustration,--if a bird is reasonable and intelligent, when, on +perceiving the swollen waters of the stream approach her half-finished +nest, she builds higher up the bank, she was intelligent while making +her first nest, and was always intelligent; for how otherwise, it is +asked, could she know when to lay down instinct and take up reason? + +Instinct aims at certain definite ends; but these ends cannot always be +reached by the same means, especially when places and circumstances are +not the same. Accommodation is necessary, or it could not always +produce the effects for which it is intended. Would the instinct of the +spider be complete, if, after it has guided her to spin a web so neat +and trim and regular, it did not also lead her to repair her broken +snare, when the cords have been sundered by the struggles of some +powerful captive? But this pliancy of the spider's instinct is no more +remarkable than the contingent operation of the instincts of many +species of animals. "It is remarkable," says Kirby, "that many of the +insects which are occasionally observed to emigrate are not usually +social animals, but seem to congregate, like swallows, merely for the +purpose of emigration." When certain rare emergencies occur, which +render it necessary for the insects to migrate, a contingent instinct +develops itself, and renders an unsocial species gregarious. + +It is probable that most of our domesticated species, exhibiting as +they do in that condition attainments foreign to their natural habits +and faculties in a wild state, were endowed with provisional instincts +with a view to their association with man. But generally the docility +of animals does not extend to attainments which are radically different +from their habits and faculties in a wild state. Casual acquirements, +which have no relation to their exigencies in their natural condition, +never become hereditary, and are not, therefore, instinctive. A young +pointer-dog, which has never been in the fields before, will not only +point at a covey of partridges, but will remain motionless, like a +well-trained dog. The fact that the sagacity of the pointer is +hereditary shows that it is the development of an instinctive +propensity; for simple knowledge is not transmitted by blood from one +generation to another. We have heard of a pig that pointed game, and of +another that was learned in letters; but we ascertain in every such +instance that their foreign acquirements do not reappear in their +progeny, but end with the pupils of the time being. The pig's +peculiarity of pointing did not arise from the development of a +provisional instinct, because it does not become hereditary; but the +same act in the pointer-dog is instinctive,--for, when once brought out +by associating with man, it has remained with the breed, being a part +of the animal's nature, which existed in embryo till it was developed +by a companionship with man, for whose use this faculty was alone +intended. + +Although the animals which especially display these exceptional or +contingent instincts are those which are fitted for the use and comfort +of man and may be domesticated, it is doubtless true that many other +species are in some degree provided with them, and that they thus have +a plasticity in their nature which enables them to exercise, under +particular circumstances, unlooked-for attention, foresight, and +caution. And besides, it is only in analogy with the laws of the +physical world that instinct should admit of a slightly diversified +application. + +It is to be noticed in this connection that many animals are gifted +with a wonderful sensibility of the senses,--the action of which is +sometimes mistaken not only for the action of instinct, but for that of +reason also. The acuteness of the sense of smell in the dog, which +enables him to trace the steps of his master for miles through crowded +streets by the infinitesimal odor which his footsteps left upon the +pavement, is quite beyond our conception. Equally incomprehensible to +us are the keenness of sight and wide range of vision of the eagle, +which enable him to discover the rabbit nipping the clover amid the +thick grass at a distance at which a like object would be to us +altogether imperceptible. The chameleon is enabled to seize the little +insects upon which it feeds by darting forth its wonderfully +constructed tongue with such rapidity and with such delicacy of +perception that "wonder-loving sages" have told us that it feeds upon +the air. + +It has been the belief of some observers that some animals have senses +by which they are enabled to take cognizance of things which are not +revealed directly to our senses. It is easy enough to conceive of +beings endowed with a more perfect perception of the external world, +both in its condition and the number of objects it presents, than we +have, by means of other organs of outward perception. Voltaire, in one +of his philosophical romances, represents an inhabitant of one of the +planets of the Dog-Star as inquiring of the Secretary of the Academy of +Sciences in the planet of Saturn, at which he had recently arrived in a +journey through the heavens, how many senses the men of his globe had; +and when the Academician answered, that they had seventy-two, and were +every day complaining of the smallness of the number, he of the +Dog-Star replied, that in his globe they had very near one thousand +senses, and yet with all these they felt continually a sort of listless +inquietude and vague desire which told them how very imperfect they +were. But we shall not travel so far as this for our illustrations. We +have all seen in the fields and about our houses birds and insects +which seem to take cognizance of the electric state of the atmosphere; +and we have learnt to feel quite sure, when, early in the morning of a +summer's day, we see fresh piles of sand around the holes of the ants, +that a storm is approaching, although the sky may as yet be cloudless +and the air perfectly serene. In like manner birds perceive the +approach of rain, and are all busy oiling and smoothing their feathers +in preparation for it; and then, before the clouds break away, they +come out from their retreats and joyfully hail the return of fair +weather. So, by some analogous sense, the birds of passage are informed +of the approach of winter and the return of spring. + +It is doubtless true that in some animals the senses are immediately +connected with instincts which assist and extend their operation. +Metaphysicians and physiologists are agreed that the perception of +distance is an acquired knowledge. The sense of sight by itself +principally makes us conversant with extension only. The painting upon +the retina of the eye presents all external things with flat surfaces +and at the same distance. Before we can have any correct ideas of +distance, we must be able to compare the result of the sense of sight +with the result of the sense of feeling. By experience we in time come +to judge something of distance by the size of the image which an object +makes upon the retina, but more by our acquired knowledge of the form +and color of external things. It is true that the eyes of many animals +are constructed like those of man; but they do not learn to judge of +distance by the same slow process. It is known from experiment that +some animals have a perfect conception of distance at the moment of +their birth; and the young of the greater part of animals possess some +instinctive perception of this kind. "A flycatcher, for example, just +come out of its shell, has been seen to peck at an insect with an aim +as perfect as if it had been all its life engaged in learning the art." +And so when the hen takes her chickens out into the field for the first +time to feed, they seem to perceive very distinctly the relative +distance of all objects about them, and will run by the straightest +course when she calls them to pick up the little grains which she +points out to them. Without this instinctive power of determining the +relative distance and figure of objects, the young of most animals +would perish before their sense of sight could be perfected, as ours +is, by experience. + +We have now noticed the chief characteristics of instinct: its +existence prior to all experience or instruction; its incapacity of +improvement, except within the narrow sphere of domestication; its +limitation to a few objects, and the certainty of its action within +these limits; the distinctness and permanence of its character for each +species; and its constant hereditary nature. In regard to the +uniformity of instinct throughout each species, it may be further +remarked, that this seems to be very constantly preserved in the lowest +divisions of the animal kingdom. Among the Articulates, also, instinct +appears almost unvarying; and it is in this department among the insect +tribes that the most striking manifestations of instinct are to be met +with. When we arrive among the higher orders of the Vertebrates, we +find in some species that each individual is capable of some +modification of its actions, according to the particular circumstances +in which it finds itself placed. But throughout the long series of +animals, from the polype to man, there is instinctive action more or +less in amount in every species, with, perhaps, the exception of man +alone. The variety of that endowment, which is adapted to definite +objects, means, and results, in each particular one of the five hundred +thousand species estimated to be now living, may well call forth our +admiration and astonishment at the magnitude and extent of the +prospective contrivance of the Creator. How various the relations of +all these animals to each other and to the inanimate world about them! +and yet how admirable the adjustments of that immaterial principle +which regulates their lives, so as to secure the well-being of each and +the symmetry of the general plan! + +There has been much diversity of opinion as to the existence of +instincts in the human species,--some making the whole mind of man +nothing but a bundle of instincts, and others wholly denying him any +endowment of this nature, while others still have given him a complex +mental nature, and have, moreover, declared that intellect and instinct +in him are so interwoven that it is impossible to tell where the one +begins and the other ends. But we believe, with the author of "Ancient +Metaphysics," that in Nature, however intimately things are blended +together and run into each other like different shades of the same +color, the species of things are absolutely distinct, and that there +are certain fixed boundaries which separate them, however difficult it +may be for us to find them out. In regard to intelligence and instinct, +the two principles seem to us to be not more distinctly and widely +separated in their nature than in the provinces of their operation. + +Sir Henry Holland, who believes that intelligence and instinct are +blended in man, admits that instincts, properly so called, form the +_minimum_ in relation to reason, and are difficult of definition from +their connection with his higher mental functions, but that, wherever +we can truly distinguish them, they are the same in principle and +manner of operation as those of other animals. He makes one +distinction, however, between the instincts of man and those of lower +animals,--that in the former they have more of individual character, +are far less numerous and definite in relation to the physical +conditions of life, and more various and extensive in regard to his +moral nature. But, on the other hand, Sir B.C. Brodie seems to be of +opinion that the majority of instincts belonging to man resemble those +of the inferior animals, inasmuch as they relate to the preservation of +the individual and the continuation of the species; and that when man +first began to exist, and for some generations afterwards, the range of +his instincts was much more extensive than it is at the present time. +When authorities so eminent as these differ so widely upon the +question, to what human instincts relate, we see at least that it is +very difficult to define and distinguish these instincts, and we may be +led to doubt their existence at all. Of that marvellous endowment which +guides the bee to fabricate its cells according to laws of the most +rigid mathematical exactness, and guides the swallow in its long flight +to its winter home, we agree with Professor Bowen, that there is no +trace whatever in human nature. The actions of man which have been +loosely described as instinctive belong for the most part to those +classes of actions which we have already shown to be in no proper sense +of the word instinctive, that is, those concerned in the appetites and +in the functions of organic life. There are also numerous automatic and +habitual actions which are liable to be mistaken for instincts. Some +have included in the category of instincts those intuitive perceptions +and primary beliefs which are a part of our constitution, and are the +foundation of all our knowledge. But these propensities of thought and +feeling are of a higher nature than mere instincts; they are immutable +laws of the human mind, which time and physical changes cannot reach: +they do not seem to depend upon the physical organization, but to be +inherent in the soul itself. If these are instincts, then, why are not +all the ways in which the mind exerts itself instincts also, and reason +itself an instinct? + +There is hardly any human action, feeling, or belief, which has not +been ranged under the term instinct. Hunger and thirst have been called +instincts; so have the faculty of speech, the use of the right hand in +preference to the left, the love of society, the desire to possess +property, the desire to avoid danger and prolong life, and the belief +in supernatural agencies, upon which is engrafted the religious +sentiment. We cannot, in this paper, attempt to analyze these and many +other similar examples which have been given as illustrations of +instinct in treatises of high repute, and show that they do not at all +come within that class of actions which we contrast with reason. In +regard to those actions of early infancy which have often been adduced +as illustrations of instinct, the physiologists of the present day are +agreed that they are as mechanical as the act of breathing. To place +these upon the same level with the complex and wonderful operations of +the bee, the ant, and the beaver, is to admit that the instincts of the +latter are merely reflex actions following impressions on the nerves of +sense. + +On the other hand, whether the animals inferior to man ever exercise +any conscious process of reasoning is a question which has often been +discussed, and upon which there is no general agreement. Instances of +the remarkable sagacity of some domesticated animals are often adduced +as proofs of reasoning on their part. Some of these wonderful feats may +be traced to the unconscious faculty of imitation, which even in man +often appears as a blind propensity, although he exercises an active +and rational imitation as well. Sometimes the mere association of +ideas, or the perception by animals that one thing is accompanied by +another or that one event follows another, is mistaken for that higher +principle which in man judges, reflects, and understands causes and +effects. When the dog sees his master take down his gun, his +blandishments show that he anticipates a renewal of the pleasures of +the chase. He does not reflect upon past pleasures; but, seeing the gun +in his master's hand, a confused idea of the feelings that were +associated with the gun in times past is called up. So the ox and the +horse learn to associate certain movements with the voice and gesture +of man. And so a fish, about the most stupid of all animals, comes to a +certain spot at a certain signal to be fed. These combinations are +quite elementary. This is quite another thing from that reciprocal +action of ideas on each other by which man perceives the relations of +things, understands the laws of cause and effect, and not only forms +judgments of the past, but draws conclusions which are laws for the +future. We find in the brute no power of attending to and arranging its +thoughts,--no power of calling up the past at will and reflecting upon +it. The animal has the faculty of memory, and, when this is awakened, +the object remembered may be accompanied by a train or attendance of +accessory notions which have been connected with the object in the +animal's past experience. But it never seems to be able to exercise the +purely voluntary act of recollection. It is not capable of comparing +one thing with another, so far as we can judge. If the animal could +exercise any true act of comparison, there would be no limit to the +exercise of it, and the animal would be an intelligent being; for the +result of a simple act of comparison is judgment, and reasoning is only +a double act of comparison. We have the authority of Sir William +Hamilton for saying that the highest function of mind is nothing higher +than comparison. Hence comes thought,--hence, the power of discovering +truth,--and hence, the mind's highest dignity, in being able to ascend +unassisted to the knowledge of a God. Those who hold that the minds of +the inferior animals are essentially of the same nature with that of +the human race, and differ only in degree, should reflect that the +distinguishing attribute of the human mind does not admit of degrees. +The faculty of comparison, in all its various applications, must be +either wholly denied or else wholly attributed. Hence, Pope is not +philosophical, when he applies the epithet "half-reasoning" to the +elephant. "As reasoning," says Coleridge, "consists wholly in a man's +power of seeing whether any two ideas which happen to be in his mind +are or are not in contradiction with each other, it follows of +necessity, not only that all men have reason, but that every individual +has it in the same degree." We gather also from the same acute writer +that in the simple determination, "black is not white," all the powers +are implied that distinguish man from other animals. If, then, the +brute reasoned at all, he would be a rational being, and would improve +and gain knowledge by experience; and, moreover, he would be a moral +agent, accountable for his conduct. "Would not the brute," asks an able +writer in the "Zoölogical Journal," "take a survey of his lower powers, +and would he not, as man does, either rightly use or pervert them, at +his pleasure?" + +It has been suggested by some one, that, by the law of merciful +adaptation, which extends throughout the universe, thought would not be +imprisoned and pent up forever in an intelligence wanting the power of +expression. But it is also to be noticed that the want of an articulate +language or a system of general signs puts it out of the power of +animals to perform a single act of reasoning. The use of language to +communicate wants and feelings is not peculiar to "word-dividing men," +though enjoyed by them in a much higher degree than by other animals. +Doubtless every species of social animals has some kind of language, +however imperfect it may be. "We never watch the busy workers of the +ant-hill," says Acheta Domestics, (the author of "Episodes of +Insect-Life,") "stopping as they encounter and laying their heads +together, without being pretty certain that they are saying to each +other something quite as significant as 'Fine day.'" And when the +morning wakes the choral song of the birds, they seem to be telling +each other of their happiness. But though animals have a language +appropriate to the expression of their sensations and emotions, they +have no words, "those shadows of the soul, those living sounds." Words +are symbols of thoughts, and may be considered as a revelation of the +human mind. It is this use of language as an instrument of thought, as +a system of general signs, which, according to Bishop Whately, +distinguishes the language of man from that of the brute; and the same +eminent authority declares that without such a system of general signs +the reasoning process could not be conducted. + +It is true, that we often see in the inferior animals manifestations of +deductions of intellect similar to those of the human mind,--only that +they are not made by the animals themselves, but for them and above +their conscious perception. "When a bee," says Dr. Reid, "makes its +combs so geometrically, the geometry is not in the bee, but in that +great Geometrician who made the bee, and made all things in number, +weight, and measure." Since the animal is not conscious of the +intelligence and design which are manifested in its instincts, which it +obeys and works out, the conscious life of the individual must be +wholly a life within the senses. The senses alone can give the animal +only an empirical knowledge of the world of its observation. The senses +may register and report facts, but they can never arrive at an +understanding of necessary truths; the source of this kind of knowledge +is the rational mind, which has an active disposition to draw out these +infallible laws and eternal truths from its own bosom. The main +tendency of the rational mind is not towards mere phenomena, but their +scientific explanation. It seeks to trace effects, as presented to us +by the senses, back to the causes which produced them; or contemplating +things wholly metaphysical, it seeks to follow out the laws which it +has itself discovered, till they have gone through a thousand probable +contingencies and lost themselves in numberless results. It is on +account of this capacity and tendency of the human mind to look through +fact to law, through individuals to classes, through effects to causes, +through phenomena to general principles, that the late Dr. Burnap was +led to declare, in a very interesting course of lectures which he +delivered before the Lowell Institute a few years since, that he +considered the first characteristic difference between the highest +species of animals and the lowest race of man to be a capacity of +science. But is not the whole edifice of human science built upon the +simple faculty of comparison? + +This is the ultimate analysis of all the highest manifestations of the +human mind, whether of judgment, or reason, or intellect, or common +sense, or the power of generalization, or the capacity of science. We +have already quoted Hamilton to this effect, and we, moreover, have his +authority for saying that the faculty of discovering truth, by a +comparison of the notions we have obtained by observation and +experience, is the attribute by which man is distinguished as a +creature higher than the animals. We might also cite Leibnitz to the +effect that men differ from animals in being capable of the formation +of necessary judgments, and hence capable of demonstrative sciences. + +But notwithstanding it seems so apparent that what is customarily +called reason is the distinguishing endowment which makes man the +"paragon of animals," we very often meet with attempts to set up some +other distinction. We cannot here go into an examination of these +various theories, or even allude to them specially. We will, however, +briefly refer to a view which was recently advanced in one of our +leading periodicals, inasmuch as it makes prominent a distinction which +we wish to notice, although it seems to us to be only subordinate to +the distinguishing attribute of the human mind which we have already +pointed out. It is said that self-consciousness is what makes the great +difference between man and other animals; that the latter do not +separate themselves consciously from the world in which they exist; and +that, though they have emotions, impulses, pains, and pleasures, every +change of feeling in them takes at once the form of an outward change +either in place or position. It is not intended, however, to be said +that they have no conscious perception of external things. We cannot +possibly conceive of an animal without this condition of consciousness. +A consciousness of an outward world is an essential quality of the +animal soul; this distinguishes the very lowest form of animal life +from the vegetable world; and hence it cannot possibly be, as has been +suggested by some, that there are any animate beings which have no +endowments superior to those which belong to plants. The plant is not +conscious of an outward world, when it sends out its roots to obtain +the nourishment which is fitting for itself; but the polype, which is +fixed with hundreds of its kind on the same coral-stock, and is able +only to move its mouth and tentacles, is aware of the presence of the +little craw-fish upon which it feeds, and throws out its lasso-cells +and catches it. The world of which the polype has any perception is not +a very large one. The outer world of a bird is vastly greater; and man +knows a world without, which is immeasurably large beyond that of which +any other animal is conscious, because both his physical organs and his +mental faculties bring him into far the most diversified and intimate +relations with all created things. He sees in every flower of the +garden and every beast of the field, in the air and in the sea, in the +earth beneath his feet and in the starry heavens above him, countless +meanings which are hidden to all the living world besides. To him there +is a world which has existed and a world that will exist. "Man," says +Protagoras, "is the measure of the universe." But he has a greater +dignity in being able to apprehend the world of thought within. "Whilst +I study to find how I am a microcosm or little world," says Sir Thomas +Browne, "I find myself something more than the great." Man can make +himself an object to himself and gain the deepest insight into the +workings of his own mind. This internal perception seems never to be +developed in other animals. We have already observed that they have no +thought of their own. The intelligence and design which they often +manifest in their actions are not the workings of their own minds. The +intelligence and design belong to Him who impressed the thought upon +the animal's mind and unceasingly sustains it in action. They +themselves are not conscious of any thought, but only of "certain dim +imperious influences" which urge them on. They are conscious of +feelings and desires and impulses. We could not conceive of the +existence of these affections in animals without their having an +immediate knowledge of them. Even "the function of voluntary motion," +says Hamilton, "which is a function of the animal soul in the +Peripatetic doctrine, ought not, as is generally done, to be excluded +from the phenomena of consciousness and mind." The conscious life of +the irrational tribes seems, then, to be a life almost wholly within +the senses. They have nothing of that higher conscious personality +which belongs to man and is an attribute of a free intellect. + +A general statement of the points made out in the foregoing inquiry +will more clearly show our conception of the nature and limitations of +instinct. First, we limited the word instinct so as to exclude all +those automatic and mechanical actions concerned in the simple +functions of organic life,--as also to exclude the operations of the +passions and appetites, since these seek no other end than their own +gratification. Then it was shown that instinct exists prior to all +experience or memory; that it comes to an instant or speedy perfection, +and is not capable of any improvement or cultivation; that its objects +are precise and limited; that within its proper sphere it often appears +as the highest wisdom, but beyond this is only foolishness; that it +uses complex and laborious means to provide for the future, without any +prescience of it; that it performs important and rational operations +which the animal neither intends nor knows anything about; that it is +permanent for each species, and is transmitted as an hereditary gift of +Nature; and that the few variations in its action result from the +development of provisional faculties, or from blind imitation. We were +led to conclude that instinct is not a free and conscious possession of +the animal itself. We found some points of resemblance between +intelligence in man and instinct in other animals,--but at the same +time points of dissimilarity, such as to make the two principles appear +radically unlike. + +This brief summary presents nearly all that we can satisfactorily make +out respecting instinct; and at the same time it shows how much is +still wanting to a complete solution of all the questions which it +involves. And then there are higher mysteries connected with the +subject, which we do not attempt to penetrate,--mysteries in regard to +the creation and the maintenance of instinctive action: whether it be +the result of particular external conditions acting on the organization +of animals, or whether, as Sir Isaac Newton thought, the Deity himself +is virtually the active and present moving principle in them;--and +mysteries, too, about the future of the brute world: whether, as +Southey wrote, + + "There is another world +For all that live and move,--a better world." + +If we ever find a path which seems about to lead us up to these +mysteries, it speedily closes against us, and leaves us without any +rational hope of attaining their solution. + + + + +MY OWN STORY. + + +"Oh, tell her, brief is life, but love is long." + +"What have I got that you would like to have? Your letters are tied up +and directed to you. Mother will give them to you, when she finds them +in my desk. I could execute my last will myself, if it were not for +giving her additional pain. I will leave everything for her to do +except this: take these letters, and when I am dead, give them to +Frank. There is not a reproach in them, and they are full of wit; but +he won't laugh, when he reads them again. Choose now, what will you +have of mine?" + +"Well," I said, "give me the gold pen-holder that Redmond sent you +after he went away." + +Laura rose up in her bed, and seized me by my shoulder, and shook me, +crying between her teeth, "You love him! you love him!" Then she fell +back on her pillow. "Oh, if he were here now! He went, I say, to marry +the woman he was engaged to before he saw you. He was nearly mad, +though, when he went. The night mother gave them their last party, when +you wore your black lace dress, and had pink roses in your hair, +somehow I hardly knew you that night. I was in the little parlor, +looking at the flowers on the mantelpiece, when Redmond came into the +room, and, rushing up to me, bent down and whispered, 'Did you see her +go? I shall see her no more; she is walking on the beach with Maurice.' +He sighed so loud that I felt embarrassed; for I was afraid that Harry +Lothrop, who was laughing and talking in a corner with two or three +men, would hear him; but he was not aware that they were there. I did +not know what to do, unless I ridiculed him. 'Follow them,' I said. +'Step on her flounces, and Maurice will have a chance to humiliate you +with some of his cutting, exquisite politeness.' He never answered a +word, and I would not look at him, but presently I understood that +there were tears falling. Oh, you need not look towards me with such +longing; he does not cry for you now. They seemed to bring him to his +senses. He stamped his foot; but the carpet was thick; it only made a +thud. Then he buttoned his coat, giving himself a violent twist as he +did it, and looked at me with such a haughty composure, that, if I had +been you, I should have trembled in my shoes. He walked across the room +toward the group of men.--'Ah, Harry,' he said, 'where is Maurice?' +'Don't you know?' they all cried out; 'he has gone as Miss Denham's +escort?' 'By Jove!' said Harry Lothrop,--'Miss Denham was as handsome +as Cleopatra, to-night. Little Maurice is now singing to her. Did he +take his guitar under his arm? It was here; for I saw a green bag near +his hat, when we came in to-night.' Just then we heard the twang of a +guitar under the window, and Redmond, in spite of himself, could not +help a grimace.--Is it not a droll world?" said Laura, after a pause; +"things come about so contrariwise." + +She laughed such a shrill laugh, that I shuddered to hear it, and I +fell a-crying. "But," she continued, "I am going, I trust, where a key +will be given me for this cipher." + +Tears came into her eyes, and an expression of gentleness filled her +face. + +"It is strange," she said, "when I know that I must die, that I should +be so moved by earthly passions and so interested in earthly +speculations. My heart supplicates God for peace and patience, and at +the same moment my thoughts float away in dreams of the past. I shall +soon be wiser; I am convinced of that. The doctrine of compensation +extends beyond this world; if it be not so, why should I die at twenty, +with all this mysterious suffering of soul? You must not wonder over +me, when I am gone, and ask yourself, 'Why did she live?' Believe that +I shall know why I lived, and let it suffice you and encourage you to +go on bravely. Live and make your powers felt. Your nature is affluent, +and you may yet learn how to be happy." + +She sighed softly, and turned her face to the wall, and moved her +fingers as sick people do. She waited for me to cease weeping: my tears +rained over my face so that I could neither see nor speak. + +After I had become calmer, she moved toward me again and took my hand: +her own trembled. + +"It is for the last time, Margaret. My good, skilful father gives me no +medicine now. My sisters have come home; they sit about the house like +mourners, with idle hands, and do not speak with each other. It is +terrible, but it will soon be over." + +She pulled at my hand for me to rise. I staggered up, and met her eyes. +Mine were dry now. + +"Do not come here again. It will be enough for my family to look at my +coffin. I feel better to think you will be spared the pain." + +I nodded. + +"Good-bye!" + +A sob broke in her throat. + +"Margaret,"--she spoke like a little child,--"I am going to heaven." + +I kissed her, but I was blind and dumb. I lifted her half out of the +bed. She clasped her frail arms round me, and hid her face in my bosom. + +"Oh, I love you!" she said. + +Her heart gave such a violent plunge, that I felt it, and laid her back +quickly. She waved her hand to me with a determined smile. I reached +the door, still looking at her, crossed the dark threshold, and passed +out of the house. The bold sunshine smote my face, and the insolent +wind played about me. The whole earth was as brilliant and joyous as if +it had never been furrowed by graves. + +Laura lived some days after my interview with her. She sent me no +message, and I did not go to see her. From the garret-windows of our +house, which was half a mile distant from Laura's, I could see the +windows of the room where she was lying. Three tall poplar-trees +intervened in the landscape. I thought they stood motionless so that +they might not intercept my view while I watched the house of death. +One morning I saw that the blinds had been thrown back and the windows +opened. I knew then that Laura was dead. + +The day after the funeral I gave Frank his letters, his miniature, and +the locket which held a ring of his hair. + +"Is there a fire?" he asked, when I gave them to him; "I want to burn +these things." + +I went to another room with him. + +"I'll leave everything here to-day; and may I never see this cursed +place again! Did she die, do you know, because I held her promise that +she would be my wife?" + +He threw the papers into the grate, and crowded them down with his +boot, and watched them till the last blackened flake disappeared. He +then took from his neck a hair chain, and threw that into the fire +also. + +"It is all done now," he said. + +He shook my hand with a firm grasp and left me. + +A month later Laura's mother sent me a package containing two bundles +of letters. It startled me to see that the direction was dated before +she was taken ill:--"To be given to Margaret in case of my death. +June 5th, 1848." They were my letters, and those which she had +received from Harry Lothrop. On this envelop was written, "Put these +into the black box he gave you." The gold pen-holder came into my hands +also. _Departure_ was engraved on the handle, and Laura's initials were +cut in an emerald in its top. The black box was an ebony, gold-plated +toy, which Harry Lothrop had given me at the same time Redmond gave +Laura the pen-holder. It was when they went away, after a whole +summer's visit in our little town, the year before. I locked the +letters in the black box, and, + + "Whether from reason or from impulse only," + +I know not, but I was prompted to write a line to Harry Lothrop. "Do +not," I said, "write Laura any more letters. Those you have already +written to her are in my keeping, for she is dead. Was it not a +pleasant summer we passed together? The second autumn is already at +hand: time flies the same, whether we are dull or gay. For all this +period what remains except the poor harvest of a few letters?" + +I received in answer an incoherent and agitated letter. What was the +matter with Laura? he asked. He had not heard from her for months. Had +any rupture occurred between her and her friend Frank? Did I suppose +she was ever unhappy? He was shocked at the news, and said he must come +and learn the particulars of the event. He thanked me for my note, and +begged me to believe how sincere was his friendship for my poor friend. + +"Redmond," he continued, "is, for the present, attached to the engineer +corps to which I belong, and he has offered to take charge of my +business while I am a day or two absent. He is in my room at this +moment, holding your note in his hand, and appears painfully +disturbed." + +It was now a little past the time of year when Redmond and Harry +Lothrop had left us,--early autumn. After their departure, Laura and I +had been sentimental enough to talk over the events of their visit. +Recalling these associations, we created an illusion of pleasure which +of course could not last. Harry Lothrop wrote to Laura, but the +correspondence declined and died. As time passed on, we talked less and +less of our visitors, and finally ceased to speak of them. Neither of +us knew or suspected the other of any deep or lasting feeling toward +the two friends. Laura knew Redmond better than I did; at least, she +saw him oftener; in fact, she knew both in a different way. They had +visited her alone; while I had met them almost entirely in society. I +never found so much time to spare as she seemed to have; for everybody +liked her, and everybody sought her. As often as we had talked over our +acquaintance, she was wary of speaking of Redmond. Her last +conversation with me revealed her thoughts, and awakened feelings which +I thought I had buffeted down. The tone of Harry Lothrop's note +perplexed me, and I found myself drifting back into an old state of +mind I had reason to dread. + +As I said, the autumn had come round. Its quiet days, its sombre +nights, filled my soul with melancholy. The lonesome moan of the sea +and the waiting stillness of the woods were just the same a year ago; +but Laura was dead, and Nature grieved me. Yet none of us are in one +mood long, and at this very time there were intervals when I found +something delicious in life, either in myself or the atmosphere. + + "Moreover, something is or seems + That touches me with mystic gleams." + +A golden morning, a starry night, the azure round of the sky, the +undulating horizon of sea, the blue haze which rose and fell over the +distant hills, the freshness of youth, the power of beauty,--all gave +me deep voluptuous dreams. + +I can afford to confess that I possessed beauty; for half my faults and +miseries arose from the fact of my being beautiful. I was not vain, but +as conscious of my beauty as I was of that of a flower, and sometimes +it intoxicated me. For, in spite of the comforting novels of the Jane +Eyre school, it is hardly possible to set an undue value upon beauty; +it defies ennui. + +As I expected, Harry Lothrop came to see me. The sad remembrance of +Laura's death prevented any ceremony between us; we met as old +acquaintances, of course, although we had never conversed together half +an hour without interruption. I began with the theme of Laura's illness +and death, and the relation which she had held toward me. All at once I +discovered, without evidence, that he was indifferent to what I was +saying; but I talked on mechanically, and like a phantasm the truth +came to my mind. The real man was there,--not the one I had carelessly +looked at and known through Laura. + +I became silent. + +He twisted his fingers in the fringe of my scarf, which had fallen off, +and I watched them. + +"Why," I abruptly asked, "have I not known you before?" + +He let go the fringe, and folded his hands, and in a dreamy voice +replied,-- + +"Redmond admires you." + +"What a pity!" I said. "And you,--you admire me, or yourself, just now; +which?" + +He flushed slightly, but continued with a bland voice, which irritated +and interested me. + +"All that time I was so near you, and you scarcely saw me; what a +chance I had to study you! Your friend was intelligent and sympathetic, +so we struck a league of friendship: I could dare so much with her, +because I knew that she was engaged to marry Mr. Ballard. I own that I +have been troubled about her since I went away. How odd it is that I am +here alone with you in this room! how many times I have wished it! I +liked you best here; and while absent, the remembrance of it has been +inseparable from the remembrance of you,--a picture within a picture. I +know all that the room contains,--the white vases, and the wire +baskets, with pots of Egyptian lilies and damask roses, the books bound +in green and gold, the engravings of nymphs and fauns, the crimson bars +in the carpet, the flowers on the cushions, and, best of all, the +arched window and its low seat. But I had promised myself never to see +you: it was all I could do for Laura. She is dead, and I am here." + +I rose and walked to the window, and looked out on the misty sea, and +felt strangely. + +"Another lover," I thought,--"and Redmond's friend, and Laura's. But it +all belongs to the comedy we play." + +He came to where I stood. + +"I know you so well," he said,--"your pride, your self-control, even +your foibles: but they attract one, too. You did not escape heart-whole +from Redmond's influence. He is not married yet, but he will be; he is +a chivalrous fellow. It was a desperate matter between you two,--a +hand-to-hand struggle. It is over with you both, I believe: you are +something alike. Now may I offer you my friendship? If I love you, let +me say so. Do not resist me. I appeal to the spirit of coquetry which +tempted you before you saw me to-night. You are dressed to please me." + +I was thinking what I should say, when he skilfully turned the +conversation into an ordinary channel. He shook off his dreamy manner, +and talked with his old vivacity. I was charmed a little; an +association added to the charm, I fancy. It was late at night when he +took his leave. He had arranged it all; for a man brought his carriage +to the door and drove him to the next town, where he had procured it to +come over from the railway. + +When I was shut in my room for the night, rage took possession of me. I +tore off my dress, twisted my hair with vehemence, and hurried to bed +and tried to go to sleep, but could not, of course. As when we press +our eyelids together for meditation or sleep, violet rings and changing +rays of light flash and fade before the darkened eyeballs, so in the +dark unrest of my mind the past flashed up, and this is what I saw:-- + +The county ball, where Laura and I first met Redmond, Harry Lothrop, +and Maurice. We were struggling through the crowd of girls at the +dressing-room door, to rejoin Frank, who was waiting for us. As we +passed out, satisfied with the mutual inspection of our dresses of +white silk, which were trimmed with bunches of rose-geranium, we saw a +group of strangers close by us, buttoning their gloves, looking at +their boots, and comparing looks. Laura pushed her fan against my arm; +we looked at each other, and made signs behind Frank, and were caught +in the act, not only by him, but by a tall gentleman in the group which +she had signalled me to notice. + +The shadow of a smile was travelling over his face as I caught his eye, +but he turned away so suddenly that I had no opportunity for +embarrassment. An usher gave us a place near the band, at the head of +the hall. + +"Do not be reckless, Laura," I said,--"at least till the music gives +you an excuse." + +"You are obliged to me, you know," she answered, "for directing your +attention to such attractive prey. Being in bonds myself, I can only +use my eyes for you: don't be ungrateful." + +The band struck up a crashing polka, and she and Frank whirled away, +with a hundred others. I found a seat and amused myself by contrasting +the imperturbable countenances of the musicians with those of the +dancers. The perfumes the women wore floated by me. These odors, the +rhythmic motion of the dancers, and the hard, energetic music +exhilarated me. The music ended, and the crowd began to buzz. The loud, +inarticulate speech of a brilliant crowd is like good wine. As my +acquaintances gathered about me, I began to feel its electricity, and +grew blithe and vivacious. Presently I saw one of the ushers speaking +to Frank, who went down the hall with him. + +"Oh, my prophetic soul!" said Laura, "they are coming." + +Frank came back with the three, and introduced them. Redmond asked me +for the first quadrille, and Harry Lothrop engaged Laura. Frank said to +me behind his handkerchief,--"It's _en rčgle_; I know where they came +from; their fathers are brave, and their mothers are virtuous." + +The quadrille had not commenced, so I talked with several persons near; +but I felt a constraint, for I knew I was closely observed by the +stranger, who was entirely quiet. Curiosity made me impatient for the +dance to begin; and when we took our places, I was cool enough to +examine him. Tall, slender, and swarthy, with a delicate moustache over +a pair of thin scarlet lips, penetrating eyes, and a tranquil air. My +antipodes in looks, for I was short and fair; my hair was straight and +black like his, but my eyes were blue, and my mouth wide and full. + +"What an unnaturally pleasant thing a ball-room is!" he said,--"before +the dust rises and the lights flare, I mean. But nobody ever leaves +early; as the freshness vanishes, the extravagance deepens. Did you +ever notice how much faster the musicians play as it grows late? When +we open the windows, the fresh breath of the night increases the +delirium within. I have seen the quietest women toss their faded +bouquets out of the windows without a thought of making a comparison +between the flowers and themselves." + +"My poor geraniums!" I said,--"what eloquence!" + +He laughed, and answered,-- + +"My friend Maurice yonder would have said it twice as well." + +We were in the promenade then, and stopped where the said Maurice was +fanning himself against the wall. + +"May I venture to ask you for a waltz, Miss Denham? it is the next +dance on the card," said Maurice;--"but of course you are engaged." + +I gave him my card, and he began to mark it, when Redmond took it, and +placed his own initials against the dance after supper, and the last +one on the list. He left me then, and I saw him a moment after talking +with Laura. + +We passed a gay night. When Laura and I equipped for our ten miles' +ride, it was four in the morning. Redmond helped Frank to pack us in +the carriage, and we rewarded him with a knot of faded leaves. + +"This late event," said Laura, with a ministerial air, after we had +started, "was a providential one. You, my dear Frank, were at liberty +to pursue your favorite pastime of whist, in some remote apartment, +without being conscience-torn respecting me. I have danced very well +without you, thanks to the strangers. And you, Margaret, have had an +unusual opportunity of displaying your latent forces. Three such +different men! But let us drive fast. I am in want of the cup of tea +which mother will have waiting for me." + +We arrived first at my door. As I was going up the steps, Laura broke +the silence; for neither of us had spoken since her remarks. + +"By the way, they are coming here to stay awhile. They are anxious for +some deep-sea fishing. They'll have it, I think." + +I heard Frank's laugh of delight at Laura's wit, as the carriage drove +off. + +It was our last ball that season. + +It was late in the spring; and when Redmond came with his two friends +and settled at the hotel in our town, it was early summer. When I saw +them again, they came with Laura and Frank to pay me a visit. Laura was +already acquainted with them, and asked me if I did not perceive her +superiority in the fact. + +"Let us arrange," said Harry Lothrop, "some systematic plan of +amusement by sea and land. I have a pair of horses, Maurice owns a +guitar, and Redmond's boat will be here in a few days. Jones, our +landlord, has two horses that are tolerable under the saddle. Let us +ride, sail, and be serenaded. The Lake House, Jones again, is eight +miles distant. This is Monday; shall we go there on horse-back +Wednesday?" + +Laura looked mournfully at Frank, who replied to her look,-- + +"You must go; I cannot; I shall go back to business to-morrow." + +I glanced at Redmond; he was contemplating a portrait of myself at the +age of fourteen. + +"Shall we go?" Laura asked him. + +"Nothing, thank you," he answered. + +We all laughed, and Harry Lothrop said,-- + +"Redmond, my boy, how fond you are of pictures!" + +Redmond, with an unmoved face, said,-- + +"Don't be absurd about my absent-mindedness. What were you saying?" + +And he turned to me. + +"Do you like our plan," I asked, "of going to the Lake House? There is +a deep pond, a fine wood, a bridge,--perch, pickerel,--a one-story inn +with a veranda,--ham and eggs, stewed quince, elderberry wine,--and a +romantic road to ride over." + +"I like it." + +Frank opened a discussion on fishing; Laura and I withdrew, and went to +the window-seat. + +"I am light-hearted," I said. + +"It is my duty to be melancholy," she replied; "but I shall not mope +after Frank has gone." + +"'After them the deluge,'" said I. "How long will they stay?" + +"Till they are bored, I fancy." + +"Oh, they are going; we must leave our recess." + +Frank and she remained; the others bid us good-night. + +"I shall not come again till Christmas," he said. "These college-chaps +will amuse you and make the time pass; they are young,--quite suitable +companions for you girls. _Vive la bagatelle!_" + +He sighed, and, drawing Laura's arm in his, rose to go. She groaned +loudly, and he nipped her ears. + +"Good-bye, Margaret; let Laura take care of you. There is a deal of +wisdom in her." + +We shook hands, Laura moaning all the while, and they went home. + +Frank and Laura had been engaged three years. He was about thirty, and +was still too poor to marry. + +Wednesday proved pleasant. We had an early dinner, and our cavalcade +started from Laura's. I rode my small bay horse Folly, a gift from my +absentee brother. His coat was sleeker than satin; his ears moved +perpetually, and his wide nostrils were always in a quiver. He was not +entirely safe, for now and then he jumped unexpectedly; but I had +ridden him a year without accident, and felt enough acquainted with him +not to be afraid. + +Redmond eyed him. + +"You are a bold rider," he said. + +"No," I answered,--"a careful one. Look at the bit, and my whip, too. I +cut his hind legs when he jumps. Observe that I do not wear a long +skirt. I can slip off the saddle, if need be, without danger." + +"That's all very well; but his eyes are vicious; he will serve you a +trick some day." + +"When he does, I'll sell him for a cart-horse." + +Laura and Redmond rode Jones's horses. Harry Lothrop was mounted on his +horse Black, a superb, thick-maned creature, with a cluster of white +stars on one of his shoulders. Maurice rode a wall-eyed pony. Our +friends Dickenson and Jack Parker drove two young ladies in a +carriage,--all the saddle-horses our town could boast of being in use. +We were in high spirits, and rode fast. I was occupied in watching +Folly, who had not been out for several days. At last, tired of tugging +at his mouth, I gave him rein, and he flew along. I tucked the edge of +my skirt under the saddle-flap, slanted forward, and held the bridle +with both hands close to his head. A long sandy reach of road lay +before me. I enjoyed Folly's fierce trotting; but, as I expected, the +good horse Black was on my track, while the rest of the party were far +behind. He soon overtook me. Folly snorted when he heard Black's step. +We pulled up, and the two horses began to sidle and prance, and throw +up their heads so that we could not indulge in a bit of conversation. + +"Brute!" said Harry Lothrop,--"if I were sure of getting on again, I +would dismount and thrash you awfully." + +"Remember Pickwick," I said; "don't do it." + +I had hardly spoken, when the strap of his cap broke, and it fell from +his head to the ground. I laughed, and so did he. + +"I can hold your horse while you dismount for it." + +I stopped Folly, and he forced Black near enough for me to seize the +rein and twist it round my hand; when I had done so, Folly turned his +head, and was tempted to take Black's mane in his teeth; Black felt it, +reared, and came down with his nose in my lap. I could not loose my +hands, which confused me, but I saw Harry Lothrop making a great leap. +Both horses were running now, and he was lying across the saddle, +trying to free my hand. It was over in an instant. He got his seat, and +the horses were checked. + +"Good God!" he said, "your fingers are crushed." + +He pulled off my glove, and turned pale when he saw my purple hand. + +"It is nothing," I said. + +But I was miserably fatigued, and prayed that the Lake House might come +in sight. We were near the wood, which extended to it, and I was +wondering if we should ever reach it, when he said,-- + +"You must dismount, and rest under the first tree. We will wait there +for the rest of the party to come up." + +I did so. Numerous were the inquiries, when they reached us. Laura, +when she heard the story, declared she now believed in Ellen Pickering. +Redmond gave me a searching look, and asked me if the one-story inn had +good beds. + +"I can take a nap, if necessary," I answered, "in one of Mrs. Sampson's +rush-bottomed chairs on the veranda. The croak of the frogs in the pond +and the buzz of the bluebottles shall be my lullaby." + +"No matter how, if you will rest," he said, and assisted me to remount. + +We rode quietly together the rest of the way. After arriving, we girls +went by ourselves into one of Mrs. Sampson's sloping chambers, where +there was a low bedstead, and a thick feather-bed covered with a +patchwork-quilt of the "Job's Trouble" pattern, a small, dim +looking-glass surmounted by a bunch of "sparrow-grass," and an +unpainted floor ornamented with home-made rugs which were embroidered +with pink flower-pots containing worsted rose-bushes, the stalks, +leaves, and flowers all in bright yellow. We hung up our riding-skirts +on ancient wooden pegs, for we had worn others underneath them suitable +for walking, and then tilted the wooden chairs at a comfortable angle +against the wall, put our feet on the rounds, and felt at peace with +all mankind. + +"Alas!" I said, "it is too early for currant-pies." + +"I saw," said one of the girls, "Mrs. Sampson poking the oven, and a +smell of pies was in the air." + +"Let us go into the kitchen," exclaimed Laura. + +The proposal was agreeable; so we went, and found Mrs. Sampson making +plum-cake. + +"The pies are green-gooseberry-pies," whispered Laura,--"very good, +too." + +"Miss Denham," shrieked Mrs. Sampson, "you haven't done growing +yet.--How's your mother and your grandmother?--Have you had a revival +in your church?--I heard of the young men down to Jones's,--our +minister's wife knows their fathers,--first-rate men, she says.--I +thought you would be here with them.--'Sampson,' I said this morning, as +soon as I dressed, 'do pick some gooseberries. I'll have before sundown +twenty pies in this house.' There they are,--six gooseberry, six +custard, and, though it's late for them, six mince, and two awful great +pigeon pies. It's poor trash, I expect; I'm afraid you can't eat it; +but it is as good as anybody's, I suppose." + +We told her we should devour it all, but must first catch some fish; +and we joined the gentlemen on the veranda. A boat was ready for us. +Laura, however, refused to go in it. It was too small; it was wet; she +wanted to walk on the bridge; she could watch us from that; she wanted +some flowers, too. Like many who are not afraid of the ocean, she held +ponds and lakes in abhorrence, and fear kept her from going with us. +Harry Lothrop offered to stay with her, and take lines to fish from the +bridge. She assented, and, after we pushed off, they strolled away. + +The lake was as smooth and white as silver beneath the afternoon sun +and a windless sky; it was bordered with a mound of green bushes, +beyond which stretched deep pine woods. There was no shade, and we soon +grew weary. Jack Parker caught all the fish, which flopped about our +feet. A little way down, where the lake narrowed, we saw Laura and +Harry Lothrop hanging over the bridge. + +"They must be interested in conversation," I thought; "he has not +lifted his line out of the water once." + +Redmond, too, looked over that way often, and at last said,-- + +"We will row up to the bridge, and walk back to the house, if you, +Maurice, will take the boat to the little pier again." + +"Oh, yes," said Maurice. + +We came to the bridge, and Laura reached out her hand to me. + +"Why, dear!" she exclaimed, "you have burnt your face. Why did you," +turning to Redmond, "paddle about so long in the hot sun?" + +Her words were light enough, but the tone of her voice was savage. +Redmond looked surprised; he waved his hand deprecatingly, but said +nothing. We went up toward the house, but Laura lingered behind, and +did not come in till we were ready to go to supper. + +It was past sundown when we rose from the ruins of Mrs. Sampson's pies. +We voted not to start for home till the evening was advanced, so that +we might enjoy the gloom of the pine wood. We sat on the veranda and +heard the sounds of approaching night. The atmosphere was like powdered +gold. Swallows fluttered in the air, delaying to drop into their nests, +and chirped their evening song. We heard the plunge of the little +turtles in the lake, and the noisy crows as they flew home over the +distant tree-tops. They grew dark, and the sky deepened slowly into a +soft gray. A gentle wind arose, and wafted us the sighs of the pines +and their resinous odors. I was happy, but Laura was unaccountably +silent. + +"What is it, Laura?" I asked, in a whisper. + +"Nothing, Margaret,--only it seems to me that we mortals are always +riding or fishing, eating or drinking, and that we never get to living. +To tell you the truth, the pies were too sour. Come, we must go," she +said aloud. + +Redmond himself brought Folly from the stable. + +"We will ride home together," he said. "My calm nag will suit yours +better than Black. Why does your hand tremble?" + +He saw my shaking hands, as I took the rein; the fact was, my wrists +were nearly broken. + +"Nothing shall happen to-night, I assure you," he continued, while he +tightened Folly's girth. + +He contrived to be busy till all the party had disappeared down a turn +of the road. As he was mounting his horse, Mrs. Sampson, who was on the +steps, whispered to me,-- + +"He's a beautiful young man, now!" + +He heard her; he had the ear of a wild animal; he took off his hat to +Mrs. Sampson, and we rode slowly away. + +As soon as we were in the wood, Redmond tied the bridles of the horses +together with his handkerchief. It was so dark that my sight could not +separate him from his horse. They moved beside me, a vague, black +shape. The horses' feet fell without noise in the cool, moist sand. If +our companions were near us, we could not see them, and we did not hear +them. Horses generally keep an even pace, when travelling at +night,--subdued by the darkness, perhaps,--and Folly went along without +swaying an inch. I dropped the rein on his neck, and took hold of the +pommel. My hand fell on Redmond's. Before I could take it away, he had +clasped it, and touched it with his lips. The movement was so sudden +that I half lost my balance, but the horses stepped evenly together. He +threw his arm round me, and recoiled from me as if he had received a +blow. + +"Take up your rein," he said, with a strange voice,--"quick!--we must +ride fast out of this." + +I made no reply, for I was trying to untie the handkerchief. The knot +was too firm. + +"No, no," he said, when he perceived what I was doing, "let it be so." + +"Untie it, Sir!" + +"I will not." + +I put my face down between the horses' necks and bit it apart, and +thrust it into my bosom. + +"Now," I said, "shall we ride fast?" + +He shook his rein, and we rode fiercely,--past our party, who shouted +at us,--through the wood,--over the brow of the great hill, from whose +top we saw the dark, motionless sea,--through the long street,--and +through my father's gateway into the stable-yard, where I leaped from +my horse, and, bridle in hand, said, "Good night!" in a loud voice. + +Redmond swung his hat and galloped off. + +Early next morning, Laura sent me a note:-- + +"DEAR MARGARET,--I have an ague, and mean to have it till Sunday night. +The pines did it. Did you bring home any needles? On Monday, mother +will give one of her whist-parties. I shall add a dozen or two of our +set; you will come. + +"P.S. What do you think of Mr. Harry Lothrop? Good young man, eh?" + +I was glad that Laura had shut herself up for a few days; I dreaded to +see her just now. I suffered from an inexplicable feeling of pride and +disappointment, and did not care to have her discover it. Laura, like +myself, sometimes chose to protect herself against neighborly +invasions. We never kept our doors locked in the country; the sending +in of a card was an unknown process there. Our acquaintances walked in +upon us whenever the whim took them, and it now and then happened to be +an inconvenience to us who loved an occasional fit of solitude. I +determined to keep in-doors for a few days also. Whenever I was in an +unquiet mood, I took to industry; so that day I set about arranging my +drawers, making over my ribbons, and turning my room upside down. I +rehung all my pictures, and moved my bottles and boxes. Then I mended +my stockings, and marked my clothes, which was not a necessary piece of +work, as I never left home. I next attacked the parlor,--washed all the +vases, changed the places of the furniture, and distressed my mother +very much. When evening came, I brushed my hair a good deal, and looked +at my hands, and went to bed early. I could not read then, though I +often took books from the shelves, and I would not think. + +Sunday came round. The church-bells made me lonesome. I looked out of +the window many times that day, and, fixing on the sash one of my +father's ship-glasses, swept the sea, and peered at the islands on the +other side of the bay, gazing through their openings, beyond which I +could see the great dim ocean. Mother came home from church, and said +young Maurice was there, and inquired about me. He hoped I did not take +cold; his friend Redmond had been hoarse ever since our ride, and had +passed most of the time in his own room, drumming on the window-pane +and whistling dirges. Mother dropped her acute eyes on me, while she +was telling me this; but I yawned all expression from my face. + +As Monday night drew near, my numbness of feeling began to pass off; +thought came into my brain by plunges. Now I desired; now I hoped. I +dressed myself in black silk, and wore a cape of black Chantilly lace. +I made my hair as glossy as possible, drew it down on my face, and put +round my head a band composed of minute sticks of coral. When all was +done, I took the candle and held it above my head and surveyed myself +in the glass. I was very pale. The pupils of my eyes were dilated, as +if I had received some impression that would not pass away. My lips had +the redness of youth; their color was deepened by my paleness. + +"How handsome I am!" I thought, as I set down the candle. + +When I entered Laura's parlor, she came toward me and said,-- + +"Artful creature! you knew well, this warm night, that every girl of us +would wear a light dress; so you wore a black one. How well you +understand such matters! You are very clever; your real sensibility +adds effect to your cleverness. I see how it is. Come into this corner. +Have you got a fan? Good gracious! black, with gold spangles;--where +_do_ you buy your things? I can tell you now," she continued, "my +conversation on the bridge the other day." + +She hesitated, and asked me if I liked her new muslin. She did look +well in it; it was a white fabric, with red rose-buds scattered over +it. Her delicate face was shadowed by light brown curls. She was +attractive, and I told her so, and she began again:-- + +"Harry Lothrop said, as he was impaling the half of a worm,-- + +"'Redmond is a handsome fellow, is he not?' + +"'He is too awfully thin,' I answered, 'but his eyes are good.' + +"He gave me a crafty side-look, like that of a parrot, when he means to +bite your finger. + +"'Your friend, too,' he added, 'is really one of the most beautiful +girls I ever saw,--a coquette with a heart.' + +"'Let down your line into the water,' I said. + +"He laughed a little laugh. By-the-by, there is an insidious tenacity +about Mr. Harry Lothrop which irritates me; but I like him, for I think +he understands women. I feel at ease with him, when he is not throwing +out his tenacious feelers. Then he said,-- + +"'Redmond is engaged to his cousin. The girl's mother had the charge of +him through his boyhood. He is ardently attached to her,--the mother, I +mean. She is most anxious to call Redmond her son.' + +"'Didn't you have a bite?' I said. + +"'Well, I think the bait is off the hook,' he answered; and then we +were silent and pondered the water. + +"There are some people I must speak to,"--and Laura moved away without +looking at me. + +I opened my fan, but felt chilly. A bustle near me caused me to raise +my eyes; Redmond was speaking to a lady. He was in black, too, and very +pale. He turned toward me and our eyes met. His expression agitated me +so that I unconsciously rose to my feet and warned him off with my fan; +but he seemed rooted to the spot. Laura took care of us both; she came +and stood between us. I saw her look at him so sweetly and so +mournfully, that he understood her in a moment. He shook his head and +walked abruptly into another room. Laura went again from me without +giving me a look. Maurice came up and I made room for him beside me. We +talked of the riding-party, and then of our first meeting at the ball. +He told me that Redmond's boat had arrived, and what a famous boat it +was, and "what jolly sprees we fellows had, cruising about with her." I +asked him about his guitar, and when we might hear him play. He grew +more chatty and began to tell me about his sister, when Redmond and +Harry Lothrop came over to us, which ended his chat. + +The party was like all parties,--dull at first, and brighter as it grew +late. The old ladies played whist in one room, and the younger part of +the company were in another. Champagne was not a prevalent drink in our +village, but it happened that we had some that night. + +"It may be a sinful beverage," said an old lady near me, "but it is +good." + +Redmond opened a bottle for me, we clinked glasses, and drank to an +indefinite, silent wish. + +"One more," he asked, "and let us change glasses." + +Presently a cloud of delicate warmth spread over my brain, and gave me +courage to seek and meet his glance. There must have been an expression +of irresolution in my face, for he looked at me inquiringly, and then +his own face grew very sad. I felt awkward from my intuition of his +opinion of my mood, when he relieved me by saying something about +Shelley,--a copy of whose poems lay on a table near. From Shelley he +went to his boat, and said he hoped to have some pleasant excursions +with Laura and myself. He "would go at once and talk with Laura's +mother about them." I watched him through the door, while he spoke to +her. She was in a low chair, and he leaned his face on one hand close +to hers. I saw that his natural expression was one of tranquillity and +courage. He was not more than twenty-two, but the firmness of the lines +about his mouth belied his youth. + +"He has a wonderful face," I thought, "and just as wonderful a will." + +I felt my own will rise as I looked at him,--a will that should make me +mistress of myself, powerful enough to contend with, and resist, or +turn to advantage any controlling fate which might come near me. + +"Do you feel like singing?" Harry Lothrop inquired. "Do you know +Byron's song, 'One struggle more and I am free'?" + +"Oh, yes!" I replied,--"it is set to music which suits my voice. I will +sing it." + +Laura had been playing polkas with great spirit. Since the Champagne, +the old ladies had closed their games of whist for talking, and, as it +was nearly time to go, the company was gay. There was laughing and +talking when I began, but silence soon after, for the wine made my +voice husky and effective. I sang as if deeply moved. + +"Lord!" I heard Maurice say to Laura, as I rose from the piano, "what a +girl! she's really tragic." + +I caught Harry Lothrop's eye, as I passed through the door to go +up-stairs; it was burning; I felt as if a hot coal had dropped on me. +Maurice ran into the hall and sprang upon the stair-railing to ask me +if he might be my escort home. That night he serenaded me. He was a +good-hearted, cheerful creature; conceited, as small men are apt to +be,--conceit answering for size with them,--but pleasantly so, and I +learned to like him as much as Redmond did. + +The summer days were passing. We had all sorts of parties,--parties in +houses and out-of-doors; we rode and sailed and walked. Laura walked +and talked much with Harry Lothrop. We did not often see each other +alone, but, when we met, were more serious and affectionate with each +other. We did not speak, except in a general way, of Redmond and Harry +Lothrop. I did not avoid Redmond, nor did I seek him. We had many a +serious conversation in public, as well as many a gay one; but I had +never met him alone since the night we rode through the pines. + +He went away for a fortnight. On the day of his return he came to see +me. He looked so glad, when I entered the room, that I could not help +feeling a wild thrill. I went up to him, but said nothing. He held out +both his hands. I retreated. An angry feeling rushed into my heart. + +"No," I said, "Whose hand did you hold last?" + +He turned deadly pale. + +"That of the woman I am going to marry." + +I smiled to hide the trembling of my lips, and offered my hand to him; +_but he waved it away_, and fell back on his chair, hurriedly drawing +his handkerchief across his face. I saw that he was very faint, and +stood against the door, waiting for him to recover. + +"More than I have played the woman and the fool before you." + +"Yes." + +"I thought so. You seem experienced." + +"I am." + +"Forgive me," he said, gently; "being only a man, I think you can. Good +God!" he exclaimed, "what an infernal self-possession you show!" + +"Redmond, is it not time to end this? The summer has been a long +one,--has it not?--long enough for me to have learned what it is to +live. Our positions are reversed since we have become acquainted. I am +for the first time forgetting self, and you for the first time remember +self. Redmond, you are a noble man. You have a steadfast soul. Do not +be shaken. I am not like you; I am not simple or single-hearted. But I +imitate you. Now come, I beg you will go." + +"Certainly, I will. I have little to say." + +August had nearly gone when Maurice told me they were about to leave. +Laura said we must prepare for retrospection and the fall sewing. + +"Well," I said, "the future looks gloomy, and I must have some new +dresses." + +Maurice came to see me one morning in a state of excitement to say we +were all going to Bird Island to spend the day, dine at the +light-house, and sail home by moonlight. Fifteen of the party were +going down by the sloop Sapphire, and Redmond had begged him to ask if +Laura and I would go in his boat. + +"Do go," said Maurice; "it will be our last excursion together; next +week we are off. I am broken-hearted about it. I shall never be so +happy again. I have actually whimpered once or twice. You should hear +Redmond whistle nowadays. Harry pulls his moustache and laughs his oily +laughs, but he is sorry to go, and kicks his clothes about awfully. By +the way, he is going down in the sloop because Miss Fairfax is +going,--he says,--that tall young lady with crinkled hair;--he hates +her, and hopes to see her sick. May I come for you in the morning, by +ten o'clock? Redmond will be waiting on the wharf." + +"Tell Redmond," I answered, "that I will go; and will you ask Harry +Lothrop not to engage himself for all the reels to Miss Fairfax?" + +He promised to fulfil my message, and went off in high spirits. I +wondered, as I saw him going down the walk, why it was that I felt so +much more natural and friendly with him than with either of his +friends. I often talked confidentially to him; he knew how I loved my +mother, and how I admired my father, and I told him all about my +brother's business. He also knew what I liked best to eat and to wear. +In return, he confided his family secrets to me. I knew his tastes and +wishes. There was no common ground where I met Redmond and Harry +Lothrop. There were too many topics between Redmond and myself to be +avoided, for us to venture upon private or familiar conversation. Harry +Lothrop was an accomplished, fastidious man of the world, I dreaded +boring him, and so I said little. He was several years older than +Redmond, and possessed more knowledge of men, women, and books. Redmond +had no acquirements, he knew enough by nature, and I never saw a person +with more fascination of manner and voice. + +The evening before the sailing-party, I had a melancholy fit. I was +restless, and after dark I put a shawl over my head and went out to +walk. I went up a lonesome road, beyond our house. On one side I heard +the water washing against the shore with regularity, as if it were +breathing. On the other side were meadows, where there were cows +crunching the grass. A mile farther was a low wood of oaks, through +which ran a path. I determined to walk through that. The darkness and a +sharp breeze which blew against me from limitless space made me feel as +if I were the only human creature the elements could find to contend +with, I turned down the little path into the deeper darkness of the +wood, sat down on a heap of dead leaves, and began to cry. + +"Mine is a miserable pride," was my thought,--"that of arming myself +with beauty and talent and going through the world conquering! Girls +are ignorant, till they are disappointed. The only knowledge men +proffer us is the knowledge of the heart; it becomes us to profit by +it. Redmond will marry that girl. He must, and shall. I will empty the +dust and ashes of my heart as soon as the fire goes down: that is, I +think so; but I know that I do not know myself. I have two +natures,--one that acts, and one that is acted upon,--and I cannot +always separate the one from the other." + +Something darkened the opening into the path. Two persons passed in +slowly. I perceived the odor of violets, and felt that one of them must +be Laura. Waiting till they passed beyond me, I rose and went home. + +The next morning was cloudy, and the sea was rough with a high wind; +but we were old sailors, and decided to go on our excursion. The sloop +and Redmond's boat left the wharf at the same time. We expected to be +several hours beating down to Bird Island, for the wind was ahead. +Laura and I, muffled in cloaks, were placed on the thwarts and +neglected; for Redmond and Maurice were busy with the boat. Laura was +silent, and looked ill. Redmond sat at the helm, and kept the boat up +to the wind, which drove the hissing spray over us. The sloop hugged +the shore, and did not feel the blast as we did. I slid along my seat +to be near Redmond. He saw me coming, and put out his hand and drew me +towards him, looking so kindly at me that I was melted. Trying to get +at my handkerchief, which was in my dress-pocket, my cloak flew open, +the wind caught it, and, as I rose to draw it closer, I nearly fell +overboard. Redmond gave a spring to catch me, and the boat lost her +headway. The sail flapped with a loud bang. Maurice swore, and we +chopped about in the short sea. + +"It is your destiny to have a scene, wherever you are," said Laura. "If +I did not feel desperate, I should be frightened. But these green, +crawling waves are so opaque, if we fall in, we shall not see ourselves +drown." + +"Courage! the boat is under way," Maurice cried out; "we are nearly +there." + +And rounding a little point, we saw the light-house at last. The sloop +anchored a quarter of a mile from the shore, the water being shoal, and +Redmond took off her party by instalments. + +"What the deuse was the matter with you at one time?" asked Jack +Parker. "We saw you were having a sort of convulsion. Our cap'n said +you were bold chaps to be trifling with such a top-heavy boat." + +"Miss Denham," said Redmond, "thought she could steer the boat as well +as I could, and so the boat lost headway." + +Harry Lothrop gave Redmond one of his soft smiles, and a vexed look +passed over Redmond's face when he saw it. + +We had to scramble over a low range of rocks to get to the shore. +Redmond anchored his boat by one of them. Bird Island was a famous +place for parties. It was a mile in extent. Not a creature was on it +except the light-house keeper, his wife, and daughter. The gulls made +their nests in its rocky borders; their shrill cries, the incessant +dashing of the waves on the ledges, and the creaking of the lantern in +the stone tower were all the sounds the family heard, except when they +were invaded by some noisy party like ours. They were glad to see us. +The light-house keeper went into the world only when it was necessary +to buy stores, or when his wife and daughter wanted to pay a visit to +the mainland. + +The house was of stone, one story high, with thick walls. The small, +deep-set windows and the low ceilings gave the rooms the air of a +prison; but there was also an air of security about them: for, in +looking from the narrow windows, one felt that the house was a +steadfast ship in the circle of the turbulent sea, whose waves from +every point seemed advancing towards it. A pale, coarse grass grew in +the sand of the island. It was too feeble to resist the acrid breath of +the ocean, so it shuddered perpetually, and bent landward, as if +invoking the protection of its stepmother, the solid earth. + +"It is perfect," said Redmond to me; "I have been looking for this spot +all my life; I am ready to swear that I will never leave it." + +We were sitting in a window, facing each other. He looked out toward +the west, and presently was lost in thought. He folded his arms tightly +across his breast, and his eyes were a hundred miles away. The sound of +a fiddle in the long alley which led from the house to the tower broke +his reverie. + +"We shall be uproarious before we leave," I said; "we always are, when +we come here." + +The fun had already set in. Some of the girls had pinned up their +dresses, and borrowed aprons from the light-house keeper's wife, and +with scorched faces were helping her to make chowder and fry +fish. Others were arranging the table, assisted by the young men, who +put the dishes in the wrong places. Others were singing in the best +room. One or two had brought novels along, and were reading them in +corners. It was all merry and pleasant, but I felt quiet. Redmond +entered into the spirit of the scene. I had never seen him so gay. He +chatted with all the girls, interfering or helping, as the case might +be. Maurice brought his guitar, and had a group about him at the foot +of the tower-stairs. He sung loud, but his voice seemed to +fluctuate;--now it rang through the tower, now it was half overpowered +by the roar of the sea. His poetical temperament led him to choose +songs in harmony with the place, not to suit the company,--melancholy +words set to wild, fitful chords, which rose and died away according to +the skill of the player. I had gone near him, for his singing had +attracted me. + +"You are inspired," I said. + +He nodded. + +"You never sung so before." + +"I feel old to-day," he answered, and he swept his hands across all the +strings; "my ditties are done." + +After dinner Laura asked me to go out with her. We slipped away unseen, +and went to the beach, and seated ourselves on a great rock whose outer +side was lapped by the water. The sun had broken through the clouds, +but shone luridly, giving the sea a leaden tint. The wind was going +down. We had not been there long, when Redmond joined us. He asked us +to go round the island in his boat. Laura declined, and said she would +sit on the rock while we went, if I chose to go. I did choose to go, +and he brought the boat to the rock. He hoisted the sail half up the +mast, and we sailed close to the shore. It rose gradually along the +east side of the island, and terminated in a bold ledge which curved +into the sea. We ran inside the curve, where the water was nearly +smooth. Redmond lowered the sail and the boat drifted toward the ledge +slowly. A tongue of land, covered with pale sedge, was on the left +side. Above the ledge, at the right, we could see the tower of the +light-house. Redmond tied down the helm, and, throwing himself beside +me, leaned his head on his hand, and looked at me a long time without +speaking. I listened to the water, which plashed faintly against the +bows. He covered his face with his hands. I looked out seaward over the +tongue of land; my heart quaked, like the grass which grew upon it. At +last he rose, and I saw that he was crying,--the tears rained fast. + +"My soul is dying," he said, in a stifled voice; "I am not more than +mortal,--I cannot endure it." + +I pointed toward the open sea, which loomed so vague in the distance. + +"The future is like that,--is it not? Courage! we must drift through +it; we shall find something." + +He stamped his foot on the deck. + +"Women always talk so; but men are different. If there is a veil before +us, we must tear it away,--not sit muffled in its folds, and speculate +on what is behind it. Rise." + +I obeyed him. He held me firmly. We were face to face. + +"Look at me." + +I did. His eyes were blazing. + +"Do you love me?" + +"No." + +He placed me on the bench, hoisted the sail, untied the helm, and we +were soon ploughing round to the spot where we had left Laura; but she +was gone. On the rock where she was, perched a solitary gull, which +flew away with a scream as we approached. + +That day was the last that I saw Redmond alone. He was at the party at +Laura's house which took place the night before they left. We did not +bid each other adieu. + +After the three friends had gone, they sent us gifts of remembrance. +Redmond's keepsake was a white fan with forget-me-nots painted on it. +To Laura he sent the pen-holder, which was now mine. + +We missed them, and should have felt their loss, had no deep feeling +been involved; for they gave an impetus to our dull country life, and +the whole summer had been one of excitement and pleasure. We settled by +degrees into our old habits. At Christmas, Frank came. He looked +worried and older. He had heard something of Laura's intimacy with +Harry Lothrop, and was troubled about it, I know: but I believe Laura +was silent on the matter. She was quiet and affectionate toward him +during his visit, and he went back consoled. + +The winter passed. Spring came and went, and we were deep into the +summer when Laura was taken ill. She had had a little cough, which no +one except her mother noticed. Her spirits fell, and she failed fast. +When I saw her last, she had been ill some weeks, and had never felt +strong enough to talk as much as she did in that interview. She nerved +herself to make the effort, and as she bade me farewell, bade farewell +to life also. And now it was all over with her! + + * * * * * + +I fell asleep at length, and woke late. It seemed as if a year had +dropped out of the procession of Time. My heart was still beating with +the emotion which stirred it when Redmond and I were together last. +Recollection had stung me to the quick. A terrible longing urged me to +go and find him. The feeling I had when we were in the boat, face to +face, thrilled my fibres again. I saw his gleaming eyes; I could have +rushed through the air to meet him. But, alas! exaltation of feeling +lasts only a moment; it drops us where it finds us. If it were not so, +how easy to be a hero! The dull reaction of the present, like a slow +avalanche, crushed and ground me into nothingness. + +"Something must happen at last," I thought, "to amuse me, and make time +endurable." + +What can a woman do, when she knows that an epoch of feeling is rounded +off, finished, dead? Go back to her story-books, her dress-making, her +worsted-work? Shall she attempt to rise to mediocrity on the piano or +in drawing, distribute tracts, become secretary of a Dorcas society? or +shall she turn her mind to the matter of cultivating another lover at +once? Few of us women have courage enough to shoulder out the corpses +of what men leave in our hearts. We keep them there, and conceal the +ruins in which they lie. We grow cunning and artful in our tricks, the +longer we practise them. But how we palpitate and shrink and shudder, +when we are alone in the dark! + +After Redmond departed, I had locked up my feelings and thrown the key +away. The death of Laura, and the awakening of my recollections, caused +by the appearance of Harry Lothrop, wrenched the door open. Hitherto I +had acted with the bravery of a girl; I must now behave with the +resolution of a woman. I looked into my heart closely. No skeleton was +there, but the image of a living man,--_Redmond_. + +"I love him," I confessed. "To be his wife and the mother of his +children is the only lot I ever care to choose. He is noble, handsome, +and loyal. But I cannot belong to him, nor can he ever be mine. + + "'Of love that never found his earthly close + What sequel?' + +"What did he do with the remembrance of me? He scattered it, perhaps, +with the ashes of the first cigar he smoked after he went from +me,--made a mound of it, maybe, in honor of Duty. I am as ignorant of +him as if he no longer existed; so this image must be torn away. I will +not burn the lamp of life before it, but will build up the niche where +it stands into a solid wall." + +The ideal happiness of love is so sweet and powerful, that, for a +while, adverse influences only exalt the imagination. When Laura told +me of Redmond's engagement, it did but change my dream of what might be +into what might have been. It was a mirage which continued while he was +present and faded with his departure. Then my heart was locked in the +depths of will, till circumstance brought it a power of revenge. I +think now, if we had spoken freely and truly to each other, I should +have suffered less when I saw his friend. We feel better when the +funeral of our dearest friend is over and we have returned to the +house. There is to be no more preparation, no waiting; the windows may +be opened, and the doors set wide; the very dreariness and desolation +force our attention towards the living. + +"Something will come," I thought; and I determined not to have any more +reveries. "Mr. Harry Lothrop is a pleasant riddle; I shall see him +soon, or he will write." + +It occurred to me then that I had some letters of his already in my +possession,--those he had written to Laura. I found the ebony box, and, +taking from it the sealed package, unfolded the letters one by one, +reading them according to their dates. There was a note among them for +me, from Laura. + +"When you read these letters, Margaret," it said, "you will see that I +must have studied the writer of them in vain. You know now that he made +me unhappy; not that I was in love with him much, but he stirred depths +of feeling which I had no knowledge of, and which between Frank, my +betrothed husband, and myself had no existence. But '_le roi s'amuse._' +Perhaps a strong passion will master this man; but I shall never know. +Will you?" + +I laid the letters back in their place, and felt no very strong desire +to learn anything more of the writer. I did not know then how little +trouble it would be,--my share of making the acquaintance. + +It was not many weeks before Mr. Lothrop came again, and rather +ostentatiously, so that everybody knew of his visit to me. But he saw +none of the friends he had made during his stay the year before. I +happened to see him coming, and went to the door to meet him. Almost +his first words were,-- + +"Maurice is dead. He went to Florida,--took the fever,--which killed +him, of course. He died only a week after--after Laura. Poor fellow! +did he interest you much? I believe he was in love with you, too; but +musical people are never desperate, except when they play a false +note." + +"Yes," I answered; "I was fond of him. His conceit did not trouble me, +and he never fatigued me; he had nothing to conceal. He was a +commonplace man; one liked him, when with him,--and when away, one had +no thought about him." + +"I alone am left you," said my visitor, putting his hat on a chair, and +slowly pulling off his gloves, finger by finger. + +He had slender, white hands, like a woman's, and they were always in +motion. After he had thrown his gloves into his hat, he put his finger +against his cheek, leaned his elbow on the arm of his chair, crossed +his legs, and looked at me with a cunning self-possession. I glanced at +his feet; they were small and well-booted. I looked into his face; it +was not a handsome one; but he had magnetic eyes, of a lightish blue, +and a clever, loose mouth. It is impossible to describe him,--just as +impossible as it is for a man who was born a boor to attain the bearing +of a gentleman; any attempt at it would prove a bungling matter, when +compared with the original. He felt my scrutiny, and knew, too, that I +had never looked at him till then. + +"Do you sing nowadays?" he asked, tapping with his fingers the keys of +the piano behind him. + +"Psalms." + +"They suit you admirably; but I perceive you attend to your dress +still. How effective those velvet bands are! You look older than you +did two years ago." + +"Two years are enough to age a woman." + +"Yes, if she is miserable. Can you be unhappy?" he asked, rising, and +taking a seat beside me. + +There was a tone of sympathy in his voice which made me shudder, I knew +not why. It was neither aversion nor liking; but I dreaded to be thrown +into any tumult of feeling. I realized afterward more fully that it is +next to impossible for a passionate woman to receive the sincere +addresses of a manly man without feeling some fluctuation of soul. +Ignorant spectators call her a coquette for this. Happily, there are +teachers among our own sex, women of cold temperaments, able to +vindicate themselves from the imputation. They spare themselves great +waste of heart and some generous emotion,--also remorse and +self-accusations regarding the want of propriety, and the other +ingredients which go to make up a white-muslin heroine. + +Harry Lothrop saw that my cheek was burning, and made a movement toward +me. I tossed my head back, and moved down the sofa; he did not follow +me, but smiled and mused in his old way. + +And so it went on,--not once, but many times. He wrote me quiet, +persuasive, eloquent letters. By degrees I learned his own history and +that of his family, his prospects and his intentions. He was rich. I +knew well what position I should have, if I were his wife. My beauty +would be splendidly set. I was well enough off, but not rich enough to +harmonize all things according to my taste. I was proud, and he was +refined; if we were married, what better promise of delicacy could be +given than that of pride in a woman, refinement in a man? He brought me +flowers or books, when he came. The flowers were not delicate and +inodorous, but magnificent and deep-scented; and the material of the +books was stalwart and vigorous. I read his favorite authors with him. +He was the first person who ever made any appeal to my intellect. In +short, he was educating me for a purpose. + +Once he offered me a diamond cross. I refused it, and he never asked me +to accept any gift again. His visits were not frequent, and they were +short. However great the distance he accomplished to reach me, he staid +only an evening, and then returned. He came and went at night. In time +I grew to look upon our connection as an established thing. He made me +understand that he loved me, and that he only waited for me to return +it; but he did not say so. + +I lived an idle life, inhaling the perfume of the flowers he gave me, +devouring old literature, the taste for which he had created, and +reading and answering his letters. To be sure, other duties were +fulfilled, I was an affectionate child to my parents, and a proper +acquaintance for my friends. I never lost any sleep now, nor was I +troubled with dreams. I lived in the outward; all my restless activity, +that constant questioning of the heavens and the earth, had ceased +entirely. Five years had passed since I first saw Redmond. I was now +twenty-four. The Fates grew tired of the monotony of my life, I +suppose, for about this time it changed. + +My oldest brother, a bachelor, lived in New York. He asked me to spend +the winter with him; he lived in a quiet hotel, had a suite of rooms, +and could make me comfortable, he said. He had just asked somebody to +marry him, and that somebody wished to make my acquaintance. I was glad +to go. My heart gave a bound at the prospect of change; I was still +young enough to dream of the impossible, when any chance offered itself +to my imagination; so I accepted my brother's invitation with some +elation. + +I had been in New York a month. One day I was out with my future +sister, on a shopping raid; with our hands full of little paper +parcels, we stopped to look into Goupil's window. There was always a +rim of crowd there, so I paid no attention to the jostles we received. +We were looking at an engraving of Ary Scheffer's Françoise de Rimini. +"Not the worst hell," muttered a voice behind me, which I knew. I +started, and pulled Leonora's arm; she turned round, and the fringe of +her cloak-sleeve caught a button on the overcoat of one of the +gentlemen standing together. It was Redmond; the other was his +"ancient," Harry Lothrop. Leonora was arrested; I stood still, of +course. Redmond had not seen my face, for I turned it from him; and his +head was bent down to the task of disengaging his button. + + "'Each only as God wills + Can work; God's puppets, best and worst, + Are we; there is no last nor first,'" + +I thought, and turned my head. He instinctively took off his hat, and +then planted it back on his head firmly, and looked over to Harry +Lothrop, to whom I gave my hand. He knew me before I saw him, I am +convinced; but his dramatic sense kept him silent,--perhaps a deeper +feeling. There was an expression of pain in his face, which impelled me +to take his arm. + +"Let us move on, Leonora," I said; "these are some summer friends of +mine," and I introduced them to her. + +My chief feeling was embarrassment, which was shared by all the party; +for Leonora felt that there was something unusual in the meeting. The +door of the hotel seemed to come round at last, and as we were going +in, Harry Lothrop asked me if he might see me the next morning. + +"Do come," I answered aloud. + +We all bowed, and they disappeared. + +"What an elegant Indian your tall friend is!" said Leonora. + +"Yes,--of the Camanche tribe." + +"But he would look better hanging from his horse's mane than he does in +a long coat." + +"He is spoiled by civilization and white parents. But, Leonora, stay +and dine with me, in my own room. John will not come home till it is +time for the opera. You know we are going. You must make me splendid; +you can torture me into style, I know." + +She consented, provided I would send a note to her mother, explaining +that it was my invitation, and not her old John's, as she irreverently +called him. I did so, and she was delighted to stay. + +"This is fast," she said; "can't we have Champagne and black coffee?" + +She fell to rummaging John's closets, and brought out a dusty, +Chinese-looking affair, which she put on for a dressing-gown. She found +some Chinese straw shoes, and tucked her little feet into them, and +then braided her hair in a long tail, and declared she was ready for +dinner. Her gayety was refreshing, and I did not wonder at John's +admiration. My spirits rose, too, and I astonished Leonora at the table +with my chat; she had never seen me except when quiet. I fell into one +of those unselfish, unasking moods which are the glory of youth: I felt +that the pure heaven of love was in the depths of my being; my soul +shone like a star in its atmosphere; my heart throbbed, and I cried +softly to it,--"Live! live! he is here!" I still chatted with Leonora +and made her laugh, and the child for the first time thoroughly liked +me. We were finishing our dessert, when we heard John's knock. We +allowed him to come in for a moment, and gave him some almonds, which, +he leisurely cracked and ate. + +"Somehow, Margaret," he said, "you remind me of those women who enjoy +the Indian festival of the funeral pile. I have seen the thing done; +you have something of the sort in your mind; be sure to immolate +yourself handsomely. Women are the deuse." + +"Finish your almonds, John," I said, "and go away; we must dress." + +He put his hand on my arm, and whispered,-- + +"Smother that light in your eyes, my girl; it is dangerous. And you +have lived under your mother's eye all your life! You see what I have +done,"--indicating Leonora with his eyebrows,--"taken a baby on my +hands." + +"John, John!" I inwardly ejaculated, "you are an idiot." + +"She shall never suffer what you suffer; she shall have the benefit of +the experience which other women have given me." + +"Very likely," I answered; "I know we often serve you as pioneers +merely." + +He gave a sad nod, and I closed the door upon him. + +"Put these pins into my hair, Leonora, and tell me, how do you like my +new dress?" + +"Paris!" she cried. + +It was a dove-colored silk with a black velvet stripe through it. I +showed her a shawl which John had given me,--a pale-yellow gauzy fabric +with a gold-thread border,--and told her to make me up. She produced +quite a marvellous effect; for this baby understood the art of dress to +perfection. She made my hair into a loose mass, rolling it away from my +face; yet it was firmly fastened. Then she shook out the shawl, and +wrapped me in it, so that my head seemed to be emerging from a +pale-tinted cloud. John said I looked outlandish, but Leonora thought +otherwise. She begged him for some Indian perfume, and he found an +aromatic powder, which she sprinkled inside my gloves and over my shawl. + +We found the opera-house crowded. Our seats were near the stage. John +sat behind us, so that he might slip out into the lobby occasionally; +for the opera was a bore to him. The second act was over; John had left +his seat; I was opening and shutting my fan mechanically, half lost in +thought, when Leonora, who had been looking at the house with her +lorgnette, turned and said,-- + +"Is not that your friend of this morning, on the other side, in the +second row, leaning against the third pillar? There is a +queenish-looking old lady with him. He hasn't spoken to her for a long +time, and she continually looks up at him." + +I took her glass, and discovered Redmond. He looked back at me through +another; I made a slight motion with my handkerchief; he dropped his +glass into the lap of the lady next him and darted out, and in a moment +he was behind me in John's seat. + +"Who is with you?" he asked. + +"Brother," I answered. + +"You intoxicate me with some strange perfume; don't fan it this way." + +I quietly passed the fan to Leonora, who now looked back and spoke to +him. He talked with her a moment, and then she discreetly resumed her +lorgnette. + +"What happened for two years after I left B.? The last year I know +something of." + +"Breakfast, dinner, and tea; the ebb and flow of the tide; and the days +of the week." + +"Nothing more?" And his voice came nearer. + +"A few trifles." + +"They are under lock and key, I suppose?" + +"We do not carry relics about with us." + +"There is the conductor; I must go. Turn your face toward me more." + +I obeyed him, and our eyes met. His searching gaze made me shiver. + +"I have been married," he said, and his eyes were unflinching, "and my +wife is dead." + +All the lights went down, I thought; I struck out my arm to find +Leonora, who caught it and pressed it down. + +"I must get out," I said; and I walked up the alley to the door without +stumbling. + +I knew that I was fainting or dying; as I had never fainted, I did not +know which. Redmond carried me through the cloak-room and put me on a +sofa. + +"I never can speak to him again," I thought, and then I lost sight of +them all. + +A terribly sharp pain through my heart roused me, and I was in a +violent chill. They had thrown water over my face; my hair was matted, +and the water was dripping from it on my naked shoulders. The gloves +had been ripped from my hands, and Leonora was wringing my +handkerchief. + +"The heat made you faint, dear," she said. + +John was walking up and down the room with a phlegmatic countenance, +but he was fuming. + +"My new dress is ruined, John," I said. + +"Hang the dress! How do you feel now?" + +"It is drowned; and I feel better; shall we go home?" + +He went out to order the carriage, and Leonora whispered to me that she +had forgotten Redmond's name. + +"No matter," I answered. I could not have spoken it then. + +When John came, Leonora beckoned to Redmond to introduce himself. John +shook hands with him, gave him an intent look, and told us the carriage +was ready. Redmond followed us, and took leave of us at the +carriage-door. + +Leonora begged me to stay at her house; I refused, for I wished to be +alone. John deposited her with her mother, and we drove home. He gave +me one of his infallible medicines, and told me not to get up in the +morning. But when morning came, I remembered Harry Lothrop was coming, +and made myself ready for him. As human nature is not quite perfect, I +felt unhappy about him, and rather fond of him, and thought he +possessed some admirable qualities. I never could read the old poets +any more without a pang, unless he were with me, directing my eye along +their pages with his long white finger! I never should smell tuberoses +again without feeling faint, unless they were his gift! + +By the time he came I was in a state of romantic regret, and in that +state many a woman has answered, "Yes!" He asked me abruptly if I +thought it would be folly in him to ask me to marry him. The question +turned the tide. + +"No," I answered,--"not folly; for I have thought many times in the +last two years, that I should marry you, if you said I must. But now I +believe that it is not best. You have pursued me patiently; your +self-love made the conquest of me a necessary pleasure. That was well +enough for me; for you made me feel all the while, that, if I loved +you, you were worth possessing. And you are. I like you. But my feeling +for you did not prevent my fainting away at the opera-house last night, +when Redmond told me that his wife was dead." + +"So," he said, "the long-smothered fire has broken out again! Chance +does not befriend me. He saw you last night, and yielded. He said +yesterday he should not tell you. He asked me about you after we left +you, and wished to know if I had seen you much for the last year. I +offered him your last letter to read,--am I not generous?--but he +refused it. + +"'When I see her,' he asked, 'am I at liberty to say what I choose?' + +"On that I could have said, 'No.' Redmond and I have not seen each +other since the period of my first visit to you. He has been nursing +his wife in the mean time, taking journeys with her, and trying all +sorts of cures; and now he seems tied to his aunt and mother-in-law. He +was merely passing through the city with her, and this morning they +have gone again.--Well," after a pause, "there is no need of words +between us. I have in my possession a part of you. Beautiful women are +like flowers which open their leaves wide enough for their perfume to +attract wandering bees; the perfume is wasted, though the honey may be +hid." + +"Alas, what a lesson this man is giving me!" I thought. + +"Farewell, then," he said. He bit his lips, and his clenched hands +trembled; but he mastered his emotion. "You must think of me." + +"And see you, too," I answered. "Everything comes round again, if we +live long enough. Dramatic unities are never preserved in life; if they +were, how poetical would all these things be! But Time whirls us round, +showing us our many-sided feelings as carelessly as a child rattles the +bits of glass in his kaleidoscope." + +"So be it!" he replied. "Adieu!" + +That afternoon I staid at home, and put John's room in order, and +cleaned the dust from his Indian idols, and was extremely busy till he +came in. Then I kissed his whiskers, and told him all my sins, and +cried once or twice during my confession. He petted me a good deal, and +made me eat twice as much dinner as I wanted; he said it was good for +me, and I obeyed him, for I felt uncommonly meek that day. + +Soon after, Redmond sent me a long letter. He said he had been, from a +boy, under an obligation to his aunt, the mother of his wife. It was a +common story, and he would not trouble me with it. He was married soon +after Harry Lothrop's first visit to me, at the time they had received +the news of Laura's death. How much he had thought of Laura afterward, +while he was watching the fading away of his pale blossom! His aunt had +been ill since the death of her daughter, restless, and discontented +with every change. He hoped she was now settled among some old friends +with whom she might find consolation. In conclusion, he wrote,--"My +aunt noticed our hasty exit from the opera-house that night, when I was +brute enough to nearly kill you. I told her that I loved you. She now +feels, after a struggle, that she must let me go. 'Old women have no +rights,' she said to me yesterday. Margaret, may I come, and never leave +you again?" + +My answer may be guessed, for one day he arrived. It was the dusk of a +cheery winter day, the time when home wears so bright a look to those +who seek it. It was an hour before dinner, and I was waiting for John +to come in. The amber evening sky gleamed before the windows, and the +fire made a red core of light in the room. John's sandal-wood boxes +gave out strange odors in the heat, and the pattern of the Persian rug +was just visible. A servant came to the door with a card. I held it to +the grate, and the fire lit up his name. + +"Show him up-stairs," I said. + +I stood in the doorway, and heard his step on every stair. When he +came, I took him by the hand, and drew him into the room. He was +speechless. + +"Oh, Redmond, I love you! How long you were away!" + +He kneeled by me, and put my arms round his neck, and we kissed each +other with the first, best kiss of passion. + +John came in, and I reached out my hand to him and said, "This is my +husband." + +"That's comfortable," he answered. "Won't you stay to dinner?" + +"Oh, yes," replied Redmond; "this is my hotel." + +"I see," said John. + +But after dinner they had a long talk together. John sent me to my +room, and I was glad to go. I walked up and down, crying, I must say, +most of the time, asking forgiveness of myself for my faults, and +remembering Laura and Maurice,--and then thinking Redmond was mine, +with a contraction of the heart which threatened to stifle me. + +John took us up to Leonora's that evening; he said he wanted to see if +Puss would be tantalized with the sight of such a beautiful romantic +couple just from fairy-land, who were now prepared "to live in peace." + +We were married the next day in a church in a by-street. John was the +only witness, and flourished a large silk handkerchief, so that it had +the effect of a triumphal banner. Redmond put the ring on the wrong +finger,--a mistake which the minister kindly rectified. All I had new +for the occasion was a pair of gloves. + +One morning after my marriage, when Redmond and John were smoking +together, I was turning over some boxes, for I was packing to go home +on a visit to our mother. I called Redmond to leave his pipe and come +to me. + +"You have not seen any of my property. Look, here it is:-- + +"One bitten handkerchief. + +"A fan never used. + +"A gold pen-holder. + +"A draggled shawl." + +"Margaret," he said, taking my chin in his hand and bringing his eyes +close to mine, "I am wild with happiness." + +"Your pipe has gone out," we heard John say. + + * * * * * + +THE PLAYMATE. + + + The pines were dark on Ramoth hill, + Their song was soft and low; + The blossoms in the sweet May wind + Were falling like the snow. + + The blossoms drifted at our feet, + The orchard birds sang clear; + The sweetest and the saddest day + It seemed of all the year. + + For, more to me than birds or flowers, + My playmate left her home, + And took with her the laughing spring, + The music and the bloom. + + She kissed the lips of kith and kin, + She laid her hand in mine: + What more could ask the bashful boy + Who fed her father's kine? + + She left us in the bloom of May: + The constant years told o'er + Their seasons with as sweet May morns. + But she came back no more. + + I walk, with noiseless feet, the round + Of uneventful years; + Still o'er and o'er I sow the spring + And reap the autumn ears. + + She lives where all the golden year + Her summer roses blow; + The dusky children of the sun + Before her come and go. + + There haply with her jewelled hands + She smooths her silken gown,-- + No more the homespun lap wherein + I shook the walnuts down. + + The wild grapes wait us by the brook, + The brown nuts on the hill, + And still the May-day flowers make sweet + The woods of Follymill. + + The lilies blossom in the pond, + The bird builds in the tree, + The dark pines sing on Ramoth hill + The slow song of the sea. + + I wonder if she thinks of them, + And how the old time seems,-- + If ever the pines of Ramoth wood + Are sounding in her dreams. + + I see her face, I hear her voice: + Does she remember mine? + And what to her is now the boy + Who fed her father's kine? + + What cares she that the orioles build + For other eyes than ours,-- + That other hands with nuts are filled, + And other laps with flowers? + + O playmate in the golden time! + Our mossy seat is green, + Its fringing violets blossom yet, + The old trees o'er it lean. + + The winds so sweet with birch and fern + A sweeter memory blow; + And there in spring the veeries sing + The song of long ago. + + And still the pines of Ramoth wood + Are moaning like the sea,-- + The moaning of the sea of change + Between myself and thee! + + + + +THE MAROONS OF SURINAM. + + +When that eccentric individual, Captain John Gabriel Stedman, resigned +his commission in the English navy, took the oath of abjuration, and +was appointed ensign in the Scots brigade employed for two centuries by +Holland, he little knew that "their High Mightinesses the States of the +United Provinces" would send him out, within a year, to the forests of +Guiana, to subdue rebel negroes. He never imagined that the year 1773 +would behold him beneath the rainy season in a tropical country, wading +through marshes and splashing through lakes, exploring with his feet +for submerged paths, commanding impracticable troops and commanded by +an insufferable colonel, feeding on gree-gree worms and fed upon by +mosquitoes, howled at by jaguars, hissed at by serpents, and shot at by +those exceedingly unattainable gentlemen, "still longed for, never seen," +the Maroons of Surinam. + +Yet, as our young ensign sailed up the Surinam river, the world of +tropic beauty came upon him with enchantment. Dark, moist verdure was +close around him, rippling waters below; the tall trees of the jungle +and the low mangroves beneath were all hung with long vines and lianas, +a maze of cordage, like a fleet at anchor; odd monkeys travelled +ceaselessly up and down these airy paths, in armies, bearing their +young, like knapsacks, on their backs; macaws and humming-birds, winged +jewels, flew from tree to tree. As they neared Paramaribo, the river +became a smooth canal among luxuriant plantations, the air was perfumed +music, redolent of orange-blossoms and echoing with the songs of birds +and the sweet plash of oars; gay barges came forth to meet them; "while +groups of naked boys and girls were promiscuously playing and +flouncing, like so many tritons and mermaids, in the water." And when +the troops disembarked,--five hundred fine young men, the oldest not +thirty, all arrayed in new uniforms and bearing orange-flowers in their +caps, a bridal wreath for beautiful Guiana,--it is no wonder that the +Creole ladies were in ecstasy, and the boyish recruits little foresaw +the day, when, reduced to a few dozens, barefooted and ragged as +filibusters, their last survivors would gladly reëmbark from a country +beside which even Holland looked dry and even Scotland comfortable. + +For over all that earthly paradise there brooded not alone its terrible +malaria, its days of fever and its nights of deadly chill, but the +worse shadows of oppression and of sin, which neither day nor night +could banish. The first object which met Stedman's eye, as he stepped +on shore, was the figure of a young girl stripped to receive two +hundred lashes, and chained to a hundred-pound-weight. And the few +first days gave a glimpse into a state of society worthy of this +exhibition,--men without mercy, women without modesty, the black man a +slave to the white man's passions, and the white man a slave to his +own. The present West Indian society in its worst forms is probably a +mere dilution of the utter profligacy of those days. Greek or Roman +decline produced nothing more debilitating or destructive than the +ordinary life of a Surinam planter, and his one virtue of hospitality +only led to more unbridled excesses and completed the work of vice. No +wonder that Stedman himself, who, with all his peculiarities, was +essentially simple and manly, soon became disgusted, and made haste to +get into the woods and cultivate the society of the Maroons. + +The rebels against whom this expedition was sent were not the original +Maroons of Surinam, but a later generation. The originals had long +since established their independence, and their leaders were +flourishing their honorary silver-mounted canes in the streets of +Paramaribo. Fugitive negroes had begun to establish themselves in the +woods from the time when the colony was finally ceded by the English to +the Dutch, in 1674. The first open outbreak occurred in 1726, when the +plantations on the Seramica river revolted; it was found impossible to +subdue them, and the government very imprudently resolved to make an +example of eleven captives, and thus terrify the rest of the rebels. +They were tortured to death, eight of the eleven being women; this +drove the others to madness, and plantation after plantation was +visited with fire and sword. After a long conflict, their chief, Adoe, +was induced to make a treaty, in 1749. The rebels promised to keep the +peace, and in turn were promised freedom, money, tools, clothes, and, +finally, arms and ammunition. + +But no permanent peace was ever made upon a barrel of gunpowder as a +basis, and of course an explosion followed this one. The colonists +naturally evaded the last item of the bargain, and the rebels, +receiving the gifts and remarking the omission of the part of Hamlet, +asked contemptuously if the Europeans expected negroes to subsist on +combs and looking-glasses? New hostilities at once began; a new body of +slaves on the Ouca river revolted; the colonial government was changed +in consequence, and fresh troops shipped from Holland; and after four +different embassies had been sent into the woods, the rebels began to +listen to reason. The black generals, Captain Araby and Captain Boston, +agreed upon a truce for a year, during which the colonial government +might decide for peace or war, the Maroons declaring themselves +indifferent. Finally the government chose peace, delivered ammunition, +and made a treaty, in 1761; the white and black plenipotentiaries +exchanged English oaths and then negro oaths, each tasting a drop of +the other's blood during the latter ceremony, amid a volley of +remarkable incantations from the black _gadoman_ or priest. After some +final skirmishes, in which the rebels almost always triumphed, the +treaty was at length accepted by all the various villages of Maroons. +Had they known that at this very time five thousand slaves in Berbice +were just rising against their masters and were looking to them for +assistance, the result might have been different; but this fact had not +reached them, nor had the rumors of insurrection in Brazil, among negro +and Indian slaves. They consented, therefore, to the peace. "They write +from Surinam," says the "Annual Register" for January 23, 1761, "that +the Dutch governor, finding himself unable to subdue the rebel negroes +of that country by force, hath wisely followed the example of Governor +Trelawney at Jamaica, and concluded an amicable treaty with them; in +consequence of which, all the negroes of the woods are acknowledged to +be free, and all that is past is buried in oblivion." So ended a war of +thirty-six years, and in Stedman's day the original three thousand Ouca +and Seramica Maroons had multiplied (almost incredibly) to fifteen +thousand. + +But for the slaves not sharing in this revolt it was not so +easy to "bury the whole past in oblivion." The Maroons had told +some very plain truths to the white ambassadors, and had frankly +advised them, if they wished for peace, to mend their own +manners and treat their slaves humanely. But the planters learned +nothing by experience,--and indeed, the terrible narrations of Stedman +were confirmed by those of Alexander, so lately as 1831. Of course, +therefore, in a colony comprising eighty thousand blacks to four +thousand whites, other revolts were stimulated by the success of this +one. They reached their highest point in 1772, when an insurrection on +the Cottica river, led by a negro named Baron, almost gave the +finishing blow to the colony; the only adequate protection being found +in a body of slaves liberated expressly for that purpose,--a dangerous +and humiliating precedent. "We have been obliged to set three or four +hundred of our stoutest negroes free to defend us," says an honest +letter from Surinam in the "Annual Register" for September 5, 1772. +Fortunately for the safety of the planters, Baron presumed too much +upon his numbers, and injudiciously built a camp too near the +sea-coast, in a marshy fastness, from which he was finally ejected by +twelve hundred Dutch troops, though the chief work was done, Stedman +thinks, by the "black rangers" or liberated slaves. Checked by this +defeat, he again drew back into the forests, resuming his guerrilla +warfare against the plantations. Nothing could dislodge him; +bloodhounds were proposed, but the moisture of the country made them +useless; and thus matters stood when Stedman came sailing, amid +orange-blossoms and music, up the winding Surinam. + +Our young officer went into the woods in the condition of Falstaff, +"heinously unprovided." Coming from the unbounded luxury of the +plantations, he found himself entering "the most horrid and +impenetrable forests, where no kind of refreshment was to be had,"--he +being provisioned only with salt pork and peas. After a wail of sorrow +for this inhuman neglect, he bursts into a gush of gratitude for the +private generosity which relieved his wants at the last moment by the +following list of supplies:--"24 bottles best claret, 12 ditto Madeira, +12 ditto porter, 12 ditto cider, 12 ditto rum, 2 large loaves white +sugar, 2 gallons brandy, 6 bottles muscadel, 2 gallons lemon-juice, 2 +gallons ground coffee, 2 large Westphalia hams, 2 salted bullocks' +tongues, 1 bottle Durham mustard, 6 dozen spermaceti candles." The hams +and tongues seem, indeed, rather a poor halfpennyworth to this +intolerable deal of sack; but this instance of Surinam privation in +those days may open some glimpse at the colonial standards of comfort. +"From this specimen," moralizes our hero, "the reader will easily +perceive, that, if some of the inhabitants of Surinam show themselves +the disgrace of the creation by their cruelties and brutality, others, +by their social feelings, approve themselves an ornament to the human +species. With this instance of virtue and generosity I therefore +conclude this chapter." + +But the troops soon had to undergo worse troubles than those of the +_commisariat_. The rainy season had just set in. "As for the negroes," +said Mr. Klynhaus, the last planter with whom they parted, "you may +depend on never seeing a soul of them, unless they attack you off +guard; but the climate, the climate, will murder you all." Bringing +with them constitutions already impaired by the fevers and dissipation +of Paramaribo, the poor boys began to perish long before they began to +fight. Wading in water all day, hanging their hammocks over water at +night, it seemed a moist existence, even compared with the climate of +England and the soil of Holland. It was "Invent a shovel and be a +magistrate," even more than Andrew Marvell found it in the United +Provinces. In fact, Raynal evidently thinks that nothing but Dutch +experience in hydraulics could ever have cultivated Surinam. + +The two gun-boats which held one division of the expedition were merely +old sugar-barges, roofed over with boards, and looking like coffins. +They were pleasantly named the "Charon" and the "Cerberus," but Stedman +thought that the "Sudden Death" and the "Wilful Murder" would have been +titles more appropriate. The chief duty of the troops consisted in +lying at anchor at the intersections of wooded streams, waiting for +rebels who never came. It was dismal work, and the raw recruits were +full of the same imaginary terrors which have haunted other heroes less +severely tested: the monkeys never rattled the cocoa-nuts against the +trees, but they all heard the axes of Maroon wood-choppers; and when a +sentinel declared, one night, that he had seen a negro go down the +river in a canoe, with his pipe lighted, the whole force was called to +arms--against a firefly. In fact, the insect race brought by far the +most substantial dangers. The rebels eluded the military, but the +chigres, locusts, scorpions, and bush-spiders were ever ready to come +half-way to meet them; likewise serpents and alligators proffered them +the freedom of the forests and exhibited a hospitality almost +excessive. Snakes twenty feet long hung their seductive length from the +trees; jaguars volunteered their society through almost impenetrable +marshes; vampire bats perched by night with lulling endearments upon +their toes. When Stedman describes himself as killing thirty-eight +mosquitoes at one stroke, we must perhaps pardon something to the +spirit of martyrdom. But when we add to these the other woes of his +catalogue,--prickly-heat, ring-worm, putrid-fever, "the growling of +Colonel Fougeaud, dry, sandy savannas, unfordable marshes, burning hot +days, cold and damp nights, heavy rains, and short allowance,"--we can +hardly wonder that three captains died in a month, and that in two +months his detachment of forty-two was reduced to a miserable seven. + +Yet, through all this, Stedman himself kept his health. His theory of +the matter almost recalls the time-honored prescription of "A light +heart and a thin pair of breeches," for he attributes his good +condition to his keeping up his spirits and kicking off his shoes. +Daily bathing in the river had also something to do with it,--and, +indeed, hydropathy (this may not be generally known) was first learned +of the West India Maroons, who did their "packing" in wet clay,--and it +was carried by Dr. Wright to England. But his extraordinary personal +qualities must have contributed most to his preservation. Never did a +"meagre, starved, black, burnt, and ragged tatterdemalion," as he calls +himself, carry about him such a fund of sentiment, philosophy, poetry, +and art. He had a great faculty for sketching, as the engravings in his +volumes, with all their odd peculiarities, show; his deepest woes he +coined always into couplets, and fortified himself against hopeless +despair with Ovid and Valerius Flaccus, Pope's "Homer" and Thomson's +"Seasons." Above all reigned his passion for natural history, a ready +balm for every ill. Here he was never wanting to the occasion, and, to +do justice to Dutch Guiana, the occasion never was wanting to him. Were +his men sickening, the peccaries were always healthy without, and the +cockroaches within the camp; just escaping from a she-jaguar, he +satisfies himself, ere he flees, that the print of her claws on the +sand is precisely the size of a pewter dinner-plate; bitten by a +scorpion, he makes sure of his scientific description in case he should +expire of the bite; is the water undrinkable, there is at least some +rational interest in the number of legs possessed by the centipedes +which preoccupy it. This is the highest triumph of man over his +accidents, when he thus turns his pains to gains, and becomes an +entomologist in the tropics. + +Meanwhile the rebels kept their own course in the forests, and +occasionally descended upon plantations beside the very river on whose +upper waters the useless troops were sickening and dying. Stedman +himself made several campaigns, with long intervals of illness, before +he came any nearer to the enemy than to burn a deserted village or +destroy a rice-field. Sometimes they left the Charon and the Cerberus +moored by grape-vines to the pine-trees, and made expeditions into the +woods single file. Our ensign, true to himself, gives the minutest +schedule of the order of march, and the oddest little diagram of +manikins with cocked hats, and blacker manikins bearing burdens. First, +negroes with bill-hooks to clear the way; then the van-guard; then the +main body, interspersed with negroes bearing boxes of ball-cartridges; +then the rear-guard, with many more negroes, bearing camp-equipage, +provisions, and new rum, surnamed "kill-devil," and appropriately +followed by a sort of palanquin for the disabled. Thus arrayed, they +marched valorously forth into the woods, to some given point; then they +turned, marched back to the boats, then rowed back to camp, and +straightaway went into the hospital. Immediately upon this, the coast +being clear. Baron and his rebels marched out again and proceeded to +business. + +In the course of years, these Maroons had acquired their own peculiar +tactics. They built stockaded fortresses on marshy islands, accessible +by fords which they alone could traverse. These they defended further +by sharp wooden pins, or crows'-feet, concealed beneath the surface of +the miry ground,--and, latterly, by the more substantial protection of +cannon, which they dragged into the woods, and learned to use. Their +bush-fighting was unique. Having always more men than weapons, they +arranged their warriors in threes,--one to use the musket, another to +take his place, if wounded or slain, and a third to drag away the body. +They had Indian stealthiness and swiftness, with more than Indian +discipline; discharged their fire with some approach to regularity, in +three successive lines, the signals being given by the captain's horn. +They were full of ingenuity: marked their movements for each other by +scattered leaves and blazed trees; ran zigzag, to dodge bullets; gave +wooden guns to their unarmed men, to frighten the plantation negroes on +their guerrilla expeditions; and borrowed the red caps of the black +rangers whom they slew, to bewilder the aim of the others. One of +them, finding himself close to the muzzle of a ranger's gun, threw up +his hand hastily. "What!" he exclaimed, "will you fire on one of your +own party?" "God forbid!" cried the ranger, dropping his piece, and was +instantly shot through the body by the Maroon, who the next instant had +disappeared in the woods. + +These rebels were no saints: their worship was obi-worship; the women +had not far outgrown the plantation standard of chastity, and the men +drank "kill-devil" like their betters. Stedman was struck with the +difference between the meaning of the word "good" in rebellious circles +and in reputable. "It must, however, be observed that what we Europeans +call a good character was by the Africans looked upon as detestable, +especially by those born in the woods, whose only crime consisted in +avenging the wrongs done to their forefathers." But if martial virtues +be virtues, such were theirs. Not a rebel ever turned traitor or +informer, ever flinched in battle or under torture, ever violated a +treaty or even a private promise. But it was their power of endurance +which was especially astounding; Stedman is never weary of paying +tribute to this, or of illustrating it in sickening detail; indeed, the +records of the world show nothing to surpass it; "the lifted axe, the +agonizing wheel" proved powerless to subdue it; with every limb lopped, +every bone broken, the victims yet defied their tormentors, laughed, +sang, and died triumphant. + +Of course, they repaid these atrocities in kind. If they had not, it +would have demonstrated the absurd paradox, that slavery educates +higher virtues than freedom. It bewilders all the relations of human +responsibility, if we expect the insurrectionary slave to commit no +outrages; if slavery have not depraved him, it has done him little +harm. If it be the normal tendency of bondage to produce saints like +Uncle Tom, let us all offer ourselves at auction immediately. It is +Cassy and Dred who are the normal protest of human nature against +systems which degrade it. Accordingly, these poor, ignorant Maroons, +who had seen their brothers and sisters flogged, burned, mutilated, +hanged on iron hooks, broken on the wheel, and had been all the while +solemnly assured that this was paternal government, could only repay +the paternalism in the same fashion, when they had the power. Stedman +saw a negro chained to a red-hot distillery-furnace; he saw disobedient +slaves, in repeated instances, punished by the amputation of a leg, and +sent to boat-service for the rest of their lives; and of course the +rebels borrowed these suggestions. They could bear to watch their +captives expire under the lash, for they had previously watched their +parents. If the government rangers received twenty-five florins for +every rebel right-hand which they brought in, of course they risked +their own right-hands in the pursuit. The difference was, that the one +brutality was that of a mighty state, and the other was only the +retaliation of the victims. And after all, Stedman never ventures to +assert that the imitation equalled the original, or that the Maroons +had inflicted nearly so much as they had suffered. + +The leaders of the rebels, especially, were men who had each his own +story of wrongs to tell. Baron, the most formidable, had been the slave +of a Swedish gentleman, who had taught him to read and write, taken him +to Europe, promised to manumit him on his return,--and then, breaking +his word, sold him to a Jew. Baron refused to work for his new master, +was publicly flogged under the gallows, fled to the woods next day, and +became the terror of the colony. Joli Coeur, his first captain, was +avenging the cruel wrongs of his mother. Bonny, another leader, was +born in the woods, his mother having taken refuge there just +previously, to escape from his father, who was also his master. Cojo, +another, had defended his master against the insurgents until he was +obliged by ill usage to take refuge among them; and he still bore upon +his wrist, when Stedman saw him, a silver band, with the inscription,-- +"True to the Europeans." In dealing with wrongs like these, Mr. Carlyle +would have found the despised negroes quite as ready as himself to take +the total-abstinence pledge against rose-water. + +In his first two months' campaign, Stedman never saw the trace of a +Maroon; in the second, he once came upon their trail; in the third, one +captive was brought in, two surrendered themselves voluntarily, and a +large party was found to have crossed a river within a mile of the +camp, ferrying themselves on palm-trunks, according to their fashion. +Deep swamps and scorching sands,--toiling through briers all day, and +sleeping at night in hammocks suspended over stagnant water, with +weapons supported on sticks crossed beneath,--all this was endured for +two years and a half, before Stedman personally came in sight of the +enemy. + +On August 20th, 1775, the troops found themselves at last in the midst +of the rebel settlements. These villages and forts bore a variety of +expressive names, such as "Hide me, O thou surrounding verdure," "I +shall be taken," "The woods lament for me," "Disturb me, if you dare," +"Take a tasting, if you like it," "Come, try me, if you be men," "God +knows me and none else," "I shall moulder before I shall be taken." +Some were only plantation-grounds with a few huts, and were easily laid +waste; but all were protected more or less by their mere situations. +Quagmires surrounded them, covered by a thin crust of verdure, +sometimes broken through by one man's weight, when the victim sank +hopelessly into the black and bottomless depths below. In other +directions there was a solid bottom, but inconveniently covered by +three or four feet of water, through which the troops waded +breast-deep, holding their muskets high in the air, unable to reload +them when once discharged, and liable to be picked off by rebel scouts, +who ingeniously posted themselves in the tops of palm-trees. + +Through this delectable region Colonel Fougeaud and his followers +slowly advanced, drawing near the fatal shore where Captain Meyland's +detachment had just been defeated, and where their mangled remains +still polluted the beach. Passing this point of danger without attack, +they suddenly met a small party of rebels, each bearing on his back a +beautifully-woven hamper of snow-white rice: these loads they threw +down, and disappeared. Next appeared an armed body from the same +direction, who fired upon them once and swiftly retreated; and in a few +moments the soldiers came upon a large field of standing rice, beyond +which lay, like an amphitheatre, the rebel village. But between the +village and the field had been piled successive defences of logs and +branches, behind which simple redoubts the Maroons lay concealed. A +fight ensued, lasting forty minutes, during which nearly every soldier +and ranger was wounded, but, to their great amazement, not one was +killed. This was an enigma to them until after the skirmish, when the +surgeon found that most of them had been struck, not by bullets, but by +various substitutes, such as pebbles, coat-buttons, and bits of silver +coin, which had penetrated only skin-deep. "We also observed that +several of the poor rebel negroes, who had been shot, had only the +shards of Spa-water cans, instead of flints, which could seldom do +execution; and it was certainly owing to these circumstances that we +came off so well." + +The rebels at length retreated, first setting fire to their village; a +hundred or more lightly built houses, some of them two stories high, +were soon in flames; and as this conflagration occupied the only neck +of land between two impassable morasses, the troops were unable to +follow, and the Maroons had left nothing but rice-fields to be +pillaged. That night the military force was encamped in the woods; +their ammunition was almost gone; so they were ordered to lie flat on +the ground, even in case of attack; they could not so much as build a +fire. Before midnight an attack was made on them, partly with bullets +and partly with words; the Maroons were all around them in the forest, +but their object was a puzzle: they spent most of the night in bandying +compliments with the black rangers, whom they alternately denounced, +ridiculed, and challenged to single combat. At last Fougeaud and +Stedman joined in the conversation, and endeavored to make this +midnight volley of talk the occasion for a treaty. This was received +with inextinguishable laughter, which echoed through the woods like a +concert of screech-owls, ending in a _charivari_ of horns and +hallooing. The Colonel, persisting, offered them "life, liberty, +victuals, drink, and all they wanted"; in return, they ridiculed him +unmercifully: he was a half-starved Frenchman, who had run away from +his own country, and would soon run away from theirs; they profoundly +pitied him and his soldiers; they would scorn to spend powder on such +scarecrows; they would rather feed and clothe them, as being poor white +slaves, hired to be shot at and starved for four-pence a day. But as +for the planters, overseers, and rangers, they should die, every one of +them, and Bonny should be governor of the colony. "After this, they +tinkled their bill-hooks, fired a volley, and gave three cheers; which +being answered by the rangers, the clamor ended, and the rebels +dispersed with the rising sun." + +Very aimless nonsense it certainly appeared. But the next day put a new +aspect on it; for it was found, that, under cover of all this noise, +the Maroons had been busily occupied all night, men, women, and +children, in preparing and filling great hampers of the finest rice, +yams, and cassava, from the adjacent provision-grounds, to be used for +subsistence during their escape, leaving only chaff and refuse for the +hungry soldiers. "This was certainly such a masterly trait of +generalship in a savage people, whom we affected to despise, as would +have done honor to any European commander." + +From this time the Maroons fulfilled their threats. Shooting down +without mercy every black ranger who came within their reach,--one of +these rangers being, in Stedman's estimate, worth six white +soldiers,--they left Colonel Fougeaud and his regulars to die of +starvation and fatigue. The enraged Colonel, "finding himself thus +foiled by a naked negro, swore he would pursue Bonny to the world's +end." But he never got any nearer than to Bonny's kitchen-gardens. He +put the troops on half-allowance, sent back for provisions and +ammunition,--and within ten days changed his mind, and retreated to the +settlements in despair. Soon after, this very body of rebels, under +Bonny's leadership, plundered two plantations in the vicinity, and +nearly captured a powder-magazine, which was, however, successfully +defended by some armed slaves. + +For a year longer these expeditions continued. The troops never gained +a victory, and they lost twenty men for every rebel killed; but they +gradually checked the plunder of plantations, destroyed villages and +planting-grounds, and drove the rebels, for the time at least, into the +deeper recesses of the woods or into the adjacent province of Cayenne. +They had the slight satisfaction of burning Bonny's own house, a +two-story wooden hut, built in the fashion of our frontier +guard-houses. They often took single prisoners,--some child, born and +bred in the woods, and frightened equally by the first sight of a white +man and of a cow,--or some warrior, who, on being threatened with +torture, stretched forth both hands in disdain, and said, with Indian +eloquence,--"These hands have made tigers tremble." As for Stedman, he +still went bare-footed, still quarrelled with his colonel, still +sketched the scenery and described the reptiles, still reared gree-gree +worms for his private kitchen, still quoted good poetry and wrote +execrable, still pitied all the sufferers around him, black, white, and +red, until finally he and his comrades were ordered back to Holland in +1776. + +Among all that wasted regiment of weary and broken-down men, there was +probably no one but Stedman who looked backward with longing as they +sailed down the lovely Surinam. True, he bore all his precious +collections with him,--parrots and butterflies, drawings on the backs +of old letters, and journals kept on bones and cartridges. But he had +left behind him a dearer treasure; for there runs through all his +eccentric narrative a single thread of pure romance, in his love for +his beautiful quadroon wife and his only son. + +Within a month after his arrival in the colony, our susceptible ensign +first saw Joanna, a slave-girl of fifteen, at the house of an intimate +friend. Her extreme beauty and modesty first fascinated him, and then +her piteous narrative,--for she was the daughter of a planter, who had +just gone mad and died in despair from the discovery that he could not +legally emancipate his own children from slavery. Soon after, Stedman +was dangerously ill, was neglected and alone; fruits and cordials were +anonymously sent to him, which proved at last to have come from Joanna, +and she came herself, ere long, and nursed him, grateful for the +visible sympathy he had shown to her. This completed the conquest; the +passionate young Englishman, once recovered, loaded her with presents, +which she refused,--talked of purchasing her and educating her in +Europe, which she also declined, as burdening him too greatly,--and +finally, amid the ridicule of all good society in Paramaribo, +surmounted all legal obstacles and was united to the beautiful girl in +honorable marriage. He provided a cottage for her, where he spent his +furloughs, in perfect happiness, for four years. + +The simple idyl of their loves was unbroken by any stain or +disappointment, and yet always shadowed with the deepest anxiety for +the future. Though treated with the utmost indulgence, she was legally +a slave, and so was the boy of whom she became the mother. Cojo, her +uncle, was a captain among the rebels against whom her husband fought. +And up to the time when Stedman was ordered back to Holland, he was +unable to purchase her freedom, nor could he, until the very last +moment, procure the emancipation of his boy. His perfect delight at +this last triumph, when obtained, elicited some satire from his white +friends. "While the well-thinking few highly applauded my sensibility, +many not only blamed, but publicly derided me for my paternal +affection, which was called a weakness, a whim." "Nearly forty +beautiful boys and girls were left to perpetual slavery by their +parents of my acquaintance, and many of them without being so much as +once inquired after at all." + +But Stedman was a true-hearted fellow, if his sentiment did sometimes +run to rodomontade; he left his Joanna only in the hope that a year or +two in Europe would repair his ruined fortunes, and he could return to +treat himself to the purchase of his own wedded wife. He describes, +with unaffected pathos, their parting scene,--though, indeed, there +were several successive partings,--and closes the description in a +manner worthy of that remarkable combination of enthusiasms which +characterized him. "My melancholy having surpassed all description, I +at last determined to weather one or two painful years in her absence; +and in the afternoon went to dissipate my mind at a Mr. Roux' cabinet +of Indian curiosities; where as my eye chanced to fall on a +rattlesnake, I will, before I leave the colony, describe this dangerous +reptile." + +It was impossible to write the history of the Maroons of Surinam except +through the biography of our Ensign, (at last promoted Captain,) +because nearly all we know of them is through his quaint and +picturesque narrative, with its profuse illustrations by his own hand. +It is not fair, therefore, to end without chronicling his safe arrival +in Holland, on June 3d, 1777. It is a remarkable fact, that, after his +life in the woods, even the Dutch looked slovenly to his eyes. "The +inhabitants, who crowded about us, appeared but a disgusting assemblage +of ill-formed and ill-dressed rabble,--so much had my prejudices been +changed by living among Indians and blacks: their eyes seemed to +resemble those of a pig; their complexions were like the color of foul +linen; they seemed to have no teeth, and to be covered over with rags +and dirt. This prejudice, however, was not against these people only, +but against all Europeans in general, when compared to the sparkling +eyes, ivory teeth, shining skin, and remarkable cleanliness of those I +had left behind me." Yet, in spite of these superior attractions, he +never recrossed the Atlantic; for his Joanna died soon after, and his +promising son, being sent to the father, was educated in England, +became a midshipman in the navy, and was lost at sea. With his elegy, +in which the last depths of bathos are sadly sounded by a mourning +parent,--who is induced to print them only by "the effect they had on +the sympathetic and ingenious Mrs. Cowley,"--the "Narrative of a Five +Years' Expedition" closes. + +The war, which had cost the government forty thousand pounds a year, +was ended, and left both parties essentially as when it began. The +Maroons gradually returned to their old abodes, and, being unmolested +themselves, left others unmolested thenceforward. Originally three +thousand,--in Stedman's time, fifteen thousand,--they were estimated at +seventy thousand by Captain Alexander, who saw Guiana in 1831,--and a +recent American scientific expedition, having visited them in their +homes, reported them as still enjoying their wild freedom, and +multiplying, while the Indians on the same soil decay. The beautiful +forests of Surinam still make the morning gorgeous with their beauty, +and the night deadly with their chill; the stately palm still rears, a +hundred feet in air, its straight gray shaft and its head of verdure; +the mora builds its solid, buttressed trunk, a pedestal for the eagle; +the pine of the tropics holds out its myriad hands with water-cups for +the rain and dews, where all the birds and the monkeys may drink their +fill; the trees are garlanded with epiphytes and convolvuli, and +anchored to the earth by a thousand vines. High among their branches, +the red and yellow mockingbirds still build their hanging nests, +uncouth storks and tree-porcupines cling above, and the spotted deer +and the tapir drink from the sluggish stream below. The night is still +made noisy with a thousand cries of bird and beast; and the stillness +of the sultry noon is broken by the slow tolling of the _campańero_, or +bell-bird, far in the deep, dark woods, like the chime of some lost +convent. And as Nature is unchanged there, so apparently is man; the +Maroons still retain their savage freedom, still shoot their wild game +and trap their fish, still raise their rice and cassava, yams and +plantains,--still make cups from the gourd-tree and hammocks from the +silk-grass plant, wine from the palm-tree's sap, brooms from its +leaves, fishing-lines from its fibres, and salt from its ashes. Their +life does not yield, indeed, the very highest results of spiritual +culture; its mental and moral results may not come up to the level of +civilization, but they rise far above the level of slavery. In the +changes of time, the Maroons may yet elevate themselves into the one, +but they will never relapse into the other. + + + + +CIRCUMSTANCE. + + +She had remained, during all that day, with a sick neighbor,--those +eastern wilds of Maine in that epoch frequently making neighbors and +miles synonymous,--and so busy had she been with care and sympathy that +she did not at first observe the approaching night. But finally the +level rays, reddening the snow, threw their gleam upon the wall, and, +hastily donning cloak and hood, she bade her friends farewell and +sallied forth on her return. Home lay some three miles distant, across +a copse, a meadow, and a piece of woods,--the woods being a fringe on +the skirts of the great forests that stretch far away into the North. +That home was one of a dozen log-houses lying a few furlongs apart from +each other, with their half-cleared demesnes separating them at the +rear from a wilderness untrodden save by stealthy native or deadly +panther tribes. + +She was in a nowise exalted frame of spirit,--on the contrary, rather +depressed by the pain she had witnessed and the fatigue she had +endured; but in certain temperaments such a condition throws open the +mental pores, so to speak, and renders one receptive of every +influence. Through the little copse she walked slowly, with her cloak +folded about her, lingering to imbibe the sense of shelter, the sunset +filtered in purple through the mist of woven spray and twig, the +companionship of growth not sufficiently dense to band against her the +sweet home-feeling of a young and tender wintry wood. It was therefore +just on the edge of the evening that she emerged from the place and +began to cross the meadow-land. At one hand lay the forest to which her +path wound; at the other the evening star hung over a tide of failing +orange that slowly slipped down the earth's broad side to sadden other +hemispheres with sweet regret. Walking rapidly now, and with her eyes +wide-open, she distinctly saw in the air before her what was not there +a moment ago, a winding-sheet,--cold, white, and ghastly, waved by the +likeness of four wan hands,--that rose with a long inflation and fell +in rigid folds, while a voice, shaping itself from the hollowness +above, spectral and melancholy, sighed,--"The Lord have mercy on the +people! The Lord have mercy on the people!" Three times the sheet with +its corpse-covering outline waved beneath the pale hands, and the +voice, awful in its solemn and mysterious depth, sighed, "The Lord have +mercy on the people!" Then all was gone, the place was clear again, the +gray sky was obstructed by no deathly blot; she looked about her, shook +her shoulders decidedly, and, pulling on her hood, went forward once +more. + +She might have been a little frightened by such an apparition, if she +had led a life of less reality than frontier settlers are apt to lead; +but dealing with hard fact does not engender a flimsy habit of mind, +and this woman was too sincere and earnest in her character, and too +happy in her situation, to be thrown by antagonism merely upon +superstitious fancies and chimeras of the second-sight. She did not +even believe herself subject to an hallucination, but smiled simply, a +little vexed that her thought could have framed such a glamour from the +day's occurrences, and not sorry to lift the bough of the warder of the +woods and enter and disappear in their sombre path. If she had been +imaginative, she would have hesitated at her first step into a region +whose dangers were not visionary; but I suppose that the thought of a +little child at home would conquer that propensity in the most +habituated. So, biting a bit of spicy birch, she went along. Now and +then she came to a gap where the trees had been partially felled, and +here she found that the lingering twilight was explained by that +peculiar and perhaps electric film which sometimes sheathes the sky in +diffused light for very many hours before a brilliant aurora. Suddenly, +a swift shadow, like the fabulous flying-dragon, writhed through the +air before her, and she felt herself instantly seized and borne aloft. +It was that wild beast--the most savage and serpentine and subtle and +fearless of our latitudes--known by hunters as the Indian Devil, and he +held her in his clutches on the broad floor of a swinging fir-bough. +His long sharp claws were caught in her clothing, he worried them +sagaciously a little, then, finding that ineffectual to free them, he +commenced licking her bare white arm with his rasping tongue and +pouring over her the wide streams of his hot, fetid breath. So quick +had this flashing action been that the woman had had no time for alarm; +moreover, she was not of the screaming kind; but now, as she felt him +endeavoring to disentangle his claws, and the horrid sense of her fate +smote her, and she saw instinctively the fierce plunge of those +weapons, the long strips of living flesh torn from her bones, the +agony, the quivering disgust, itself a worse agony,--while by her side, +and holding her in his great lithe embrace, the monster crouched, his +white tusks whetting and gnashing, his eyes glaring through all the +darkness like balls of red fire,--a shriek, that rang in every forest +hollow, that startled every winter-housed thing, that stirred and woke +the least needle of the tasselled pines, tore through her lips. A +moment afterward, the beast left the arm, once white, now crimson, and +looked up alertly. + +She did not think at this instant to call upon God. She called upon her +husband. It seemed to her that she had but one friend in the world; +that was he; and again the cry, loud, clear, prolonged, echoed through +the woods. It was not the shriek that disturbed the creature at his +relish; he was not born in the woods to be scared of an owl, you know; +what then? It mast have been the echo, most musical, most resonant, +repeated and yet repeated, dying with long sighs of sweet sound, +vibrated from rock to river and back again from depth to depth of cave +and cliff. Her thought flew after it; she knew, that, even if her +husband heard it, he yet could not reach her in time; she saw that +while the beast listened he would not gnaw,--and this she _felt_ +directly, when the rough, sharp, and multiplied stings of his tongue +retouched her arm. Again her lips opened by instinct, but the sound +that issued thence came by reason. She had heard that music charmed +wild beasts,--just this point between life and death intensified every +faculty,--and when she opened her lips the third time, it was not for +shrieking, but for singing. + +A little thread of melody stole out, a rill of tremulous motion; it was +the cradle-song with which she rocked her baby;--how could she sing +that? And then she remembered the baby sleeping rosily on the long +settee before the fire,--the father cleaning his gun, with one foot on +the green wooden rundle,--the merry light from the chimney dancing out +and through the room, on the rafters of the ceiling with their tassels +of onions and herbs, on the log walls painted with lichens and +festooned with apples, on the king's-arm slung across the shelf with +the old pirate's-cutlass, on the snow-pile of the bed, and on the great +brass clock,--dancing, too, and lingering on the baby, with his fringed +gentian eyes, his chubby fists clenched on the pillow, and his fine +breezy hair fanning with the motion of his father's foot. All this +struck her in one, and made a sob of her breath, and she ceased. + +Immediately the long red tongue was thrust forth again. Before it +touched, a song sprang to her lips, a wild sea-song, such as some +sailor might be singing far out on trackless blue water that night, the +shrouds whistling with frost and the sheets glued in ice,--a song with +the wind in its burden and the spray in its chorus. The monster raised +his head and flared the fiery eyeballs upon her, then fretted the +imprisoned claws a moment and was quiet; only the breath like the vapor +from some hell-pit still swathed her. Her voice, at first faint and +fearful, gradually lost its quaver, grew under her control and subject +to her modulation; it rose on long swells, it fell in subtile cadences, +now and then its tones pealed out like bells from distant belfries on +fresh sonorous mornings. She sung the song through, and, wondering lest +his name of Indian Devil were not his true name, and if he would not +detect her, she repeated it. Once or twice now, indeed, the beast +stirred uneasily, turned, and made the bough sway at his movement. As +she ended, he snapped his jaws together, and tore away the fettered +member, curling it under him with a snarl,--when she burst into the +gayest reel that ever answered a fiddle-bow. How many a time she had +heard her husband play it on the homely fiddle made by himself from +birch and cherry-wood! how many a time she had seen it danced on the +floor of their one room, to the patter of wooden clogs and the rustle +of homespun petticoat! how many a time she had danced it herself!--and +did she not remember once, as they joined clasps for right-hands-round, +how it had lent its gay, bright measure to her life? And here she was +singing it alone, in the forest, at midnight, to a wild beast! As she +sent her voice trilling up and down its quick oscillations between joy +and pain, the creature who grasped her uncurled his paw and scratched +the bark from the bough; she must vary the spell; and her voice spun +leaping along the projecting points of tune of a hornpipe. Still +singing, she felt herself twisted about with a low growl and a lifting +of the red lip from the glittering teeth; she broke the hornpipe's +thread, and commenced unravelling a lighter, livelier thing, an Irish +jig. Up and down and round about her voice flew, the beast threw back +his head so that the diabolical face fronted hers, and the torrent of +his breath prepared her for his feast as the anaconda slimes his prey. +Franticly she darted from tune to tune; his restless movements followed +her. She tired herself with dancing and vivid national airs, growing +feverish and singing spasmodically as she felt her horrid tomb yawning +wider. Touching in this manner all the slogan and keen clan cries, the +beast moved again, but only to lay the disengaged paw across her with +heavy satisfaction. She did not dare to pause; through the clear cold +air, the frosty starlight, she sang. If there were yet any tremor in +the tone, it was not fear,--she had learned the secret of sound at +last; nor could it be chill,--far too high a fervor throbbed her +pulses; it was nothing but the thought of the log-house and of what +might be passing within it. She fancied the baby stirring in his sleep +and moving his pretty lips,--her husband rising and opening the door, +looking out after her, and wondering at her absence. She fancied the +light pouring through the chink and then shut in again with all the +safety and comfort and joy, her husband taking down the fiddle and +playing lightly with his head inclined, playing while she sang, while +she sang for her life to an Indian Devil. Then she knew he was fumbling +for and finding some shining fragment and scoring it down the yellowing +hair, and unconsciously her voice forsook the wild war-tunes and +drifted into the half-gay, half-melancholy Rosin the Bow. + +Suddenly she woke pierced with a pang, and the daggered tooth +penetrating her flesh;--dreaming of safety, she had ceased singing and +lost it. The beast had regained the use of all his limbs, and now, +standing and raising his back, bristling and foaming, with sounds that +would have been like hisses but for their deep and fearful sonority, he +withdrew step by step toward the trunk of the tree, still with his +flaming balls upon her. She was all at once free, on one end of the +bough, twenty feet from the ground. She did not measure the distance, +but rose to drop herself down, careless of any death, so that it were +not this. Instantly, as if he scanned her thoughts, the creature +bounded forward with a yell and caught her again in his dreadful hold. +It might be that he was not greatly famished; for, as she suddenly +flung up her voice again, he settled himself composedly on the bough, +still clasping her with invincible pressure to his rough, ravenous +breast, and listening in a fascination to the sad, strange U-la-lu that +now moaned forth in loud, hollow tones above him. He half closed his +eyes, and sleepily reopened and shut them again. + +What rending pains were close at hand! Death! and what a death! worse +than any other that is to be named! Water, be it cold or warm, that +which buoys up blue ice-fields, or which bathes tropical coasts with +currents of balmy bliss, is yet a gentle conqueror, kisses as it kills, +and draws you down gently through darkening fathoms to its heart. Death +at the sword is the festival of trumpet and bugle and banner, with +glory ringing out around you and distant hearts thrilling through +yours. No gnawing disease can bring such hideous end as this; for that +is a fiend bred of your own flesh, and this--is it a fiend, this living +lump of appetites? What dread comes with the thought of perishing in +flames! but fire, let it leap and hiss never so hotly, is something too +remote, too alien, to inspire us with such loathly horror as a wild +beast; if it have a life, that life is too utterly beyond our +comprehension. Fire is not half ourselves; as it devours, arouses +neither hatred nor disgust; is not to be known by the strength of our +lower natures let loose; does not drip our blood into our faces from +foaming chaps, nor mouth nor snarl above us with vitality. Let us be +ended by fire, and we are ashes, for the winds to bear, the leaves to +cover; let us be ended by wild beasts, and the base, cursed thing howls +with us forever through the forest. All this she felt as she charmed +him, and what force it lent to her song God knows. If her voice should +fail! If the damp and cold should give her any fatal hoarseness! If all +the silent powers of the forest did not conspire to help her! The dark, +hollow night rose indifferently over her; the wide, cold air breathed +rudely past her, lifted her wet hair and blew it down again; the great +boughs swung with a ponderous strength, now and then clashed their iron +lengths together and shook off a sparkle of icy spears or some +long-lain weight of snow from their heavy shadows. The green depths +were utterly cold and silent and stern. These beautiful haunts that all +the summer were hers and rejoiced to share with her their bounty, these +heavens that had yielded their largess, these stems that had thrust +their blossoms into her hands, all these friends of three moons ago +forgot her now and knew her no longer. + +Feeling her desolation, wild, melancholy, forsaken songs rose thereon +from that frightful aerie,--weeping, wailing tunes, that sob among the +people from age to age, and overflow with otherwise unexpressed +sadness,--all rude, mournful ballads,--old tearful strains, that +Shakspeare heard the vagrants sing, and that rise and fall like the +wind and tide,--sailor-songs, to be heard only in lone mid-watches +beneath the moon and stars,--ghastly rhyming romances, such as that +famous one of the "Lady Margaret," when + +"She slipped on her gown of green + A piece below the knee,-- +And 'twas all a long, cold winter's night + A dead corse followed she." + +Still the beast lay with closed eyes, yet never relaxing his grasp. +Once a half-whine of enjoyment escaped him,--he fawned his fearful head +upon her; once he scored her cheek with his tongue: savage caresses +that hurt like wounds. How weary she was! and yet how terribly awake! +How fuller and fuller of dismay grew the knowledge that she was only +prolonging her anguish and playing with death! How appalling the +thought that with her voice ceased her existence! Yet she could not +sing forever; her throat was dry and hard; her very breath was a pain; +her mouth was hotter than any desert-worn pilgrim's;--if she could but +drop upon her burning tongue one atom of the ice that glittered about +her!--but both of her arms were pinioned in the giant's vice. She +remembered the winding-sheet, and for the first time in her life +shivered with spiritual fear. Was it hers? She asked herself, as she +sang, what sins she had committed, what life she had led, to find her +punishment so soon and in these pangs,--and then she sought eagerly for +some reason why her husband was not up and abroad to find her. He +failed her,--her one sole hope in life; and without being aware of it, +her voice forsook the songs of suffering and sorrow for old Covenanting +hymns,--hymns with which her mother had lulled her, which the +class-leader pitched in the chimney-corners,--grand and sweet Methodist +hymns, brimming with melody and with all fantastic involutions of tune +to suit that ecstatic worship,--hymns full of the beauty of holiness, +steadfast, relying, sanctified by the salvation they had lent to those +in worse extremity than hers,--for they had found themselves in the +grasp of hell, while she was but in the jaws of death. Out of this +strange music, peculiar to one character of faith, and than which there +is none more beautiful in its degree nor owning a more potent sway of +sound, her voice soared into the glorified chants of churches. What to +her was death by cold or famine or wild beasts? "Though He slay me, yet +will I trust in Him," she sang. High and clear through the frore fair +night, the level moonbeams splintering in the wood, the scarce glints +of stars in the shadowy roof of branches, these sacred anthems +rose,--rose as a hope from despair, as some snowy spray of flower-bells +from blackest mould. Was she not in God's hands? Did not the world +swing at His will? If this were in His great plan of providence, was it +not best, and should she not accept it? + +"He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth." + +Oh, sublime faith of our fathers, where utter self-sacrifice alone was +true love, the fragrance of whose unrequired subjection was pleasant as +that of golden censers swung in purple-vapored chancels! + +Never ceasing in the rhythm of her thoughts, articulated in music as +they thronged, the memory of her first communion flashed over her. +Again she was in that distant place on that sweet spring morning. Again +the congregation rustled out, and the few remained, and she trembled to +find herself among them. + +How well she remembered the devout, quiet faces; too accustomed to the +sacred feast to glow with their inner joy! how well the snowy linen at +the altar, the silver vessels slowly and silently shifting! and as the +cup approached and passed, how the sense of delicious perfume stole in +and heightened the transport of her prayer, and she had seemed, looking +up through the windows where the sky soared blue in constant freshness, +to feel all heaven's balms dripping from the portals, and to scent the +lilies of eternal peace! Perhaps another would not have felt so much +ecstasy as satisfaction on that occasion; but it is a true, if a later +disciple, who has said, "The Lord bestoweth his blessings there, where +he findeth the vessels empty."--"And does it need the walls of a church +to renew my communion?" she asked. "Does not every moment stand a +temple four-square to God? And in that morning, with its buoyant +sunlight, was I any dearer to the Heart of the World than now?" "My +beloved is mine, and I am his," she sang over and over again, with all +varied inflection and profuse tune. How gently all the winter-wrapt +things bent toward her then! into what relation with her had they +grown! how this common dependence was the spell of their intimacy! how +at one with Nature had she become! how all the night and the silence +and the forest seemed to hold its breath, and to send its soul up to +God in her singing! It was no longer despondency, that singing. It was +neither prayer nor petition. She had left imploring, "How long wilt +thou forget me, O Lord?" "Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of +death!" "For in death there is no remembrance of thee";--with countless +other such fragments of supplication. She cried rather, "Yea, though I +walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: +for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me";--and +lingered, and repeated, and sang again, "I shall be satisfied, when I +awake, with thy likeness." + +Then she thought of the Great Deliverance, when he drew her up out of +many waters, and the flashing old psalm pealed forth triumphantly:-- + +"The Lord descended from above, + and bow'd the heavens hie; +And underneath his feet he cast + the darknesse of the skie. +On cherubs and on cherubins + full royally he road: +And on the wings of all the winds + came flying all abroad." + +She forgot how recently, and with what a strange pity for her own +shapeless form that was to be, she had quaintly sung,-- + +"Oh, lovely appearance of death! + What sight upon earth is so fair? +Not all the gay pageants that breathe + Can with a dead body compare!" + +She remembered instead,--"In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy +right hand there are pleasures forevermore"; and, "God will redeem my +soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me"; "He will +swallow up death in victory." Not once now did she say, "Lord, how long +wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling +from the lions"--for she knew that "the young lions roar after their +prey and seek their meat from God." "O Lord, thou preservest man and +beast!" she said. + +She had no comfort or consolation in this season, such as sustained the +Christian martyrs in the amphitheatre. She was not dying for her faith; +there were no palms in heaven for her to wave; but how many a time had +she declared,--"I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, +than to dwell in the tents of wickedness!" And as the broad rays here +and there broke through the dense covert of shade and lay in rivers of +lustre on crystal sheathing and frozen fretting of trunk and limb and +on the great spaces of refraction, they builded up visibly that house, +the shining city on the hill, and singing, "Beautiful for situation, +the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the North, +the city of the Great King," her vision climbed to that higher picture +where the angel shows the dazzling thing, the holy Jerusalem descending +out of heaven from God, with its splendid battlements and gates of +pearls, and its foundations, the eleventh a jacinth, the twelfth an +amethyst,--with its great white throne, and the rainbow round about it, +in sight like unto an emerald:--"And there shall be no night +there,--for the Lord God giveth them light," she sang. + +What whisper of dawn now rustled through the wilderness? How the night +was passing! And still the beast crouched upon the bough, changing only +the posture of his head, that again he might command her with those +charmed eyes;--half their fire was gone; she could almost have released +herself from his custody; yet, had she stirred, no one knows what +malevolent instinct might have dominated anew. But of that she did not +dream; long ago stripped of any expectation, she was experiencing in +her divine rapture how mystically true it is that "he that dwelleth in +the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the +Almighty." + +Slow clarion cries now wound from the distance as the cocks caught the +intelligence of day and reechoed it faintly from farm to farm,--sleepy +sentinels of night, sounding the foe's invasion, and translating that +dim intuition to ringing notes of warning. Still she chanted on. A +remote crash of brushwood told of some other beast on his depredations, +or some night-belated traveller groping his way through the narrow +path. Still she chanted on. The far, faint echoes of the chanticleers +died into distance,--the crashing of the branches grew nearer. No wild +beast that, but a man's step,--a man's form in the moonlight, stalwart +and strong,--on one arm slept a little child, in the other hand he held +his gun. Still she chanted on. + +Perhaps, when her husband last looked forth, he was half ashamed to +find what a fear he felt for her. He knew she would never leave the +child so long but for some direst need,--and yet he may have laughed at +himself, as he lifted and wrapped it with awkward care, and, loading +his gun and strapping on his horn, opened the door again and closed it +behind him, going out and plunging into the darkness and dangers of the +forest. He was more singularly alarmed than he would have been willing +to acknowledge; as he had sat with his bow hovering over the strings, +he had half believed to hear her voice mingling gayly with the +instrument, till he paused and listened if she were not about to lift +the latch and enter. As he drew nearer the heart of the forest, that +intimation of melody seemed to grow more actual, to take body and +breath, to come and go on long swells and ebbs of the night-breeze, to +increase with tune and words, till a strange, shrill singing grew ever +clearer, and, as he stepped into an open space of moonbeams, far up in +the branches, rocked by the wind, and singing, "How beautiful upon the +mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that +publisheth peace," he saw his wife,--his wife,--but, great God in +heaven! how? Some mad exclamation escaped him, but without diverting +her. The child knew the singing voice, though never heard before in +that unearthly key, and turned toward it through the veiling dreams. +With a celerity almost instantaneous, it lay, in the twinkling of an +eye, on the ground at the father's feet, while his gun was raised to +his shoulder and levelled at the monster covering his wife with shaggy +form and flaming gaze,--his wife so ghastly white, so rigid, so stained +with blood, her eyes so fixedly bent above, and her lips, that had +indurated into the chiselled pallor of marble, parted only with that +flood of solemn song. + +I do not know if it were the mother-instinct that for a moment lowered +her eyes,--those eyes, so lately riveted on heaven, now suddenly seeing +all life-long bliss possible. A thrill of joy pierced and shivered +through her like a weapon, her voice trembled in its course, her glance +lost its steady strength, fever-flushes chased each other over her +face, yet she never once ceased chanting. She was quite aware, that, if +her husband shot now, the ball must pierce her body before reaching any +vital part of the beast,--and yet better that death, by his hand, than +the other. But this her husband also knew, and he remained motionless, +just covering the creature with the sight. He dared not fire, lest some +wound not mortal should break the spell exercised by her voice, and the +beast, enraged with pain, should rend her in atoms; moreover, the light +was too uncertain for his aim. So he waited. Now and then he examined +his gun to see if the damp were injuring its charge, now and then he +wiped the great drops from his forehead. Again the cocks crowed with +the passing hour,--the last time they were heard on that night. +Cheerful home sound then, how full of safety and all comfort and rest +it seemed! what sweet morning incidents of sparkling fire and sunshine, +of gay household bustle, shining dresser, and cooing baby, of steaming +cattle in the yard, and brimming milk-pails at the door! what pleasant +voices! what laughter! what security! and here---- + +Now, as she sang on in the slow, endless, infinite moments, the fervent +vision of God's peace was gone. Just as the grave had lost its sting, +she was snatched back again into the arms of earthly hope. In vain she +tried to sing, "There remaineth a rest for the people of God,"--her +eyes trembled on her husband's, and she could think only of him, and of +the child, and of happiness that yet might be, but with what a dreadful +gulf of doubt between! She shuddered now in the suspense; all calm +forsook her; she was tortured with dissolving heats or frozen with icy +blasts; her face contracted, growing small and pinched; her voice was +hoarse and sharp,--every tone cut like a knife,--the notes became heavy +to lift,--withheld by some hostile pressure,--impossible. One gasp, a +convulsive effort, and there was silence,--she had lost her voice. + +The beast made a sluggish movement,--stretched and fawned like one +awaking,--then, as if he would have yet more of the enchantment, +stirred her slightly with his muzzle. As he did so, a sidelong hint of +the man standing below with the raised gun smote him; he sprung round +furiously, and, seizing his prey, was about to leap into some unknown +airy den of the topmost branches now waving to the slow dawn. The late +moon had rounded through the sky so that her gleam at last fell full +upon the bough with fairy frosting; the wintry morning light did not +yet penetrate the gloom. The woman, suspended in mid-air an instant, +cast only one agonized glance beneath,--but across and through it, ere +the lids could fall, shot a withering sheet of flame,--a rifle-crack, +half heard, was lost in the terrible yell of desperation that bounded +after it and filled her ears with savage echoes, and in the wide arc of +some eternal descent she was falling;--but the beast fell under her. I +think that the moment following must have been too sacred for us, and +perhaps the three have no special interest again till they issue from +the shadows of the wilderness upon the white hills that skirt their +home. The father carries the child hushed again into slumber; the +mother follows with no such feeble step as might be anticipated,--and +as they slowly climb the steep under the clear gray sky and the paling +morning star, she stops to gather a spray of the red-rose berries or a +feathery tuft of dead grasses for the chimney-piece of the log-house, +or a handful of brown ones for the child's play,--and of these quiet, +happy folk you would scarcely dream how lately they had stolen from +under the banner and encampment of the great King Death. The husband +proceeds a step or two in advance; the wife lingers over a singular +foot-print in the snow, stoops and examines it, then looks up with a +hurried word. Her husband stands alone on the hill, his arms folded +across the babe, his gun fallen,--stands defined against the pallid sky +like a bronze. What is there in their home, lying below and yellowing +in the light, to fix him with such a stare? She springs to his side. +There is no home there. The log-house, the barns, the neighboring +farms, the fences, are all blotted out and mingled in one smoking ruin. +Desolation and death were indeed there, and beneficence and life in the +forest. Tomahawk and scalping-knife, descending during that night, had +left behind them only this work of their accomplished hatred and one +subtle foot-print in the snow. + +For the rest,--the world was all before them, where to choose. + + * * * * * + +URANIA. + + +Hast thou forgotten whose thou art? + To what high service consecrate? +I gave thee not a noble heart + To wed with such ignoble fate. + +I found thee where the laurels grow + Around the lonely Delphian shrine; +There, where the sacred fountains flow, + I found thee, and I made thee mine. + +I gave thy soul to agony, + And strange unsatisfied desire, +That thou mightst dearer be to me, + And worthier of thy burning lyre. + +O child, thy fate had made thee God, + To thee such powers divine were given; +The paths of fire thou mightst have trod + Had led thee to the stars of heaven. + +And those who in the early dawn + Of beauty sat and sang of day, +Deep in their twilight shades withdrawn, + Had heard thy coming far away,-- + +With haunting music sweet and strange, + And airs ambrosial blown before, +Vague breathings of the floral change + That glorifies the hills of yore: + +Had felt the joy those only find + Who in their secret souls have known +The mystery of the poet mind + That through all beauty feels its own: + +Had felt the God within them rise + To meet thy radiant soul divine; +Had searched with their prophetic eyes + The midnight luminous of thine. + +So fondly did Urania deem! + So proudly did she prophesy! +Oh, ruin of a noble dream + She thought too glorious to die! + +Nor knew thy passionate songs of yore + Were as a promise unfulfilled,-- +A stately portal set before + The palace thou shall never build! + +For is it come to this, at last? + And thou forever must remain +A godlike statue, formed and cast + In marble attitude of pain,-- + +Proud lips that in their scorn are mute, + And haunting eyes of anguished love, +One hand that grasps a silent lute, + And one convulsčd hand above + +That will not strike? Ah, scorn and shame! + Shame for the apostate unforgiven, +Beholding an unconquered fame + In undiscovered fields of heaven! + +For Beauty not by one alone + In her completeness is revealed: +The smiles and tears her face hath shown + To thee from others are concealed. + +Men see not in the midnight sky + All miracles she worketh there: +It is the blindness of the eye + That paints its darkness on the air. + +Two friends who wander by the shore + Look not upon the selfsame seas, +Hearing two voices in the roar, + Because of different memories. + +For him whose love the sea hath drowned, + It moans the music of his wrong; +For him whose life with love is crowned, + It breaks upon the beach in song. + +So dreaming not another's dream, + But still interpreting thine own, +By woodland wild and quiet stream + Thou wanderest in the world alone. + +Then what thou slayest none can save: + Silent and dark oblivion rolls +Over the glory in the grave + Of fierce and suicidal souls. + +From that dark wave no pleading ghost + With pointing hand shall ever rise, +To say,--The world hath treasure lost, + And here the buried treasure lies! + +Beware, and yet beware! my fear + Unfolds a vision in the gloom +Of Beauty borne upon her bier, + And Darkness crouching in the tomb. + +Beware, and yet beware! her end + Is thine; or else, her shadowy hearse +Beside, thy spirit shall descend + The vast sepulchral universe, + +And, with the passion that remains + In desolated hearts, implore +The spectre sitting bound in chains + To yield what he shall not restore:-- + +The mystery whose soul divine + Breathed love, and only love, on thee; +Which better far had not been thine, + Than, having been, to cease to be. + + + + +MARY SOMERVILLE. + + +There have been in every age a few women of genius who have become the +successful rivals of man in the paths which they have severally chosen. +Three instances are of our time. Mrs. Browning is called a poet even by +poets; the artists admit that Rosa Bonheur is a painter; and the +mathematicians accord to Mary Somerville a high rank among themselves. + +"In pure mathematics," said Humboldt, "Mrs. Somerville is strong." Of +no other woman of the age could the remark have been made; and this +would probably be true, were the walks of science as marked by the +feminine footprint as are those of literature. To read mathematical +works is an easy task; the formula can be learned and their meaning +apprehended: to read the most profound of them, with such appreciation +that one stands side by side with the great minds who originated them, +requires a higher order of intellect; and far-reaching indeed is that +which, pondering in the study on a few phenomena known by observation, +develops the theory of worlds, traces back for ages their history, and +sketches the outline of their future destiny. + +Caroline Herschel, the sister of Sir William, was doubtless gifted with +much of the Herschel talent, and, under other circumstances, her mind +might have turned to original research; but she belonged rather to the +last century, and Hanover was not a region favorable to intellectual +efforts in her sex. She lived the life of a simple-hearted, +truth-loving woman; most worthy of the name she bore, she made notes +for her brother, she swept the heavens and found comets for him, she +computed and tabulated his observations; it seems never to have +occurred to her to be other than the patient, helping sister of a truly +great man. + +Mrs. Somerville's life has been more individual. She is the daughter of +Admiral Fairfax, and was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, December 26, +1780, in the house of her uncle, the father of her present husband. + +The home training and the school education of the daughters of Great +Britain are very unlike those of their American sisters. The manners +and customs of the Old World change so slowly, that one can scarcely +assent to a remark made by Sir John Herschel:--"The Englishman sticks +to his old ways, but is not cemented to them." The Englishwoman submits +to authority from her infancy; belonging to the middle class, she does +not expect the higher education of the nobility; a woman, she is not +supposed to desire to enter into the studies of her brothers. A +governess, generally the daughter of a curate, who prefers this +position to that of "companion" to a fine lady, is provided for her in +her early years. If the choice be fortunate and the parents watchful, +the young girl is thoroughly taught in a few branches of what are +commonly considered feminine studies. She learns to read and to speak +French; tutors are employed for music and drawing: every young lady +above the rank of the tradesman's daughter plays well upon the piano; +every one has her portfolio of drawings, in which sketches from Nature +can always be found, and frequently the family portraits. The history +of the country is considered a study suitable for girls; the Englishman +expects that his daughter shall know something of the past, of which he +is so justly proud. + +But the more solid book-learning given to the girls of New England, +even in the public schools, is known only to the daughters of the +higher classes, and among them an instance like that of Lady Jane Grey +could scarcely now be found. As the girls and boys are never taught in +the same schools, no taste is aroused by the example of manly studies. +An English girl is astonished to hear that an American girl passes a +public examination, like her brothers, and with them competes for +prizes; she doubts the truthfulness of some of the representations of +life found in American novels; and so little is the freedom of manners +understood, that the American traveller is frequently asked,--"Can it +really be as Mrs. Stowe represents in America? Does a young lady really +give a party herself?" + +The difference that one would expect is found between the women of +England or Scotland and the women of New England. The young +Englishwoman is tasteful and elegant, mindful of all the proprieties +and graces of social life; she speaks slowly and cautiously, and gives +her opinions with great modesty. These are not at present the +characteristics of the American girl. + +Mary Fairfax passed through the usual routine. At fourteen she had read +the books to be found in her father's house, including the few works +on Navigation which were necessary to him in his profession. She had +thus obtained an idea of the world of science, and it was dull to +return to worsted-work for amusement. The needle, which has been the +fetter of so many women, became, however, in her hand, magnetic, and +pointed her to her destiny. She was in the habit of taking her work +into her brother's study, and listening to his recitations; the +revelations of Geometry were thus opened to her; she listened and +worked for a time, until the desire to know more of this region of form +and law, of harmony and of relations, became too strong to be resisted; +the worsted was thrown aside, and she ventured to ask the tutor to +instruct her. The honest man told her that he was no mathematician: he +could lend her Euclid, but he could do no more. + +The first great step was now taken; Euclid was quickly read; other +books were borrowed from other friends; Bonnycastle's and Euler's +Algebra were obtained, and she exulted in the use of those mystic +symbols, _x, y_, and _z_. Her parents looked on with indifference; so +that the music were not neglected and the governess reported well of +her studies, they felt there was no harm in her amusing herself as she +chose. When the days of the governess were over, the young lady "came +out" in Edinburgh, and mingled much with the best society. This most +picturesque city had long been the resort of the most gifted minds; men +of literature and men of science made the charm of its winter life. +Never was it more the gathering-place of intellect than in the early +part of this century; but there was no room for a woman of genius, and +the young girl's friends advised her to conceal her pursuits. Move as +quietly, however, and as unobtrusively as she might in the brilliant +circle, her genius was not without recognition. There was a word of +encouragement from Professor Playfair. "Persevere in your study," said +he; "it will be a source of happiness to you when all else fails; for +it is the study of truth." She had a champion, too, in the dreaded +critic, Jeffrey. "I am told," said a friend, writing to him, "that the +ladies of Edinburgh are literary, and that one of them sets up as a +blue-stocking and an astronomer." "The lady of whom you speak," replied +Jeffrey, "may wear blue stockings, but her petticoats are so long that +I have never seen them." + +Mrs. Somerville has been twice married. Her first husband, a gentleman +of the name of Greig, regarded her pursuits as her parents had, simply +with indifference. Dr. Somerville, her present husband, has taken the +utmost pains to secure her time for her studies, and has himself +relieved her from many household cares. + +The simplicity of character which belonged to her in early life was not +lost when her reputation became established. The Royal Society, whose +doors do not open at every knock, admitted her to membership, and, by +their order, her bust was sculptured by Chantrey, and now adorns the +hall of the Society in Somerset House. During the sittings for this +purpose, a lady, a friend of the sculptor, him to introduce her to Mrs. +Somerville. Chantrey consented, and made a dinner-party for the +purpose. The two ladies were placed side by side at table, and the +benevolent artist rejoiced to perceive, from the flow of talk, that +they were mutually pleased. The next day, to his astonishment, his +friend called on him in a state of great indignation, believing herself +the victim of a practical joke. "How could you do so?" said she. "You +knew that I did not want to know _that_ Mrs. Somerville; I wanted to +know the astronomer: that lady talked of the theatre, the opera, and +common things." + +The anecdote so often told of Laplace's compliment is literally true. +Mrs. Somerville dined with this great geometer in Paris. "I write +books," said Laplace, "that no one can read. Only two women have ever +read the 'Mécanique Céleste'; both are Scotch women: Mrs. Greig and +yourself." + +Upon the "Mécanique Céleste" Mrs. Somerville's greatest work is +founded. "I simply translated Laplace's work," said she, "from algebra +into common language." That is, she did what very few men and no other +woman could do. It is of this work of Laplace that Bonaparte said, "I +will give to it my first _six months_ of leisure." The student who +reads it by the aid of Dr. Bowditch's notes has little idea of the +difficulties to be met in the original work. Even Dr. Bowditch himself +said, "I never come across one of Laplace's 'Thus it plainly appears,' +without feeling sure that I have got hours of hard study before me, to +fill up the chasm and show _how_ it plainly appears." + +This "translation into common language" was undertaken at the request +of Lord Brougham, who desired a mathematical work suited to the +"Library of Useful Knowledge." The manuscript was submitted to Sir John +Herschel, who expressed himself "delighted with it,--that it was a book +for posterity, but quite above the class for which Lord Brougham's +course was intended." It was published at once, and became the +text-book for the students of Cambridge. + +"The Connection of the Physical Sciences" and the "Physical Geography" +are the later works of Mrs. Somerville. These volumes have probably +been more read in our country than in Europe; for it is a common remark +of the scientific writers of Great Britain, that their "readers are +found in the United States." They contain vast collections of facts in +all branches of Physical Science, connected together by the delicate +web of Mrs. Somerville's own thought, showing an amount and variety of +learning to be compared only to that of Humboldt. + +Provided with an "open sesame" to her heart, in the shape of a letter +from her old friend, Lady Herschel, we sought the acquaintance of Mrs. +Somerville in the spring of 1858. She was at that time residing in +Florence, and, sending the letter and a card to her by the servant, we +awaited the reply in the large Florentine parlor, in the fireplace of +which a wood-fire blazed, suggestive of English comfort,--a suggestion +which in Italy rarely becomes a reality. + +There was the usual delay; then a footstep came slowly through the +outer room, and a very old man, exceedingly tall, with a red silk +handkerchief around his head, entered, and introduced himself as Doctor +Somerville. He is proud of his wife; a pardonable weakness in any man, +especially so in the husband of Mary Somerville. He began at once to +talk of her. "Mrs. Somerville," he said, "was much interested in the +Americans, for she claimed a connection with the family of Washington. +Washington's half-brother, Lawrence, married Anne Fairfax, who was of +the Scotch family of that name. When Mrs. Somerville's father, as +Lieutenant Fairfax, was ordered to America, General Washington wrote to +him as a family relative, and invited him to his house. Lieutenant +Fairfax applied to his commanding officer for leave to accept the +invitation, and it was refused; they never met. Much to the regret of +the Somervilles, the letter of Washington has been lost. The Fairfaxes +of Virginia are of the same family, and occasionally some member of the +American branch visits his Scotch cousins." + +While Doctor Somerville was talking of these things, Mrs. Somerville +came tripping into the room, speaking with the vivacity of a young +person. She was seventy-seven years old, but appeared twenty years +younger. Her face is pleasing, the forehead low and broad, the eyes +blue,--the features so regular, that, as sculptured by Chantrey, in the +bust at Somerset House, they convey the idea of a very handsome woman. +Neither this bust nor the picture of her, however, gives a correct +impression, except in the outline of the head and shoulders. She spoke +with a strong Scotch accent, and was slightly affected by deafness. + +At this time, Mrs. Somerville was re-writing her "Physical Geography." +She said that she worked as well as when she was younger, but was more +quickly fatigued; yet, in order to gain time, she had given up her +afternoon nap, without apparent injury to her health. Her working hours +were in the morning, and she never refused a visitor after noon. For +her first work she said she computed a good deal; and here she stepped +quickly into an adjoining room, and brought out a mass of manuscript +computations made for that work, the mere sight of which would give a +headache to most women. The conversation was rather of the familiar and +chatty order, and marked by great simplicity. She touched upon the +recent discoveries in chemical science,--upon California, its gold and +its consequences, some good from which she thought would be found in +the improvement of seamanship,--on the nebulae, more and more of which +she thought would be resolved, while yet there might exist irresolvable +nebulous matter, such as composed the tails of comets, or the +satellites of the planets, which she thought had other uses than as +their subordinates. Of Doctor Whewell's attempt to prove that our +planet is the only one inhabited she spoke with disapprobation; she +said she believed that the other planets might be inhabited by beings +of a higher order than ourselves. + +On subsequent visits, Mrs. Somerville had much to say of the Americans. +She regretted that she so rarely received scientific articles from +America; the papers of Lieutenant Maury alone reached her. She spoke of +the late Doctor Bowditch with great interest, and said she had had some +correspondence with one of his sons; of Professor Peirce as a great +mathematician; and she was much interested in the successful +photography of the stars by Mr. Whipple. To a traveller, thousands of +miles from home, the mere mention of familiar names is cheering. + +Mrs. Somerville resides in Florence on account of the health of her +husband. A little garden, well-stocked with rose-bushes, which she +shows with great pride to her visitors, furnishes her with a means of +healthy recreation after her severe studies. Her children are a son by +Mr. Greig and two daughters by Doctor Somerville. In early life, Mrs. +Somerville was a fine musician: the daughters have inherited this +talent; and having lived long in Florence, they speak Italian with a +perfect accent. "I speak Italian," said Mrs. Somerville; "but no one +could ever take me for other than a Scotchwoman." + +No one can make the acquaintance of this remarkable woman without +increased admiration for her. The ascent of the steep and rugged path +of science has not unfitted her for the drawing-room circle; the hours +of devotion to close study have not been incompatible with the duties +of the wife and the mother; the mind that has turned to rigid +demonstration has not thereby lost its faith in the truths which +figures will not prove. "I have no doubt," said she, in speaking of the +heavenly bodies, "that in another state of existence we shall know more +about these things." + + + + +ROBA DI ROMA. + +MAY IN ROME. + + +May has come again,--"the delicate-footed May," her feet hidden in +flowers as she wanders over the Campagna, and the cool breeze of the +Campagna blowing back her loosened hair. She calls to us from the open +fields to leave the wells of damp churches and shadowy streets, and to +come abroad and meet her where the mountains look down from roseate +heights of vanishing snow upon plains of waving grain. The hedges have +put on their best draperies of leaves and flowers, and, girdled in at +their waist by double osier bands, stagger luxuriantly along the road +like a drunken Bacchanal procession, crowned with festive ivy, and +holding aloft their snowy clusters of elder-blossoms like _thyrsi_. +Among their green robes may be seen thousands of beautiful +wild-flowers,--the sweet-scented laurustinus, all sorts of running +vetches and wild sweet-pea, the delicate vases of dewy morning-glories, +clusters of eglantine or sweetbrier roses, fragrant acacia-blossoms +covered with bees and buzzing flies, the gold of glowing gorses, and +scores of purple and yellow flowers, of which I know not the names. On +the gray walls, vines, grass, and the humble class of flowers which go +by the ignoble name of weeds straggle and cluster; and over them, held +down by the green cord of the stalk, balance the bursted balloons of +hundreds of flaming scarlet poppies that seem to have fed on fire. The +undulating swell of the Campagna is here ablaze with them for acres, +and there deepening with growing grain, or snowed over with myriads of +daisies. Music and song, too, are not wanting; hundreds of birds are in +the hedges. The lark, "from his moist cabinet rising," rains down his +trills of incessant song from invisible heights of blue sky; and +whenever one passes the wayside groves, a nightingale is sure to bubble +into song. The oranges, too, are in blossom, perfuming the air; +locust-trees are tasselled with odorous flowers; and over the walls of +the Campagna villa bursts a cascade of vines covered with foamy Banksia +roses. + +The Carnival of the kitchen-gardens is now commencing. Peas are already +an old story, strawberries are abundant, and cherries are beginning to +make their appearance, in these first days of May; old women sell them +at every corner, tied together in tempting bunches, as in "the +cherry-orchard" which Miss Edgeworth has made fairy-land in our +childish memories. Asparagus also has long since come; and artichokes +make their daily appearance on the table, sliced up and fried, or +boiled whole, or coming up roasted and gleaming with butter, with more +outside capes and coats than an ideal English coachman of the olden +times. _Finocchi_, too, are here, tasting like anisette, and good to +mix in the salads. And great beans lie about in piles, the _contadini_ +twisting them out of their thick pods with their thumbs, to eat them +raw. Nay, even the _signoria_ of the noble families do the same, as +they walk through the gardens, and think them such a luxury that they +eat them raw for breakfast. But over and above all other vegetables are +the lettuces, which are one of the great staples of food for the Roman +people, and so crisp, fresh, delicate, and high-flavored, that be who +eats them once will hold Nebuchadnezzar no longer a subject for +compassion, but rather of envy. Drowned in fresh olive-oil and strong +with vinegar, they are a feast for the gods; and even in their natural +state, without condiments, they are by no means to be despised. At the +corners of the streets they lie piled in green heaps, and are sold at a +_baiocco_ for five heads. At noontide, the _contadini_ and laborers +feed upon them without even the condiment of salt, crunching their +white teeth through the crisp, wet leaves, and alternating a bite at a +great wedge of bread; and toward nightfall, one may see carts laden +high up with closely packed masses of them, coming in from the Campagna +for the market. In a word, the _festa_ of the vegetables, at which they +do not eat, but are eaten, and the Carnival of the kitchen-garden have +come. + +But--a thousand, thousand pardons, O mighty Cavolo!--how have I dared +omit thy august name? On my knees, O potentest of vegetables, I crave +forgiveness! I will burn at thy shrine ten waxen candles, in penance, +if thou wilt pardon the sin and shame of my forgetfulness! The smoke of +thy altar-fires, the steam of thy incense, and the odors of thy +sanctity rise from every hypaethral shrine in Rome. Out-doors and +in-doors, wherever the foot wanders, on palatial stairs or in the hut +of poverty, in the convent pottage and the _Lepre_ soup, in the wooden +platter of the beggar and the silver tureen of the prince, thou fillest +our nostrils, thou satisfiest our stomach. Thou hast no false pride; +great as thou art, thou condescendest to be exchanged for a _baiocco_. +Dear enchantress! to thee, and to thy glorious cousin Broccoli, that +tender-hearted, efflorescent nymph, the Egeria of the _osteria con +cucina_, the peerless maid that goes with the steak and accepts +martyrdom without moan, to drive away the demon of Hunger from her +devoted followers,--all honor! Far away, whenever I inhale thy odor, I +shall think of "Roman Joys"; a whiff from thine altar in a foreign land +will bear me back to the Eternal City, "the City of the Soul," the City +of the Cabbage, the home of the Dioscuri, _Cavolo_ and _Broccoli!_ Yes, +as Paris is recalled by the odor of chocolate, and London by the damp +steam of malt, so shall Rome come back when my nostrils are filled with +thy penetrative fragrance! + +Saunter out at any of the city-gates, or lean over the wall at San +Giovanni, (and where will you find a more charming spot?) or look down +from the windows of the Villa Negroni, and your eye will surely fall on +one of the Roman kitchen-gardens, patterned out in even rows and +squares of green. Nothing can be prettier or more tasteful in their +arrangement than these variegated carpets of vegetables. A great +cistern of running water crowns the height of the ground, which is used +for the purposes of irrigation, and towards nightfall the vent is +opened, and you may see the gardeners imbanking the channelled rows to +let the inundation flow through hundreds of little lanes of +intersection and canals between the beds, and then banking them up at +the entrance when a sufficient quantity of water has entered. In this +way they fertilize and refresh the soil, which else would parch under +the continuous sun. And this, indeed, is all the fertilization they +need,--so strong is the soil all over the Campagna. The accretions and +decay of thousands of years have covered it with a loam whose richness +and depth are astonishing. Dig where you will, for ten feet down, and +you do not pass through its wonderfully fertile loam into gravel, and +the slightest labor is repaid a hundred-fold. + +As one looks from the Villa Negroni windows, he cannot fail to be +impressed by the strange changes through which this wonderful city has +passed. The very spot on which Nero, the insane emperor-artist, fiddled +while Rome was burning has now become a vast kitchen-garden, belonging +to Prince Massimo, (himself a descendant, as he claims, of Fabius +Cunctator,) where men no longer, but only lettuces, asparagus, and +artichokes, are ruthlessly cut down. The inundations are not for mock +sea-fights among slaves, but for the peaceful purposes of irrigation. +And though the fiddle of Nero is only traditional, the trumpets of the +French, murdering many an unhappy strain near by, are a most melancholy +fact. In the bottom of the valley, a noble old villa, covered with +frescoes, has been turned into a manufactory of bricks, and the very +Villa Negroni itself is now doomed to be the site of a railway station. +Yet here the princely family of Negroni lived, and the very lady at +whose house Lucrezia Borgia took her famous revenge may once have +sauntered under the walls, which still glow with ripening oranges, to +feed the gold-fish in the fountain, or walked with stately friends +through the long alleys of clipped cypresses, and pic-nicked _alia +Giorgione_ on lawns which are now but kitchen-gardens, dedicated to San +Cavolo. It pleases me, also, descending in memories to a later time, to +look up at the summer-house built above the gateway, and recall the +days when Shelley and Keats came there to visit their friend Severn, +the artist, (for that was his studio,) and look over the same alleys +and gardens, and speak words one would have been so glad to hear,--and, +coming still later down, to recall the hearty words and brave heart of +America's best sculptor and my dear friend, Crawford. + +But to return to the kitchen-gardens. Pretty as they are to the eye, +they are not considered to be wholesome; and no Roman will live in a +house near one of them, especially if it lie on the southern and +western side, so that the Sirocco and the prevalent summer winds blow +over it. The daily irrigation, in itself, would be sufficient to +frighten all Italians away; for they have a deadly fear of all effluvia +arising from decomposing vegetable substances, and suppose, with a good +deal of truth, that, wherever there is water on the earth, there is +decomposition. But this is not the only reason; for the same prejudice +exists in regard to all kinds of gardens, whether irrigated or +not,--and even to groves of trees and clusters of bushes, or vegetation +of any kind, around a house. This is the real reason why, even in their +country villas, their trees are almost always planted at a distance +from the house, so as to expose it to the sun and to give it a free +ventilation; these they do not care for; damp is their determined foe, +and therefore they will not purchase the luxury of shade from trees at +the risk of the damp it is supposed to engender. On the north, however, +gardens are not thought to be so prejudicial as on the south and +west,--as the cold, dry winds come from the former direction. The +malaria, as we call it, though the term is unknown to Romans, is never +so dangerous as after a slight rain, just sufficient to wet the surface +of the earth without deeply penetrating it; for decomposition is then +stimulated, and the miasma arising from the Campagna is blown abroad. +So long as the earth is dry, there is no danger of fever, except at +morning and nightfall, and then simply because of the heavy dews which +the porous and baked earth then inhales and expires. After the autumn +has given a thorough, drenching rain, Rome is healthy and free from +fever. + +Rome has with strangers the reputation of being unhealthy; but this +opinion I cannot think well founded,--to the extent, at least, of the +common belief. The diseases of children there are ordinarily very +light, while in America and England they are terrible. Scarlet and +typhus fevers, those fearful scourges in the North, are known at Rome +only under most mitigated forms. Cholera has shown no virulence there; +and for diseases of the throat and lungs the air alone is almost +curative. The great curse of the place is the intermittent fever, in +which any other illness is apt to end. But this, except in its peculiar +phase of _Perniciosa_, though a very annoying, is by no means a +dangerous disease, and has the additional advantage of a specific +remedy. The Romans themselves of the better class seldom suffer from +it, and I cannot but think that with a little prudence it may be easily +avoided. Those who are most attacked by it are the laborers and +_contadini_ on the Campagna; and how can it be otherwise with them? +They sleep often on the bare ground, or on a little straw under a +_capanna_ just large enough to admit them on all-fours. Their labor is +exhausting, and performed in the sun, and while in a violent +perspiration they are often exposed to sudden draughts and checks. +Their food is poor, their habits careless, and it would require an iron +constitution to resist what they endure. But, despite the life they +lead and their various exposures, they are for the most part a very +strong and sturdy class. This intermittent fever is undoubtedly a far +from pleasant thing; but Americans who are terrified at it in Rome give +it no thought in Philadelphia, where it is more prevalent,--and while +they call Rome unhealthy, live with undisturbed confidence in cities +where scarlet and typhus fevers annually rage. + +It is a curious fact, that the French soldiers, who in 1848 made the +siege of Rome, suffered no inconvenience or injury to their health from +sleeping on the Campagna, and that, despite the prophecies to the +contrary, very few cases of fever appeared, though the siege lasted +during all the summer months. The reason of this is doubtless to be +found in the fact that they were better clothed, better fed, and in +every way more careful of themselves, than the _contadini_. Foreigners, +too, who visit Rome, are very seldom attacked by intermittent fever; +and it may truly be said, that, when they are, it is, for the most +part, their own fault. There is generally the grossest inconsistency +between their theories and their practice. Believing as they do that +the least exposure will induce fever, they expose themselves with +singular recklessness to the very causes of fever. After hurrying +through the streets and getting into a violent perspiration, they +plunge at once into some damp pit-like church or chill gallery, where +the temperature is at least ten degrees lower than the outer air. The +bald-headed, rosy John Bull, steaming with heat, doffs at once the hat +which he wore in the street, and, of course, is astounded, if the +result prove just what it would be anywhere else,--and if he take cold +and get a fever, charges it to the climate, and not to his own +stupidity and recklessness. Beside this, foreigners will always insist +on carrying their home-habits with them wherever they go, and it is +exceedingly difficult to persuade any one that he does not understand +the climate better than the Italians themselves, whom he puts down as a +poor set of timid ignoramuses. However, the longer one lives in Rome, +the more he learns to value the Italian rules of health. There is +probably no people so careful in these matters as the Italians, and +especially the Romans. They understand their own climate, and they have +a special dislike of death. In France and England suicides are very +common; in Italy they are almost unknown. The American recklessness of +life completely astounds the Italian. He enjoys life, studies every +method to preserve it, and considers any one who risks it unnecessarily +as simply a fool. + +What, then, are their rules of life? In the first place, in all their +habits they are very regular. They eat at stated times, and cannot be +persuaded to partake of anything in the intervals. If it be not their +hour for eating, they will refuse the choicest viands, and will sit at +your table fasting, despite every temptation you can offer them. They +are also very abstemious in their diet, and gluttony is the very rarest +of vices. I do not believe there is another nation in Europe that eats +so sparingly. In the morning they take a cup of coffee, generally +without milk, sopping in it some light _brioche_. Later in the day they +take a slight lunch of soup and macaroni, with a glass of wine. This +lasts them until dinner, which begins with a watery soup; after which +the _lesso_ or boiled meat comes on and is eaten with one vegetable, +which is less a dish than a garnish to the meat; then comes a dish of +some vegetable eaten with bread; then, perhaps, a chop, or another dish +of meat, garnished with a vegetable; some light _dolce_ or fruit, and a +cup of black coffee,--the latter for digestion's sake,--finish the +repast. The quantity is very small, however, compared to what is eaten +in England, France, America, or, though last, not least, Germany. Late +in the evening they have a supper. When dinner is taken in the middle +of the day, lunch is omitted. This is the rule of the better classes. +The workmen and middle classes, after their cup of coffee and bit of +bread or _brioche_ in the morning, take nothing until night, except +another cup of coffee and bread,--and their dinner finishes their meals +after their work is done. From my own observation, I should say that an +Italian does not certainly eat more than half as much as a German, or +two-thirds as much as an American. The climate will not allow of +gormandizing, and much less food is required to sustain the vital +powers than in America, where the atmosphere is so stimulating to the +brain and the digestion, or in England, where the depressing effects of +the climate must be counteracted by stimulants. Go to any _table +d'hôte_ in the season, and you will at once know all the English who +are new comers by their bottle of ale or claret or sherry or brandy; +for the Englishman assimilates with difficulty, and unwillingly puts +off his home-habits. The fresh American will always be recognized by +the morning-dinner, which he calls a breakfast. + +If you wish to keep your health in Italy, follow the example of the +Italians. Eat a third less than you are accustomed to at home. Do not +drink habitually of brandy, porter, ale, or even Marsala, but confine +yourselves to the lighter wines of the country or of France. Do not +walk much in the sun; "only Englishmen and dogs" do that, as the +proverb goes; and especially take heed not to expose yourself, when +warm, to any sudden changes of temperature. If you have heated yourself +with walking in the sun, be careful not to go at once, and especially +towards nightfall, into the lower and shaded streets, which have begun +to gather the damps, and which are kept cool by the high, thick walls +of the houses. Remember that the difference of temperature is very +great between the narrow, shaded streets and the high, sunny Pincio. If +you have the misfortune to be of the male sex, and especially if you +suffer under the sorrow of the first great Caesar in being bald, buy +yourself a little skullcap, (it is as good as his laurels for the +purpose,) and put it on your head whenever you enter the churches and +cold galleries. Almost every fever here is the result of suddenly +checked transpiration of the skin; and if you will take the precaution +to cool yourself before entering churches and galleries, and not to +expose yourself while warm to sudden changes of temperature, you may +live twenty years in Rome without a fever. Do not stand in draughts of +cold air, and shut your windows when you go to bed. There is nothing an +Italian fears like a current of air, and with reason. He will never sit +between two doors or two windows. If he has walked to see you and is in +the least warm, pray him to keep his hat on until he is cool, if you +would be courteous to him. You will find that he will always use the +same _gentilezza_ to you. The reason why you should shut your windows +at night is very simple. The night-air is invariably damp and cold, +contrasting greatly with the warmth of the day, and it is then that the +miasma from the Campagna drifts into the city. And oh, my American +friends! repress your national love for hot rooms and great fires, and +do not make an oven of your _salon_. Bake yourselves, kiln-dry +yourselves, if you choose, in your furnaced houses at home, but, if you +value your health, "reform that altogether" in Italy. Increase your +clothing and suppress your fires, and you will find yourselves better +in head and in pocket. With your great fires you will always be cold +and always have colds; for the houses are not tight, and you only +create great draughts thereby. You will not persuade an Italian to sit +near them;--"_Scusa, Signore_" he will say, "_mi fa male; se non gli +dispiace, mi metto in questo cantone_,"--and with your permission he +takes the farthest corner away from the fire. Seven winters in Rome +have convinced me of the correctness of their rule. Of course, you do +not believe me or them; but it would be better for you, if you +did,--and for me, too, when I come to visit you. + +But I must beg pardon for all this advice; and as my business is not to +write a medical thesis here, let me return to pleasanter things. + +Scarcely does the sun drop behind St. Peter's on the first day of May, +before bonfires begin to blaze from all the country towns on the +mountain-sides, showing like great beacons. This is a custom founded in +great antiquity, and common to the North and South. The first of May is +the Festival of the Holy Apostles in Italy; but in Germany, and still +farther north, in Sweden and Norway, it is _Walpurgisnacht_,--when +goblins, witches, hags, and devils hold high holiday, mounting on their +brooms for the Brocken. And it was on this night that Mephistopheles +carried Faust on his wondrous ride, and showed him the spectre of +Margaret with the red line round her throat. Miss Bremer, in her "Life +in Dalecarlia," gives the following account of the origin of this +custom:--"It is so old," she says, "that there is no perfect certainty +either of its origin or signification. It is, however, believed that it +derives its origin from a heathen sacrificatory festival; and there is +ground for the acceptation that children were sacrificed alive at this +very feast,--and this, in fact, in order to expel or reconcile the evil +spirits, of whom the people believed, that, partly flying, partly +riding, they commenced their passages over fields and woods at the +beginning of spring, and which are to this day called enchanters, +witches, nymphs, and so forth. It is also believed that about this time +the spirits of the earth came forth from out of the bosom of the earth +and the heart of the mountains in order to seek intercourse with the +children of men. Fires were frequently kindled upon the sepulchral +hills, and at these, sacrifices were offered, chiefly to the good +powers, namely, to those who provide for a fruitful year. At present I +should scarcely think there is an individual who believes in such +superstitious stuff. But they still, as in days of yore, kindle fires +upon the mountains on this night, and still look upon it as a bad omen, +if any common or ugly-formed creature, whether beast or man, makes its +appearance at the fire." + +In the Neapolitan towns great fires are built on this festival, around +which the people dance, jumping through the flames, and flinging +themselves about in every wild and fantastic attitude. It is probably a +relic of some old sacrificatory festival to Maia, who has given her +name to this month,--the custom still remaining after its significance +is gone. + +The month of May is the culmination of the spring and the season of +seasons at Rome. No wonder that foreigners who have come when winter +sets in and take wing before April shows her sky sometimes growl at the +weather, and ask if this is the beautiful Italian clime. They have +simply selected the rainy season for their visit; and one cannot expect +to have sun the whole year through, without intermission. Where will +they find more sun in the same season? where will they find milder and +softer air? Days even in the middle of winter, and sometimes weeks, +descend as it were from heaven to fill the soul with delight; and a +lovely day in Rome is lovelier than under any other sky on earth. But +just when foreigners go away in crowds, the weather is settling into +the perfection of spring, and then it is that Rome is most charming. +The rains are over, the sun is a daily blessing, all Nature is bursting +into leaf and flower, and one may spend days on the Campagna without +fear of colds and fever. Stay in Rome during May, if you wish to feel +its beauty. + +The best rule for a traveller who desires to enjoy the charms of every +clime would be to go to the North in the winter and to the South in the +spring and summer. Cold is the speciality of the North, and all its +sports and gayeties take thence their tone. The houses are built to +shut out the demon of Frost, and protect one from his assaults of ice +and snow. Let him howl about your windows and scrawl his wonderful +landscapes on your panes and pile his fantastic wreaths outside, while +you draw round the blazing hearth and enjoy the artificial heat and +warm in the social converse that he provokes. Your punch is all the +better for his threats; by contrast you enjoy the more. Or brave him +outside in a flying sledge, careering with jangling bells over white +wastes of snow, while the stars, as you go, fly through the naked trees +that are glittering with ice-jewels, and your blood tingles with +excitement, and your breath is blown like a white incense to the skies. +That is the real North. How tame he will look to you, when you go back +in August and find a few hard apples, a few tough plums, and some sour +little things which are apologies for grapes! He looks sneaky enough +then, with his make-believe summer, and all his furs off. No, then is +the time for the South. All is simmering outside, and the locust saws +and shrills till he seems to heat the air. You stay in the house at +noon, and know what a virtue there is in thick walls which keep out the +fierce heats, in gaping windows and doors that will not shut because +you need the ventilation. You will not now complain of the stone and +brick floors that you cursed all winter long, and on which you now +sprinkle water to keep the air cool in your rooms. The blunders and +stupidities of winter are all over. The breezy _loggia_ is no longer a +joke. You are glad enough to sit there and drink your wine and look +over the landscape. Manuccia brings in a great basket of grapes that +are grapes, which the wasp envies you as you eat, and comes to share. +And here are luscious figs bursting with seedy sweetness, and apricots +rusted in the sun, and velvety peaches that break into juice in your +mouth, and great black-seeded _cocomeri_. Nature empties her cornucopia +of fruits and flowers and vegetables all over your table. Luxuriously +you enjoy them and fan yourself and take your _siesta_, with full +appreciation of your _dolce far niente_. When the sun begins to slope +westward, if you are in the country, you wander through the green lanes +festooned with vines and pluck the grapes as you go; or, if you are in +the city, you saunter the evening long through the streets, where all +the world are strolling, and take your _granito_ of ice or sherbet, and +talk over the things of the day and the time, and pass as you go home +groups of singers and serenaders with guitars, flutes, and +violins,--serenade, perhaps, sometimes, yourself; and all the time the +great planets and stars palpitate in the near heavens, and the soft air +full of fragrance blows against your cheek. And you can really say, +This is Italy! For it is not what you do, so much as what you feel, +that makes Italy. + +But pray remember, when you go there, that in the South every +arrangement is made for the nine hot months, and not for the three cold +and rainy ones you choose to spend there, and perhaps your views may be +somewhat modified in respect of this "miserable people," who, you say, +"have no idea of comfort,"--meaning, of course, English comfort. +Perhaps, I say; for it is in the nature of travellers to come to sudden +conclusions upon slight premises, to maintain with obstinacy +preconceived notions, and to quarrel with all national traits except +their own. And being English, unless you have a friend in India who has +made you aware that cane-bottom chairs are India-English, you will be +pretty sure to believe that there is no comfort without carpets and +coal; or being an American, you will be apt to undervalue a gallery of +pictures with only a three-ply carpet on the floor, and to "calculate," +that, if they could see your house in Washington Street, they would +feel rather ashamed. However, there is a great deal of human nature in +mankind, wherever you go,--except in Paris, perhaps, where Nature is +rather inhuman and artificial. And when I instance the Englishman and +American as making false judgments, let me not be misunderstood as +supposing them the only nations in that category. No, no! did not my +Parisian acquaintance the other day assure me very gravely, after +lamenting the absurdity of the Italians' not speaking French instead of +their own language,--"But, Sir, what is this Italian? nothing but bad +French!"--and did not another of that same polished nation, in +describing his travels to Naples, say, in answer to the question, +whether he had seen the grand old temples of Paestum,--"Ah, yes, I have +seen Paestum; 'tis a detestable country!--like the Campagna of Rome"? I +am perfectly aware that there are differences of opinion. + +Let me, then, beg you to remain in Rome during the mouth of May, if +you can possibly make your arrangements to do so. + +May is the month of the Madonna, and on every _festa_-day you will see +at the corners of the streets a little improvised shrine, or it may be +only a festooned print of the Madonna hung against the walls of some +house or against the back of a chair, and tended by two or three +children, who hold out to you a plate, as you pass, and beg for +charity, sometimes, I confess, in the most pertinacious way,--the money +thus raised to be expended in oil for the lamps before the Madonna +shrines in the streets. The monasteries of nuns are also busy with +processions and celebrations in honor of "the Mother of God," which are +carried on pleasantly within their precincts and seen only of female +friends. Sometimes you will meet a procession of ladies outside the +gates following a cross on foot, while their carriages come after in a +long file. These are societies which are making the pilgrimage of the +Seven Basilicas outside the Walls. They set out early in the morning, +stopping in each basilica for a half-hour to say their prayers, and +return to Rome at Ave Maria. + +Life, too, is altogether changed now. All the windows are wide open, +and there is at least one head and shoulders leaning out at every +house. And the poorer families are all out on their door-steps, working +and chatting together, while their children run about them in the +streets, sprawling, playing, and fighting. Many a beautiful theme for +the artist is now to be found in these careless and characteristic +groups; and curly-headed Saint Johns may be seen in every street, half +naked, with great black eyes and rounded arms and legs. It is this +which makes Rome so admirable a residence for an artist. All things are +easy and careless in the out-of-doors life of the common people,--all +poses unsought, all groupings accidental, all action unaffected and +unconscious. One meets Nature at every turn,--not braced up in prim +forms, not conscious in manners, not made up into the fashionable or +the proper, but impulsive, free, and simple. With the whole street +looking on, they are as unconscious and natural as if they were where +no eye could see them,--ay, and more natural, too, than it is possible +for some people to be, even in the privacy of their solitary rooms. +They sing at the top of their lungs as they sit on their door-steps at +their work, and often shout from house to house across the street a +long conversation, and sometimes even read letters from upper windows +to their friends below in the street. The men and women who cry their +fruits, vegetables, and wares up and down the city, laden with baskets +or panniers, and often accompanied by a donkey, stop to chat with group +after group, or get into animated debates about prices, or exercise +their wits and lungs at once in repartee in a very amusing way. +Everybody is in dishabille in the morning, but towards twilight the +girls put on their better dresses, and comb their glossy raven hair, +heaping it up in great solid braids, and, hanging two long golden +ear-rings in their ears and _collane_ round their full necks, come +forth conquering and to conquer, and saunter bare-headed up and down +the streets, or lounge about the doorways or piazzas in groups, ready +to give back to any jeerer as good as he sends. You see them marching +along sometimes in a broad platoon of five or six, all their brows as +straight as if they had been ruled, and their great dark eyes flashing +out under them, ready in a moment for a laugh or a frown. What stalwart +creatures they are! What shoulders, bosoms, and backs they have! what a +chance for the lungs under those stout _busti_! and what finished and +elegant heads! They are certainly cast in a large mould, with nothing +belittled or meagre about them, either in feature or figure. + +Early in the morning you will see streaming through the streets or +gathered together in picturesque groups, some standing, some couching +on the pavement, herds of long-haired goats, brown and white and black, +which have been driven, or rather which have followed their shepherd, +into the city to be milked. The majestical, long-bearded, patriarchal +rams shake their bells and parade solemnly round,--while the silken +females clatter their little hoofs as they run from the hand of the +milker when he has filled his can. The shepherd is kept pretty busy, +too, milking at everybody's door; and before the fashionable world is +up at nine, the milk is gone and the goats are off. + +You may know that it is May by the orange and lemon stands, which are +erected in almost every piazza. These are little booths covered with +canvas, and fantastically adorned with lemons and oranges intermixed, +which, piled into pyramids and disposed about everywhere, have a very +gay effect. They are generally placed near a fountain, the water of +which is conducted through a _canna_ into the centre of the booth, and +there, finding its own level again, makes a little spilling fountain +from which the _bibite_ are diluted. Here for a _baiocco_ one buys +lemonade or orangeade and all sorts of curious little drinks or +_bibite_, with a feeble taste of anisette or some other herb to take +off the mawkishness of the water,--or for a half-_baiocco_ one may have +the lemonade without sugar, and in this way it is usually drunk. On all +_festa_-days, little portable tables are carried round the streets, +hung to the neck of the _limonaro_, and set down at convenient spots, +or whenever a customer presents himself, and the cries of "_Acqua +fresca,--limonaro, limonaro,--chi vuol bere?_" are heard on all sides; +and I can assure you, that, after standing on tiptoe for an hour in the +heat and straining your neck and head to get sight of some Church +procession, you are glad enough to go to the extravagance of even a +lemonade with sugar; and smacking your lips, you bless the institution +of the _limonaro_ as one which must have been early instituted by the +Good Samaritan. Listen to his own description of himself in one of the +popular _canzonetti_ sung about the streets by wandering musicians to +the accompaniment of a violin and guitar:-- + + "Ma per altro son uomo ingegnoso, + Non possiedo, ma sono padrone; + Vendo l' acqua con spirto e limone + Finche dura d' estate il calor. + + "Ho an capello di paglia,--ma bello! + Un zinale di sopra fino; + Chi mi osserva nel mio tavolino, + Gli vien sete, se sete non ha. + + "Spaccio spirti, siroppi, acquavite + Fo 'ranciate di nuova invenzione; + Voi vedete quante persone + Chiedon acqua,--e rispondo,--Son quŕ!" + +The _limonaro_ is the exponent, the algebraic power, of the Church +processions which abound this month; and he is as faithful to them as +Boswell to Johnson;--wherever they appear, he is there to console and +refresh. Nor is his office a sinecure now; and let us hope that he has +his small profits, as well as the Church,--though they spell theirs +differently. + +The great procession of the year takes place this month on Corpus +Domini, and is well worth seeing, as being the very finest and most +characteristic of all the Church festivals. It was instituted in honor +of the famous miracle at Bolsena, when the wafer dripped blood, and is, +therefore, in commemoration of one of the cardinal doctrines of the +Roman Church, Transubstantiation, and one of its most theological +miracles. The Papal procession takes place in the morning, in the +piazza of Saint Peter's; and if you would be sure of it, you must be on +the spot as soon as eight o'clock at the latest. The whole circle of +the piazza itself is covered with an awning, festooned gayly with +garlands of box, under which the procession passes; and the ground is +covered with yellow sand, over which box and bay are strewn. The +celebration commences with morning mass in the basilica, and that over, +the procession issues from one door, and, making the whole circuit of +the piazza, returns into the church. First come the _Seminaristi_, or +scholars and attendants of the various hospitals and charity-schools, +such as San Michele and Santo Spirito,--all in white. Then follow the +brown-cowled, long-bearded Franciscans, the white Carmelites, and the +black Benedictines, bearing lighted candles and chanting hoarsely as +they go. You may see pass before you now all the members of these +different conventual orders that there are in Rome, and have an +admirable opportunity to study their physiognomies in mass. If you are +a convert to Romanism, you will perhaps find in their bald beads and +shaven crowns and bearded faces a noble expression of reverence and +humility; but, suffering as I do under the misfortune of being a +heretic, I could but remark on their heads an enormous development of +the two organs of reverence and firmness, and a singular deficiency in +the upper forehead, while there was an almost universal enlargement of +the lower jaw and of the base of the brain. Being, unfortunately, a +friend of Phrenology, as well as a heretic, I drew no very auspicious +augury from these developments; and looking into their faces, the +physiognomical traits were narrow-mindedness, bigotry, or cunning. The +Benedictine heads showed more intellect and will; the Franciscans more +dulness and good-nature. + +But while I am criticizing them, they are passing by, and a picturesque +set of fellows they are. Much as I dislike the conventual creed, I +should be sorry to see the costume disappear. Directly on the heels of +their poverty come the three splendid triple crowns of the Pope, +glittering with gorgeous jewels, and borne in triumph on silken +embroidered cushions, and preceded by the court jeweller. After them +follow the chapters, canons, and choirs of the seven basilicas, +chanting in lofty altos and solid basses and clear ringing tenors from +their old Church books, each basilica bearing a typical tent of colored +stripes and a wooden campanile and a bell which is constantly rung. +Next come the canons of the churches and the _monsignori_, in splendid +dresses and rich capes of beautiful lace falling below their waists; +the bishops clad in cloth of silver with mitres on their heads; the +cardinals brilliant in gold embroidery and gleaming in the sun; and at +last the Pope himself, borne on a platform splendid with silver and +gold, with a rich canopy over his head. Beneath this he kneels, or +rather, seems to kneel; for, though his splendid draperies and train +are skilfully arranged so as to present this semblance, being drawn +behind him over two blocks which are so placed as to represent his +heels, yet in fact he is seated on a sunken bench or chair, as any +careful eye can plainly see. However, kneeling or sitting, just as you +will, there he is, before an altar, holding up the _ostia_, which is +the _corpus Domini_, "the body of God," and surrounded by officers of +the Swiss guards in glittering armor, chamberlains in their beautiful +black and Spanish dresses with ruffs and swords, attendants in scarlet +and purple costumes, and the _guardia nobile_ in their red dress +uniforms. Nothing could be more striking than this group. It is the +very type of the Church,--pompous, rich, splendid, imposing. After them +follow the dragoons mounted,--first a company on black horses, then +another on bays, and then a third on grays; foot-soldiers with flashing +bayonets bring up the rear, and the procession is over. As the last +soldiers enter the church, there is a stir among the gilt equipages of +the cardinals which line one side of the piazza,--the horses toss their +scarlet plumes, the liveried servants sway as the carriages lumber on, +and you may spend a half-hour hunting out your own humble vehicle, if +you have one, or throng homeward on foot with the crowd through the +Borgo and over the bridge of Sant' Angelo. + +This grand procession strikes the note of all the others, and in the +afternoon each parish brings out its banners, arrays itself in its +choicest dresses, and with pomp and music bears the _ostia_ through the +streets, the crowd kneeling before it, and the priests chanting. During +the next _ottava_ or eight days, all the processions take place in +honor of this festival; and when the week has passed, everything ends +with the Papal procession in Saint Peter's piazza, when, without music, +and with uncovered heads, the Pope, cardinals, _monsignori_, canons, +and the rest of the priests and officials, make the round of the +piazza, bearing great Church banners. + +One of the most striking of their celebrations took place this year at +the church of San Rocco in the Ripetta, when the church was made +splendid with lighted candles and gold bands, and a preacher held forth +to a crowded audience in the afternoon. At Ave Maria there was a great +procession, with banners, music, and torches, and all the evening the +people sauntered to and fro in crowds before the church, where a +platform was erected and draped with old tapestries, from which a band +played constantly. Do not believe, my dear Presbyterian friend, that +these spectacles fail deeply to affect the common mind. So long as +human nature remains the same, this splendor and pomp of processions, +these lighted torches and ornamented churches, this triumphant music +and glad holiday of religion will attract more than your plain +conventicles, your ugly meeting-houses, and your compromise with the +bass-viol. For my own part, I do not believe that music and painting +and all the other arts really belong to the Devil, or that God gave him +joy and beauty to deceive with, and kept only the ugly, sour, and sad +for himself. We are always better when we are happy; and we are about +as sure of being good when we are happy, as of being happy when we are +good. Cheerfulness and happiness are, in my humble opinion, duties and +habits to be cultivated; but, if you don't think so, I certainly would +not deny you the privilege of being wretched: don't let us quarrel +about it. + +Rather let us turn to the Artists' Festival, which takes place in this +month, and is one of the great attractions of the season. Formerly, +this festival took place at Cerbara, an ancient Etruscan town on the +Campagna, of which only certain subterranean caves remain. But during +the revolutionary days which followed the disasters of 1848, it was +suspended for two or three years by the interdict of the Papal +government, and when it was again instituted, the place of meeting was +changed to Fidenae, the site of another Etruscan town, with similar +subterranean excavations, which were made the head-quarters of the +festival. But the new railway to Bologna having been laid out directly +over this ground, the artists have been again driven away, and this +year the _festa_ was held, for the first time, in the grove of Egeria, +one of the most beautiful spots on the whole Campagna,--and here it is +to be hoped it will have an abiding rest. + +This festival was instituted by the German artists, and, though the +artists of all nations now join in it, the Germans still remain its +special patrons and directors. Early in the morning, the artists +rendezvous at an appointed _osteria_ outside the walls, dressed in +every sort of grotesque and ludicrous costume which can be imagined. +All the old dresses which can be rummaged out of the studios or +theatres, or pieced together from masking wardrobes, are now in +requisition. Indians and Chinese, ancient warriors and mediaeval +heroes, militia-men and Punches, generals in top-boots and pigtails, +doctors in gigantic wigs and small-clothes, Falstaffs and justices +"with fair round belly with good capon lined," magnificent foolscaps, +wooden swords with terrible inscriptions, gigantic chapeaus with plumes +made of vegetables, in a word, every imaginable absurdity is to be +seen. Arrived at the place of rendezvous, they all breakfast, and then +the line of march is arranged. A great wooden cart, adorned with quaint +devices, garlanded with laurel and bay, bears the president and +committee. This is drawn by great white oxen, who are decorated with +wreaths and flowers and gay trappings, and from it floats the noble +banner of Cerbara or Fidenae. After this follows a strange and motley +train,--some mounted on donkeys, some on horses, and some afoot,--and +the line of march is taken up for the grove of Egeria. What mad jests +and wild fun now take place it is impossible to describe; suffice it to +say, that all are right glad of a little rest when they reach their +destination. + +Now begin to stream out from the city hundreds of carriages,--for all +the world will be abroad to-day to see,--and soon the green slopes are +swarming with gay crowds. Some bring with them a hamper of provisions +and wine, and, spreading them on the grass, lunch and dine when and +where they will; but those who would dine with the artists must have +the order of the _mezzo baiocco_ hanging to their buttonhole, which is +distributed previously in Rome to all the artists who purchase tickets. +Some few there are who also bear upon their breasts the nobler medal of +_troppo merito_, gained on previous days, and those are looked upon +with due reverence. + +But before dinner or lunch there is a high ceremony to take place,--the +great feature of the day. It is the mock-heroic play. This year it was +the meeting of Numa with the nymph Egeria at the grotto; and thither +went the festive procession; and the priest, befilletted and draped in +white, burned upon the altar as a sacrifice a great toy sheep, whose +offence "smelt to heaven"; and then from the niches suddenly appeared +Numa, a gallant youth in spectacles, and Egeria, a Spanish artist with +white dress and fillet, who made vows over the smoking sheep, and then +were escorted back to the sacred grove with festal music by a joyous, +turbulent crowd. + +Last year, however, at Fidenae, it was better. We had a travesty of the +taking of Troy, which was eminently ludicrous, and which deserves a +better description than I can give. Troy was a space inclosed within +paper barriers, about breast-high, painted "to present a wall," and +within these were the Trojans, clad in red, and all wearing gigantic +paper helmets. There was old Priam, in spectacles, with his crown and +robes,--Laocoön, in white, with a white wool beard and wig,--Ulysses, +in a long, yellow beard and mantle,--and Aeneas, with a bald head, in a +blue, long-tailed coat, and tall dickey, looking like the traditional +Englishman in the circus who comes to hire the horse. The Grecians were +encamped at a short distance. All had round, basket-work shields,--some +with their names painted on them in great letters, and some with an odd +device, such as a cat or pig. There were Ulysses, Agamemnon, Ajax, +Nestor, Patroclus, Diomedes, Achilles, "all honorable men." The drama +commenced with the issuing of Paris and Helen from the walls of +Troy,--he in a tall, black French hat, girdled with a gilt crown, and +she in a white dress, with a great wig hanging round her face in a +profusion of carrotty curls. Queer figures enough they were, as they +stepped along together, caricaturing love in a pantomime, he making +terrible demonstrations of his ardent passion, and she finally falling +on his neck in rapture. This over, they seated themselves near by two +large pasteboard rocks, he sitting on his shield and taking out his +flute to play to her, while she brought forth her knitting and ogled +him as he played. While they were thus engaged, came creeping up with +the stage stride of a double step, and dragging one foot behind him, +Menelaus, whom Thersites had, meantime, been taunting, by pointing at +him two great ox-horns. He walked all round the lovers, pantomiming +rage and jealousy in the accredited ballet style, and then, suddenly +approaching, crushed poor Paris's great black hat down over his eyes. +Both, very much frightened, then took to their heels and rushed into +the city, while Menelaus, after shaking Paris's shield, in defiance, at +the walls, retired to the Grecian camp. Then came the preparations for +battle. The Trojans leaned over their paper battlements, with their +fingers to their noses, twiddling them in scorn, while the Greeks shook +their fists back at them. The battle now commenced on the +"ringing-plains of Troy," and was eminently absurd. Paris, in hat and +pantaloons, (_ŕ la mode de Paris_,) soon showed the white feather, and +incontinently fled. Everybody hit nowhere, fiercely striking the ground +or the shields, and always carefully avoiding, as on the stage, to hit +in the right place. At last, however, Patroclus was killed, whereupon +the battle was suspended, and a grand _tableau_ of surprise and horror +took place, from which at last they recovered, and the Greeks prepared +to carry him off on their shoulders. Then terrible to behold was the +grief of Achilles. Homer himself would have wept to see him. He flung +himself on the body, and shrieked, and tore his hair, and violently +shook the corpse, which, under such demonstrations, now and then kicked +up. Finally, he rises and challenges Hector to single combat, and out +comes the valiant Trojan, and a duel ensues with wooden axes. Such +blows and counter blows were never seen, only they never hit, but often +whirled the warrior who dealt them completely round; they tumbled over +their own blows, panted with feigned rage, lost their robes and great +pasteboard helmets, and were even more absurd than Richmond and Richard +ever were on the country boards at a fifth-rate theatre. But Hector is +at last slain and borne away, and a ludicrous lay figure is laid out to +represent him, with bunged-up eyes and a general flabbiness of body and +want of features, charming to behold. On their necks the Trojans bear +him to their walls, and with a sudden jerk pitch him over them head +first, and he tumbles, in a heap, into the city. Then Ulysses harangues +the Greeks. He has brought out a _quarteruola_ barrel of wine, which, +with most expressive pantomime, he shows to be the wooden horse that +must be carried into Troy. His proposition is joyfully accepted, and, +accompanied by all, he rolls the cask up to the walls, and, flourishing +a tin cup in one hand, invites the Trojans to partake. At first there +is confusion in the city, and fingers are twiddled over the walls, but +after a time all go out and drink, and become ludicrously drunk, and +stagger about, embracing each other in the most maudlin style. Even +Helen herself comes out, gets tipsy with the rest, and dances about +like the most disreputable of Maenades. A great scena, however, takes +place as they are about to drink. Laocoön, got up in white wool, +appears, and violently endeavors to dissuade them, but in vain. In the +midst of his harangue, a long string of blown up sausage-skins is +dragged in for the serpent, and suddenly cast about his neck. His sons +and he then form a group, the sausage-snake is twined about them,--only +the old story is reversed, and he bites the serpent instead of the +serpent biting him,--and all die in agony, travestying the ancient +group. + +All, being now drunk, go in, and Ulysses with them. A quantity of straw +is kindled, the smoke rises, the Greeks approach and dash in the paper +walls with clubs, and all is confusion. Then Aeneas, in his blue +long-tailed circus-coat, broad white hat, and tall shirt-collar, +carries off old Anchises on his shoulders with a cigar in his mouth, +and bears him to a painted section of a vessel, which is rocked to and +fro by hand, as if violently agitated by the waves. Aeneas and Anchises +enter the boat, or rather stand behind it so as to conceal their legs, +and off it sets, rocked to and fro constantly,--Aeolus and Tramontana +following behind, with bellows to blow up a wind, and Fair Weather, +with his name written on big back, accompanying them. The violent +motion, however, soon makes Aeneas sick, and as he leans over the side +in a helpless and melancholy manner, and almost gives up the ghost, as +well as more material things, the crowd burst into laughter. However, +at last they reach two painted rocks, and found Latium, and a general +rejoicing takes place.--The donkey who was to have ended all by +dragging the body of Hector round the walls came too late, and this +part of the programme did not take place. + +So much of the entertainment over, preparations are made for dinner. In +the grove of Egeria the plates are spread in circles, while all the +company sing part-songs and dance. At last all is ready, the signal is +given, and the feast takes place after the most rustic manner. Great +barrels of wine covered with green branches stand at one side, from +which flagons are filled and passed round, and the good appetites soon +make direful gaps in the beef and mighty plates of lettuce. After this, +and a little sauntering about for digestion's sake, come the afternoon +sports. And there are donkey races, and tilting at a ring, and +foot-races, and running in sacks. Nothing can be more picturesque than +the scene, with its motley masqueraders, its crowds of spectators +seated along the slopes, its little tents here and there, its races in +the valley, and, above all, the glorious mountains looking down from +the distance. Not till the golden light slopes over the Campagna, +gilding the skeletons of aqueducts, and drawing a delicate veil of +beauty over the mountains, can we tear ourselves away, and rattle back +in our carriage to Rome. + +The wealthy Roman families, who have villas in the immediate vicinity +of Rome, now leave the city to spend a month in them and breathe the +fresh air of spring. Many and many a tradesman who is well to do in the +world has a little _vigna_ outside the gates, where he raises +vegetables and grapes and other fruits; and every _festa_-day you will +be sure to find him and his family out in his little _villetta_, +wandering about the grounds or sitting beneath his arbors, smoking and +chatting with his children around him. His friends who have no villas +of their own here visit him, and often there is a considerable company +thus collected, who, if one may judge from their cheerful countenances +and much laughter, enjoy themselves mightily. Knock at any of these +villa-gates, and, if you happen to have the acquaintance of the owner, +or are evidently a stranger of respectability, you will be received +with much hospitality, invited to partake of the fruit and wine, and +overwhelmed with thanks for your _gentilezza_ when you take your leave; +for the Italians are a most good-natured and social people, and nothing +pleases them better than a stranger who breaks the common round of +topics by accounts of his own land. Everything new is to them +wonderful, just as it is to a child. They are credulous of everything +you tell them about America, which is to them in some measure what it +was to the English in the days of Raleigh, Drake, and Hawkins, and say +"_Per Bacco!_" to every new statement. And they are so magnificently +ignorant, that you have _carte blanche_ for your stories. Never did I +know any one staggered by anything I chose to say, but once. I was +walking with my respectable old _padrone_, Nisi, about his little +garden one day, when an ambition to know something about America +inflamed his breast. + +"Are there any mountains?" he asked. + +I told him "Yes," and, with a chuckle of delight, he cried,-- + +"_Per Bacco!_ And have you any cities?" + +"Yes, a few little ones,"--for I thought I would sing small, contrary +to the general "'Ercles vein" of my countrymen. He was evidently +pleased that they were small, and, swelling with natural pride, said,-- + +"Large as Rome, of course, they could not be"; then, after a moment, he +added, interrogatively, "And rivers, too,--have you any rivers?" + +"A few," I answered. + +"But not as large as our Tiber," he replied,--feeling assured, that, if +the cities were smaller than Rome, as a necessary consequence, the +rivers that flowed by them must be in the same category. + +The bait now offered was too tempting. I measured my respectable and +somewhat obese friend carefully with my eye, for a moment, and then +hurled this terrible fact at him:-- + +"We have some rivers three thousand miles long." + +The effect was awful. He stood and stared at me, as if petrified, for a +moment. Then the blood rushed into his face, and, turning on his heel, +he took off his hat, said suddenly, "_Buona sera_," and carried my fact +and his opinions together up into his private room. I am afraid that +Don Pietro decided, on consideration, that I had been taking +unwarrantable liberties with him, and exceeding all proper bounds, in +my attempt to impose on his good-nature. From that time forward he +asked me no more questions about America. + +And here, by the way, I am reminded of an incident, which, though not +exactly pertinent, may find here a parenthetical place, merely as +illustrating some points of Italian character. One fact and two names +relating to America they know universally,--Columbus and his discovery +of America, and Washington. + +"_Sě, Signore_," said a respectable person some time since, as he was +driving me to see a carriage which he wished to sell me, and therefore +desired to be particularly polite to me and my nation,--"a great man, +your Vashintoni! but I was sorry to hear, the other day, that his +father had died in London." + +"His father dead, and in London?" I stammered, completely confounded at +this extraordinary news, and fearing lest I had been too stupid in +misunderstanding him. + +"Yes," he said, "it is too true that his father Vellintoni is dead. I +read it in the _Diario di Roma_." + +But better than this was the ingenious argument of a _Frate_, whom I +met on board a steamer in going from Leghorn to Genoa, and who, having +pumped out the fact that I was an American, immediately began to +"improve" it in a discourse on Columbus. So he informed me that +Columbus was an Italian, and that he had discovered America, and was a +remarkable man; to all of which I readily assented, as being true, if +not new. But now a severe abstract question began to tax my friend's +powers. He said, "But how could he ever have imagined that the +continent of America was there? That's the question. It is +extraordinary indeed!" And so he sat cogitating, and saying, at +intervals, "_Curioso! Straordinario!_" At last "a light broke in upon +his brain." Some little bird whispered the secret. His face lightened, +and, looking at me, he said, "Perhaps he may have read that it was +there in some old book, and so went to see if it were or no." Vainly I +endeavored to show him that this view would deprive Columbus of his +greatest distinction. He answered invariably, "But without having read +it, how could he ever have known it?"--thus putting the earth upon the +tortoise and leaving the tortoise to account for his own support. + +Imagine that I have told you these stories sitting under the vine and +fig-tree of some _villetta_, while Angiolina has gone to call the +_padrone_, who will only be too glad to see you. But, _ecco!_ at last +our _padrone_ comes. No, it is not the _padrone_, it is the +_vignarualo_, who takes care of his grapes and garden, and who +recognizes us as friends of the _padrone_, and tells us that we are +ourselves _padroni_ of the whole place, and offers us all sorts of +fruits. + +One old custom, which existed in Rome some fifteen years ago, has now +passed away with other good old things. It was the celebration of the +_Fravolata_ or Strawberry-Feast, when men in gala-dress at the height +of the strawberry-season went in procession through the streets, +carrying on their heads enormous wooden platters heaped with this +delicious fruit, accompanied by girls in costume, who, beating their +_tamburelli_, danced along at their sides and sung the praises of the +strawberry. After threading the streets of the city, they passed +singing out of the gates, and at different places on the Campagna spent +the day in festive sports and had an out-door dinner and dance. + +One of these festivals still exists, however, in the picturesque town +of Genzano, which lies above the old crater now filled with the still +waters of Lake Nemi, and is called the _Infiorata di Genzano_, "The +Flower-Festival of Genzano." It takes place on the eighth day of the +Corpus Domini, and receives its name from the popular custom of +spreading flowers upon the pavements of the streets so as to represent +heraldic devices, figures, arabesques, and all sorts of ornamental +designs. The people are all dressed in their effective costumes,--the +girls in _busti_ and silken skirts, with all their corals and jewels +on, and the men with white stockings on their legs, their velvet +jackets dropping over one shoulder, and flowers and rosettes in their +conical hats. The town is then very gay, the bells clang, the incense +steams from the censer in the church, where the organ peals and mass is +said, and a brilliant procession marches over the strewn flower-mosaic, +with music and crucifixes and Church-banners. Hundreds of strangers, +too, are there to look on; and on the Cesarini Piazza and under the +shadow of the long avenues of ilexes that lead to the tower are +hundreds of handsome girls, with their snowy _tovaglie_ peaked over +their heads. The rub and thrum of _tamburelli_ and the clicking of +castanets are heard, too, as twilight comes on, and the _salterello_ is +danced by many a group. This is the national Roman dance, and is named +from the little jumping step which characterizes it. Any number of +couples dance it, though the dance is perfect with two. Some of the +movements are very graceful and piquant, and particularly that where +one of the dancers kneels and whirls her arms on high, clicking her +castanets, while the other circles her round and round, striking his +hands together, and approaching nearer and nearer, till he is ready to +give her a kiss, which she refuses: of course it is the old story of +every national dance,--love and repulse, love and repulse, until the +maiden yields. As one couple panting and rosy retires, another fresh +one takes its place, while the bystanders play on the accordion the +whirling, circling, never-ending tune of the Tarantella, which would +"put a spirit of youth in everything." + +If you are tired of the festival, roam up a few paces out of the crowd, +and you stand upon the brink of Lake Nemi. Over opposite, and crowning +the height where the little town of Nemi perches, frowns the old feudal +castle of the Colonna, with its tall, round tower, where many a +princely family has dwelt and many an unprincely act has been done. +There, in turn, have dwelt the Colonna, Borgia, Piccolomini, Cenci, +Frangipani, and Braschi, and there the descendants of the last-named +family still pass a few weeks in the summer.[1] Below you, silent and +silvery, lies the lake itself,--and rising around it, like a green +bowl, tower its richly wooded banks, covered with gigantic oaks, +ilexes, and chestnuts. This was the ancient grove dedicated to Diana, +which extended to L'Ariccia; and here are still to be seen the vestiges +of an ancient villa built by Julius Caesar. Here, too, if you trust +some of the antiquaries, once stood the temple of Diana Nemorensis,[2] +where human sacrifices were offered, and whose chief-priest, called +_Rex Nemorensis_, obtained his office by slaying his predecessor, and +reigned over these groves by force of his personal arm. Times have, +indeed, changed since the priesthood was thus won and baptized by +blood; and as you stand there, and look, on the one side, at the site +of this ancient temple, which some of the gigantic chestnut-trees may +almost have seen in their youth, and, on the other side, at the +campanile of the Catholic church at Genzano, with its flower-strewn +pavements, you may have as sharp a contrast between the past and the +present as can easily be found. + +[Footnote 1: On the Genzano side stands the castellated villa of the +Cesarini Sforza, looking peacefully across the lake at the rival tower, +which in the old baronial days it used to challenge,--and in its +garden-pond you may see stately white swans oaring their way with rosy +feet along.] + +[Footnote 2: The better opinion of late seems to be that it was on the +slopes of the Val d'Ariccia. But "who shall decide, when doctors +disagree?"] + + + + +THRENODIA. + + +ADDRESSED TO ALFRED TENNYSON, P.L., IN RESPONSE TO VERSES OF HIS "ON A +LATE EVENT IN ENGLAND." + + I heard you In your English home,-- +I read you by my little brook, + Thousands of miles from British foam, +Hid in my dear New England nook: +But heard you with a sullen look; + But read you with a gloomy brow; +And thus unto my Muse I spoke:-- + Who is there to write history now? + + Hallam is dead! and Prescott gone! +And Irving sleeps at Sunnyside! + And now that Lord has wandered on, +Whose laurels must with theirs abide: +I greatly mourned the man who died + First on this dismal roll of death,-- +And him, of all observers eyed, + My townsman here, who spent his breath + + In telling of the things of Spain, +And doing friendly things to friends, + Prescott, well known beyond the main +And past the Pillars, to earth's ends: +Both had my tears: but England sends + Another word across the seas, +Might rouse the dying from his bed: + Oh, bear it gently, ocean-breeze! +That bitter word,--Thy friend is dead! + + Macaulay dead, who made to live +Past kingdoms, with his vivid brain! + Who could such warmth to shadows give, +By the mere magic of his pen, +That Charles and England rose again! + Well sleeps he 'mid the Abbey's dust: +And, Laureate! thy funereal verse + Shall have such echo as it must +From hearts just wrung at Irving's hearse. + + These are two names to mark the year +As one of memorable woe, + Two men to the two nations dear +Laid in one fatal winter low! +About the streets the mourners go; + But I within my chamber rest, +Or walk the room with measured tread, + Murmuring, with head upon my breast, +My God! and is Macaulay dead? + + + + +GENERAL MIRANDA'S EXPEDITION. + + +In November, 1805, a good-looking foreigner, gentlemanlike in dress +and in manner, and apparently fifty years of age, arrived in New York +from England, and took lodgings at Mrs. Avery's, State Street. He +called himself George Martin; but this incognito was intended only for +the vulgar. Some of the principal citizens of New York, who recollected +his first visit to this country twenty years before, knew him as Don +Francisco de Miranda of Caracas, one of the most distinguished +adventurers of that revolutionary era,--a favorite of the Empress of +Russia, a friend of Mr. Pitt, and second in command under Dumouriez in +the Belgian campaign of 1793. To these gentlemen he avowed that for +many years he had meditated the independence of the Spanish-American +Colonies, and meant to make an attempt to carry out his plans. On +Evacuation Day, a New York festival, which is now nearly worn out, they +invited him to a Corporation dinner, as a foreign officer of rank, and +toasted him, wishing him the same success in South America that we had +had here. He then went to Washington, under the name of Molini. There, +as everywhere, he was received by the best society as General Miranda. +The President and the Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, granted him +several private interviews. In January he returned to New York,--and on +the 2d of February departed thence mysteriously in the Leander, a ship +belonging to Mr. Samuel G. Ogden, merchant. + +While the Leander lay at anchor off Staten Island, a gentleman notified +the Naval Officer of the Port, that large quantities of arms and +ammunition had been taken on board of her in boats, at night. He was +informed in return, that the Leander was cleared for Jacquemel, and +that no law existed to prevent her from sailing. No other attempt was +made to detain her; but a few weeks later, rumors affecting the +character of the ship broke out in a more decided form. It was +generally believed at the Tontine Coffee-House that the Leander had +been fitted out by Miranda to attack the Spanish possessions in the +West India Islands or on the Main. And yet the New York journals took +no notice of her until the 21st of February, nineteen days after she +sailed. In the mean time the Marquis Yrujo, backed by the French +Ambassador, had made a formal complaint to Government, and had caused +the insertion in the "Philadelphia Gazette" of a series of +interrogatories to Mr. Madison, which indirectly accused the +Administration of encouraging Miranda's preparations, or at least of +conniving at the expedition. This perverse Marquis, who gave Mr. +Jefferson a taste of the annoyance which Genet, Adet, and Fauchet had +inflicted upon the previous administrations, was clamorous and +persisting. The authorities in Washington thought it proper to order +the arrest of Mr. Ogden, and of Colonel William Smith, son-in-law of +John Adams and Surveyor of the Port of New York, under the Act of 1794. +The prisoners were taken before Judge Tallmadge of the United States +District Court. They were refused counsel, and were forced by threats +of imprisonment to submit to a searching examination. They were then +held to bail, both as principals and witnesses, in the sum of twenty +thousand dollars. Soon after, the President removed Colonel Smith from +his office. + +Such a waste of editorial raw-material appears very singular to +newspaper-readers of the present day, accustomed as they are to see in +print everything that has happened or that might have happened; but we +must recollect that our grandfathers found the excitement necessary to +civilized man in party politics, national and local. This game they +played with a fierce eagerness which is now limited to a small class of +inferior men. + +To the violence and personal spitefulness of their newspaper articles +we have fortunately nothing comparable, even in the speeches of +Honorable Members on Helper and John Brown. The "_Tu quoque_" and the +"_Vos damnamini_" were their favorite logical processes, and "Fool" and +"Liar" the simple and conclusive arguments with which they established +a principle. Not that these ancients suffered at all from a lack of +stirring news. Bonaparte's wonderful campaigns, (Austerlitz had just +been heard of in New York,) the outrages on our sailors by English +cruisers, our merchantmen plundered by French and Spanish privateers, +the irritating behavior of the Dons in Louisiana, kept them abundantly +supplied with this staff of mental life. But they did not care much for +news in the abstract as news, unless they could work it up into +political ammunition and discharge it at each other's heads. We must +not forget, too, that newspaper-editing, the "California of the +spiritually vagabond," as Carlyle calls it, was a recent discovery, and +that the rich mine was but surface-worked. "Our own Reporter" was, like +Milton's original lion, only half unearthed; and deep hidden from +mortal eyes as yet lay the sensation-items-man, who has made the +last-dying-speech-and-confession style of literature the principal +element of our daily press. + +At last the Federal editors gave tongue. It was high time; the town was +in an uproar. They perceived that Miranda might become a useful ally +against Mr. T. Jefferson. His expedition came opportunely, as the +Mammoth Cheese and Black Sally were beginning to grow stale. Mr. Lang +opened the cry in the "New York Gazette" by asserting the complicity of +Government, on the authority of a "gentleman of the first +respectability,"--meaning Mr. Rufus King.--Cheetham, of the "Citizen," +barked back at Lang, a would-be "Solomon," "a foul and abominable +slanderer." Mr. King, he could prove, had been examined, and had +nothing to reveal.--Tom Paine wrote to the "Citizen" to mention that he +had known Miranda in New York in 1783 and in Paris in 1793. Mr. +Littlepage of Virginia, Chamberlain to the King of Poland, had then +informed him that the Empress Catharine had given Miranda four thousand +pounds "as a retaining fee," and that Mr. Pitt had also paid him twelve +hundred pounds for his services in the Nootka Sound business.--All the +Federal papers charged the Government with connivance. You knew the +destination of the Leander; you did not prevent her from sailing; you +nourished the offence until it attained maturity, and then, after +permitting the principals to go upon this expedition, you seize upon +the accessories who remain at home. And in how shameful and illegal a +way! You examine them before a single judge, with no counsel to advise +them. You force them to criminate themselves, and to sign their +confessions, by the threat of imprisonment; and you punish Colonel +Smith before you have tried him, by depriving him of his office. Why, +such a proceeding is worse than any "Inquisitorial Tribunal" or +"Star-Chamber Court."--Nonsense! answered the Democrats. Ogden's and +Smith's testimony does not implicate the Government in the least. It +only proves that Smith has been the dupe of Miranda. The President knew +nothing about the matter. If the object of the Leander's outfit was so +generally spoken of, why did it escape the notice of the Marquis Yrujo? +Why did he not demand her seizure before she sailed? This charge +against the Government is a mere Federal trick. Your friends, the +British, are at the bottom of the expedition, and they have artfully +employed Rufus King, a Federal chief, to throw the blame upon the +Executive of the United States. By ascribing to those who administer +the government the atrocities committed by Transatlantic rulers, you +aim a deadly blow at the character of our system; and your conduct, +base in any view we can take of it, is particularly reprehensible in +the delicate state of our relations with Spain. + +Mr. Cadwallader Golden, of counsel for the defendants, made a motion +before Judge Tallmadge for an order to prevent the District Attorney +from using the preliminary evidence taken at the private examinations. +"It was a proceeding," he said, "arbitrary and subversive of the first +principles of law and liberty,"--"which would have disgraced the reign +of Charles and stained the character of Jeffries." The District +Attorney was heard in opposition, and was successful. + +On the 7th of April, the Grand Jury found a bill against Smith, Ogden, +Miranda, and Thomas Lewis, captain of the Leander, for "setting on foot +and beginning with force and arms a certain military enterprise or +expedition, to be carried on from the United States against the +dominions of a foreign prince: to wit, the dominions of the King of +Spain; the said King of Spain then and there being at peace with the +United States." The Grand Jury, as an evidence of their impartiality, +or of the public feeling, also handed the Judge a presentment of +himself, which he put into his pocket, censuring his conduct in the +private examinations, because "unusual, oppressive, and contrary to +law." + +The trial was set down for the 14th of July. Messrs. Ogden and Smith +did not wait so long for a hearing. They laid their case at once before +the public, in two memorials addressed to Congress, complaining +bitterly of the prosecution, not to say persecution, instituted against +them by the authorities in Washington, and of the cruel and oppressive +measures taken by Judge Tallmadge to carry out the mandates of his +superiors. If they had done wrong, they urged, it was innocently. A war +with Spain was imminent. The critical position of the Louisiana +Boundary question, the President's Message of the 6th of December, and +the documents accompanying it, left no doubts on that point. Were they +not right, then, in supposing, that, under these circumstances, the +President would encourage an expedition against the colonies of a +hostile power? As evidence of Mr. Jefferson's knowledge of Miranda's +schemes, they stated that the General had brought with him from England +a letter to "a gentleman of the first consequence in New York," (Mr. +King,) which contained a sketch of his project: this letter was +forwarded to the Secretary of State and laid before the President by +him. Miranda then went to Washington, saw the President and the +Secretary, and wrote to the memorialists that he had fully unfolded his +plans to both. In the course of a long conversation with Mr. Madison, +he asked for pecuniary assistance and for open encouragement, on the +ground that individuals might not be willing to join in the enterprise, +if Government did not approve it,--particularly as a bill was then +before Congress to prohibit the exportation of arms. He also requested +leave of absence for Colonel Smith, who wished to accompany him. Mr. +Madison answered, that the sentiments of the President could not be +doubted, but that the Government of the United States could afford no +assistance of any kind. Private individuals were at liberty to act as +they pleased, provided they did not violate the laws; and New York +merchants would always advance money, if they saw their advantage in +it. As to the bill Miranda had spoken of, it was unlikely that it would +pass,--and, in fact, it did not. It was impossible, Mr. Madison added, +to grant leave of absence to Colonel Smith, although he thought him +better fitted for military employment than for the custom-house. He +closed the interview by recommending the greatest discretion. + +Miranda, continued the memorialists, remained fourteen days in +Washington after this conversation, and returned to New York confident +of the silent approval of Government. Eleven days before the Leander +sailed, he sent a letter to Mr. Madison, inclosing another to Mr. +Jefferson, both of which he read to Ogden and to Smith. He assured Mr. +Madison that he had conformed in every way to the intentions of +Government, and requested him to keep the secret. To Mr. Jefferson he +wrote in a strain more fashionable ten years before than then, but well +adapted to the sentimentality, both scientific and political, of the +"Philosophic President." Here it is:-- + +"I have the honor to send you, inclosed, the 'Natural and Civil History +of Chili,' of which we conversed at Washington,--and in which you will, +perhaps, find more than in those which have been before published on +the same subject, concerning this beautiful country. + +"If ever the happy prediction, which you have pronounced on the future +destiny of our dear Columbia, is to be accomplished in our day, may +Providence grant that it may be under your auspices, and by the +generous efforts of her own children! We shall then, in some sort, +behold the revival of that age, the return of which the Roman bard +invoked in favor of the human race:-- + +"'The last great age foretold by sacred rhymes + Renews its finished course; Saturnian times + Roll round again; and mighty years, begun + From this first orb, in radiant circles run.'" + +On Miranda's reports, these letters, and the fact that the Leander had +not been seized, they rested their case, and prayed for the +interference of Congress in their behalf. + +Congress unanimously granted the petitioners leave to withdraw. Such +evidence as this, not only hearsay, but heard from the party most +interested in misrepresenting the Administration, was not entitled to +much consideration. It had, moreover, the additional disadvantage of +proving nothing against the President and Secretary, even if every word +of it were admitted as true. + +Public attention was diverted from the Leander, Captain Lewis, to the +Leander, Captain Whitby. This English frigate was cruising off Sandy +Hook, bringing to inward and outward bound vessels, searching them for +articles contraband of war, and helping herself to able-bodied seamen +who looked like British subjects. All of which was meekly submitted to +in 1806. Mr. Jefferson could not overcome his doubts as to the +constitutionality of a fleet, and the Opposition had the twofold +pleasure of chuckling over the insults offered by John Bull to a +government with French proclivities, and of reproaching the party in +power with its supineness and want of spirit. + +But the accident of the 25th of April brought the American people to a +proper sense of their situation, for the moment. On that day, His +British Majesty's ship Leander fired a round-shot into the sloop +Richard, bound to New York, and killed the man at the helm, John +Pierce. The body was brought to the city and borne through the +principal streets, in the midst of universal excitement, anger, and +cries for vengeance. Black streamers were displayed from the houses; +shops were closed; the newspapers appeared in mourning. A public +funeral was attended by the whole population. Captain Whitby was +indicted for murder, and took care to keep out of the reach of United +States law-officers. This homicide happened just in time for the May +election in New York. Both parties attempted to make use of it. The +Federalists proclaimed that the blood of Pierce was on the head of +Jefferson and his followers. These retorted, that the English pirates +were the friends and comrades of the Federalists. Cheetham had seen the +first lieutenant of the Leander, disguised, in company with eight or +ten of them, some days after the murder!!! And the Democratic +Republicans, as was and is still usual, had a majority at the polls. + +From time to time short paragraphs appeared in the papers, advertising +Miranda's success. "His flag was flying on every fort from Cumana to +Laguayra." "The whole of this fine country may be considered as lost to +Spain." Then came tidings of sadder complexion. He had been beaten off +with the loss of forty men, taken prisoners. The Spaniards had +threatened to hang them as pirates, but they would not dare to do it. +The British had furnished Miranda with forty Spanish prisoners, as +hostages, "to avenge the threatened insult to the feelings of every +friend to the rights of self-government in every part of the world." At +last, news arrived from the Gulf which left Miranda's failure in his +first attempt to land no longer doubtful. This, of course, made the +position of Ogden and Smith more dangerous, and their case more difficult +to manage. + +When the trial of Colonel Smith came on, public interest revived, and +became stronger than before. The court-room was crowded by intelligent +spectators during the whole course of the proceedings, The case was +peculiar, and had almost a dramatic interest. Here was a Government +prosecution against a man well known in the community, for an offence +new to our courts; and the heads of that Government, Jefferson and +Madison, were indirectly on trial at the same time:--"For, if Smith and +Ogden are acquitted," said the Federal papers, "then must the whole +guilt rest on the Administration." Apart from the political interest of +the trial, the eminence of the counsel employed would have commanded an +audience anywhere. Never, since New York has had courts of justice, +have so many distinguished lawyers adorned and dignified her bar as in +the first twenty years of this century. In this case, nearly all of the +leaders were retained: Nathan Sandford, District Attorney, and +Pierrepoint Edwards, for the prosecution; for the defence, Cadwallader +Colden, Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Thomas Addis Emmet, Richard Harrison, and +Washington Morton.[*] + +[Footnote *: Judge Patterson, of the United States Court, occupied the +bench with Judge Tallmadge, until ill-health obliged him to withdraw. +He died soon after.] + +Mr. Colden handed the Clerk a list of his witnesses, and requested him +to call their names. Among them were those of Madison, Dearborn, +Gallatin, Granger, and Robert Smith, all members of the Government. He +then read the affidavit of service of subpoenas upon them on the 25th +of May, and, inasmuch as these gentlemen had not obeyed the subpoena, +and as Colonel Smith could not safely proceed to trial without their +testimony, he moved that an attachment issue against them. + +The District Attorney opposed the motion, on the ground that the +testimony of these witnesses could not possibly be of any use to the +defendant. None of them were present in New York when the Leander was +fitted out. And even if it could be shown by these witnesses that the +Administration had approved of this illegal expedition, it would not +help the defendant. This is a country governed by laws, and not by +arbitrary edicts. If Colonel Smith had violated these laws, he had +rendered himself liable to punishment. He could not escape by making +the President a _particeps criminis_. An amusing letter was read from +Madison, Dearborn, and Smith, which stated, "that the President, taking +into view the state of our public affairs, has specially signified to +us that our official duties cannot consistently therewith be at this +juncture dispensed with." They suggested that a commission should issue +for the purpose of taking their respective testimonies. + +Colden insisted that this was an attempt of the Executive to interfere +with the Judiciary, which ought not to be tolerated. Counsel in +criminal cases had always the right to stand face to face with +witnesses. It was outrageous that the President should first approve of +the conduct of Colonel Smith, then order a prosecution against him and +forbid his witnesses to attend the trial. + +The Court refused to grant an attachment. And later in the trial, when +the defence offered Rufus King to prove the President's knowledge and +approbation of the enterprise, the Court decided against the admission +of the evidence. + +The history of the expedition in New York, as shown by the testimony, +was briefly this:--Colonel Smith introduced Miranda to Ogden; and Ogden +agreed to furnish his armed ship Leander, and to load her with the +necessary provisions, stores, arms, and ammunition. He estimated his +expenditure at seventy thousand dollars. Miranda had brought with him +from London a bill of exchange on New York for eight hundred pounds, +which had been paid, and had drawn bills on England and on Trinidad for +seven thousand pounds, which had not been paid. This was all that Ogden +had received. But if the enterprise were successful, he was to be paid +two hundred per cent, advance on the ship and cargo. Smith had engaged +fifteen or twenty officers, without informing them of the object of the +expedition, but expressly stipulating in writing that they would not be +employed against England or France, and giving them a general verbal +assurance that they would speedily make their fortunes. In this he was +sincere, for he took his son from college and sent him with Miranda. +Smith had employed John Fink, a Bowery butcher, to engage men who could +serve on horseback. Fink enlisted twenty-three at fifteen dollars a +month, and fifteen more as a bounty. They were not to be taken out of +the territory of the United States. Some of them were told that the +President was raising a mounted guard; others, that they were to guard +the mail from Washington to New Orleans. One of Fink's papers was shown +on the trial, indorsed, "Muster-Roll for the President's Guard." Smith +had furnished the bounty-money, but it did not appear that he had +authorized these misrepresentations of Fink, who developed a talent in +this business which forty years later would have made his fortune as an +emigrant-runner. Abundant proofs of the purchase of military clothing, +arms, powder, shot, and cannon were produced. + +The Counsel for Colonel Smith, unable to get the connivance of the +Administration before the Jury in the shape of evidence, coolly assumed +it as established, and urged it in defence of their client. They used +his memorial to Congress as their brief, enlarged upon the arbitrary +conduct of the Judge in the examinations and upon the tyrannical +interference of the President with their witnesses. As Mr. Emmet +cleverly and classically remarked, quoting from Tacitus's description +of the funeral of Junia, "Perhaps their very absence rendered them more +decided witnesses in our favor." They also maintained that the Act of +1794, under which the prisoner was indicted, did not prohibit an +enterprise of this character. Even if it did, no proof existed that +this expedition was organized in New York. On the contrary, it was +known that Miranda had gone hence to Jacquemel, and had made his +preparations there, in a port out of our jurisdiction. + +This point made, they boldly went a step farther, and declared that the +United States were actually at war with Spain. The affair of the +Kempers, and of Flanagan in Louisiana, the obstruction of the Mobile +Kiver, the depredations upon our commerce by Spanish privateers, were +sufficient proof of a state of war. We had a right to meet force by +force. The President must have been of this opinion, else he could not +have violated his trust by authorizing this expedition. + +The case for the defence, considered in a logical point of view, was +desperate; but no case is desperate before a Jury; and when Mr. Colden, +Mr. Hoffman, and Mr. Emmet had each in his own peculiar mode of +eloquence appealed to the Jury to protect their client, already +punished by removal from his place, without a trial or even a hearing, +for an offence committed with, the sanction of his superior +officers,--when they compared this State prosecution to the attempts +made by despotic European governments to crush innocent men by the +machinery of law, and asserted that it was instituted solely to gratify +the malice of the King of Spain, a bitter enemy to the United +States,--and when they enlarged upon the grandeur of an undertaking to +give liberty to the down-trodden victims of Colonial tyranny, comparing +Miranda and his friends to our own Revolutionary heroes, there could be +but little doubt of the verdict. But there was an uneasy feeling after +the District Attorney had closed. He demolished with ease the arguments +of the other side, for not one of them had sufficient strength to stand +alone. Smith's perpetual excuse, that he had been led astray by the +belief of connivance in Washington, was preposterous. If he had been +anxious to know the sentiments of Government on the subject, he might +at any time within six days have ascertained whether Miranda told him +truth or not. He spoke of the cruelty and reckless folly of all such +attempts upon a neighboring people; asked the Jury how they would like +to see an armed force landed upon our shores to take part with one or +the other of the great political parties; and closed with a few strong +words, as true at this day as then:--"If you acquit the defendant, you +say to the world that the United States have renounced the law of +nations,--that they permit their citizens not only to violate their own +laws with impunity, but to invade the people of other countries with +hostile force in a time of peace, as avarice, ambition, or the thought +of plunder may dictate. Such a decision would justify the acts of the +pirate on the ocean, and would sink our national character to the +barbarism of savage tribes." + +The Jury were out two hours, and brought in a verdict of not guilty, +which gave great satisfaction to Federal editors. A few days afterward, +Mr. Ogden was acquitted.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Jefferson, after the expiration of his second term, +wrote to Don Valentino de Fornonda as follows:-- + +"Your predecessor [Yrujo] wished it to be believed that we were in +unjustifiable coöperation in Miranda's expedition. + +"I solemnly and on my personal truth and honor declare to you that this +was entirely without foundation, and that there was neither coöperation +nor connivance on our part. He informed us he was about to attempt the +liberation of his native country from bondage, and intimated a hope of +our aid, or connivance at least. He was at once informed, that, though +we had great cause of complaint against Spain, and even of war, yet, +whenever we should think proper to act as her enemy, it should be +openly and aboveboard, and that our hostility should never be exercised +by such petty means. We had no suspicion that he expected to engage men +here, but merely to purchase military stores. Against this there was no +law, nor, consequently, any authority for us to interpose. On the other +hand, we deemed it improper to betray his voluntary communication to +the agents of Spain. Although his measures were many days in +preparation at New York, we never had the least intimation or suspicion +of his engaging men in his enterprise until he was gone; and I presume +that the secrecy of his proceedings kept them equally unknown to the +Marquis Yrujo and to the Spanish Consul at New York, since neither of +them gave us any information of the enlistment of men until it was too +late for any measures taken at Washington to prevent their departure."] + +This is a brief account of the first filibuster-trial in the United +States. Other heroes of this profession, compared with whom Smith and +Ogden were spotless, have since come before our courts only to be +turned loose upon the world again. No other result is to be +anticipated. It is an established principle with our fellow-citizens, +that no man is happy, or ought to be, who lives under any other system +of government than our own. Let a lawyer pronounce the magic formula, +"Liberty to the oppressed," or "Free institutions to the victims of +despotism," and, _presto!_--rascality is metamorphosed into merit. +After all, it makes such a difference, when it is only our neighbor's +ox that is gored! + +Here closed the first act of the expedition. Colonel Smith lost his +office, and Mr. Ogden stopped payment. The passengers by the Leander +fared worse. There were two hundred men on board: one hundred and +twenty belonged to the ship; the others had been engaged by Smith and +his agent Fink as officers, dragoons, printers, and armorers. With the +exception of two or three, none of them had seen their commander or +knew their destination. The officers, all gentlemen "of crooked +fortunes," supposed that they were sailing to enlarge the area of +freedom somewhere in America; but what particular region of the Spanish +dominions was to be subjected to this wholesome treatment they neither +knew nor cared, provided they could improve their own financial +condition. Both officers and privates were for the most part +serviceable, steady men, worthy of a more efficient leader. + +On the 12th of February, they were overhauled and searched by H.B.M. +ship Cleopatra. Nineteen men with American protections were carried off +in the frigate's boat, and twelve native Americans taken out of prizes +sent back to replace them. The Leander's papers were examined and +pronounced unsatisfactory. Miranda was obliged to go on board the +Cleopatra, where he had a long private conversation with the captain. +He returned with full liberty to proceed, and with a written pass to +prevent detention or search by British cruisers. This adventure was +made to give an air of respectability to the enterprise; and Miranda +hinted to his suite that the English captain had promised to join him +with his frigate. A day or two later, the Leander took other airs upon +herself. Meeting a small Spanish schooner, laden with logwood, off the +Haytian coast, Lewis fired into her, and ordered the captain on board +with his papers, for the mere pleasure of exercising power. The +Spaniard, as soon as he got back to his own craft, made the best of his +way home and gave the first alarm. + +On the 18th of February, they cast anchor at Jacquemel. Lewis went +immediately to Port au-Prince, to engage the Emperor, a ship commanded +by his brother, to join the expedition. Miranda remained behind to +organize his followers. He at last announced to them that he intended +to land near Caracas; the whole country would rise at his name; his +brave Americans would form the nucleus and the heart of a great army; +there was no Spanish force in the province to resist him. In a general +order, "Parole, America; Countersign, Liberty," he assigned to his +officers their rank in the Columbian army, distributing them into the +Engineers, Artillery, Dragoons, Riflemen, and Foot. Another general +order, "Parole, Warren; Countersign, Bunker's Hill," fixed the uniforms +of the different corps,--to be distinguished by blue, yellow, or green +facings. All hands were set to work upon the crowded deck. Printers +struck off proclamations and blank commissions in the name of "Don +Francisco de Miranda, Commander-in-Chief of the Columbian Army"; +carpenters made pike-handles; armorers repaired the arms bought in New +York; (they had cost little, and were worth less;) the regimental +tailor and his disciples stitched the gay facings upon the new +uniforms; files of awkward fellows were put through the manual exercise +by an old drill-sergeant; and the young gentlemen officers read +diligently in treatises on war, or listened to the discourses of their +general upon the noble art. In the midst of this stir of preparation, +Lewis returned unsuccessful, without the ship Emperor; but Miranda +seemed in no hurry to depart. He continued his lectures and his +drilling until the 28th of March. At last he hoisted the new Columbian +flag,--a tricolor, blue, yellow, and red,--fired a grand salute, and +stood gallantly out of the harbor, where he had wasted six precious +weeks. + +Captain Lewis had chartered at Port-au-Prince the Bee, a small, unarmed +schooner, and had bought the Bacchus, a vessel of the same class, last +from Laguayra, whose captain and men disappeared mysteriously after +their arrival at Jacquemel. Some of the Leander's hands volunteered for +the schooners, to get out of the crowded ship; others were forced on +board, to make up a crew. The little fleet steered for Bonair, but, +through the ignorance of their pilot, or of their captain, found +themselves, after a ten-days' cruise, seventy miles to leeward, off the +Gulf of Venezuela. The Leander was a dull sailer; and, with the wind +and current against her, it took them four days to beat up to the +Island of Aruba, and seven more to reach Bonair. On the evening of the +27th of April, they were lying to off Puerto Cabello, preparing to +land, and sure of success, when they made out two Spanish +_guardacostas_ close in shore, beating up to windward. Miranda thought +them unworthy of attention, and gave the order to stand in. But the +pilot mistook the landmarks, owing to the darkness, and missed the +point agreed upon for landing. The Bacchus was sent in to reconnoitre +and did not return, although signals of recall were repeated throughout +the night. About midnight signals were noticed passing between the fort +at Puerto Cabello and the _guardacostas_; Captain Lewis beat to +quarters, and kept his men at their guns until morning. At daybreak the +Bacchus was seen close in shore, carrying a press of sail and closely +pursued by the Spanish vessels. The Leander bore down with a flowing +sheet upon the enemy, fired a few ineffective shot, and then, for some +reason best known to her captain, or to Miranda, hauled on to the wind, +and sailed away, leaving the schooners to take care of themselves. The +_guardacostas_ soon took possession of both, and carried their prizes, +with sixty prisoners, into Puerto Cabello,[1] before the eyes of their +astonished and indignant comrades, who could not understand such a want +of courage or conduct on the part of their chief. + +[Footnote 1: The unfortunate men taken in the schooners were tried at +Puerto Cabello for piracy. Ten officers were hanged, their heads cut +off and stuck upon poles, and six of them sent to Caracas, two to +Laguayra, and two set up at Puerto Cabello. The other prisoners were +sentenced to the chain-gang. The execution took place on the 21st of +July, the day before Smith was acquitted in New York.] + +After this disaster, the Leander sailed for Bonair for water. Miranda +still assumed a confident tone, and called a council of war to +deliberate whether they should attempt a landing at Coro. The council +decided, that, in view of the loss they had sustained, it would be +advisable to make for Trinidad in search of reinforcements. With wind +and tide against them, and a slow ship, the voyage was long. They were +reduced to their last barrel of bread, when they fell in with the +English sloop-of-war Lily, Captain Campbell, who was looking for +Miranda, and who sent supplies of all kinds on board. On the 6th of +June, they ran into Bridgetown, Barbadoes. Admiral Cochrane, who +commanded on that station, gave Miranda every assistance in his power, +and offered to put some of his smaller vessels under his orders, upon +condition that all goods imported into the new state of Columbia in +British bottoms should be assessed ten per cent, lower than the +products of any other nation, except the United States. Miranda signed +a formal agreement to this effect, and sailed for Trinidad, accompanied +by H.B.M. ships Lily and Express, and the Trimmer, a transport +schooner. Captain Lewis, whose repeated quarrels with Miranda had +affected the discipline of the force, resigned at Barbadoes. He was +succeeded by Captain Johnson, a daring fellow, who risked and lost life +and property in this expedition. + +The Governor of Trinidad, like all the English of the Gulf, was well +disposed to aid in an attack on the Spanish Provinces. Eighty +volunteers of all nations, most of them worthless fellows and +candidates for a commission, joined the fleet at this place. Miranda +was once more in high spirits. His army amounted to four hundred men, +and he had secured the cooperation of the English. Success seemed +certain. He issued a new proclamation to his followers, headed "To +Victory and Wealth," and set sail, accompanied by seven small British +war-vessels and three transports. + +On the 2d of August, the fleet anchored within nine miles of La Vela de +Coro. The next day two hundred and ninety men were landed in the boats +of the squadron. They were all "Mirandanians," the English furnishing +only the means of transportation and the necessary supplies. As the +boats approached the shore, they were fired upon from the bushes which +lined the beach. The Columbians jumped into the water and charged; the +Spaniards retreated to a fort near the shore. This was carried, sword +in hand,--the Spaniards leaping from the walls and flying in all +directions. Miranda then formed his party, and marched to the town, a +quarter of a mile distant, which was evacuated by the Spaniards with +such precipitation that they left their cannon loaded. The inhabitants +had fled, as well as the military, carrying off all their movable +property. The Columbian colors were hoisted, flags of truce sent in all +directions, the printed proclamations distributed about the neighboring +country; but in vain; nobody appeared. + +The same evening the Liberators marched twelve miles in a northwesterly +direction to Coro. They arrived an hour before dawn, and found the town +silent and deserted. Dividing themselves into two parties, they entered +cautiously on opposite sides, for fear of an ambuscade,--but, +unfortunately, when the detachments met in the Grand Plaza, they +mistook each other, in the dusk of the morning, for the enemy, and +fired. Miranda's most efficient officer fell, shot through both thighs. +One man was killed, and seven others badly wounded. Not a soul was +found in the place, except those who were too old or too ill to move, +and the occupants of the prison. The jailer presented himself, +surrendered his keys, and informed the General that the Governor had +forced the citizens to leave their homes. Miranda remained in the +deserted town for five days, endeavoring, by the most alluring +proclamations, to bring the inhabitants back. But it was useless. Not a +man presented himself. He then lost heart, and, instead of advancing +into the country, ordered a retreat to La Vela, and reembarked on the +19th. + +Those he left behind in the Leander had been still more unfortunate. +Captain Johnson had gone in the boats to a river three or four miles to +the eastward, for water, and, while filling his casks, was set upon by +a party of Spanish soldiers. He was killed, fighting bravely, with +fifteen of his men. The remainder escaped with difficulty. + +The discomfited invaders sailed for the Island of Aruba, where their +English allies, pretty well satisfied that nothing could be done with +this expedition, left them. Miranda landed his men and took formal +possession of the island. He sent an ambassador to the Governor of the +neighboring island of Curaçoa, requesting him to surrender. This +request was declined. He was equally unsuccessful in a mission to +Jamaica, begging for assistance from Admiral Dacres. Dacres refused, on +the ground that he had no orders from his Government. + +Miranda remained at Aruba, drilling, issuing proclamations, and holding +courts martial, until the want of provisions brought the enterprise to +an end. An English ship-of-war, which touched at the island, offered +him a safe means of escape. On the 29th of October, after a passage of +twenty-five days, the Liberators arrived at Trinidad, and disbanded in +disgrace. The blue and yellow uniforms they had worn with pride, as +"Columbians," on their last visit, were hastily laid aside to escape +the scoff of the rabble, who jeered them as adventurers and +merry-andrews. Miranda kept out of sight until he could get the +opportunity of a passage to England. All his followers who could find +means to quit the island made their way home as best they could. To +conclude the business, the Leander was sold by order of the courts, and +the few poor fellows who had remained by her received a small share of +the proceeds. Nobody else was paid the smallest fraction of the sums +the General had so liberally promised. + +That a commander, safely landed with three hundred fighting men, in +possession of Coro, whose peninsular situation might have afforded him +an inexpugnable position, master of the sea, and backed by an English +fleet, should have retreated, without effecting anything, from a +country ripe for rebellion since the conspiracy of 1797, can be +explained only in one way: he must have been ignorant of the real +feelings of the people, and totally unfit to lead such an expedition. +Miranda had what we may call a pretty talent for war. He had studied +the principles of the art, and had seen some service. Excited by the +splendid career of Washington, he, like a certain distinguished +Frenchman, determined to imitate him and become the liberator of his +country. When the Giant at a show bends the iron bar, it seems so easy +that every strong man in the crowd thinks he can do as much, until he +tries. It needs a Giant of the first class to handle a people in +revolution. Miranda was not made of that kind of stuff. He was weak and +inefficient, fond of mystery and pomp, easily affected by flattery, +loving dearly to hear himself talk, and unable to control his temper. +His incessant quarrels with Captain Lewis were one cause of the loss of +the schooners off Puerto Cabello. A want of quickness and energy was +felt in all his operations. Delays are proverbially dangerous, but in a +_coup de main_ fatal. The time wasted by him at Jacquemel and at Aruba +was employed by the Spaniards in making preparations for defence. They +had few troops, and did not dare to trust the natives with arms, but +they succeeded in persuading them that Miranda and his men were pagans +and pirates, whose triumph would be ten times more insufferable than +the rule of the mother country. + +If Miranda was incompetent to carry out a liberating expedition, he had +wonderful success in talking it up. For twenty years he had carried +this project about with him in America and in Europe. It was elaborated +to perfection in every part, and there were answers prepared to every +objection. The new government was to be modelled upon the English +Constitution,--an hereditary chief, to be called Inca,--a senate, +nominated by the chief, composed of nobles, but not hereditary,--and a +chamber elected by suffrage, limited by a property qualification. He +had collected all the statistics of population and of trade, to show +what commercial advantages the world might expect from a free South +American government. And, "rising upon a wind of prophecy," he already +saw in the future a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama, and the +Nicaragua route opened. He had laid these plans before Catharine of +Russia, who gave him money to help them on. Mr. Pitt listened, promised +him assistance in return for commercial privileges, and kept him in pay +for years. The French Revolutionists were eager to furnish him with an +army and a fleet. Rufus King, American Ambassador at London, sent word +of the scheme to Hamilton and Knox, who both approved of it. Miranda +seems to have made the same impression upon everybody. His extensive +travels and acquaintance with distinguished men, his knowledge of +facts, dates, and figures, his retentive and ready memory, his +wonderful cleverness in persuading his hearers, are spoken of in the +same terms by all. Dr. Rush wrote to a friend, that Miranda had dined +with him, and had talked about European politics as if he had been "in +the inside of all the kings and princes." He might have been a second +Count de St. Germain, if he had lived in the reign of Louis XIV., +instead of in an era when men had abandoned the philosopher's stone, +and were seeking in politics for a new _magnum opus_, Constitutions, as +the certain means of perfecting the human species. + +Everybody was mistaken in him. Although he talked "like an angel," in +action he was worthless. If he had never undertaken to carry out his +plans, he might have left an excellent reputation, and have remained in +South American memory as the possible Father of his Country: _Capax +imperii, nisi imperasset_. A short sketch of his career may be +interesting, before we dismiss him again to the oblivion from which we +have evoked him for this month. + +Miranda entered the Spanish army in America at the age of seventeen, +and was advanced to be Colonel, a grade seldom or never before reached +by a Creole. He left the service before the close of the Revolutionary +War, travelled in the United States, and was admitted to the society of +Washington and of the leading men of the day. Here, his attainments, +quickness, and insatiable curiosity attracted attention. He knew the +topography and strategy of every battle fought during the war better +than our officers who had been on the field, and soon made himself +familiar with parties, and even with family connections in this +country. His constant topic was the independence of South America. +After the peace of 1783, Miranda went to England: Colonel Smith was +then Secretary of John Adams, the American Minister, and the +acquaintance between them began in London, which ended so disastrously +twenty years later in New York. Leaving England, he travelled over +Europe. At Cherson, he attracted the notice of Prince Potemkin, who +presented him to the Empress at Kiew. In 1790, when the dispute about +Nootka Sound[*] threatened to produce a war between Great Britain and +Spain, he reappeared in London, and proposed to Mr. Pitt his scheme for +revolutionizing the American Colonies. Pitt at once engaged his +services, but Spain yielded, and the project could not be carried out. +Miranda crossed to France, accepted a command in the Republican army, +and served, with credit, in the Netherlands, under Dumouriez, until the +Battle of Neerwinden. In November, 1792, the French rulers conceived +the idea of revolutionizing Spain, both in Europe and in America. +Brissot suggested Miranda as the fittest person for this purpose. He +was to take twelve thousand troops of the line from St. Domingo, +enlist, in addition, ten or fifteen thousand "_braves mulâtres_," and +make a descent, with this force, upon the Main. "_Le nom de Miranda_," +wrote Brissot to Dumouriez, "_lui vaudra une armée; et ses talens, son +courage, son génie, tout nous répond du succčs_." Monge, Gensonné, +Clavičre, Pétion, were pleased with the plan, but Miranda started +difficulties. The French system was too democratic for his taste, and +the pressure of affairs in Europe soon turned the attention of Brissot +and his friends in another direction. + +[Footnote *: In May, 1789, the Spanish sloop-of-war Princesa seized +four English vessels engaged in a trade with the natives of Vancouver's +Island, and took them into a Mexican port as prizes, on the ground that +they had violated the Spanish Colonial laws. The English government +denied the claim of Spain to those distant regions, and insisted upon +ample satisfaction. The King of Spain was obliged to submit to avoid +war, but the question of territory was left open.] + +After the disastrous affair of Neerwinden, Miranda was accused of +misconduct, arrested, and sent to Paris for trial, but was acquitted by +the _Tribunal Révolutionnaire_, and conducted home in triumph. He was +again imprisoned for _incivisme_, during the Reign of Terror, and did +not recover his liberty until the general jail-delivery which followed +the death of Robespierre. He was seized for the third time in 1797, by +the Directory, as an adherent of the Pichegru faction, and banished +from France. + +In January, 1798, Mr. Pitt again sent for Miranda, and a new plan was +arranged for the emancipation of South America. On this occasion, the +coöperation of the United States was confidently relied upon. Both Pitt +and our own rulers foresaw that Spain must inevitably fall a prey to +France, and that the whole of her American possessions would probably +share her fate. Our relations with France were in so critical a +condition, that we were making preparations for defence; and it was, of +course, of the highest importance to our safety, that the Floridas and +Louisiana should not fall into the hands of a powerful enemy. It was +proposed, consequently, to form a commercial and defensive alliance +between England, the United States, and South America. We were to get +the Floridas and Louisiana to the Mississippi, and in return to furnish +a land-force of ten thousand men. Great Britain would provide the +fleet, in consideration of certain important advantages in trade. +Miranda kept his friends in the United States fully advised of the +progress of affairs. Hamilton and Knox were in favor of the project, +provided war were declared. Our provisional army might then have played +a brilliant part. But there was no war. President Adams refused to +listen to Miranda's communications, and patched up our difficulties +with France. Nothing was done by the English. + +In 1801 Lord Sidmouth revived Miranda's hopes, but the Peace of Amiens +put a stop to the preparations. In 1804 Mr. Pitt was again at the head +of affairs, and renewed his intercourse with Miranda. Orders were given +to prepare ships and to enrol men, when the hopes of the third +coalition again suspended the execution of the project. + +It was after this last blow from Fortune that Miranda came to New York +and fitted out the expedition we have undertaken to describe. His +disastrous failure seemed neither to destroy his hopes, nor to shake +the confidence of his English friends in his pretensions. When he +returned to England from Trinidad, he found ministers prepared to +embark with energy in the South American scheme. This time a fleet and +an army were really assembled at Cork, and Sir Arthur Wellesley was to +command them,--when the Spanish Revolution broke out, altered at once +the face of affairs in Europe, and turned Sir Arthur and his army +toward Portugal, to begin that brilliant series of campaigns which +drove the French out of the Peninsula. + +Few men fix their minds pertinaciously upon an object, and adhere to +the pursuit through life, without at least a partial attainment of it. +Miranda, the victim of so many bitter disappointments, at last found +himself for a few months in the position he had so often dreamed of. +When the news of the fall of Seville, and of the dispersion of the +Junta who governed in the name of Ferdinand VII., reached South +America, open rebellion broke out at Caracas. King Joseph Bonaparte had +sent over a proclamation, imploring his trusty and well-beloved South +Americans to come to his paternal arms,--or, if they would not do that, +at least to set up a government for themselves, and not take part with +Ferdinand and England. His emissaries were hunted down and hanged, +wherever caught. Revolutionary Juntas were established all over the +country. On the 19th of April, 1810, the American Confederation of +Venezuela, in Congress assembled, undertook to rule in the name of +Ferdinand VII., but in reality as an independent government. Miranda +was called to the command of the native army. On the 5th of July, 1811, +the Congress published their Declaration of Independence, and a +Constitution, both of them remarkable state-papers. In point of +liberality of sentiment and elegance of style they will bear comparison +with our own celebrated documents of '76 and '87. Indeed, in all these +Spanish political plays, the plot has been good, the text admirable, +but the actors so poor as to spoil the piece. So it fell out in +Venezuela. At first the Patriots were successful; Miranda defeated the +Royalists and took Valencia. The principal towns fell into the hands of +the insurgents. Then, came the terrible earthquake of 1812, which not +only shattered the resources of the Patriots, but was skilfully used by +the Church as a proof that Providence had taken sides against the +rebels. Monteverde, the Spanish general, recaptured Valencia. Congress +placed the dictatorship with unlimited power in Miranda's hands, but he +was not the man for desperate situations. On the 6th of July, the +Royalists took Puerto Cabello; Caracas fell on the 28th; and Miranda, +betrayed by his own party into the hands of the Spaniards, was sent a +prisoner to Cadiz in October. Simon Bolivar and others, men of +different mettle, regained all that had been lost, and cut loose the +Colonies from Spain. From California to Cape Horn the inestimable +system of self-government was established. According to the theory, the +South Americans should have been prosperous and happy; but, +unfortunately, the result has been murder, robbery, and general ruin. +The burden of taking care of one's self, which the North American had +the strength to bear, has crushed the poor half-caste Spaniard. There +are persons who assert that a political regimen which agrees so well +with us must therefore be good for all others. It may be instructive to +such believers in system to compare Humboldt's narrative of the +cultivation shown by the great Colonial Universities of Mexico, Quito, +and Lima, of the pleasing Creole society that entertained him, and the +peaceful quiet and security he noticed throughout country, with the +relations of modern travellers or newspaper-correspondents who visit +those semi-barbarous regions. + +Don Francisco de Miranda did not live to hear of the freedom of his +"Columbia." Before the close of the year 1812 he died in prison, at +Cadiz. Thus perished the most gentlemanlike of filibusters, since the +days when Jason sailed in the Argo to extend the blessing of Greek +institutions over Colchis and to appropriate the Golden Fleece. + + * * * * * + +THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE MORNING AFTER. + + +Colonel Sprowle's family arose late the next morning. The fatigues and +excitements of the evening and the preparation for it were followed by +a natural collapse, of which somnolence was a leading symptom. The sun +shone into the window at a pretty well opened angle when the Colonel +first found himself sufficiently awake to address his yet slumbering +spouse. + +"Sally!" said the Colonel, in a voice that was a little husky,--for he +had finished off the evening with an extra glass or two of "Madary," +and had a somewhat rusty and headachy sense of renewed existence, on +greeting the rather advanced dawn,--"Sally!" + +"Take care o' them custard-cups! There they go!" + +Poor Mrs. Sprowle was fighting the party over in her dream; and as the +visionary custard-cups crashed down through one lobe of her brain into +another, she gave a start as if an inch of lightning from a quart +Leyden jar had jumped into one of her knuckles with its sudden and +lively _poonk_! + +"Sally!" said the Colonel,--"wake up, wake up! What 'r' y' dreamin' +abaout?" + +Mrs. Sprowle raised herself, by a sort of spasm, _sur son séant_, as +they say in France,--up on end, as we have it in New England. She +looked first to the left, then to the right, then straight before her, +apparently without seeing anything, and at last slowly settled down, +with her two eyes, blank of any particular meaning, directed upon the +Colonel. + +"What time is't?" she said. + +"Ten o'clock. What 'y' been dreamin' abaout? Y' giv a jump like a +hoppergrass. Wake up, wake up! Th' party's over, and y' been asleep all +the mornin'. The party's over, I tell ye! Wake up!" + +"Over!" said Mrs. Sprowle, who began to define her position at +last,--"over! I should think 'twas time 'twas over! It's lasted a +hundud year. I've been workin' for that party longer 'n Methuselah's +lifetime, sence I been asleep. The pies wouldn' bake, and the blo'monge +wouldn' set, and the ice-cream wouldn' freeze, and all the folks kep' +comin' 'n' comin' 'n' comin',--everybody I ever knew in all my +life,--some of 'em's been dead this twenty year 'n' more,--'n' nothin' +for 'em to eat nor drink. The fire wouldn' burn to cook anything, all +we could do. We blowed with the belluses, 'n' we stuffed in paper 'n' +pitch-pine kindlin's, but nothin' could make that fire burn; 'n' all +the time the folks kep' comin', as if they'd never stop,--'n' nothin' +for 'em but empty dishes, 'n' all the borrowed chaney slippin' round on +the waiters 'n' chippin' 'n' crackin'. I wouldn' go through what I been +through t'-night for all th' money in th' Bank,--I do believe it's +harder t' have a party than t'"---- + +Mrs. Sprowle stated the case strongly. + +The Colonel said he didn't know how that might be. She was a better +judge than he was. It was bother enough, anyhow, and he was glad that +it was over. After this, the worthy pair commenced preparations for +rejoining the waking world, and in due time proceeded down-stairs. + +Everybody was late that morning, and nothing had got put to rights. The +house looked as if a small army had been quartered in it over night. +The tables were of course in huge disorder, after the protracted +assault they had undergone. There had been a great battle evidently, +and it had gone against the provisions. Some points had been stormed, +and all their defences annihilated, but here and there were centres of +resistance which had held out against all attacks,--large rounds of +beef, and solid loaves of cake, against which the inexperienced had +wasted their energies in the enthusiasm of youth or uninformed +maturity, while the longer-headed guests were making discoveries of +"shell-oysters" and "patridges" and similar delicacies. + +The breakfast was naturally of a somewhat fragmentary character. A +chicken that had lost his legs in the service of the preceding campaign +was once more put on duty. A great ham stuck with cloves, as Saint +Sebastian was with arrows, was again offered for martyrdom. It would +have been a pleasant sight for a medical man of a speculative turn to +have seen the prospect before the Colonel's family of the next week's +breakfasts, dinners, and suppers. The trail that one of these great +rural parties leaves after it is one of its most formidable +considerations. Every door-handle in the house is suggestive of +sweetmeats for the next week, at least. The most unnatural articles of +diet displace the frugal but nutritious food of unconvulsed periods of +existence. If there is a walking infant about the house, it will +certainly have a more or less fatal fit from overmuch of some +indigestible delicacy. Before the week is out, everybody will be tired +to death of sugary forms of nourishment and long to see the last of the +remnants of the festival. + +The family had not yet arrived at this condition. On the contrary, the +first inspection of the tables suggested the prospect of days of +unstinted luxury; and the younger portion of the household, especially, +were in a state of great excitement as the account of stock was taken +with reference to future internal investments, Some curious facts came +to light during these researches. + +"Where's all the oranges gone to?" said Mrs. Sprowle. "I expected +there'd be ever so many of 'em left. I didn't see many of the folks +eatin' oranges. Where's the skins of 'em? There ought to be six dozen +orange-skins round on the plates, and there a'n't one dozen. And all +the small cakes, too, and all the sugar things that was stuck on the +big cakes.--Has anybody counted the spoons? Some of 'em got swallered, +perhaps. I hope they was plated ones, if they did!" + +The failure of the morning's orange-crop and the deficit in other +expected residual delicacies were not very difficult to account for. In +many of the two-story Rockland families, and in those favored +households of the neighboring villages whose members had been invited +to the great party, there was a very general excitement among the +younger people on the morning after the great event. "Did y' bring home +somethin' from the party? What is it? What is it? Is it frűt-cake? Is +it nuts and oranges and apples? Give me some! Give _me_ some!" Such a +concert of treble voices uttering accents like these had not been heard +since the great Temperance Festival with the celebrated "colation" in +the open air under the trees of the Parnassian Grove,--as the place was +christened by the young ladies of the Institute. The cry of the +children was not in vain. From the pockets of demure fathers, from the +bags of sharp-eyed spinsters, from the folded handkerchiefs of +light-fingered sisters, from the tall hats of sly-winking brothers, +there was a resurrection of the missing oranges and cakes and +sugar-things in many a rejoicing family-circle, enough to astonish the +most hardened "caterer" that ever contracted to feed a thousand people +under canvas. + +The tender recollection of those dear little ones whom extreme youth or +other pressing considerations detain from scenes of festivity--a trait +of affection by no means uncommon among our thoughtful people +--dignifies those social meetings where it is manifested, and +sheds a ray of sunshine on our common nature. It is "an oasis in the +desert,"--to use the striking expression of the last year's +"Valedictorian" of the Apollinean Institute. In the midst of so much +that is purely selfish, it is delightful to meet such disinterested +care for others. When a large family of children are expecting a +parent's return from an entertainment, it will often require great +exertions on his part to provide himself so as to meet their reasonable +expectations. A few rules are worth remembering by all who attend +anniversary dinners in Faneuil Hall or elsewhere. Thus: Lobsters' claws +are always acceptable to children of all ages. Oranges and apples are +to be taken _one at a time_, until the coat-pockets begin to become +inconveniently heavy. Cakes are injured by sitting upon them; it is, +therefore, well to carry a stout tin box of a size to hold as many +pieces as there are children in the domestic circle. A very pleasant +amusement, at the close of one of these banquets, is grabbing for the +flowers with which the table is embellished. These will please the +ladies at home very greatly, and, if the children are at the same time +abundantly supplied with fruits, nuts, cakes, and any little ornamental +articles of confectionery which are of a nature to be unostentatiously +removed, the kind-hearted parent will make a whole household happy, +without any additional expense beyond the outlay for his ticket. + +There were fragmentary delicacies enough left, of one kind and another, +at any rate, to make all the Colonel's family uncomfortable for the +next week. It bid fair to take as long to get rid of the remains of the +great party as it had taken to make ready for it. + +In the mean time Mr. Bernard had been dreaming, as young men dream, of +gliding shapes with bright eyes and burning cheeks, strangely blended +with red planets and hissing meteors, and, shining over all, the white, +unwandering star of the North, girt with its tethered constellations. + +After breakfast he walked into the parlor, where he found Miss Darley. +She was alone, and, holding a school-book in her hand, was at work with +one of the morning's lessons. She hardly noticed him as he entered, +being very busy with her book,--and he paused a moment before speaking, +and looked at her with a kind of reverence. It would not have been +strictly true to call her beautiful. For years,--since her earliest +womanhood,--those slender hands had taken the bread which repaid the +toil of heart and brain from the coarse palms that offered it in the +world's rude market. It was not for herself alone that she had bartered +away the life of her youth, that she had breathed the hot air of +school-rooms, that she had forced her intelligence to posture before +her will, as the exigencies of her place required,--waking to mental +labor,--sleeping to dream of problems,--rolling up the stone of +education for an endless twelvemonth's term, to find it at the bottom +of the hill again when another year called her to its renewed +duties,--schooling her temper in unending inward and outward conflicts, +until neither dulness nor obstinacy nor ingratitude nor insolence could +reach her serene self-possession. Not for herself alone. Poorly as her +prodigal labors were repaid in proportion to the waste of life they +cost, her value was too well established to leave her without what, +under other circumstances, would have been a more than sufficient +compensation. But there were others who looked to her in their need, +and so the modest fountain which might have been filled to its brim was +continually drained through silent-flowing, hidden sluices. + +Out of such a life, inherited from a race which had lived in conditions +not unlike her own, _beauty_, in the common sense of the term, could +hardly find leisure to develop and shape itself. For it must be +remembered, that symmetry and elegance of features and figure, like +perfectly formed crystals in the mineral world, are reached only by +insuring a certain necessary repose to individuals and to generations. +Human beauty is an agricultural product in the country, growing up in +men and women as in corn and cattle, where the soil is good. It is a +luxury almost monopolized by the rich in cities, bred under glass like +their forced pine-apples and peaches. Both in city and country, the +evolution of the physical harmonics which make music to our eyes +requires a combination of favorable circumstances, of which +alternations of unburdened tranquillity with intervals of varied +excitement of mind and body are among the most important. Where +sufficient excitement is wanting, as often happens in the country, the +features, however rich in red and white, get heavy, and the movements +sluggish; where excitement is furnished in excess, as is frequently +the case in cities, the contours and colors are impoverished, and the +nerves begin to make their existence known to the consciousness, as the +face very soon informs us. + +Helen Darley could not, in the nature of things, have possessed the +kind of beauty which pleases the common taste. Her eye was calm, +sad-looking, her features very still, except when her pleasant smile +changed them for a moment, all her outlines were delicate, her voice +was very gentle, but somewhat subdued by years of thoughtful labor, and +on her smooth forehead one little hinted line whispered already that +Care was beginning to mark the trace which Time sooner or later would +make a furrow. She could not be a beauty; if she had been, it would +have been much harder for many persons to be interested in her. For, +although in the abstract we all love beauty, and although, if we were +sent naked souls into some ultramundane warehouse of soul-less bodies +and told to select one to our liking, we should each choose a handsome +one, and never think of the consequences,--it is quite certain that +beauty carries an atmosphere of repulsion as well as of attraction with +it, alike in both sexes. We may be well assured that there are many +persons who no more think of specializing their love of the other sex +upon one endowed with signal beauty, than they think of wanting great +diamonds or thousand-dollar horses. No man or woman can appropriate +beauty without paying for it,--in endowments, in fortune, in position, +in self-surrender, or other valuable stock; and there are a great many +who are too poor, too ordinary, too humble, too busy, too proud, to pay +any of these prices for it. So the unbeautiful get many more lovers +than the beauties; only, as there are more of them, their lovers are +spread thinner and do not make so much show. + +The young master stood looking at Helen Darley with a kind of tender +admiration. She was such a picture of the martyr by the slow social +combustive process, that it almost seemed to him he could see a pale +lambent aureole round her head. + +"I did not see you at the great party last evening," he said, +presently. + +She looked up and answered, "No. I have not much taste for such large +companies. Besides, I do not feel as if my time belonged to me after it +has been paid for. There is always something to do, some lesson or +exercise,--and it so happened, I was very busy last night with the new +problems in geometry. I hope you had a good time." + +"Very. Two or three of our girls were there. Rosa Milburn. What a +beauty she is! I wonder what she feeds on! Wine and musk and chloroform +and coals of fire, I believe; I didn't think there was such color and +flavor in a woman outside the tropics." + +Miss Darley smiled rather faintly; the imagery was not just to her +taste: _femineity_ often finds it very hard to accept the fact of +_muliebrity_. + +"Was"----? + +She stopped short; but her question had asked itself. + +"Elsie there? She was, for an hour or so. She looked frightfully +handsome. I meant to have spoken to her, but she slipped away before I +knew it." + +"I thought she meant to go to the party," said Miss Darley. "Did she +look at you?" + +"She did. Why?" + +"And you did not speak to her?" + +"No. I should have spoken to her, but she was gone when I looked for +her. A strange creature! Isn't there an odd sort of fascination about +her? You have not explained all the mystery about the girl. What does +she come to this school for? She seems to do pretty much as she likes +about studying." + +Miss Darley answered in very low tones. "It was a fancy of hers to +come, and they let her have her way. I don't know what there is about +her, except that she seems to take my life out of me when she looks at +me. I don't like to ask other people about our girls. She says very +little to anybody, and studies, or makes believe study, almost what she +likes. I don't know what she is," (Miss Darley laid her hand, +trembling, on the young master's sleeve,) "but I can tell when she is +in the room without seeing or hearing her. Oh, Mr. Langdon, I am weak +and nervous, and no doubt foolish,--but--if there were women now, as +in the days of our Saviour, possessed of devils, I should think there +was something not human looking out of Elsie Venner's eyes!" + +The poor girl's breast rose and fell tumultuously as she spoke, and her +voice labored, as if some obstruction were rising in her throat. + +A scene might possibly have come of it, but the door opened. Mr. Silas +Peckham. Miss Darley got away as soon as she well could. + +"Why did not Miss Darley go to the party last evening?" said Mr. +Bernard. + +"Well, the fact is," answered Mr. Silas Peckham, "Miss Darley, she's +pootty much took up with the school. She's an industris young +woman,--yis, she _is_ industris,--but perhaps she a'n't quite so spry a +worker as some. Maybe, considerin' she's paid for her time, she isn't +fur out o' the way in occoopyin' herself evenin's,--that is, if so be +she a'n't smart enough to finish up all her work in the daytime. +Edoocation is the great business of the Institoot. Amoosements are +objec's of a secondary natur', accordin' to my v'oo." [The unspellable +pronunciation of this word is the touchstone of New England +Brahminism.] + +Mr. Bernard drew a deep breath, his thin nostrils dilating, as if the +air did not rush in fast enough to cool his blood, while Silas Peckham +was speaking. The Head of the Apollinean Institute delivered himself of +these judicious sentiments in that peculiar acid, penetrating tone, +wadded with a nasal twang, which not rarely becomes hereditary after +three or four generations raised upon east winds, salt fish, and large, +white-bellied, pickled cucumbers. He spoke deliberately, as if weighing +his words well, so that, during his few remarks, Mr. Bernard had time +for a mental accompaniment with variations, accented by certain bodily +changes, which escaped Mr. Peckham's observation. First there was a +feeling of disgust and shame at hearing Helen Darley spoken of like a +dumb working animal. That sent the blood up into his cheeks. Then the +slur upon her probable want of force--_her_ incapacity, who made the +character of the school and left this man to pocket its profits--sent a +thrill of the old Wentworth fire through him, so that his muscles +hardened, his hands closed, and he took the measure of Mr. Silas +Peckham, to see if his head would strike the wall in case he went over +backwards all of a sudden. This would not do, of course, and so the +thrill passed off and the muscles softened again. Then came that state +of tenderness in the heart, overlying wrath in the stomach, in which +the eyes grow moist like a woman's, and there is also a great +boiling-up of objectionable terms out of the deep-water vocabulary, so +that Prudence and Propriety and all the other pious Ps have to jump +upon the lid of speech to keep them from boiling _over_ into fierce +articulation. All this was internal, chiefly, and of course not +recognized by Mr. Silas Peckham. The idea, that any full-grown, +sensible man should have any other notion than that of getting the most +work for the least money out of his assistants, had never suggested +itself to him. + +Mr. Bernard had gone through this paroxysm, and cooled down, in the +period while Mr. Peckham was uttering these words in his thin, shallow +whine, twanging up into the frontal sinuses. What was the use of losing +his temper and throwing away his place, and so, among the consequences +which would necessarily follow, leaving the poor lady-teacher without a +friend to stand by her ready to lay his hand on the grand-inquisitor +before the windlass of his rack had taken one turn too many? + +"No doubt, Mr. Peckham," he said, in a grave, calm voice, "there is a +great deal of work to be done in the school; but perhaps we can +distribute the duties a little more evenly after a time. I shall look +over the girls' themes myself, after this week. Perhaps there will be +some other parts of her labor that I can take on myself. We can arrange +a new programme of studies and recitations." + +"We can do that," said Mr. Silas Peckham. "But I don't propose +mater'lly alterin' Miss Darley's dooties. I don't think she works to +hurt herself. Some of the Trustees have proposed interdoosin' new +branches of study, and I expect you will be pootty much occoopied with +the dooties that belong to your place. On the Sabbath you will be able +to attend divine service three times, which is expected of our +teachers. I shall continoo myself to give Sabbath Scriptur'-readin's to +the young ladies. That is a solemn dooty I can't make up my mind to +commit to other people. My teachers enjoy the Lord's day as a day of +rest. In it they do no manner of work,--except in cases of necessity or +mercy, such as fillin' out diplomas, or when we git crowded jest at the +end of a term, or when there is an extry number of poopils, or other +Providential call to dispense with the ordinance." + +Mr. Bernard had a fine glow in his cheeks by this time,--doubtless +kindled by the thought of the kind consideration Mr. Peckham showed for +his subordinates in allowing them the between-meeting-time on Sundays +except for some special reason. But the morning was wearing away; so he +went to the school-room, taking leave very properly of his respected +principal, who soon took his hat and departed. + +Mr. Peckham visited certain "stores" or shops, where he made inquiries +after various articles in the provision-line, and effected a purchase +or two. Two or three barrels of potatoes, which had sprouted in a +promising way, he secured at a bargain. A side of feminine beef was +also obtained at a low figure. He was entirely satisfied with a couple +of barrels of flour, which, being invoiced "slightly damaged", were to +be had at a reasonable price. + +After this, Silas Peckham felt in good spirits. He had done a pretty +stroke of business. It came into his head whether he might not follow +it up with a still more brilliant speculation. So he turned his steps +in the direction of Colonel Sprowle's. + +It was now eleven o'clock, and the battlefield of last evening was as +we left it. Mr. Peckham's visit was unexpected, perhaps not very well +timed, but the Colonel received him civilly. + +"Beautifully lighted,--these rooms last night!" said Mr. Peckham. +"Winter-strained?" + +The Colonel nodded. + +"How much do you pay for your winter-strained?" + +The Colonel told him the price. + +"Very hahnsome supper,--very hahnsome! Nothin' ever seen like it in +Rockland. Must have been a great heap of things left over." + +The compliment was not ungrateful, and the Colonel acknowledged it by +smiling and saying, "I should think the' was a trifle! Come and look." + +When Silas Peckham saw how many delicacies had survived the evening's +conflict, his commercial spirit rose at once to the point of a +proposal. + +"Colonel Sprowle," said he, "there's meat and cakes and pies and +pickles enough on that table to spread a hahnsome colation. If you'd +like to trade reasonable, I think perhaps I should be willin' to take +'em off your hands. There's been a talk about our havin' a celebration +in the Parnassian Grove, and I think I could work in what your folks +don't want and make myself whole by chargin' a small sum for tickets. +Broken meats, of course, a'n't of the same valoo as fresh provisions; +so I think you might be willin' to trade reasonable." + +Mr. Peckham paused and rested on his proposal. It would not, perhaps, +have been very extraordinary, if Colonel Sprowle had entertained the +proposition. There is no telling beforehand how such things will strike +people. It didn't happen to strike the Colonel favorably. He had a +little red-blooded manhood in him. + +"Sell you them things to make a colation out of?" the Colonel replied. +"Walk up to that table, Mr. Peckham, and help yourself! Fill your +pockets, Mr. Peckham! Fetch a basket, and our hired folks shall fill it +full for ye! Send a cart, if y' like, 'n' carry off them leavin's to +make a celebration for your pupils with! Only let me tell ye this:--as +sure's my name's Hezekiah Spraowle, you'll be known through the taown +'n' through the caounty, from that day forrard, as the Principal of the +Broken-Victuals Institoot!" + +Even provincial human-nature sometimes has a touch of sublimity about +it. Mr. Silas Peckham had gone a little deeper than he meant, and come +upon the "hard pan," as the well-diggers call it, of the Colonel's +character, before he thought of it. A militia-colonel standing on his +sentiments is not to be despised. That was shown pretty well in New +England two or three generations ago. There were a good many plain +officers that talked about their "rigiment" and their "caounty" who +knew very well how to say "Make ready!" "Take aim!" "Fire!"--in the +face of a line of grenadiers with bullets in their guns and bayonets on +them. And though a rustic uniform is not always unexceptionable in its +cut and trimmings, yet there was many an ill-made coat in those old +times that was good enough to be shown to the enemy's front rank, too +often to be left on the field with a round hole in its left lapel that +matched another going right through the brave heart of the plain +country captain or major or colonel who was buried in it under the +crimson turf. + +Mr. Silas Peckham said little or nothing. His sensibilities were not +acute, but he perceived that he had made a miscalculation. He hoped +that there was no offence,--thought it might have been mutooally +agreeable, conclooded he would give up the idee of a colation, and +backed himself out as if unwilling to expose the less guarded aspect of +his person to the risk of accelerating impulses. + +The Colonel shut the door,--cast his eye on the toe of his right boot, +as if it had had a strong temptation,--looked at his watch, then round +the room, and, going to a cupboard, swallowed a glass of deep-red +brandy and water to compose his feelings. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE DOCTOR ORDERS THE BEST SULKY. + + +(_With a Digression on "Hired Help"_) + +"Abel! Slip Cassia into the new sulky, and fetch her round." + +Abel was Dr. Kittredge's hired man. He was born in New Hampshire, a +queer sort of a State, with fat streaks of soil and population where +they breed giants in mind and body, and lean streaks which export +imperfectly nourished young men with promising but neglected appetites, +who may be found in great numbers in all the large towns, or could be +until of late years, when they have been half driven out of their +favorite basement-stories by foreigners, and half coaxed away from them +by California. New Hampshire is in more than one sense the Switzerland +of New England. The "Granite State" being naturally enough deficient in +pudding-stone, its children are apt to wander southward in search of +that deposit,--in the unpetrified condition. + +Abel Stebbins was a good specimen of that extraordinary hybrid or mule +between democracy and chrysocracy, a native-born New-England +serving-man. The Old World has nothing at all like him. He is at once +an emperor and a subordinate. In one hand he holds one five-millionth +part (be the same more or less) of the power that sways the destinies +of the Great Republic. His other hand is in your boot, which he is +about to polish. It is impossible to turn a fellow-citizen whose vote +may make his master--say, rather, employer--Governor or President, or +who may be one or both himself, into a flunky. That article must be +imported ready-made from other centres of civilization. When a +New-Englander has lost his self-respect as a citizen and as a man, he +is demoralized, and cannot be trusted with the money to pay for a +dinner. + +It may be supposed, therefore, that this fractional emperor, this +continent-shaper, finds his position awkward when he goes into service, +and that his employer is apt to find it still more embarrassing. It is +always under protest that the hired man does his duty. Every act of +service is subject to the drawback, "I am as good as you are." This is +so common, at least, as almost to be the rule, and partly accounts for +the rapid disappearance of the indigenous "domestic" from the basements +above mentioned. Paleontologists will by-and-by be examining the floors +of our kitchens for tracks of the extinct native species of +serving-man. The female of the same race is fast dying out; indeed, the +time is not far distant when all the varieties of young _woman_ will +have vanished from New England, as the dodo has perished in the +Mauritius. The young _lady_ is all that we shall have left, and the mop +and duster of the last Almira or Loďzy will be stared at by generations +of Bridgets and Noras as that famous head and foot of the lost bird are +stared at in the Ashmolean Museum. + +Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man, took the true American view of his +difficult position. He sold his time to the Doctor, and, having sold +it, he took care to fulfil his half of the bargain. The Doctor, on his +part, treated him, not like a gentleman, because one does not order a +gentleman to bring up his horse or run his errands, but he treated him +like a man. Every order was given in courteous terms. His reasonable +privileges were respected as much as if they had been guarantied under +hand and seal. The Doctor lent him books from his own library, and gave +him all friendly counsel, as if he were a son or a younger brother. + +Abel had Revolutionary blood in his veins, and though he saw fit to +"hire out," he could never stand the word "servant," or consider +himself the inferior one of the two high contracting parties. When he +came to live with the Doctor, he made up his mind he would dismiss the +old gentleman, if he did not behave according to his notions of +propriety. But he soon found that the Doctor was one of the right sort, +and so determined to keep him. The Doctor soon found, on his side, that +he had a trustworthy, intelligent fellow, who would be invaluable to +him, if he only let him have his own way of doing what was to be done. + +The Doctor's hired man had not the manners of a French valet. He was +grave and taciturn for the most part, he never bowed and rarely smiled, +but was always at work in the daytime and always reading in the +evening. He was hostler, and did all the housework that a man could +properly do, would go to the door or "tend table," bought the +provisions for the family,--in short, did almost everything for them +but get their clothing. There was no office in a perfectly appointed +household, from that of steward down to that of stable-boy, which he +did not cheerfully assume. His round of work not consuming all his +energies, he must needs cultivate the Doctor's garden, which he kept in +one perpetual bloom, from the blowing of the first crocus to the fading +of the last dahlia. + +This garden was Abel's poem. Its half-dozen beds were so many cantos. +Nature crowded them for him with imagery such as no Laureate could copy +in the cold mosaic of language. The rhythm of alternating dawn and +sunset, the strophe and antistrophe still perceptible through all the +sudden shifts of our dithyrambic seasons and echoed in corresponding +floral harmonies, made melody in the soul of Abel, the plain serving- +man. It softened his whole otherwise rigid aspect. He worshipped God +according to the strict way of his fathers; but a florist's Puritanism +is always colored by the petals of his flowers,--and Nature never shows +him a black corolla. + +Perhaps he may have little or nothing to do in this narrative; but as +there must be some who confound the New-England _hired man_, +native-born, with the _servant_ of foreign birth, and as there is the +difference of two continents and two civilizations between them, it did +not seem fair to let Abel bring round the Doctor's mare and sulky +without touching his features in half-shadow into our background. + +The Doctor's mare, Cassia, was so called by her master from her +cinnamon color, cassia being one of the professional names for that +spice or drug. She was of the shade we call sorrel, or, as an +Englishman would perhaps say, chestnut,--a genuine "Morgan" mare, with +a low forehand, as is common in this breed, but with strong quarters +and flat hocks, well ribbed up, with a good eye and a pair of lively +ears,--a first-rate doctor's beast,--would stand until her harness +dropped off her back at the door of a tedious case, and trot over hill +and dale thirty miles in three hours, if there was a child in the next +county with a bean in its windpipe and the Doctor gave her a hint of +the fact. Cassia was not large, but she had a good deal of action, and +was the Doctor's show-horse. There were two other animals in his +stable: Quassia or Quashy, the black horse, and Caustic, the old bay, +with whom he jogged round the village. + +"A long ride to-day?" said Abel, as he brought up the equipage. + +"Just out of the village,--that's all.--There's a kink in her +mane,--pull it out, will you?" + +"Goin' to visit some of the great folks," Abel said to himself. "Wonder +who it is."--Then to the Doctor,--"Anybody get sick at Sprowles's? They +say Deacon Soper had a fit, after eatin' some o' their frozen +victuals." + +The Doctor smiled. He guessed the Deacon would do well enough. He was +only going to ride over to the Dudley mansion-house. + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE DOCTOR CALLS ON ELSIE VENNER. + + +If that primitive physician, CHIRON, M.D., appears as a Centaur, as we +look at him through the lapse of thirty centuries, the modern +country-doctor, if he could be seen about thirty miles off, could not +be distinguished from a wheel-animalcule. He _inhabits_ a +wheel-carriage. He thinks of stationary dwellings as Long Tom Coffin +did of land in general; a house may be well enough for incidental +purposes, but for a "stiddy" residence give him a "kerridge." If he is +classified in the Linnaean scale, he must be set down thus: Genus +_Homo_; Species _Rotifer infusorius_,--the wheel-animal of infusions. + +The Dudley mansion was not a mile from the Doctor's; but it never +occurred to him to think of walking to see any of his patients' +families, if he had any professional object in his visit. Whenever the +narrow sulky turned in at a gate, the rustic who was digging potatoes, +or hoeing corn, or swishing through the grass with his scythe in +wave-like crescents, or stepping short behind a loaded wheel-barrow, +or trudging lazily by the side of the swinging, loose-throated, +short-legged oxen, rocking along the road as if they had just been +landed after a three-months' voyage,--the toiling native, whatever he +was doing, stopped and looked up at the house the doctor was visiting. + +"Somebody sick over there t' Haynes's. Guess th' old man's ailin' +ag'in. Winder's haäf-way open in the chamber,--shouldn't wonder 'f he +was dead and laid aout. Docterin' a'n't no use, when y' see the winders +open like that. Wahl, money a'n't much to speak of to th' old man naow! +He don't want but _tew cents_,--and old Widah Peake, she knows what he +wants them for!" + +Or again,-- + +"Measles raound pootty thick. Briggs's folks's' buried two children +with 'em laäst week. Th' old Doctor, he'd h' ker'd 'em threugh. Struck +in 'n' p'dooeed mot'f cation,--so they say." + +This is only meant as a sample of the kind of way they used to think or +talk, when the narrow sulky turned in at the gate of some house where +there was a visit to be made. + +Oh, that narrow sulky! What hopes, what fears, what comfort, what +anguish, what despair, in the roll of its coming or its parting wheels! +In the spring, when the old people get the coughs which give them a few +shakes and their lives drop in pieces like the ashes of a burned thread +which have kept the threadlike shape until they were stirred,--in the +hot summer noons, when the strong man comes in from the fields, like +the son of the Shunamite, crying, "My head, my head,"--in the dying +autumn days, when youth and maiden lie fever-stricken in many a +household, still-faced, dull-eyed, dark-flushed, dry-lipped, +low-muttering in their daylight dreams, their fingers moving singly +like those of slumbering harpers,--in the dead winter, when the white +plague of the North has caged its wasted victims, shuddering as they +think of the frozen soil which must be quarried like rock to receive +them, if their perpetual convalescence should happen to be interfered +with by any untoward accident,--at every season, the narrow sulky +rolled round freighted with unmeasured burdens of joy and woe. + +The Doctor drove along the southern foot of The Mountain. The "Dudley +mansion" was near the eastern edge of this declivity, where it rose +steepest, with baldest cliffs and densest patches of over-hanging wood. +It seemed almost too steep to climb, but a practised eye could see from +a distance the zigzag lines of the sheep-paths which scaled it like +miniature Alpine roads. A few hundred feet up The Mountain's side was a +dark, deep dell, unwooded, save for a few spindling, crazy--looking +hackmatacks or native larches, with pallid green tufts sticking out +fantastically all over them. It shelved so deeply, that, while the +hemlock-tassels were swinging on the trees around its border, all would +be still at its springy bottom, save that perhaps a single fern would +wave slowly backward and forward like a sabre, with a twist as of a +feathered oar,--and this, when not a breath could be felt, and every +other stem and blade were motionless. There was an old story of one +having perished here in the winter of '86, and his body having been +found in the spring,--whence its common name of "Dead-Man's Hollow." +Higher up there were huge cliffs with chasms, and, it was thought, +concealed caves, where in old times they said that Tories lay +hid,--some hinted not without occasional aid and comfort from the +Dudleys then living in the mansion-house. Still higher and farther west +lay the accursed ledge,--shunned by all, unless it were now and then a +daring youth, or a wandering naturalist who ventured to its edge in the +hope of securing some infantile _Crotalus durissus_, who had not yet +cut his poison-teeth. + +Long, long ago, in old Colonial times, the Honorable Thomas Dudley, +Esquire, a man of note and name and great resources, allied by descent +to the family of "Tom Dudley," as the early Governor is sometimes +irreverently called by our most venerable, but still youthful +antiquary,--and to the other public Dudleys, of course,--of all of whom +he made small account, as being himself an English gentleman, with +little taste for the splendors of provincial office,--early in the last +century, Thomas Dudley had built this mansion. For several generations +it had been dwelt in by descendants of the same name, but soon after +the Revolution it passed by marriage into the hands of the Venners, by +whom it had ever since been held and tenanted. + +As the Doctor turned an angle in the road, all at once the stately old +house rose before him. It was a skilfully managed effect, as it well +might be, for it was no vulgar English architect who had planned the +mansion and arranged its position and approach. The old house rose +before the Doctor crowning a terraced garden, flanked at the left by a +double avenue of tall elms. The flower-beds were edged with box, which +diffused around it that dreamy balsamic odor, full of ante-natal +reminiscences of a lost Paradise, dimly fragrant as might be the +bdellium of ancient Havilah, the land compassed by the river Pison that +went out of Eden. The garden was somewhat neglected, but not in +disgrace,--and in the time of tulips and hyacinths, of roses, of +"snowballs," of honeysuckles, of lilacs, of syringas, it was rich with +blossoms. + +From the front-windows of the mansion the eye reached a far blue +mountain-summit,--no rounded heap, such as often shuts in a +village-landscape, but a sharp peak, clean-angled as Ascutney from the +Dartmouth green. A wide gap through miles of woods had opened this +distant view, and showed more, perhaps, than all the labors of the +architect and the landscape-gardener the large style of the early +Dudleys. + +The great stone chimney of the mansion-house was the centre from which +all the artificial features of the scene appeared to flow. The roofs, +the gables, the dormer-windows, the porches, the clustered offices in +the rear, all seemed to crowd about the great chimney. To this central +pillar the paths all converged. The single poplar behind the +house,--Nature is jealous of proud chimneys, and always loves to put a +poplar near one, so that it may fling a leaf or two down its black +throat every autumn,--the one tall poplar behind the house seemed to +nod and whisper to the grave square column, the elms to sway their +branches towards it. And when the blue smoke rose from its summit, it +seemed to be wafted away to join the azure haze which hung around the +peak in the far distance, so that both should bathe in a common +atmosphere. + +Behind the house were clumps of lilacs with a century's growth upon +them, and looking more like trees than like shrubs. Shaded by a group +of these was the ancient well, of huge circuit, and with a low arch +opening out of its wall about ten feet below the surface,--whether the +door of a crypt for the concealment of treasure, or of a subterranean +passage, or merely of a vault for keeping provisions cool in hot +weather, opinions differed. + +On looking at the house, it was plain that it was built with Old-World +notions of strength and durability, and, so far as might be, with +Old-World materials. The hinges of the doors stretched out like arms, +instead of like hands, as we make them. The bolts were massive enough +for a donjon-keep. The small window-panes were actually inclosed in the +wood of the sashes, instead of being stuck to them with putty, as in +our modern windows. The broad staircase was of easy ascent, and was +guarded by quaintly turned and twisted balusters. The ceilings of the +two rooms of state were moulded with medallion-portraits and rustic +figures, such as may have been seen by many readers in the famous old +Philipse house,--Washington's headquarters,--in the town of Yonkers. +The fireplaces, worthy of the wide-throated central chimney, were +bordered by pictured tiles, some of them with Scripture stories, some +with Watteau-like figures,--tall damsels in slim waists and with spread +enough of skirt for a modern ballroom, with bowing, reclining, or +musical swains of what everybody calls the "conventional" sort,--that +is, the swain adapted to genteel society rather than to a literal +sheep-compelling existence. + +The house was furnished, soon after it was completed, with many heavy +articles made in London from a rare wood just then come into fashion, +not so rare now, and commonly known as mahogany. Time had turned it +very dark, and the stately bedsteads and tall cabinets and claw-footed +chairs and tables were in keeping with the sober dignity of the ancient +mansion. The old "hangings" were yet preserved in the chambers, faded, +but still showing their rich patterns,--properly entitled to their +name, for they were literally hung upon flat wooden frames like +trellis-work, which again were secured to the naked partitions. +There were portraits of different date on the walls of the various +apartments, old painted coats-of-arms, bevel-edged mirrors, and in one +sleeping-room a glass case of wax-work flowers and spangly symbols, +with a legend signifying that E.M. (supposed to be Elizabeth Mascarene) +wished not to be "forgot" + + "When I am dead and lay'd in dust + And all my bones are"---- + +Poor E.M.! Poor everybody that sighs for earthly remembrance in a +planet with a core of fire and a crust of fossils! + +Such was the Dudley mansion-house,--for it kept its ancient name in +spite of the change in the line of descent. Its spacious apartments +looked dreary and desolate; for here Dudley Venner and his daughter +dwelt by themselves, with such servants only as their quiet mode of +life required. He almost lived in his library, the western room on the +ground-floor. Its window looked upon a small plat of green, in the +midst of which was a single grave marked by a plain marble slab. Except +this room, and the chamber where he slept, and the servants' wing, the +rest of the house was all Elsie's. She was always a restless, wandering +child from her early years, and would have her little bed moved from +one chamber to another,--flitting round as the fancy took her. +Sometimes she would drag a mat and a pillow into one of the great empty +rooms, and, wrapping herself in a shawl, coil up and go to sleep in a +corner. Nothing frightened her; the "haunted" chamber, with the torn +hangings that flapped like wings when there was air stirring, was one +of her favorite retreats. + +She had been a very hard creature to manage. Her father could +influence, but not govern her. Old Sophy, born of a slave mother in the +house, could do more with her than anybody, knowing her by long +instinctive study. The other servants were afraid of her. Her father +had sent for governesses, but none of them ever stayed long. She made +them nervous; one of them had a strange fit of sickness; not one of +them ever came back to the house to see her. A young Spanish woman who +taught her dancing succeeded best with her, for she had a passion for +that exercise, and had mastered some of the most difficult dances. + +Long before this period, she had manifested some most extraordinary +singularities of taste or instinct. The extreme sensitiveness of her +father on this point prevented any allusion to them; but there were +stories floating round, some of them even getting into the +papers,--without her name, of course,--which were of a kind to excite +intense curiosity, if not more anxious feelings. This thing was +certain, that at the age of twelve she was missed one night, and was +found sleeping in the open air under a tree, like a wild creature. Very +often she would wander off by day, always without a companion, bringing +home with her a nest, a flower, or even a more questionable trophy of +her ramble, such as showed that there was no place where she was afraid +to venture. Once in a while she had stayed out over night, in which +case the alarm was spread, and men went in search of her, but never +successfully,--so that some said she hid herself in trees, and others +that she had found one of the old Tory caves. + +Some, of course, said she was a crazy girl, and ought to be sent to an +Asylum. But old Dr. Kittredge had shaken his head, and told them to +bear with her, and let her have her way as much as they could, but +watch her, as far as possible, without making her suspicious of them. +He visited her now and then, under the pretext of seeing her father on +business, or of only making a friendly call. + + * * * * * + +The Doctor fastened his horse outside the gate, and walked up the +garden-alley. He stopped suddenly with a start. A strange sound had +jarred upon his ear. It was a sharp prolonged rattle, continuous, but +rising and falling as if in rhythmical cadence. He moved softly towards +the open window from which the sound seemed to proceed. + +Elsie was alone in the room, dancing one of those wild Moorish +fandangos, such as a _matador_ hot from the _Plaza de Toros_ of Seville +or Madrid might love to lie and gaze at. She was a figure to look upon +in silence. The dancing frenzy must have seized upon her while she was +dressing; for she was in her bodice, bare-armed, her hair floating +unbound far below the waist of her barred or banded skirt. She had +caught up her castanets, and rattled them as she danced with a kind of +passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace, +her diamond eyes glittering, her round arms wreathing and unwinding, +alive and vibrant to the tips of the slender fingers. Some passion +seemed to exhaust itself in this dancing paroxysm; for all at once she +reeled from the middle of the floor, and flung herself, as it were in a +careless coil, upon a great tiger's-skin which was spread out in one corner +of the apartment. + +The old Doctor stood motionless, looking at her as she lay panting on +the tawny, black-lined robe of the dead monster, which stretched out +beneath her, its rude flattened outline recalling the Terror of the +Jungle as he crouched for his fatal spring. In a few moments her head +drooped upon her arm, and her glittering eyes closed,--she was +sleeping. He stood looking at her still, steadily, thoughtfully, +tenderly. Presently he lifted his hand to his forehead, as if recalling +some fading remembrance of other years. + +"Poor Catalina!" + +This was all he said. He shook his head,--implying that his visit would +be in vain to-day,--returned to his sulky, and rode away, as if in a +dream. + + * * * * * + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. + + +The romance of "The Marble Faun" will be widely welcomed, not only for +its intrinsic merits, but because it is a sign that its writer, after a +silence of seven or eight years, has determined to resume his place in +the ranks of authorship. In his preface he tells us, that in each of +his previous publications he had unconsciously one person in his eye, +whom he styles his "gentle reader." He meant it "for that one congenial +friend, more comprehensive of his purposes, more appreciative of his. +success, more indulgent of his short-comings, and, in all respects, +closer and kinder than a brother,--that all-sympathizing critic, in +short, whom an author never actually meets, but to whom he implicitly +makes his appeal, whenever he is conscious of having done his best." He +believes that this reader did once exist for him, and duly received the +scrolls he flung "upon whatever wind was blowing, in the faith that +they would find him out." "But," he questions, "is he extant now? In +these many years since he last heard from me, may he not have deemed +his earthly task accomplished, and have withdrawn to the paradise of +gentle readers, wherever it may be, to the enjoyments of which his +kindly charity on my behalf must surely have entitled him?" As we feel +assured that Hawthorne's reputation has been steadily growing with the +lapse of time, he has no cause to fear that the longevity of his gentle +reader will not equal his own. As long as he writes, there will be +readers enough to admire and appreciate. + +The publication of this new romance seems to offer us a fitting +occasion to attempt some description of the peculiarities of the genius +of which it is the latest offspring, and to hazard some judgments on +its predecessors. It is more than twenty-five years since Hawthorne +began that remarkable series of stories and essays which are now +collected in the volumes of "Twice-Told Tales," "The Snow Image and +other Tales," and "Mosses from an Old Manse." From the first he was +recognized by such readers as he chanced to find as a man of genius, +yet for a long time he enjoyed, in his own words, the distinction of +being "the obscurest man of letters in America." His readers were +"gentle" rather than enthusiastic; their fine delight in his creations +was a private perception of subtile excellences of thought and style, +too refined and self-satisfying to be contagious; and the public was +untouched, whilst the "gentle" reader was full of placid enjoyment. +Indeed, we fear that this kind of reader is something of an +Epicurean,--receives a new genius as a private blessing, sent by a +benign Providence to quicken a new life in his somewhat jaded sense of +intellectual pleasure; and after having received a fresh sensation, he +is apt to be serenely indifferent whether the creator of it starve +bodily or pine mentally from the lack of a cordial human shout of +recognition. + +There would appear, on a slight view of the matter, no reason for the +little notice which Hawthorne's early productions received. The +subjects were mostly drawn from the traditions and written records of +New England, and gave the "beautiful strangeness" of imagination to +objects, incidents, and characters which were familiar facts in the +popular mind. The style, while it had a purity, sweetness, and grace +which satisfied the most fastidious and exacting taste, had, at the +same time, more than the simplicity and clearness of an ordinary +school-book. But though the subjects and the style were thus popular, +there was something in the shaping and informing spirit which failed to +awaken interest, or awakened interest without exciting delight. +Misanthropy, when it has its source in passion,--when it is fierce, +bitter, fiery, and scornful,--when it vigorously echoes the aggressive +discontent of the world, and furiously tramples on the institutions and +the men luckily rather than rightfully in the ascendant,--this is +always popular; but a misanthropy which springs from insight,--a +misanthropy which is lounging, languid, sad, and depressing,--a +misanthropy which remorselessly looks through cursing misanthropes and +chirping men of the world with the same sure, detecting glance of +reason,--a misanthropy which has no fanaticism, and which casts the +same ominous doubt on subjectively morbid as on subjectively moral +action,--a misanthropy which has no respect for impulses, but has a +terrible perception of spiritual laws,--this is a misanthropy which can +expect no wide recognition; and it would be vain to deny that traces of +this kind of misanthropy are to be found in Hawthorne's earlier, and +are not altogether absent from his later works. He had spiritual +insight, but it did not penetrate to the sources of spiritual joy; and +his deepest glimpses of truth were calculated rather to sadden than to +inspire. A blandly cynical distrust of human nature was the result of +his most piercing glances into the human soul. He had humor, and +sometimes humor of a delicious kind; but this sunshine of the soul was +but sunshine breaking through or lighting up a sombre and ominous +cloud. There was also observable in his earlier stories a lack of vigor, +as if the power of his nature had been impaired by the very +process--which gave depth and excursiveness to his mental vision. +Throughout, the impression is conveyed of a shy recluse, alternately +bashful in disposition and bold in thought, gifted with original and +various capacities, but capacities which seemed to have developed +themselves in the shade, without sufficient energy of will or desire to +force them, except fitfully, into the sunlight. Shakspeare calls +moonlight the sunlight _sick_; and it is in some such moonlight of the +mind that the genius of Hawthorne found its first expression. A mild +melancholy, sometimes deepening into gloom, sometimes brightened into a +"humorous sadness," characterized his early creations. Like his own +Hepzibah Pyncheon, he appeared "to be walking in a dream"; or rather, +the life and reality assumed by his emotions "made all outward +occurrences unsubstantial, like the teasing phantasms of an unconscious +slumber." Though dealing largely in description, and with the most +accurate perceptions of outward objects, he still, to use again his own +words, gives the impression of a man "chiefly accustomed to look +inward, and to whom external matters are of little value or import, +unless they bear relation to something within his own mind." But that +"something within his own mind" was often an unpleasant something, +perhaps a ghastly occult perception of deformity and sin in what +appeared outwardly fair and good; so that the reader felt a secret +dissatisfaction with the disposition which directed the genius, even in +the homage he awarded to the genius itself. As psychological portraits +of morbid natures, his delineations of character might have given a +purely intellectual satisfaction; but there was audible, to the +delicate ear, a faint and muffled growl of personal discontent, which +showed they were not mere exercises of penetrating imaginative +analysis, but had in them the morbid vitality of a despondent mood. + +Yet, after admitting these peculiarities, nobody who is now drawn to +the "Twice-Told Tales," from his interest in the later romances of +Hawthorne, can fail to wonder a little at the limited number of readers +they attracted on their original publication. For many of these stories +are at once a representation of early New-England life and a criticism +on it. They have much of the deepest truth of history in them. "The +Legends of the Province House," "The Gray Champion," "The Gentle Boy," +"The Minister's Black Veil," "Endicott and the Red Cross," not to +mention others, contain important matter which cannot be found in +Bancroft or Grahame. They exhibit the inward struggles of New-England +men and women with some of the darkest problems of existence, and have +more vital import to thoughtful minds than the records of Indian or +Revolutionary warfare. In the "Prophetic Pictures," "Fancy's Show-Box," +"The Great Carbuncle," "The Haunted Mind," and "Edward Fane's +Rose-Bud," there are flashes of moral insight, which light up, for the +moment, the darkest recesses of the individual mind; and few sermons +reach to the depth of thought and sentiment from which these seemingly +airy sketches draw their sombre life. It is common, for instance, for +religious moralists to insist on the great spiritual truth, that wicked +thoughts and impulses, which circumstances prevent from passing into +wicked acts, are still deeds in the sight of God; but the living truth +subsides into a dead truism, as enforced by commonplace preachers. In +"Fancy's Show-Box," Hawthorne seizes the prolific idea; and the +respectable merchant and respected church-member, in the still hour of +his own meditation, convicts himself of being a liar, cheat, thief, +seducer, and murderer, as he casts his glance over the mental events +which form his spiritual biography. Interspersed with serious histories +and moralities like these, are others which embody the sweet and +playful, though still thoughtful and slightly saturnine action of +Hawthorne's mind,--like "The Seven Vagabonds," "Snow-Flakes," "The +Lily's Quest," "Mr. Higgenbotham's Catastrophe," "Little Annie's +Ramble," "Sights from a Steeple," "Sunday at Home," and "A Rill from +the Town-Pump." + +The "Mosses from an Old Manse" are intellectually and artistically an +advance from the "Twice-Told Tales." The twenty-three stories and +essays which make up the volumes are almost perfect of their kind. Each +is complete in itself, and many might be expanded into long romances by +the simple method of developing the possibilities of their shadowy +types of character into appropriate incidents. In description, +narration, allegory, humor, reason, fancy, subtilty, inventiveness, +they exceed the best productions of Addison; but they want Addison's +sensuous contentment and sweet and kindly spirit. Though the author +denies that he has exhibited his own individual attributes in these +"Mosses," though he professes not to be "one of those supremely +hospitable people who serve up their own hearts delicately fried, with +brain-sauce, as a titbit for their beloved public,"--yet it is none the +less apparent that he has diffused through each tale and sketch the +life of the mental mood to which it owed its existence, and that one +individuality pervades and colors the whole collection. The defect of +the serious stories is, that character is introduced, not as thinking, +but as the illustration of thought. The persons are ghostly, with a sad +lack of flesh and blood. They are phantasmal symbols of a reflective +and imaginative analysis of human passions and aspirations. The +dialogue, especially, is bookish, as though the personages knew their +speech was to be printed, and were careful of the collocation and +rhythm of their words. The author throughout is evidently more +interested in his large, wide, deep, indolently serene, and lazily sure +and critical view of the conflict of ideas and passions, than he is +with the individuals who embody them. He shows moral insight without +moral earnestness. He cannot contract his mind to the patient +delineation of a moral individual, but attempts to use individuals in +order to express the last results of patient moral perception. Young +Goodman Brown and Roger Malvin are not persons; they are the mere, +loose, personal expression of subtile thinking. "The Celestial +Railroad," "The Procession of Life," "Earth's Holocaust," "The Bosom +Serpent," indicate thought of a character equally deep, delicate, and +comprehensive, but the characters are ghosts of men rather than +substantial individualities. In the "Mosses from an Old Manse," we are +really studying the phenomena of human nature, while, for the time, we +beguile ourselves into the belief that we are following the fortunes of +individual natures. + +Up to this time the writings of Hawthorne conveyed the impression of a +genius in which insight so dominated over impulse, that it was rather +mentally and morally curious than mentally and morally impassioned. The +quality evidently wanting to its full expression was intensity. In the +romance of "The Scarlet Letter" he first made his genius efficient by +penetrating it with passion. This book forced itself into attention by +its inherent power; and the author's name, previously known only to a +limited circle of readers, suddenly became a familiar word in the +mouths of the great reading public of America and England. It may be +said, that it "captivated" nobody, but took everybody captive. Its +power could neither be denied nor resisted. There were growls of +disapprobation from novel-readers, that Hester Prynne and the Rev. Mr. +Dimmesdale were subjected to cruel punishments unknown to the +jurisprudence of fiction,--that the author was an inquisitor who put +his victims on the rack,--and that neither amusement nor delight +resulted from seeing the contortions and hearing the groans of these +martyrs of sin; but the fact was no less plain that Hawthorne had for +once compelled the most superficial lovers of romance to submit +themselves to the magic of his genius. The readers of Dickens voted +him, with three times three, to the presidency of their republic of +letters; the readers of Hawthorne were caught by a _coup d'état_, and +fretfully submitted to a despot whom they could not depose. + +The success of "The Scarlet Letter" is an example of the advantage +which an author gains by the simple concentration of his powers on one +absorbing subject. In the "Twice-Told Tales" and the "Mosses from an +Old Manse" Hawthorne had exhibited a wider range of sight and insight +than in "The Scarlet Letter." Indeed, in the little sketch of "Endicott +and the Red Cross," written twenty years before, he had included in a +few sentences the whole matter which he afterwards treated in his +famous story. In describing the various inhabitants of an early +New-England town, as far as they were representative, he touches +incidentally on a "young woman, with no mean share of beauty, whose +doom it was to wear the letter A on the breast of her gown, in the eyes +of all the world and her own children. And even her own children knew +what that initial signified. Sporting with her infamy, the lost and +desperate creature had embroidered the fatal token in scarlet cloth, +with golden thread and the nicest art of needle-work; so that the +capital A might have been thought to mean Admirable, or anything, +rather than Adulteress." Here is the germ of the whole pathos and +terror of "The Scarlet Letter"; but it is hardly noted in the throng of +symbols, equally pertinent, in the few pages of the little sketch from +which we have quoted. + +Two characteristics of Hawthorne's genius stand plainly out, in the +conduct and characterization of the romance of "The Scarlet Letter," +which were less obviously prominent in his previous works. The first +relates to his subordination of external incidents to inward events. +Mr. James's "solitary horseman" does more in one chapter than +Hawthorne's hero in twenty chapters; but then James deals with the arms +of men, while Hawthorne deals with their souls. Hawthorne relies almost +entirely for the interest of his story on what is felt and done within +the minds of his characters. Even his most picturesque descriptions and +narratives are only one-tenth matter to nine-tenths spirit. The results +that follow from one external act of folly or crime are to him enough +for an Iliad of woes. It might be supposed that his whole theory of +Romantic Art was based on these tremendous lines of Wordsworth:-- + + "Action is momentary,-- + The motion of a muscle, this way or that: + Suffering is long, obscure, and infinite." + +The second characteristic of his genius is connected with the first. +With his insight of individual souls he combines a far deeper insight +of the spiritual laws which govern the strangest aberrations of +individual souls. But it seems to us that his mental eye, keen-sighted +and far-sighted as it is, overlooks the merciful modifications of the +austere code whose pitiless action it so clearly discerns. In his long +and patient brooding over the spiritual phenomena of Puritan life, it +is apparent, to the least critical observer, that he has imbibed a deep +personal antipathy to the Puritanic ideal of character; but it is no +less apparent that his intellect and imagination have been strangely +fascinated by the Puritanic idea of justice. His brain has been subtly +infected by the Puritanic perception of Law, without being warmed by +the Puritanic faith in Grace. Individually, he would much prefer to +have been one of his own "Seven Vagabonds" rather than one of the +austerest preachers of the primitive church of New England; but the +austerest preacher of the primitive church of New England would have +been more tender and considerate to a real Mr. Dimmesdale and a real +Hester Prynne than this modern romancer has been to their typical +representatives in the world of imagination. Throughout "The Scarlet +Letter" we seem to be following the guidance of an author who is +personally good-natured, but intellectually and morally relentless. + +"The House of the Seven Gables," Hawthorne's next work, while it has +less concentration of passion and tension of mind than "The Scarlet +Letter," includes a wider range of observation, reflection, and +character; and the morality, dreadful as fate, which hung like a black +cloud over the personages of the previous story, is exhibited in more +relief. Although the book has no imaginative creation equal to little +Pearl, it still contains numerous examples of characterization at once +delicate and deep. Clifford, especially, is a study in psychology, as +well as a marvellously subtile delineation of enfeebled manhood. The +general idea of the story is this,--"that the wrong-doing of one +generation lives into the successive ones, and, divesting itself of +every temporary advantage, becomes a pure and uncontrollable mischief"; +and the mode in which this idea is carried out shows great force, +fertility, and refinement of mind. A weird fancy, sporting with the +facts detected by a keen observation, gives to every gable of the Seven +Gables, every room in the House, every burdock growing rankly before +the door, a symbolic significance. The queer mansion is +haunted,--haunted with thoughts which every moment are liable to take +ghostly shape. All the Pyncheons who have resided in it appear to have +infected the very timbers and walls with the spiritual essence of their +lives, and each seems ready to pass from a memory into a presence. The +stern theory of the author regarding the hereditary transmission of +family qualities, and the visiting of the sins of the fathers on the +heads of their children, almost wins our reluctant assent through the +pertinacity with which the generations of the Pyncheon race are made +not merely to live in the blood and brain of their descendants, but to +cling to their old abiding-place on earth, so that to inhabit the house +is to breathe the Pyncheon soul and assimilate the Pyncheon +individuality. The whole representation, masterly as it is, considered +as an effort of intellectual and imaginative power, would still be +morally bleak, were it not for the sunshine and warmth radiated from +the character of Phoebe. In this delightful creation Hawthorne for once +gives himself up to homely human nature, and has succeeded in +delineating a New-England girl, cheerful, blooming, practical, +affectionate, efficient, full of innocence and happiness, with all the +"handiness" and native sagacity of her class, and so true and close to +Nature that the process by which she is slightly idealized is +completely hidden. + +In this romance there is also more humor than in any of his other +works. It peeps out, even in the most serious passages, in a kind of +demure rebellion against the fanaticism of his remorseless +intelligence. In the description of the Pyncheon poultry, which we +think unexcelled by anything in Dickens for quaintly fanciful humor, +the author seems to indulge in a sort of parody on his own doctrine of +the hereditary transmission of family qualities. At any rate, that +strutting chanticleer, with his two meagre wives and one wizened +chicken, is a sly side fleer at the tragic aspect of the law of +descent. Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon, her shop, and her customers, are so +delightful, that the reader would willingly spare a good deal of +Clifford and Judge Pyncheon and Holgrave, for more details of them and +Phoebe. Uncle Venner, also, the old wood-sawyer, who boasts "that he +has seen a good deal of the world, not only in people's kitchens and +back-yards, but at the street-corners, and on the wharves, and in other +places where his business" called him, and who, on the strength of this +comprehensive experience, feels qualified to give the final decision in +every case which tasks the resources of human wisdom, is a very much +more humane and interesting gentleman than the Judge. Indeed, one +cannot but regret that Hawthorne should be so economical of his +undoubted stores of humor,--and that, in the two romances he has since +written, humor, in the form of character, does not appear at all. + +Before proceeding to the consideration of "The Blithedale Romance," it +is necessary to say a few words on the seeming separation of +Hawthorne's genius from his will. He has none of that ability which +enabled Scott and enables Dickens to force their powers into action, +and to make what was begun in drudgery soon assume the character of +inspiration. Hawthorne cannot thus use his genius; his genius always +uses him. This is so true, that he often succeeds better in what calls +forth his personal antipathies than in what calls forth his personal +sympathies. His life of General Pierce, for instance, is altogether +destitute of life; yet in writing it he must have exerted himself to +the utmost, as his object was to urge the claims of an old and dear +friend to the Presidency of the Republic. The style, of course, is +excellent, as it is impossible for Hawthorne to write bad English, but +the genius of the man has deserted him. General Pierce, whom he loves, +he draws so feebly, that one doubts, while reading the biography, if +such a man exists; Hollingsworth, whom he hates, is so vividly +characterized, that the doubt is, while we read the romance, whether +such a man can possibly be fictitious. + +Midway between such a work as the "Life of General Pierce" and "The +Scarlet Letter" may be placed "The Wonder-Book" and "Tanglewood Tales." +In these Hawthorne's genius distinctly appears, and appears in its most +lovable, though not in its deepest form. These delicious stories, +founded on the mythology of Greece, were written for children, but they +delight men and women as well. Hawthorne never pleases grown people so +much as when he writes with an eye to the enjoyment of little people. + +Now "The Blithedale Romance" is far from being so pleasing a +performance as "Tanglewood Tales," yet it very much better illustrates +the operation, indicates the quality, and expresses the power, of the +author's genius. His great books appear not so much created by him as +through him. They have the character of revelations,--he, the +instrument, being often troubled with the burden they impose on his +mind. His profoundest glances into individual souls are like the +marvels of clairvoyance. It would seem, that, in the production of such +a work as "The Blithedale Romance," his mind had hit accidentally, as +it were, on an idea or fact mysteriously related to some morbid +sentiment in the inmost core of his nature, and connecting itself with +numerous scattered observations of human life, lying unrelated in his +imagination. In a sort of meditative dream, his intellect drifts in the +direction to which the subject points, broods patiently over it, looks +at it, looks into it, and at last looks through it to the law by which +it is governed. Gradually, individual beings, definite in spiritual +quality, but shadowy in substantial form, group themselves around this +central conception, and by degrees assume an outward body and +expression corresponding to their internal nature. On the depth and +intensity of the mental mood, the force of the fascination it exerts +over him, and the length of time it holds him captive, depend the +solidity and substance of the individual characterizations. In this way +Miles Coverdale, Hollingsworth, Westervelt, Zenobia, and Priscilla +become real persons to the mind which has called them into being. He +knows every secret and watches every motion of their souls, yet is, in +a measure, independent of them, and pretends to no authority by which +he can alter the destiny which consigns them to misery or happiness. +They drift to their doom by the same law by which they drifted across +the path of his vision. Individually, he abhors Hollingsworth, and +would like to annihilate Westervelt, yet he allows the superb Zenobia +to be their victim; and if his readers object that the effect of the +whole representation is painful, he would doubtless agree with them, +but profess his incapacity honestly to alter a sentence. He professes +to tell the story as it was revealed to him; and the license in which a +romancer might indulge is denied to a biographer of spirits. Show him a +fallacy in his logic of passion and character, point out a false or +defective step in his analysis, and he will gladly alter the whole to +your satisfaction; but four human souls, such as he has described, +being given, their mutual attractions and repulsions will end, he feels +assured, in just such a catastrophe as he has stated. + +Eight years have passed since "The Blithedale Romance" was written, and +during nearly the whole of this period Hawthorne has resided abroad. +"The Marble Faun," which must, on the whole, be considered the greatest +of his works, proves that his genius has widened and deepened in this +interval, without any alteration or modification of its characteristic +merits and characteristic defects. The most obvious excellence of the +work is the vivid truthfulness of its descriptions of Italian life, +manners, and scenery; and, considered merely as a record of a tour in +Italy, it is of great interest and attractiveness. The opinions on Art, +and the special criticisms on the masterpieces of architecture, +sculpture, and painting, also possess a value of their own. The story +might have been told, and the characters fully represented, in +one-third of the space devoted to them, yet description and narration +are so artfully combined that each assists to give interest to the +other. Hawthorne is one of those true observers who concentrate in +observation every power of their minds. He has accurate sight and +piercing insight. When he modifies either the form or the spirit of the +objects he describes, he does it either by viewing them through the +medium of an imagined mind or by obeying associations which they +themselves suggest. We might quote from the descriptive portions of the +work a hundred pages, at least, which would demonstrate how closely +accurate observation is connected with the highest powers of the +intellect and imagination. + +The style of the book is perfect of its kind, and, if Hawthorne had +written nothing else, would entitle him to rank among the great masters +of English composition. Walter Savage Landor is reported to have said +of an author whom he knew in his youth, "My friend wrote excellent +English, a language now obsolete." Had "The Marble Faun" appeared +before he uttered this sarcasm, the wit of the remark would have been +pointless. Hawthorne not only writes English, but the sweetest, +simplest, and clearest English that ever has been made the vehicle of +equal depth, variety, and subtilty of thought and emotion. His mind is +reflected in his style as a face is reflected in a mirror; and the +latter does not give back its image with less appearance of effort than +the former. His excellence consists not so much in using common words +as in making common words express uncommon things. Swift, Addison, +Goldsmith, not to mention others, wrote with as much simplicity; but +the style of neither embodies an individuality so complex, passions so +strange and intense, sentiments so fantastic and preternatural, +thoughts so profound and delicate, and imaginations so remote from the +recognized limits of the ideal, as find an orderly outlet in the pure +English of Hawthorne. He has hardly a word to which Mrs. Trimmer would +primly object, hardly a sentence which would call forth the frosty +anathema of Blair, Hurd, Kames, or Whately, and yet he contrives to +embody in his simple style qualities which would almost excuse the +verbal extravagances of Carlyle. + +In regard to the characterization and plot of "The Marble Faun," there +is room for widely varying opinions. Hilda, Miriam, and Donatello will +be generally received as superior in power and depth to any of +Hawthorne's previous creations of character; Donatello, especially, +must be considered one of the most original and exquisite conceptions +in the whole range of romance; but the story in which they appear will +seem to many an unsolved puzzle, and even the tolerant and +interpretative "gentle reader" will be troubled with the unsatisfactory +conclusion. It is justifiable for a romancer to sting the curiosity of +his readers with a mystery, only on the implied obligation to explain +it at last; but this story begins in mystery only to end in mist. The +suggestive faculty is tormented rather than genially excited, and in +the end is left a prey to doubts. The central idea of the story, the +necessity of sin to convert such a creature as Donatello into a moral +being, is also not happily illustrated in the leading event. When +Donatello kills the wretch who malignantly dogs the steps of Miriam, +all readers think that Donatello committed no sin at all; and the +reason is, that Hawthorne has deprived the persecutor of Miriam of all +human attributes, made him an allegorical representation of one of the +most fiendish forms of unmixed evil, so that we welcome his destruction +with something of the same feeling with which, in following the +allegory of Spenser or Bunyan, we rejoice in the hero's victory over +the Blatant Beast or Giant Despair. Conceding, however, that +Donatello's act was murder, and not "justifiable homicide," we are +still not sure that the author's conception of his nature and of the +change caused in his nature by that act, are carried out with a +felicity corresponding to the original conception. + +In the first volume, and in the early part of the second, the author's +hold on his design is comparatively firm, but it somewhat relaxes as he +proceeds, and in the end it seems almost to escape from his grasp. Few +can be satisfied with the concluding chapters, for the reason that +nothing is really concluded. We are willing to follow the ingenious +processes of Calhoun's deductive logic, because we are sure, that, +however severely they task the faculty of attention, they will lead to +some positive result; but Hawthorne's logic of events leaves us in the +end bewildered in a labyrinth of guesses. The book is, on the whole, +such a great book, that its defects are felt with all the more force. + +In this rapid glance at some of the peculiarities of Hawthorne's +genius, we have not, of course, been able to do full justice to the +special merits of the works we have passed in review; but we trust that +we have said nothing which would convey the impression that we do not +place them among the most remarkable romances produced in an age in +which romance-writing has called forth some of the highest powers of +the human mind. In intellect and imagination, in the faculty of +discerning spirits and detecting laws, we doubt if any living novelist +is his equal; but his genius, in its creative action, has been +heretofore attracted to the dark rather than the bright side of the +interior life of humanity, and the geniality which evidently is in him +has rarely found adequate expression. In the many works which he may +still be expected to write, it is to be hoped that his mind will lose +some of its sadness of tone without losing any of its subtilty and +depth; but, in any event, it would be unjust to deny that he has +already done enough to insure him a commanding position in American +literature as long as American literature has an existence. + + * * * * * + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Le Prime Quattro Edizioni della Divina Commedia Letteralmente +Ristampate per Cura di_ G.G. WARREN LORD VERNON. Londra: Presso Tommaso +e Guglielmo Boone. MDCCCLVIII. 4to. pp. xxvi., 748. + +The zeal with which the study of Dante has been followed by students in +every country of Europe, during the last forty years, is one of the +most illustrative facts of the moral as well as of the intellectual +character of the period. The interest which has attracted men of the +most different tempers and persuasions to this study is not due alone +to the poetic or historic value of his works, however high we may place +them in these respects, but also and especially to the circumstance +that they present a complete and distinct view of the internal life and +spiritual disposition of an age in which the questions which still +chiefly concern men were for the first time positively stated, and +which exhibited in its achievements and its efforts some of the highest +qualities of human nature in a condition of vigor such as they have +never since shown. Dante himself combined a power of imagination beyond +that of any other poet with an intensity and directness of individual +character not less extraordinary. The tendency of modern civilization +is to diminish rather than to strengthen the originality and +independence of individuals. Autocracy and democracy seem to have a +like effect in reducing men to a uniform level of thought and effort. +And thus during a time when these two principles have been brought into +sharp conflict, it is not surprising that the most thoughtful students +should turn to the works of a man who by actual experience, or by force +of imagination, comprehended all the conditions of his own age, and +exhibited in his life and in his writings an individualism of the +noblest sort. The conservative and the reformer, the king and the +radical, the priest and the heretic, the man of affairs and the man of +letters, have taken their seats, side by side, on the scholars' +benches, before the same teacher, and, after listening to his large +discourse, have discussed among themselves the questions in religion, +in philosophy, in morals, politics, or history, which his words +suggested or explained. + +The success which has attended these studies has been in some degree +proportioned to the zeal with which they have been pursued. Dante is +now better understood and more intelligently commented than ever +before. Much remains to be done as regards the clearing up of some +difficult points and the explanation of some dark passages,--and the +obscurity in which Dante intentionally involved some portions of his +writings is such as to leave little hope that their absolute meaning +will ever be satisfactorily established. The history of the study of +the poet, of the comments on his meaning or his text, of the formation +of the commonly received text, and of the translations of the "Divina +Commedia," affords much curious and entertaining matter to the lover of +purely literary and bibliographic narrative, and incidentally +illustrates the general character of each century since his death. As +regards the settlement of the text, no single publication has ever +appeared of equal value to that of the magnificent volume the title of +which stands at the head of this notice. Lord Vernon has been known for +many years as the most munificent fosterer of Dantesque publications. +One after another, precious and costly books upon Dante have appeared, +edited and printed at his expense, showing both a taste and a +liberality as honorable as unusual. + +The first four editions of the "Divina Commedia," of which this volume +is a reprint, are all of excessive rarity. Although each is a document +of the highest importance in determining the text, few of the editors +of the poem have had the means of consulting more than one or two of +them. The volumes are to be found united only in the Library of the +British Museum, and it is but a few years that even that great +collection has included them all. They were printed originally between +1470 and 1480 at Foligno, Jesi, Mantua, and Naples; and their chief +value arises from the fact that they present the various readings of +three, if not four, early and selected manuscripts. The doubt whether +four manuscripts are represented by them is occasioned by the +similarity between the editions of Foligno and Naples, which are of +such a sort (for instance, correspondence in the most unlikely and odd +misprints) as to prove that one must have served as the basis of the +other. But at the same time there are such differences between them as +indicate a separate revision of each, and possibly the consultation by +their editors of different codices. + +Unfortunately, there is no edition of the "Divina Commedia" which can +claim any special authority,--none which has even in a small degree +such authority as belongs to the first folio of Shakspeare's plays. The +text, as now received, rests upon a comparison of manuscripts and early +printed editions; and as affording to scholars the means of an +independent critical judgment upon it, a knowledge of the readings of +these earliest editions is indispensable. But reprints of old books are +proverbially open to error. The reprint of the first folio Shakspeare +is so full of mistakes as to be of comparatively little use. The +character of the Italian language is such that inaccuracies are both +easier and more dangerous than in English. Unless the reprint of the +first four editions were literally correct, it would be of little +value. To secure this correctness, so far as was possible, Lord Vernon +engaged Mr. Panizzi, the chief librarian of the British Museum, to edit +the volume. A more competent editor never lived. Mr. Panizzi is +distinguished not more for his thorough and appreciative acquaintance +with the poetic literature of his country than for the extent and +accuracy of his bibliographical knowledge and the refinement of his +bibliographic skill. There can be no doubt that the reprint is as exact +as the most rigid critic could desire. It is a monument of patience and +of unpretending labor, as well as of typographic beauty,--the work of +the editor having been well seconded by that well-known disciple of +Aldus, Mr. Charles Whittingham. + +Nor is it only in essential variations that these four texts are +important, but also in the illustration which their different spelling +and their varying grammatical forms afford in regard to the language +used by Dante. At the time when these editions appeared, the +orthography of the Italian tongue was not yet established, and its +grammatical inflections not in all cases definitely settled. Printing +had not yet been long enough in use to fix a permanent form upon words. +Moreover, the misprints themselves, which in these early editions are +very numerous, often give hints as to the changes which they may have +induced, or as to the misplacing of letters most likely to occur, and +consequently most likely to lead to unobserved errors of the text. + +The style of the printing in these first editions, and the aid it may +give, or the difficulty it may occasion, are hardly to be understood +without an extract. We open at _Paradiso_, xv. 70. Cacciaguida has just +spoken to his descendant, and then follows, according to the Foligno, +the following passage:-- + + Io mi uolfi abeatrice et quella udio + pria chio parlaffi et arofemi un cenno + che fece crefcer lali aluoler mio + + Poi cominciai con leefftto elfenno + come laprima equalita napparfe + dun pefo per ciafchun di noi fi fenno + + Pero chel fole che nallumo et arfe + colcaldo et conlaluce et fi iguali + che tutte fimiglianze fono fcarfe. + +This looks different enough from the common text, that, for example, of +the Florentine edition of 1844. + + I' mi volsi a Beatrice, e quella udio + Pria ch' io parlassi, ed arrisemi un cenno + Che fece crescer l' ale al voler mio. + + Poi cominciai cosi: L' affetto e il senno, + Come la prima egualitŕ v' apparse, + D' un peso per ciascun di voi si fenno; + + Perocchč al Sol, che v' allumň ed arse + Col caldo e con la luce, en sě iguali, + Che tutte simiglianze sono scarse. + +"I turned to Beatrice, and she heard before I spoke, and smiled on me a +sign which added wings to my desire. Then I began thus: Love and +wisdom, as soon as the primal Equality has appeared to you, become of +one weight in each one of you; since in that Sun, which illuminates and +warms you with heat and light, they are so equal, that every comparison +falls short." + +The three other ancient texts are each quite as different from the +modern one as that which we have given, nor is the passage one that +affords example of unusual variations. It would have been easy to +select many others varying much more than this, but our object is to +show the general character of these first editions. The second line of +the quotation offers a various reading which is supported by the +_arrossemi_ of the Jesi edition, and the _arossemi_ of that of Naples, +as well as by the text of the comment of Benvenuto da Imola, and some +other early authorities. But even were the weight of evidence in its +favor far greater than it is, it could never be received in place of +the thoroughly Dantesque and exquisite expression, _arrisemi un cenno_, +which is found in the Mantua edition. The _napparse_ and the _noi_ of +the fifth and sixth lines and the _nallumo_ of the seventh are plainly +mistakes of the scribe, puzzled by the somewhat obscure meaning of the +passage. Not one of the four editions before us gives us the right +pronouns, but they are found in the Bartolinian codex, (as well as many +others,) and they are established in the rare Aldine edition of 1502, +the chief source of the modern text. In the eighth line, where we now +read _en sě iguali_, the four give us _et_ or _e si iguali_, a reading +from which it is difficult to extract a meaning, unless, with the +Bartolinian, we omit the _che_ in the preceding line, and suppose the +_pero chel_ to stand, not for _perocchč al_, but for _perocchč +il_,--or, retaining the _che_, read the first words _perocch' č il +Sol_, and take the clause as a parenthesis. The meaning, according to +the first supposition, would be, "Love and wisdom are of one measure in +you, (since the Sun [_sc._ the primal Equality] warmed and enlightened +you,) and so equal that," etc. According to the second supposition, we +should translate, "Since it [the primal Equality] is the sun which," +etc. Benvenuto da Imola gives still a third reading, making the _e si +iguali_ into _ee si iguale_, or, in modern orthography, _č sě iguale_; +but, as this spoils the rhyme, it may be left out of account. There +seems to us to be some ground for believing the second reading +suggested above, + + Perocch' č il Sol che v' allumň ed arse + Con caldo e con la luce, e sě iguali. + +to be the true one, not only from its correspondence with most of the +early copies, but from the rarity of the use of _en_ by Dante. There is +but one other passage in the poem where it is found (_Purgatory_, xvi. +121). + +Such is an example, taken at random, of the doubts suggested and the +illustration afforded by these editions in the study of the text. Of +course such minute criticism is of interest only to those few who +reckon Dante's words at their true worth. The common reader may be +content with the text as he finds it in common editions, But Dante, +more than any other author, stimulates his student to research as to +his exact words; for no other author has been so choice in his +selection of them. He is not only the greatest modern master of +condensation in style, but he has the deepest insight into the value +and force of separate words, the most delicate sense of appropriateness +in position, and in the highest degree the poetic faculty of selecting +the word most fitting for the thought and most characteristic in +expression. It rarely happens that the place of a word of any +importance is a matter of indifference in his verse, no regard being +had to the rhythm; and every one sufficiently familiar with the +language in which he wrote to be conscious of its indefinable powers +will feel, though he may be unable to point out specifically, a marked +distinction in the quality and combinations of the words in the +different parts of the poem. The description of the entrance to Hell, +in the third canto of the _Inferno_ is, for instance, hardly more +different from the description of the Terrestrial Paradise, +(_Purgatory_, xxviii.,) in scenery and imagery, than it is in the vague +but absolute qualities of language, in its rhythmical and verbal +essence. + +But, leaving these subtilties, let us look at some of the disputed +passages of the poem, upon which the texts before us may give their +evidence. + +In the episode of Francesca da Rimini, Mr. Barlow has recently +attempted to give currency to a various reading long known, but never +accepted, in the line (_Inferno_, v. 102) in which Francesca expresses +her horror at the manner of her death. She says, _il modo ancor m' +offende_, "the manner still offends me." But for _il modo_ Mr. Barlow +would substitute _il mondo_, "the world still offends me,"--that is, as +we suppose, by holding a false opinion of her conduct. Mr. Barlow's +suggestions are always to be received with respect, but we cannot but +think him wrong in proposing this change. The spirits in Hell are not +supposed to be aware of what is passing upon earth; they are +self-convicted, (_Purgatory_, xxvi. 85, 86,) and Francesca being doomed +to eternal woe, the world could not do her wrong by taxing her with +sin; while, further, the shudder at the method of her death, lasting +even in torment, seems to us a far more imaginative conception than the +one proposed in its stead. Our four texts read _elmodo_. + +In the famous simile (_Inferno_, iii. 112-114) in which Dante compares +the spirits falling from the bank of Acheron to the dead leaves +fluttering from a bough in autumn, giving, as Mr. Ruskin says, "the +most perfect image possible of their utter lightness, feebleness, +passiveness, and scattering agony of despair," our common texts have + + infin che il ramo + Rende alla terra tutte le sue spoglie, + +"Until the branch gives to the earth all its spoils"; but the texts of +Jesi and Mantua, as well as those of the Bartolinian and the Aldus, and +many other early authorities, here put the word _Vede_ in place of +_Rende_, giving a variation which for its poetic worth well deserves to +be marked, if not to be introduced into the received text. "Until the +branch sees all its spoils upon the earth" is a personification quite +in Dante's manner. A confirmation of the value of this reading is given +by the fact that Tasso preferred it to the more common one, and in his +treatise on the "Art of Poetry" praises it as full of energy. + +The value of this work of Lord Vernon's to the students of Dante, in +enabling them to secure accuracy in their statements in regard to the +early texts, has been illustrated to us by finding that Blanc, in his +useful and excellent "Vocabolario Dantesco," has not unfrequently +fallen into error through his inability to consult those first +editions. For example, in the line, (_Inferno_, xviii. 43,) _Perciň a +figuralo i piedi affissi_, as it is commonly given, or, _Perciň a +firgurarlo gli occhi affissi_, as it appears in some editions, Blanc, +who prefers the latter reading, states that _gli occhi_ is found in +_"toutes les anciennes éditions."_ But the truth is, that those of +Foligno and Naples read _ipedi_, that of Jesi has _in piedi_, and that +of Mantua _i pie_. The Aldine of 1502 is the earliest edition we have +seen which has _gli occhi_. + +In the episode of Ugolino, (_Inferno,_ xxxiii.,) the verse which has +given rise to more comment, perhaps than any other is that (the 26th) +in which the Count says, according to the usual reading, that the +narrow window in his tower had shown him many moons before he dreamed +his evil dream: _Piů lune giŕ, quand' i' feci il mal sonno,_ "Many +moons already, when I had my ill slumber." But another reading, found +in a majority of the early MSS. and editions, including those of Jesi +and Mantua gives the variation, _piů lume;_ while the editions of +Foligno and Naples give _lieve_, which, affording no intelligible +meaning, must be regarded as a mere misprint. In spite of the weight +of early authority for _lume_, the reading _lune_ is perhaps to be +preferred, as giving in a word a brief expressive statement of a weary +length of imprisonment,--while _lume_ would only serve to fix the +moment of the dream as having been between the first dawn and the full +day. It is rare that the difference between an _n_ and an _m_ is of +such marked effect. + +In the sixth canto of _Purgatory_, verse 58, Virgil says, "Behold there +a soul which _a posta_ looks toward us." Such at least is the common +reading, and the words _a posta_ are explained as meaning _fixedly._ +But this signification is somewhat forced, _a posta_, or _apposta_, +being more properly used with the meaning of _on purpose_ or +_deliberately_,--and the first four editions supply a reading without +this difficulty, and one which adds a new and significant feature to +the description. They unite in the omission of the letter _a_. The +passage then bears the meaning,--"But behold there a soul which, +_fixed_, or _placed_, alone and all apart, looks toward us." This +reading, beside being supported by the weight of ancient authority, +finds confirmation, in the context, in the terms in which Sordello's +aspect is described: "How lofty and disdainful didst thou stand! how +slow and decorous in the moving of thy eyes!" + +A curious example of the mistakes of the old copies is afforded in the +charming description of the Terrestrial Paradise in the twenty-eighth +canto of the _Purgatory_. Dante says, that the leaves on the trees, +trembling in the soft air, were not so disturbed that the little birds +in their tops ceased from any of their arts,-- + + che gli augelletti per le cime + Lasciasser d' operare ogni lor arte. + +The lines are so plain that a mistake is difficult in them; but, of our +four editions, the Jesi is the only one which gives them correctly. +Foligno and Naples read _angeleti_ for _augelletti_, while Mantua gives +us the astonishing word _intelletti_. Again, in line 98 of the same +canto, all four read, _exaltation dell' acqua_, for the simple and +correct _esalazion dell' acqua_. And in line 131, for _Eunoe si +chiama_, Jesi supplies the curious word _curioce si chiama_. + +These examples of error are not of great importance in themselves, and +are easily corrected, but they serve to illustrate the great frequency +of error in all the early texts of the "Divina Commedia," and the +probability that many errors not so readily discovered may still exist +in the text, making difficulties where none originally existed. They +are of value, furthermore, in the wider range of critical studies, as +illustrating in a striking way the liability to error which existed in +all books so long as they were preserved only by the work of scribes. +Here is a poem which was transmitted in manuscript for only about one +hundred and fifty years, the first four printed editions of which show +differences in almost every line. It is no exaggeration to say that the +variations between the editions of Foligno, Jesi, and Mantua, in +orthography, inflection, and other grammatical and dialectic forms, not +to speak of the less frequent, though still numerous differences in the +words themselves, greatly exceed, throughout the poem, the number of +lines of which it is composed. Yet by a comparison of them one with +another a consistent and generally satisfactory text has been formed. +The bearing of this upon the views to be taken of the condition of the +text of more ancient works, as, for instance, that of the Gospels, is +plain. + +The work before us is so full of matter interesting to the student of +Dante, that we are tempted to go on with further illustrations of it, +though well aware that there are few who have zeal or patience enough +to continue the examination with us. But the number of those in America +who are beginning to read the "Divina Commedia," as something more than +a mere exercise in the Italian language, is increasing, and some of +them, at least, will take pleasure with us in this inquiry concerning +the words, that is, the thoughts of Dante. Why should the minute, but +not fruitless criticism of texts be reserved for the ancient classic +writers? The great poet of the Middle Ages deserves this work at our +hands far more than any of the Latin poets, not excluding even his own +master and guide. + +The eleventh canto of the _Paradiso_ is chiefly occupied with the noble +narrative of the life of St. Francis. Reading it as we do, at such a +distance from the time of the events which it records, and with +feelings that have never been warmed into fervor by the facts or the +legends concerning the Saint, it is hard for us to appreciate at its +full worth the beauty of this canto, and its effect upon those who had +seen and conversed with the first Franciscans. Not a century had yet +passed since the death of St. Francis, and the order which he had +founded kept his memory alive in every part of the Catholic world. A +story which may be true or false, and it matters little which, tells us +that Dante himself in his early manhood had proposed to enter its +ranks. There is no doubt that its vows of poverty and chastity, its +arduous but invigorating rule during its early days, appealed with +strong force to his temperament and his imagination, as promising a +withdrawal from those worldly temptations of which he was conscious, +from that pressure of private and public affairs of which he was +impatient. The contrast between the effects which the life of St. +Francis and that of St. Dominic had upon the poet's mind is shown by +the contrast in tone in which in successive cantos he tells of these +two great pillars of the Church. + +In lines 71 and 72, speaking of Poverty, the bride of the Saint, he +says,-- + + Si che dove Maria rimase giuso, + Ella con Cristo salse in sulia croce: + +"So that whilst Mary remained below, she mounted the cross with +Christ," Such is the common reading. Now in all four of the editions +which are in Lord Vernon's reprint, in Benvenuto da Imola, in the +Bartolinian codex, in the precious codex of Cortona, and in many other +early manuscripts and editions, the word _pianse_ is found in the place +of _salse_; "She lamented upon the cross with Christ." The antithesis, +though less direct, is not less striking, and the phrase seems to us to +become simpler, more natural, and more touching. Yet this reading has +found little favor with recent editors, and one of them goes so far as +to say, "che non solo impoverisce, ma adultera l' idea." + +Passing over other variations, some of them of importance, in this +eleventh canto, we find the last verses standing in most modern +editions,-- + + E vedrŕ il coreggier che argomenta + U' ben s' impingua, se non si vaneggia. + +And the meaning is explained as being,--"And he who is girt with a +leathern cord (_i.e._ the Dominican) will see what is meant by 'Where +well they fatten, if they do not stray.'" But to this there are several +objections. No other example of _coreggier_ thus used is, we believe, +to be found. Moreover, the introduction of a Dominican to learn this +lesson is forced, for it was Dante himself who had had a doubt as to +the meaning of these words, and it was for his instruction that the +discourse in which they were explained was held. We prefer, therefore, +the reading which is found in the editions of Jesi, Foligno, and +Naples, (in part in that of Mantua,) and which is given by many other +ancient texts: _Vedrai_ or _E vedrai il correger che argomenta:_ "Thou +wilt see the reproof which 'Where well they fatten, if they do not +stray,' conveys." This reading has been adopted by Mr. Cayley in his +remarkable translation. + +One more instance of the value of Lord Vernon's work, and we have done. +The 106th, 107th, and 108th verses of the twenty-sixth canto of the +_Paradiso_ are among the most difficult of the poem, and have given +rise to great variety of comment. In the edition of Florence of 1830, +in those of Foscolo, and of Costa, and many others, they stand,-- + + Perch' io la veggio nel verace speglio + Che fa di se pareglie l' altre cose + E nulla face lui di se pareglio. + +And they are explained by Bianchi as meaning, "Because I see it in that +true mirror (i. e. God) which makes other things like to themselves, +(that is, represents them as they are,) while nothing can represent Him +like to Himself." Those who love the quarrels of commentators should +look at the notes in the Variorum editions of Padua or Florence to see +with what amusing asperity they have treated each other's solutions of +the passage. Italian words of abuse have a sonorous quality which gives +grandeur to a skirmish of critics. One is declared by his opponent to +have _ingarbugliato_ the clearest meaning; another _guasta il +sentimento_ and _sproposita in grammatica_; a third brings _falso_ and +_assurdo_ to the charge, and, not satisfied with their force, adds +_blasfemo_; a fourth declares that the third has contrived _capovolgere +la consegitenza_; and so on;--from all which the reader, trying to find +shelter from the pelting of hard words, discovers that the meaning is +not clear even to the most confident of the critics. But, standing +apart from the battle, and looking only at the text, and not at the +bewildered comment, we find in the editions of Foligno, Jesi, and +Naples, and in many other ancient texts, a reading which seems to us +somewhat easier than the one commonly adopted. We copy the lines after +the Foligno:-- + + Per chio laueggio neluerace speglio + che fa dise pareglio alaltre cose + et nulla face lui dise pareglio. + +And we would translate them, "Because I see it in that true mirror who +in Himself affords a likeness to [or of] all other things, while +nothing gives back to Him a likeness of Himself." Here _pareglio_ +corresponds with the Provençal _parelh_ and the later French +_pareil_,--and the Provençal phrase _rendre le parelha_ affords an +example of similar application to that of the word in Dante. + +With us in America, criticism is not rated as it deserves; it is little +followed as a study, and the love for the great masters and poets of +other times and other tongues than our own fails to stimulate the ardor +of students to the thorough examination of their thoughts and words. No +doubt, criticism, as it has too often been pursued, is of small worth, +displaying itself in useless inquiries, and lavishing time and labor +upon insoluble and uninteresting questions. But such is not its true +end. Verbal criticism, rightly viewed, has a dignity which belongs to +few other studies; for it deals with words as the symbols of +thoughts,--with words, which are the most spiritual of the instruments +of human power, the most marvellous of human possessions. It makes +thought accurate, and perception fine. It adds truth to the creations +of imagination by teaching the modes by which they may be best +expressed, and it thus leads to fuller and more appreciative +understanding and enjoyment of the noblest works of the past. There +can, indeed, be no thorough culture without it. + +To restore the balance of our lives, in these days of haste, novelty, +and restlessness, there is a need of a larger infusion into them of +pursuits which have no end of immediate publicity or instant return of +tangible profit,--of pursuits which, while separating us from the +intrusive world around us, should introduce us into the freer, +tranquiller, and more spacious world of noble and everlasting thought. +The greener and lonelier precincts of our minds are now trampled upon +by the hurrying feet of daily events and transient interests. If we +would keep that spiritual region unpolluted, we need to acquaint +ourselves with some other literature than that of newspapers and +magazines, and to entertain as familiars the men long dead, yet living +in their works. As Americans, our birthrights in the past are +imperfect; we are born into the present alone. But he who lives only in +present things lives but half a life, and death comes to him as an +impertinent interruption: by living also in the past we learn to value +the present at its worth, to hold ourselves ready for its end. With +Dante, taking him as a guide and companion in our privater moods, we +may, even in the natural body, pass through the world of spirit. + +It will be a good indication of the improvement in the intellectual +disposition of our people, when the study of Dante becomes more +general. Meanwhile, on the part of his few students in America, we +would offer our thanks to Lord Vernon and to Mr. Panizzi for the aid +which the liberality of the one and the skill and learning of the other +have given to us, and for the honor they have done to the memory of our +common Author and Leader. + +_Notes of Travel and Study in Italy_. By CHARLES ELIOT NORTON. Boston: +Ticknor & Fields. 1860. pp. x., 320. + +There is, perhaps, no country with which we are so intimate as with +Italy,--none of which we are always so willing to hear more. Poets and +prosers have alike compared her to a beautiful woman; and while one +finds nothing but loveliness in her, another shudders at her fatal +fascination. She is the very Witch-Venus of the Middle Ages. Roger +Ascham says, "I was once in _Italy_ myself, but I thank God my abode +there was but nine days; and yet I saw in that little time, in one +city, more liberty to sin than ever I heard tell of in our noble city +of London in nine years." He quotes triumphantly the proverb,--_Inglese +italianato, diavolo incarnato_. A century later, the entertaining +"Richard Lassels, Gent., who Travelled through Italy Five times as +Tutor to several of the _English_ Nobility and Gentry," and who is open +to new engagements in that kind, declares, that, "For the Country +itself, it seemed to me to be _Nature's Darling_, and the _Eldest +Sister_ of all other Countries; carrying away from them all the +greatest blessings and favours, and receiving such gracious looks from +the _Sun_ and _Heaven_, that, if there be any fault in _Italy_, it is, +that her Mother _Nature_ hath cockered her too much, even to make her +become Wanton." Plainly, our Tannhäuser is but too ready to go back to +the Venus-berg! + +A new book on Italy seems a dangerous experiment. Has not all been told +and told and told again? Is it not one chief charm of the land, that it +is changeless without being Chinese? Did not Abbot Samson, in 1159, +_Scotti habitum induens_, (which must have shown his massive calves to +great advantage.) probably see much the same popular characteristics +that Hawthorne saw seven hundred years later? Shall a man try to be +entertaining after Montaigne, aesthetic after Winckelmann, wise after +Goethe, or trenchant after Forsyth? Can he hope to bring back anything +so useful as the _fork_, which honest Tom Coryate made prize of two +centuries and a half ago, and put into the greasy fingers of Northern +barbarians? Is not the "Descrittione" of Leandro Alberti still a +competent itinerary? And can one hope to pick up a fresh Latin +quotation, when Addison and Eustace have been before him with their +scrap-baskets? + +If there be anything which a person of even moderate accomplishments +may be presumed to know, it is Italy. The only open question left seems +to be, whether Shakespeare were the only man that could write his name +who had never been there. We have read our share of Italian travels, +both in prose and verse, but, as the nicely discriminating Dutchman +found that "too moch brahndee was too moch, but too moch lager-beer was +jost hright," so we are inclined to say that too much Italy is just +what we want. After Des Brosses, we are ready for Henri Beyle, and +Ampčre, and Hillard, and About, and Gallenga, and Julia Kavanagh; +"Corinne" only makes us hungry for George Sand. That no one can tell us +anything new is as undeniable as the compensating fact that no one can +tell us anything too old. + +There are two kinds of travellers,--those who tell us what they went to +see, and those who tell us what they saw. The latter class are the only +ones whose journals are worth the sifting; and the value of their eyes +depends on the amount of individual character they took with them, and +of the previous culture that had sharpened and tutored the faculty of +observation. In our conscious age the frankness and naďveté of the +elder voyagers is impossible, and we are weary of those humorous +confidences on the subject of fleas with which we are favored by some +modern travellers, whose motto should be (slightly altered) from +Horace,--_Flea-bit, et toto cantabitur orbe._ A naturalist +self-sacrificing enough may have this experience more cheaply at home. + +The book before us is the record of a second residence in Italy, of +about two years. This in itself is an advantage; since a renewed +experience, after an interval of absence and distraction, enables us to +distinguish what had merely interested us by its strangeness from what +is permanently worthy of study and remembrance. In a second visit we +know at least what we do _not_ wish to see, and our first impressions +have so defined themselves that they afford us a safer standard of +comparison. To most travellers Italy is a land of pure vacation, a +lotus-eating region, "in which it seemeth always afternoon." But Mr. +Norton, whose book shows bow well his time had been employed at home, +could not but spend it to good purpose abroad. The word "study" has a +right to its place on his title-page, and his volume is worthy of a +student. He shows himself to be one who, like Wordsworth, "does not +much or oft delight in personal talk"; there is no gossip between the +covers of his book, no impertinent self-obtrusion. Familiar with what +has been written about Italy by others, he has known how to avoid the +trite highways, and by going back to what was old has found topics that +are really fresh and delightful. The Italy of the ancient Romans is a +foreign country to us, and must always continue so; but the Italy of +the Middle Ages is nearer, not so much in time, as because there is no +impassable rift of religious faith, and consequently of ideas and +motives, between us and it. Far enough away in the centuries to be +picturesque, it is near enough in the sympathy of belief and thought to +be thoroughly intelligible. The chapter on the Brotherhood of the +Misericordia at Florence is remarkably interesting, and the coincidence +which Mr. Norton points out in a note between the circumstances which +led to its foundation and those in which a somewhat similar society +originated in California so lately as 1859 is not only curious, but +pleasant, as showing that there is a natural piety proper to man in all +ages alike. In his account of the building of the Cathedral of Orvieto, +and his notices of Rome as it was when Dante and Petrarch saw it, Mr. +Norton has struck a rich vein, which we hope he will find time to work +more thoroughly hereafter. By the essential fairness of his mind, his +patience in investigation, and his sympathy with what is noble in +character and morally influential in events, he seems to us peculiarly +fitted for that middle ground occupied by the historical essayist, to +whom literature is something coördinate with politics, and who finds a +great book more eventful than a small battle. + +But if, as a scholar and lover of Art, Mr. Norton naturally turns to +the past, he does not fail to tell us whatever he finds worth knowing +in the present. His tone of mind and habitual subjects of thought may +be inferred from the character of the topics that interest him. The +glimpses he gives us of the actual condition of the people of Italy, as +indicated by their practical conception of the religious dogmas of +their Church, by the quality of the cheap literature that is popular +among them, of the tracts provided for their spiritual aliment by +ecclesiastical authority, and of the caricatures produced in 1848-9, +(as in his notice of "Don Pirlone,") are of special value, and show that +he knows where to look for signs of what lies beneath the surface. His +appreciation of the beautiful in Art has not been cultivated at the +expense of his interest in the moral, political, and physical +well-being of man. His touching sketch of the life of Letterato, the +founder of Ragged Schools, shows that moral loveliness attracts his +sympathy as much when embodied in a life of obscure usefulness as when +it gleams in the saints and angels of Fra Angelico. A conscientious +Protestant, he exposes the corruptions of the Established Church in +Italy, not as an anti-Romanist, but because he sees that they are +practically operative in the social and political degradation of the +people. What good there is never escapes his attention, and we learn +from him much that is new and interesting concerning public charities +and private efforts for the elevation of the lower orders. The miles of +statuary in the Vatican do not weary him so much that he cannot at +night make the round of evening schools for the poor. + +We have not read a pleasanter or more instructive book of Italian +travel than this. Mr. Norton's range of interest is so wide that we are +refreshed with continual variety of topic; and his style is pure, +clear, and chaste, without any sacrifice of warmth or richness. It is +always especially agreeable to us to encounter an American who is a +scholar in the true sense of the word, in which sense it is never +dissociated from gentleman. When, as in the present instance, +scholarship is united with a deep and active interest in whatever +concerns the practical well-being of men, we have one of the best +results of our modern civilization. We are no lovers of dilettantism, +but we see in these scholarly tastes and habits which do not seclude a +man from the duties of real life and useful citizenship the only +safeguard against the evils which the rapid heaping-up of wealth is +sure to bring with it. + +We do not always agree with Mr. Norton in his estimate of the +comparative merit of different artists. We think he sometimes makes Mr. +Ruskin's mistake of attributing to positive religious sentiment what is +rather to be ascribed to the negative influence of circumstances and +date. We cannot help thinking that the mere arrangement of their +figures by such painters as Cima da Conegliano and Francesco Francia, +the architectural regularity of their disposition, the sculpturesque +dignity of their attitudes, and the consequent impression of +simplicity and repose which they convey, have much to do with the +religious effect they produce on the mind, as contrasted with the more +dramatic and picturesque conceptions of later artists. When we look at +John Bellino's "Gods come down to taste the Fruits of the Earth," we +cannot think him essentially a more religious man than his great pupil +who painted that truly divine countenance of Christ in "The +Tribute-Money." At the same time we go along with Mr. Norton heartily, +where, in the concluding pages of his book, with equal learning and +eloquence, he points out the causes and traces the progress of the +moral and artistic decline which came over Italy in the sixteenth +century, and whose effect made the seventeenth almost a desert. This is +one of the most striking passages in the volume, and the lesson of it +is brought home to us with a force and fervor worthy of the theme. It +also affords a good type of the quiet vigor of thought and the high +moral purpose which are characteristic of the author. + + +1. _An American Dictionary of the English Language,_ etc., etc. By +NOAH WEBSTER, LL. D. Revised and enlarged by CHAUNCEY A. GOODRICH, +Professor in Yale College. Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam. 1859. +pp. ccxxxvi., 1512. + +2. _A Dictionary of the English Language._ By JOSEPH E. WORCESTER, LL. +D. Boston: Hickling, Swan, & Brewer. 1860. pp. lxviii,, 1786. + +Since the famous Battle of the Books in St. James's Library, no +literary controversy has been more sharply waged than that between the +adherents of the rival Dictionaries of Doctors Worcester and Webster. +The attack was begun thirty years ago, by Dr. Webster's publishers, +when Dr. Worcester's "Comprehensive Dictionary" first appeared in +print. On the publication of his "Universal and Critical Dictionary," +in 1846, it was renewed, and, not to speak of occasional skirmishes +during the interval, the appearance of Dr. Worcester's enlarged and +finished work brought matters to the crisis of a pitched battle. + +From this long conflict Dr. Worcester has unquestionably come off +victorious. Dr. Webster seemed to assume that he had a kind of monopoly +in the English language, and that whoever ventured to compile a +dictionary was guilty of infringing his patent-right. He drew up a list +of words, and triumphantly asked Dr. Worcester where he had found them, +unless in his two quartos of 1828. Dr. Worcester replied by showing +that most of the words were to be found in previous English +dictionaries, and added, with sly humor, that he freely acknowledged +Dr. Webster's exclusive property in the word "bridegoom," and others +like it, which would be sought for vainly in any volumes but his own. +Dr. Webster's attack was as unfair as the result of it was unfortunate +for himself. + +We have several reasons, which seem to us sufficient, for preferring +Dr. Worcester's Dictionary; but we are not, on that account, disposed +to underrate the remarkable merits of its rival. Dr. Webster was a man +of vigorous mind, and endowed with a genuine faculty of independent +thinking. He has hardly received justice at the hands of his +countrymen, a large portion of whom have too hastily taken a few +obstinate whimsies as the measure of his powers. Utterly fanciful as +are many of his etymologies, we should be false to our duty as critics, +if we did not acknowledge that Dr. Webster possessed in very large +measure the chief qualities which go to the making of a great +philologist. The very tendency to theorize, which led him to adopt +those oddities of spelling by which he may be said to be chiefly known, +united as it was to an understanding of uncommon breadth and clearness, +would under more favorable auspices have given him a very eminent place +among the philosophic students of language. His great mistake was in +attempting to force his peculiar notions upon the world in his +Dictionary, instead of confining them to his Preface, or putting them +forward tentatively in a separate treatise. The importance which he +attached to these trifles ought to have given him a hint that others +might be as obstinate on the other side, and that the prejudices of +taste have much tougher roots than those of opinion. We are inclined to +think that many of the changes proposed by Dr. Webster will be adopted +in the course of time. But it is a matter of little consequence, and +the progress of such reforms is slow. Already two hundred years ago, +James Howel (the author of Charles Lamb's favorite "Epistolae +Ho-Elianae") advocated similar reforms, and, as far as the printers +would let him, carried them out in practice. "The printer hath not bin +so careful as he should have bin," he complains. He especially condemns +the superfluous letters in many of our words, choosing to write _don_, +_com_, and _som_, rather than _done_, _come_, and _some_. "Moreover," +he says, "those words that have the Latin for their original, the +author prefers that orthography rather than the French, whereby divers +letters are spar'd: as _Physic, Logic, Afric_, not _Physique, Logique, +Afrique; favor, honor, labor_, not _favour, honour, labour_, and very +many more; as also he omits the Dutch _k_ in most words; here you shall +read _peeple_, not _pe-ople_, _tresure_, not _tre-asure_, _toung_, not +_ton-gue_, &c.; _Parlement_, not _Parliament_; _busines, witnes, +sicknes_, not _businesse, witnesse, sicknesse_; _star, war, far_, not +_starre, warre, farre_; and multitudes of such words, wherein the two +last letters may well be spar'd. Here you shall also read _pity, piety, +witty_, not _piti-e, pieti-e, witti-e_, as strangers at first sight +pronounce them, and abundance of such like words." + +Howel gives a weak reason for making the changes he proposes, namely, +that the language will thereby be simplified to foreigners. He hints at +the true one when he says that "we do not speak as we write." Dr. +Webster also, speaking of certain words ending in _our_, says, "What +motive could induce them to write these words, and _errour, honour, +favour, inferiour_, &c., in this manner, following neither the Latin +nor the French, I cannot conceive." Had Dr. Webster's knowledge of the +written English language been as great as it undoubtedly was of its +linguistic relations, he would have seen that the _spelling_ followed +the _accent_. The third verse of the Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" +would have satisfied him:-- + + "And bathéd every root in such licoúr"; + +and a little farther on,-- + + "Or swinken with his houdés and laboúre." + +In this respect the spelling of our older writers, where it can be +depended on, and especially of reformers like Howel, is of value, as +throwing some light on the question, how long the Norman pronunciation +lingered in England. Warner, for instance, in his "Albion's England," +spells _creator_ and _creature_ as they are spelt now, but gives the +French accent to both; and we are inclined to think that the charge of +speaking "right Chaucer," brought against the courtiers of Queen +Elizabeth, referred rather to accent than diction. + +The very title of Dr. Webster's Dictionary indicates a radical +misapprehension as to the nature and office of such a work. He calls +the result of his labors an "_American_ Dictionary of the English +Language," as if provincialism were a merit. He evidently thought that +the business of a lexicographer was to _regulate_, not to _record_. +Sometimes also his zeal as an etymologist misled him, as in his famous +attempt to make the word _bridegroom_ more conformable to its supposed +Anglo-Saxon root and its modern Teutonic congeners. It never occurred +to him that we were still as far as ever from the goal, and that it +would be quite as inconvenient to explain that the termination _goom_ +was a derivation from the Anglo-Saxon _guma_ as that it was a +corruption of it; the point to be gained being, after all, that we +should be able to find out the meaning of the English word +_bridegroom_, having no pressing need of _guma_ for conversational +purposes. We have spoken of this word only because we have heard it +brought up against Dr. Webster as often as anything else, and because +the disproportionate antipathy produced by this and a few similar +oddities shows, that, the primary object of all writing being the clear +conveyance of meaning, and not only so, but its conveyance in the most +winning way, a writer blunders who wilfully estranges the reader's eye +or jars upon its habitual associations, and that a lexicographer +blunders still more desperately, who, upon system, teaches to offend in +that kind. And it is amusing in respect to this very word _bridegoom_, +that the whimsey is not Dr. Webster's own, but that the bee was put +into his bonnet by Horne Tooke. + +Webster in these matters was a bit of a Hotspur. He thought to deal +with language as the vehement Percy would have done with the Trent. The +smug and silver stream was to be allowed no more wilful windings, but +to run + + "In a new channel fair and evenly." + +He found an equally hot-headed Glendower, wherever there was an +educated man, ready with the answer,-- + + "Not wind? it shall; it must; you see it + doth." + +"You see _it doth_" is an argument whose force no theorist ever takes +into his reckoning. + +We said that the title "American Dictionary of the English Language" +was an absurdity. Fancy a "Cuban Dictionary of the Spanish Language." +It would be of value only to the comparative philologist, curious in +the changes of meaning, pronunciation, and the like, which +circumstances are always bringing about in languages subjected to new +conditions of life and climate. But we must not forget to say +that the title chosen by Dr. Webster conveyed also a meaning +creditable to his spirit and judgment. He always stoutly maintained the +right of English as spoken in America to all the privileges of a living +language. In opposition to the purists who would have clasped the +language forever within the covers of Johnson, he insisted on the +necessity of coining new words or adapting old ones to express new +things and new relations. It is many years since we read his "Remarks" +(if that was the title) on Pickering's "Vocabulary," and in answer to +the rather supercilious criticisms on himself in the "Anthology"; but +the impression left on our mind by that pamphlet is one of great +respect for the good sense, acuteness, and courage of its author. And +of his Dictionary it may safely be said, that, with all its mistakes, +no work of the kind had then appeared so learned and so comprehensive. +It may be doubted if any living language possessed at that time a +dictionary, or one, at least, the work of a single man, in all respects +its equal. + +But etymologies are not the most important part of a good working +dictionary, the intention of which is not to inform readers and writers +what a word may have meant before the Dispersion, but what it means +now. The pedigree of an adjective or substantive is of little +consequence to ninety-nine men in a hundred, and the writers who have +wielded our mother-tongue with the greatest mastery have been men who +knew what words had most meaning to their neighbors and acquaintances, +and did not stay their pens to ask what ideas the radicals of those +words may possibly have conveyed to the mind of a bricklayer going up +from Padanaram to seek work on the Tower of Babel. A thoroughly good +etymological dictionary of English is yet to seek; and even if we +should ever get one, it will be for students, and not for the laity. +Nor is it the primary object of a common dictionary to trace the +history of the language. Of great interest and importance to scholars, +it is of comparatively little to Smith and Brown and their children at +the public school. It is a work apart, which we hope to see +accomplished by the London Philological Society in a manner worthy of +comparison with what has been partly done for German by the brothers +Grimm,--alas that the illustrious duality should have been broken by +death! A lexicon of that kind should be an index to all the more +eminent books in the language; but we do not hold this to be the office +of a dictionary for daily reference. A dictionary that should embrace +every unusual word, every new compound, every metaphorical turn of +meaning, to be found in our great writers, would be a compendium of the +genius of our authors rather than of our language; and a lexicographer +who rakes the books of second and third-rate men for out-of-the-way +phrases is doing us no favor. A dictionary is not a drag-net to bring +up for us the broken pots and dead kittens, the sewerage of speech, as +well as its living fishes. Nor do we think it a fair test of such a +work, that one should seek in it for every odd word that may have +tickled his fancy in a favorite author. Like most middle-aged readers, +we have our specially private volumes. One of these--but we will not +betray the secret of our loves--contains some rare words, such as the +Gallicism _mistresse-piece_, and the delightful hybrid _pundonnore_ for +trifling points-of-honor; yet we by no means complain that we can find +neither of them in Worcester, and only the former (with a ludicrously +mistaken definition) in Webster. + +A conclusive reason with us for preferring Dr. Worcester's Dictionary +is, that its author has properly understood his functions, and has +aimed to give us a true view of English as it is, and not as he himself +may have wished it should be or thought it ought to he. Its etymologies +are sufficient for the ordinary reader,--sometimes superfluously full, +as where the same word is given over and over again in cognate +languages. We do not see the use, under the word PLAIN, of taking up +room with a list like the following: "L. _planus;_ It. _piano;_ Sp. +_piano;_ Fr. _plain._" Not content with this, Dr. Worcester gives it +once more under PLAN: "L. _planus_, flat; It. _piano_, a plan; Sp. +_piano;_ Fr. _plan._--Dut., Ger., Dan., and Sw. _plan._" Even yet we +have not done with it, for under PLANE we find "L. _planus;_ It. +_piano;_ Sp._plano_, Fr. _plan._" One would think this rather a Polyglot +Lexicon than an English Dictionary. It seems to us that no Romanic +derivative of the Latin root should he given, unless to show that the +word has come into English by that channel. And so of the Teutonic +languages. If we have Danish, Swedish, German, and Dutch, why not +Scotch, Icelandic, Frisic, Swiss, and every other conceivable dialectic +variety? + +Another fault of superfluousness we find in the number of compounded +words, where the meaning is obvious,--such, for instance, as are formed +with the adverb out, which the genius of the language permits without +limit in the case of verbs. Dr. Worcester gives us, among many +others,-- + +"OUT-BABBLE, _v. a._ To surpass in Idle prattle; to exceed in babbling. +_Milton._" + +"OUT-BELLOW, _v. a._ To bellow more or louder than; to exceed or +surpass in bellowing. _Bp. Hall._" + +"OUT-BLEAT, _v. a._ To bleat more than; to exceed in bleating. _Bp. +Hall_." + +"OUT-BRAG, _v. a._ To surpass in bragging. _Shak._" + +"OUT-BRIBE, _v, a._ To exceed in bribing. _Blair._" + +"OUT-BURN, _v. a._ To exceed in burning. _Young._" [The definition here +is hardly complete; since the word means also to burn longer than.] + +"OUT-CANT, _v. a._ To surpass in canting. _Pope._" + +"OUT-CHEAT, _v. a._ To surpass in cheating." + +"OUT-CURSE, _v. a._ To surpass in cursing." + +"OUT-DRINK, _v. a._ To exceed in drinking. _Donne._" + +"OUT-FAWN, _v. a._ To excel in fawning. _Hudibras._" + +"OUT-FEAT, _v. a._ To surpass in feats. _Smart._" + +"OUT-FLASH, _v. a._ To surpass in flashing. _Clarke._" + +Similar words occur at frequent intervals through nine columns. Dr. +Webster is equally relentless, (even roping in a few estrays in his +Appendix,) and we hardly know which has out-worded the other. We were +surprised to find in neither the useful and legitimate substantive form +of _outgo_, as the opposite of _income_. This superfluousness (unless +we apply Voltaire's saying, "_Le superflu, chose bien nécessaire_" to +dictionaries also) is the result, we suppose, of the rivalry of +publishers, who have done their best to persuade the public that +numerosity is the chief excellence in works of this kind, and that +whoever buys their particular quarto may be sure of an honest +pennyworth and of owning a thousand or two more words than his less +judicious neighbors. In this way a false standard is manufactured, to +which the lexicographer must conform, if he would have a remunerative +sale for his book. He accordingly explores every lane and _impasse_ in +the purlieus of Grub Street, and pounces on a new word as a naturalist +would on a new bug,--the stranger and uglier, the better. We regret +that this kind of rivalry has been forced on Dr. Worcester; but he is +so thorough, patient, and conscientious, that he leaves little behind +him for the gleaner. We confess that the amplitude of his research has +surprised us, highly as we were prepared to rate him in this respect +by our familiarity with his former works. We have subjected his Dictionary +to a pretty severe test. From the time of its publication we have made +a point of seeking in it every unusual word, old or new, that we met with +in our reading. We have been disappointed in hardly a single instance, and +we are not acquainted with any other dictionary of which we could say as +much. + +An attempt has been made to damage Dr. Worcester's work by a partial +comparison of his definitions with those of Dr. Webster; and here, +again, the assumption has been, that _number_ was of more importance +than concise completeness. In the case of a quarto dictionary, we +suppose an honest reviewer may confess that he has not read through the +subject of his criticism. We have opened Dr. Webster's volume at +random, and have found some of his definitions as extraordinarily +inaccurate as many of his etymologies. They quite justify a +_double-entendre_ of Daniel Webster's, which we heard him utter many +years ago in court. He had forced such a meaning upon some word in a +paper connected with the case on trial, that the opposing counsel +interrupted him to ask in what dictionary he found the word so defined. +He silenced his questioner instantly with a happy play upon the name +common to himself and the lexicographer: "In _Webster's_ Dictionary, +Sir!" We find in Webster, for example, the following definition of a +word as to whose meaning he could have been set right by any +coasting-skipper that sailed out of New Haven:-- + +"AMID-SHIPS; _in marine language_, the middle of a ship with regard to +her length and breadth." Now, when one ship runs into another at sea +and strikes her _amid-ships_, how is she to contrive to accomplish it +so as to satisfy the requirements of this definition? Or if a sailor is +said to be standing amidships, must he be planted precisely in what he +would probably agree with Dr. Webster in spelling the _center_ of the +main-hatch? Dr. Worcester, quoting Falconer, is of course right. + +We give another of Dr. Webster's definitions, which caught our eye in +looking over his array of words compounded with _out_. "OUTWARD-BOUND; +proceeding from a port or country." Now Dr. Webster does not tell his +readers that the term is exclusively applicable to vessels; and we +should like to know whence a vessel is likely to proceed, unless from a +port,--and where ports are commonly situated, unless in countries? If +an American ship be "proceeding from" the port of Liverpool to some +port in the United States, how soon does she enter on what +lexicographers call "the state of being" homeward-bound? The narrow +limits to which Dr. Webster confines the word would not extend beyond +the jaws of the harbor from which the ship is sailing. Dr. Worcester's +definition is, "OUTWARD-BOUND. (_Naut_.) Bound outward or to foreign +parts. _Crabb_." + +Under the word MORESQUE we find in Webster the following definition: "A +species of painting or carving done after the Moorish manner, +consisting of _grotesque_ pieces and compartments _promiscuously +interspersed_; arabesque. _Gwilt_." (The Italics are our own.) We have +not Mr. Gwilt's Encyclopaedia at hand; but if this be a fair +representation of one of its definitions, it is a very untrustworthy +authority. The last term to be applied to arabesque-work is +_grotesque_, or _promiscuously interspersed_; and the description here +given leaves out the most beautiful kind of arabesque, namely, the +inlaid work of geometrical figures in colored marbles, in which the +Arabs far surpassed the older _opus Alexandrinum_. Nothing could be +less grotesque, less promiscuously interspersed, or more beautiful in +its harmonious variety, than the work of this kind in the famous +_Capella Reale_ at Palermo. + +Dr. Webster defines NIGHT-PIECE as "a piece of painting so colored as +to be supposed seen by candle-light,"--a description which we suspect +would have somewhat puzzled Gherardo della Notte. + +We might give other instances, had we time and space; but our object is +not to depreciate Webster, but only to show that the claim set up for +him of superior exactness in definition is altogether gratuitous. We +have found no inaccuracies comparable with these in Dr. Worcester's +Dictionary, which we tried in precisely the same way, by opening it +here and there at random. Moreover, looking at his work, not +absolutely, but in comparison with Dr. Webster's, (as we are challenged +to do,) we cannot leave out of view that the former is a first edition, +while the latter has had the advantage of repeated revisions. + +Under the word MAGDALEN, we find Webster superior to Worcester. Under +ULAN, we find them both wrong. Dr. Worcester says it means "a species +of militia among the modern Tartars"; and Dr. Webster, "a certain +description of militia among the modern Tartars." In any Polish +dictionary they would have found the word defined as meaning "lancer," +and the Uhlans in the Austrian army can hardly be described as modern +Tartar militia. Both Dictionaries give SLAW, and neither explains it +rightly. The word does not properly belong in an English dictionary, +unless as an American provincialism of very narrow range. As such, it +will be found, properly defined, in Mr. Bartlett's excellent +Vocabulary. Lexicographers who so often cite the Dutch equivalents of +English words should own Dutch dictionaries. Under IMAGINATION, a good +kind of test-word, we find Worcester much superior to Webster, +especially in illustrative citations. + +We have been astonished by some instances of slovenly writing to be +found here and there in Dr. Webster's Dictionary, because he was +capable of writing pure and vigorous English. Under MAGAZINE (and by +the way, Dr. Webster's definition omits altogether the metaphorical +sense of the word) we read that "The first publication of this bind in +England was the _Gentleman's Magazine_, which first appeared in 1731, +under the name of _Sylvanus Urban_, by Edward Cave, and which is still +continued." A reader who knew nothing about the facts would be puzzled +to say what the name of the new periodical really was, whether +_Gentleman's Magazine_ or _Sylvanus Urban_; and a reader who knew +little about English would be led to think that "appeared by" was +equivalent to "was commenced by," unless, indeed, he came to the +conclusion that its apparition took place in the neighborhood of some +cavern known by the name of Edward. + +We have only a word to say as to the _illustrations_, as they are +called, a mistaken profuseness in which disfigures both Dictionaries, +another evil result of bookselling competition. The greater part of +them, especially those in Webster, are fitter for a child's scrap-book +than for a volume intended to go into a student's library. Such +adjuncts seem to us allowable only, if at all, somewhat as they were +introduced by Blunt in his "Glossographia," to make terms of heraldry +more easily comprehensible. They might be admitted to save trouble in +describing geometrical figures, or in explaining certain of the more +frequently occurring terms in architecture and mechanics, but beyond +this they are childish. The publishers of Webster give us all the +coats-of-arms of the States of the American Union, among other equally +impertinent woodcuts. We enter a protest against the whole thing, as an +equally unfair imputation on the taste and the standard of judgment of +intelligent Americans. If we must have illustrations, let them be strictly +so, and not primer-pictures. Both Dictionaries give us the figure of a +crossbow, for instance, as if there could be anywhere a boy of ten years +old who did not know the implement, at least under its other name of +_bow-gun_. Neither cut would give the slightest notion of the thing as +a weapon, nor of the mode in which it was wound up and let off. Dr. +Worcester says that it was intended "for shooting _arrows_," which is not +strictly correct, since the proper name of the missile it discharged +was _bolt_,--something very unlike the shaft used by ordinary bowmen. + +We believe Dr. Worcester's Dictionary to be the most complete and +accurate of any hitherto published. He intrudes no theories of his own +as to pronunciation or orthography, but cites the opinions of the best +authorities, and briefly adds his own where there is occasion. He is no +bigot for the present spelling of certain classes of words, but gives +them, as he should do, in the way they are written by educated men, at +the same time expressing his belief that the drift of the language is +toward a change, wherever he thinks such to be the case. We reprobate, +in the name of literary decency, the methods which have been employed +to give an unfair impression of his work, as if it had been compiled +merely to supplant Webster, and as if the whole matter were a question +of blind partisanship and prejudice. The assigning of such motives as +these, even by implication, to such men, among many others, as Mr. +Marsh and Mr. Bryant, both of whom have expressed themselves in favor +of the new Dictionary, is an insult to American letters. Mr. Marsh, by +the extent of his learning, is probably better qualified than any other +man in America to pronounce judgment in such a case; and Mr. Bryant has +not left it doubtful that he knows what pure and vigorous English is, +whether in verse or prose, or that he could not employ it except to +maintain a well-grounded conviction. + +Apart from more general considerations, there are several reasons which +would induce us to prefer Dr. Worcester's Dictionary. It has the great +advantage, not only that it is constructed on sounder principles, as it +seems to us, but that it is the latest. Stereotyping is an unfortunate +invention, when it tends to perpetuate error or incompleteness, and +already the Appendix of added words in Webster amounts to eighty pages. +For all the words it contains, accordingly, the reader is put to double +pains: he must first search the main body of the work, and then the +supplement. Again, in Worcester, the synonymes are given, each under +its proper head, in the main work; in Webster they form a separate +treatise. One other advantage of Worcester would be conclusive with us, +even were other things equal,--and that is the size of the type, and +the greater clearness of the page, owing to the freshness of the +stereotype-plates. + +We know the inadequacy of such hand-to-mouth criticism as that of a +monthly reviewer must be upon works demanding so minute an examination +as a dictionary deserves. For ourselves, we should wish to own both +Webster and Worcester, but, if we could possess only one, we should +choose the latter. It is a monument to the industry, judgment, and +accuracy of the author, of which he may well be proud. + + +_Elements of Mechanics, for the Use of Colleges, Academies, and High +Schools._ By WILLIAM G. PECK, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia +College. New York: A.S. Barnes & Burr. 1859. + +Text-books on Mechanics are of three sorts. Many teachers, +school-committees, and parents wish to add a taste of Mechanics to the +smatterings of twenty or thirty different subjects which constitute +"liberal education," as understood in American high schools and +colleges. For this purpose it is of the first importance that the +text-book should be brief, for the time to be devoted to it is very +short; secondly, it must divest the subject of every perplexity and +difficulty, that it may be readily understood by all young persons, +though of small capacity and less application. Such a text-book can +contain nothing beyond the statement, without proof, of the more +important principles, illustrated by familiar examples, and simple +explanations of the commonest phenomena of motion, and of the machines +and mechanical forces used in the arts. To a few it seems that more +light comes into a room through two or three broad windows, though they +be all on one side, than through fifty bull's-eyes, scattered on every +wall. But the many prefer bull's-eyes,--fifty narrow, distorted +glimpses in as many directions, rather than a broad, clear view of the +heavens and the earth in one direction. Hence superficial, scanty +text-books on science are the only ones which are popular and salable. + +The thorough study of Mechanics is, or should be, an essential part of +the training of an architect, an engineer, or a machinist; and there +are several text-books, like Weisbach's Mechanics and Engineering, +intended for students preparing for any of these professions, which are +complete mathematical treatises upon the subject. Such text-books are +invaluable; they become standard works, and win for their authors a +well-deserved reputation. + +Professor Peck's book belongs to neither of the two classes of +text-books indicated, but to a class intermediate between the two. It +is at once too good, too difficult a book for general, popular use, and +too incomplete for the purposes of the professional student. As it +assumes that the student is already acquainted with the elements of +Algebra, Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry, and the Calculus, the +successful use of this text-book in the general classes of any academy +or college will be good evidence that the Mathematics are there taught +more thoroughly than is usual in this country. In few American colleges +is the study of the Calculus required of all students. In preparing a +scientific text-book of this sort, originality is neither aimed at nor +required. A judicious selection of materials, correct translation from +the excellent French and German hand-books, with such changes in the +notation as will better adapt it for American use, and a clear, logical +arrangement are the chief merits of such a treatise; and these are +merits which seldom gain much praise, though their absence would expose +the author to censure. The definitions of Professor Peck's book are +exact and concise, every proposition is rigidly demonstrated, and the +illustrations and descriptions are brief, pointed, and intelligible. +Professor Peck says in the Preface, that the book was prepared "to +supply a want felt by the author when engaged in teaching Natural +Philosophy to college classes"; but surely a teacher who prepares a +text-book for his own classes must need a double share of patience and +zeal. Every error which the book contains will be exposed, and the +author will have ample opportunity to repent of all the inaccuracies +which may have crept into his work. Again, the instructor who uses his +own text-book encounters, besides the inevitable monotony of teaching +the same subject year after year, the additional weariness of finding +in the pages of his text-book no mind but his own, which he has read so +often and with so little satisfaction. Even in teaching Mechanics, +there is no exception to the general rule, that two heads are better +than one. + + * * * * * + +_Stories from Famous Ballads_. For Children. By GRACE GREENWOOD, Author +of "History of my Pets," "Merrie England," etc., etc. With +Illustrations by BILLINGS. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. + +All "famous ballads" are so close to Nature in their conceptions, +emotions, incidents, and expressions, that it seems hardly possible to +change their form without losing their soul. The present little volume +proves that they may be turned into prose stories for children, and yet +preserve much of the vitality of their sentiment and the interest of +their narrative. Grace Greenwood, well known for her previous successes +in writing works for the young, has contrived in this, her most +difficult task, to combine simplicity with energy and richness of +diction, and to present the events and characters of the Ballads in the +form best calculated to fill the youthful imagination and kindle the +youthful love of action and adventure. Among the subjects are Patient +Griselda, The King of France's Daughter, Chevy Chase, The Beggar's +Daughter of Bednall Green, Sir Patrick Spens, and Auld Robin Gray. Much +of the author's success in giving prose versions of these, without +making them prosaic, is due to the intense admiration she evidently +feels for the originals. Among American children's books, this volume +deserves a high place. + + * * * * * + +_Mary Staunton; or the Pupils of Marvel Hall_. By the Author of +"Portraits of, my Married Friends." New York: D. Appleton & Co. + +This story has a practical aim, the exposure of the faults of +fashionable boarding-schools. "A good plot, and full of expectation," +as Hotspur said; but the author had not the ability to execute the +design. The satire and denunciation are both weak, and are not relieved +by the introduction of a very silly and threadbare love-story. + + * * * * * + +_Poems_. By the Author of "John Halifax," "A Life for a Life," etc. +Boston: Ticknor & Fields. + +Some of the verses in this little volume are quite pretty, especially +those entitled, "By the Alma River," "The Night before the Mowing," "My +Christian Name," and "My Love Annie." Miss Muloch is not able to take +any high rank as a poetess, and very sensibly does not try. + + * * * * * + +_Title-Hunting_. By E. L. LLEWELLYN, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & +Co. + +This is a miraculously foolish book. Titled villains, impossible +parvenus, abductions, and convents abound in its pages, and all are as +stupid as they are improbable. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Haunted Homestead, and other Nouvellettes. With an Autobiography of +the Author. By Mrs. Emma D.E.N. Southworth, Author of "India," "Lady +of the Isle," etc., etc. Philadelphia. Peterson and Brothers. 12mo. pp. +292. $1.25. + +Adela, the Octoroon. By H. L. Hosmer. Columbus. Follett, Foster, & Co. +12mo. pp. 400. $1.00. + +The Caxtons: A Family Picture. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Hart. +Library Edition. In Two Volumes. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. +pp. 398, 387. $2.00. + +Julian Home: A Tale of College Life. By Frederic W. Farrar, M.A., +Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Author of "Eric; or, Little by +Little." Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. pp. 420. $1.00. + +Bible History: A Text-Book for Seminaries, Schools, and Families. By +Sarah E. Hanna, (formerly Miss Foster,) Principal of the Female +Seminary, Washington, Pa. New York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 290. 76 +cts. + +Elements of Mechanics: For the Use of Colleges, Academies, and High +Schools. By William G. Peck, M. A,, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia +College. New York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 338. $1.50. + +The Human Voice: its Right Management in Speaking, Reading, and +Debating, including the Principles of True Eloquence; together with the +Functions of the Vocal Organs,--the Motion of the Letters of the +Alphabet,--the Cultivation of the Ear,--the Disorders of the Vocal and +Articulating Organs,--Origin and Construction of the English +Language.--Proper Methods of Delivery,--Remedial Effects of Reading and +Speaking, etc. By the Rev. W. W. Cazalet, A. M., Cantab. New York. +Fowler & Wells. 16mo. paper, pp. 46. 10 cts. + +American Normal Schools: their Theory, their Workings, and their +Results, as embodied in the Proceedings of the First Annual Convention +of the American Normal School Association, held at Trenton, New Jersey, +August 19th and 20th, 1859. New York. Barnes & Burr. 8vo. pp. 113. +$1.25. + +History of the Early Church, from the First Preaching of the Gospel, to +the Council of Nicea. For the Use of Young Persons. By the Author of +"Amy Herbert." New York. Appleton & Co. 16mo. pp. x., 383. 60 cts. + +Our Bible Chronology, Historic and Prophetic, Critically Examined and +Demonstrated, and Harmonized with the Chronology of Profane Writers: +Embracing an Examination and Refutation of the Theories of Modern +Egyptologists. Accompanied with Extensive Chronological and +Genealogical Tables, from the Earliest Records to the Present Time; a +Map of the Ancients; a Chart of the Course of Empires; and Various +Pictorial Illustrations. On a Plan entirely New. Designed for the Use +of Universities, Colleges, Academies, Bible Classes, Sabbath Schools, +Families, etc. By the Rev. R.C. Shimeall, a Member of the Presbytery of +New York; Author of an Illuminated Scripture Chart; Dr. Watts's +Scripture History, Enlarged; a Treatise on Prayer; etc. New York. +Barnes & Burr. 4to. pp. 234. $2.00. + +The National Fifth Reader: Containing a Treatise on Elocution; +Exercises in Reading and Declamation; with Biographical Sketches and +Copious Notes. Adapted to the Use of Students in English and American +Literature. By Richard G. Parker, A.M., and J. Madison Watson. New +York. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 600. $1.00. + +Popular Music of the Olden Time: A Collection of Ancient Songs, +Ballads, and Dance Tunes, Illustrative of the National Music of +England. With Short Introductions to the Different Reigns, and Notices +of the Airs from Writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. +Also a Short Account of the Minstrels. By W. Chappell, F.S.A. The whole +of the Airs harmonized by G.A. Macfarren. In Two Volumes. London: +Cramer, Beale, & Chappell. New York. Webb & Allen. 8vo. pp. xx., 822. +(Paged as one vol.) $15.75. + +The Material Condition of the People of Massachusetts. By Rev. Theodore +Parker. Reprinted from the Christian Examiner. Boston. Published by the +Fraternity. 16mo. paper, pp. 52. 15 cts. + +Die Teutschen und die Amerikaner. Von K. Heinzen. Boston. Selbstverlag +des Verfassers. 16mo. paper, pp. 69. 25 cts. + +Letters from Switzerland. By Samuel Irenaeus Prime, Author of "Travels +in Europe and the East," etc., etc. New York. Sheldon & Co. 12mo. pp. +264. $1.00. + +Disquisitions and Notes on the Gospels. Matthew. By John H. Morison. +Boston. Walker, Wise, & Co. 12mo. pp. 588. $1.25. + +Chamber's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the +People. Part XII. New York. Appleton & Co. 8vo. paper, pp. 64. 15 cts. + +The Monikins. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Illustrated from Drawings by +F.O.C. Darley. New York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 454. $1.50. + +Life Before Him. A Novel of American Life. New York. Townsend & Co. +12mo. pp. 401. $1.00. + +Against Wind and Tide. By Holme Lee, Author of "Kathie Brande," "Sylvan +Holt's Daughter," etc. New York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 440. $1.00. + +Mrs. Ellis's Housekeeping Made Easy. A Complete Instructor in all +Branches of Cookery and Domestic Economy. Edited by Mrs. Mowatt. New +York. Townsend & Co. 12mo. paper, pp. 120. 25 cts. + +Life's Evening; or, Thoughts for the Aged. By the Author of "Life's +Morning," etc, Boston. Tilton & Co. 16mo. pp. 265. $1.00. + +Wooing and Warring in the Wilderness. By Charles D. Kirk. New York. +Derby & Jackson. 18mo. pp. 288. $1.00. + +The History of Herodotus. A New English Version, edited with Copious +Notes and Appendices, illustrating the History and Geography of +Herodotus, from the most Recent Sources of Information; and embodying +the Chief Results, Historical and Ethnographical, which have been +obtained in the Progress of Cuneiform and Hieroglyphical Discovery. By +George Rawlinson, M.A., late Fellow and Tutor of Exeter College, +Oxford. Assisted by Col. Sir Henry Rawlinson, K.C.B., and Sir J.G. +Wilkinson, F.R.S. In Four Volumes. Vol. III. With Maps and +Illustrations. New York. Appleton & Co. 8vo. pp. viii., 463. $2.50. + +Cathara Clyde: A Novel. By Inconnu. New York. Scribner. 16mo. PP. 377. +$1.00. + +Napoleon III. in Italy, and other Poems. By Elizabeth Barrett Browning. +New York. Francis & Co. 16mo. pp. 72. 50 cts. + +Say and Seal. By the Author of "Wide, Wide World," and the Author of +"Dollars and Cents." In Two Volumes. Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. +16mo, pp. 513, 500. $2.00. + +Walter Ashwood. A Love Story. By Paul Siogvolk, Author of "Schediasms." +New York. Rudd & Carleton. 16mo. pp. 296. $1.00. + +Elementary Anatomy and Physiology, for Colleges, Academies, and other +Schools. By Edward Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., of Amherst College, and +Edward Hitchcock, Jr., M.D., Teacher in Williston Seminary. New York. +Ivison, Phinney, & Co. 12mo. pp. vi., 442. $1.00. + +Fragments from the Study of a Pastor. By Rev. George W. Nichols, A.M. +New York. H.B. Price. 16mo. pp. 252. 75 cts. + +"My Novel"; or, Varieties in English Life. By Pisistratus Caxton. By +Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. Library Edition. In Four Volumes. +Philadelphia. Lippincott & Co. 16mo. pp. 414, 408, 491, 482. $4.00. + +Cousin Maude and Rosamond. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes, Author of "Lena +Rivers," "Meadow Brook," etc. New York. Saxton, Barker, & Co. 12mo. pp. +374. $1.25. + +The Caxtons: A Family Picture. By Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. +Library Edition. New York. 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